Instead of Qwikster, here's what we're thinking of doing

Cafe Society
1

As my DVR has filled up with good stuff and my latest Netflix/Qwikster DVD languishes unwatched, I came up with an alternative that may work a lot better for us.

I was thinking of getting rid of the DVD service, and just buying used DVDs of anything we want to see, then selling them again when we’re done. That way we can avoid paying every month during Nov-May when we have plenty to watch from broadcast sources. Also, for series, we’d get the whole thing at once, rather than getting one DVD, then sending it back and waiting a couple days to get the next one.

We could also put our former DVD rental money into iTunes downloads of shows like Dr. Who, which we might want to watch while the season is running. As long as we spend less than $96 a year, it will be cheaper.

Obviously if we want a recent release, we can also Redbox it.

And yes, I realize there are . . . ways . . . of getting entertainment even more cheaply, but I prefer not to, and as for the iTunes thing, I like to encourage companies to provide entertainment that gives me a way around having cable, so I try to reward them with my business when they do so.

2

Do you have convenient outlets where you can buy and sell the sorts of movies/TV shows you like?

3

Why don’t you quit the service every November, and rejoin again (with another 30 free days since you have been unsubscribed for over 30 days) in May?

4

I looked and found many of the things in our queue for sale through Amazon, Ebay, or Craigslist, and I already list a lot of things for sale on Ebay, so that wouldn’t be too hard.

However, I think **LurkerInNJ **has a brilliant idea! Why didn’t I think of that? I didn’t even realize you could get another free 30 days either.

See, this is why I run stuff by the Dopers.

5

What about your public library? If you’re in no hurry to watch stuff and just wait for holds to come in, you can get movies and TV shows much cheaper than Redbox and the buying/reselling that used DVDs require.

6

Public libraries can be very hit-and-miss in what DVDs they have. Most of them only have old classics, in my experience. Which is fine for watching old classics, of course, but you might want some newer stuff.

7

Wake County doesn’t carry DVDs in their libraries. And yeah, if they did, I’m guessing they wouldn’t have a lot of the stuff we’re looking for: Spaced, zombie movies, Venture Bros, Simpsons Treehouse of Horror, etc.

8

Wow. That’s kind of amazing. They are really behind the times when it comes to library services.

That said, all of those discs are available in my county system. Although most of them are there because I selected them.