Pre-order now! Due January 1, 2010 (WTF?!?!?)

So I was doing my usual searching for bizarre stuff to read/listen to/watch, and I happened upon Amazon.com’s page for “Freaks,” the 1932 classic film of love and intrigue under the Big Top.

Great, I thought!

And it’s out on DVD! Even better!

But on closer inspection, I see this:

Freaks
DVD ~ Wallace Ford
Average Customer Review:
Release Date: January 1, 2010
Not Yet Released – On Order
(Bolding mine.)

Why is Amazon trying to take orders for a DVD that won’t be released for 6+ years?

Who would pre-order this?

Is this common?

Weird …

Sounds like a data error. The company I work for also sells music/movies over the web. One of our data suppliers at one time used to use 1/1/2010 as a “filler” date (rather than simply using a NULL) for movies that weren’t out yet. When we cleaned up the data, we removed all such “dates” from the data.

I highly doubt the true release date is 1/1/2010.

Zev Steinhardt

looks like it was an error, it says " Availability: Release date to be announced:The release date for this video has not been finalized. You may order it now and we will ship it to you when it arrives."
T
heir messages for not-yet-released dvds are always annoying, especially the ones for releases that have already been announced- but aren’t coming out until the fall- that claim that the studios are taking votes to consider releasing things. There are no votes.

Thanks, you guys and/or gals.

Mystery solved.

(But I still want my Freaks DVD NOW!)