MCC Verbatim DVDs at OfficeMax for $20/100

[Keefe]

I ran out of Verbatims today so looked around online for a good deal. When I saw OfficeMax had Verbatims on sale for $20 for a spindle of 100, I called to make sure the store had the same price then jumped in the car.

But although their website had a picture of the good stuff (blue and orange for DVD-R), at first glance all the store had of 100-spindles was the Life series (blue and white). Actually I didn't know at that moment whether the Life series was good, but I was suspicious so used one of their display laptops to check this site. Sure enough, I found that the new Life series is not made by MCC.

They had some 50 packs of the good stuff, but for $21, more than twice what I had hoped for. I almost walked out, but thought just maybe there was a good 100 buried. And there was one 100-spindle left in the back of the shelf behind all the white spindles! The spindle shell was busted up a bit but it looked like the discs were ok and the plastic wrap was intact enough to indicate it hadn't been opened. It rang up at the register at the same $20 price.

I'm guessing that they're selling their remaining stock of the good MCC AZO 100-spindles along with the Life stuff at the same sale price to clear it out. Other OfficeMax stores might also have some MCC Verbatim 100's left, hidden behind Life stuff, but I wouldn't trust buying these from their website.

When I got home, I checked the ID's of a couple discs with ImgBurn and they show as MCC 03RG20, top-quality media according to this site.

[admin]

Good find!

As far as the reasoning ... well, yeah, sort of. The price point of media is the bigger issue (and problem). Mitsubishi Chemicals Corp / Mitsubishi Kagaku Media (MCC/MKM), owner of the subsidiary company/brand Verbatim, is under poorly-thought-out (or entirely thoughtless) consumer (and therefore retailer) pressure to subsidize blank discs to $20 per spindle of 100, or less, because some low-rent competing brands do the same. That, of course, is accomplished by competitors by using low-grade crap discs, bulk bought from a manufacturer, and then printed with their brandings.

This started before MCC (or Verbatim) decided to simply outsource blanks from a lower-grade manufacturer, to achieve this goal. Retailers, OfficeMax in specific, probably took a profit hit (loss-leader sales?) on Verbatim for a few months before Life Series or Value Series started to hit retailer shelves. They had been selling for $30, then $25, then $20, and even $16 (after in-store ad flyer coupon) in the past 12-18 months.

With the release of cheap Life Series junk, prices have stayed at low-ball dollar amounts. That you found MCC discs for such a low price in stores is a good find, albeit unlikely. About 3-4 months ago, I also found 3-4 "good" MCC spindles in OfficeMax, for $16 each plus tax, in a semi-rural area. Even at that time, finding MCC in store was not easy.

No, do not trust buying online from OfficeMax or Best Buy, two common sources of Verbatim branded blanks. You're not likely to get the good discs at this late date.

Even Newegg and Buy.com are sources I don't fully trust to not bait-and-switch for what they'd surely call "the same item" if cornered. I've read about this, and had it done to me, in past years on various items. And I truly hate the RMA/returns process -- it's wasted time, wasted money, wasted effort.

At this time, Amazon, Supermediastore and Meritline are the only vendors suggested for Verbatim discs. Links to the best deals on these discs can be found on the review guide: http://www.digitalFAQ.com/reviews/dvd-media.htm

Welcome to the site, thanks for posting, and hope this commentary helps you understand everything a bit better in context.

[Keefe]

Thanks for your commentary. It does explain things for me. I love this site!