I am very tempted also. I keep thinking though that I never watch the DVDs I have. I would love to have this for the upgraded quality, but I'm SO torn. Ahhhhhhhh!!! It's been killing me since I read this yesterday.
You might as well get it. I don't know if you'll ever see a deal lower than this. The fact of the matter here is that they can't give these things away. They had their batch run that they "numbered" (which I will forever find to be a total scam; it's the books that are numbered, not the poorly made boxes) and many people that wanted it got it already. I'm guessing that many other Monkees fans that passed on the early days of this being on sale would still like to get it but cannot (rightfully so) justify the price tag. It's steep. Real steep. I feel like the 10 discs could have been reduced to 8 or so but in order to keep the price higher you needed to establish a high quantity number to justify that price. I'm sure they are still going to be very stubborn about the $200 pricetag after this weekend because they want to make all their money back on this run and the peanuts in profit they felt they could make if they kept their fingers crossed tight enough. I wish I had waited. My positive takeaway from getting the set was that I enjoyed seeing the episodes again (especially after being cleaned up). Season 1 is far better than 2 for a multitude of reasons but that doesn't really pertain to this conversation. The bonus features were nice. Head looks amazing. The negative takeaway? The fact that Rhino is STILL wrapped up in all this Monkee business. Their QC is terrible. My 1st box was broken. 2nd box was broken. 3rd box? Well, that one never showed up after proving in 2 different e-mails that my 2nd box nightmare was still happening. A very nice stranger from this very board offered to get me a Blu Ray multi-disc case with an insert card detailing the BluRay contents. Very, very nice of him. Back to Rhino. They're awful. If you can get past the way they conduct their business and just feel happy to own something from a group that you enjoy you'll be fine. I don't think it's ever going to be cheaper than this.
Ordered mine two days ago and my order info page has said the status is "pending" ever since. Should I be worried?
Did anyone else order this at the new price and find that the order still hasn't processed yet? A friend of mine also ordered it and has the same "pending" status I've had for the past four days. At first I thought the reduced price was a clearance measure and that Rhino had a surplus of boxes they wanted to get rid of. But now I'm wondering if this is actually a second run and they don't have any actual product to ship yet.
I ordered a copy at the new price the first day of the price cut and just got the “it’s been shipped” email yesterday. I’d say your initial speculation of the set being on clearance is accurate. There is no way Rhino was going to shift 10,000 units at $200 a pop. (And even at $150, they’ll be cluttering up the warehouse for some time.)
Ah, thanks. Maybe they are a bit slow because of the holidays. Yeah, I have been holding off on getting this for two years but just couldn't resist the 25% drop in price.
I will have to check my notes, but I recall one or two episodes in the second season (I think one is "Monkee Mayor") where the "second act" starts very abruptly as if the first several seconds are accidentally cut. I wonder what happened there. It's too bad, since these shows are in better shape than I've ever seen them.
Well...my box arrived today. The outer box and discs/sleeves look fine but the corners of the inner box and inner tray are damaged. No surprise that the corners have rips and creases, but the "solution" they came up with to prevent the discs from sliding around is a complete joke. It's just another insert with huge tabs on each side, which makes removing the discs incredibly difficult. The top disc actually got wedged in there when I was trying to remove it. So how do I go about ordering an empty replacement box?
This is why I hate special packaging. It adds to cost and there seems to be a ton of damage in shipping. Put the cost into the content. The rest don't matter. The hologram/lenticular could gave gone into a standard clear fat bluray case(s). Done deal. No more whining and much less problems with special shelf space on all releases. People that care about content don't give a rats ass about the packaging. Digipacks and swag can all go as far as I am concerned. I tolerate mediabooks...but they can go too. Discs and books should be separate. Print out a separate quality hard back book...then it is easier to separate on later runs.
I think they went with the style of packaging they used so it would "match" with the boxes they're using for the super deluxe editions of The Monkees' albums... (Size-wise the boxes would all be the same.) Not entirely true: While the content *is* the top priority for me, I do like nice packaging...
Sorry if it seemed targeting but honestly packaging is way overrated. When people go on about packaging more than content....something is wrong.
People collect things for different reasons. There’s no right or wrong reason on why someone buys something. Over the years packaging has meant less and less to me. On the other hand, I’ve really enjoyed the “look” of these Monkees sets almost as much as the terrific content. I understand that packaging helps sell the content, but I agree it can get over whelming and add costs to the final product. I feel that way over the McCartney Archive series.
I understand that people collect for different reasons but if bad packaging hurts the point of the product...like the advertised HD TV show??!!!....wouldn't that kinda defeat the purpose? But yes I...that is ME thinks there is something really wrong if there is 10 pages about slipcovers and nothing about a great transfer which is why the release happened in the first place. Now if there is newly found negatives/prints of the Monkeys in more than typical joe public quality runs...that happened to have blurays tacked on that are in much less quality...well you might have more of a point in my view. Not saying everyone has to feel the same as I do.
I ended up with an slightly damaged extra outer box and my Monkee 45s with picture sleeves fit perfectly in there.
I emailed both Rhino and the Monkees store. I got what looked like a form letter back from Rhino about how they were experiencing a high volume of emails (not a surprise) and that they would get back to me within five business days. Today is day five and I still haven't heard back. Haven't heard a peep from the Monkees store.
I agree, but if you pay for an item and receive it in damaged condition -- and this one is $150-200, which is not chump change -- that's not acceptable. It's even worse when it's clearly a mess-up at the manufacturing level and did not happen upon shipping.
When I had this happen when it originally released, I emailed, and didn't really hear anything back, but my replacement box arrived here in the UK soon after.
Interesting. I'd be pretty impressed if they just automatically sent a replacement box without any back and forth. Here's hoping.
I am not putting down people for wanting a refund or wanting the item not to be damaged in the first place. My problem is the swag/packaging is what is driving up the price and causing the niche status and takes away from the purpose of the set. $150 for a TWO season show? This is a gouging for people that are superfans and it is a Mini-Me version of the Gene Simmons box set. It should be for everyone.
I completely agree with you on all of that. It sucks all the joy out of being a fan. And I'm getting pretty sick of all the deluxe album box sets, too...from any artist. (Although at least the Monkees' ones are on the affordable side of things.)
