Best way to sell bulk DVDs

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#760330 12-Feb-2013 19:20

Can run them all through the http://www.fvlb.org.nz/nz search engine to find out if they are NZ rated.. Anything R rated it probably pays to check the OFLC website at http://www.censorship.govt.nz/DDA/Pages/Screens/DDA/DecisionSearchCriteriaPage.aspx to see if anything had to be excised for the NZ R rating (as this may mean a foreign version doesnt carry the same rating.

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nzkiwiman

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#761764 13-Feb-2013 14:36

Interesting .. I have 400 odd Movies/TV Shows, over half are USA Region 1 and the rest that are Region 4 are Australian so don't have the NZ Classification sticker. Guess forums are probably my only way of selling without being caught in red tape.

Jaxson

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#762101 14-Feb-2013 10:10

I got a reply from the Office of Film and Literature Classification. Very helpful.

There's a page I hadn't seen before, not sure if it's been listed so far in this discussion:
http://www.censorship.govt.nz/public/Are-you-selling-imported-second-hand-games-and-DVDs.html

Thank you for contacting us. You will need to get labels for your DVDs and Blu-ray discs in order to sell them in New Zealand. In order to get labels you should contact the Film and Video Labelling Body: enquiries@fvlb.org.nz or (09)361 3882. They have a system set up to verify that your DVD is the same version of a film that has already been labelled previously, and once that verification is done they will be able to supply you with a label.

If you would like to read more on the rules about selling second hand DVDs, you may like to look at our website which has additional information for people using sites such as TradeMe to sell DVDs and games.

I hope this is helpful. Please let me know if you require additional information.

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#762117 14-Feb-2013 11:01

dude,

that link was in the 5th reply of this thread.

:-)

freitasm

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#762120 14-Feb-2013 11:07

Jaxson: I got a reply from the Office of Film and Literature Classification. Very helpful.

There's a page I hadn't seen before, not sure if it's been listed so far in this discussion:
http://www.censorship.govt.nz/public/Are-you-selling-imported-second-hand-games-and-DVDs.html

This was mentioned in the first page.

nicks

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#762125 14-Feb-2013 11:10

Jaxson: Thank you for contacting us. You will need to get labels for your DVDs and Blu-ray discs in order to sell them in New Zealand. In order to get labels you should contact the Film and Video Labelling Body: enquiries@fvlb.org.nz or (09)361 3882. They have a system set up to verify that your DVD is the same version of a film that has already been labelled previously, and once that verification is done they will be able to supply you with a label.

The unanswered question seems to be how much they charge for the stickers. I too have a whole stack of DVDs purchased overseas that I'd love to be able to offload, even if just for a few dollars each.

Does anyone know?

Journeyman

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#762157 14-Feb-2013 11:49

I emailed the FVLB about this topic back at the start of January and was told this:

The process for the FVLB to issue labels is as follows

1.       Arrange online username & password with the FVLB, the requirements are
Name
Address
Phone Number
Email

2.       Submit the paperwork online
3.       Send in the DVD for examination

If the Movie/Game has been rated in NZ before the fees will be one of the following

Service                 $14.95
Examination       $25.30

The labels cost 0.07c each, and the FVLB requires proof of the copies you intend to sell. This is usually by way of suppliers invoice.

The FVLB will arrange an invoice at the end of the examination process, this will include courier fees.
The information supplied is based on the Film/Game as having been classified in NZ before.

As you may have surmised, the whole process is bloody stupid. To register, you have to email them your details. There's no online form. How quaint and old fashioned.

But the kicker is that even for an already classified DVD you have to mail the physical disk to them, have them examine it, by which I assume they... what? Put it in their DVD player and watch it? Or simply look at the barcode or some other unique identifying feature to ascertain that it's the same version they've already classified? Maybe they just leave them in the corner of the room for a month without doing anything to the DVD and simply mail them back with a seven cent sticker? Who knows! Then they mail the physical disk back to you, at the cost of a courier! So the whole thing, postage plus service costs, works out to be about the same as what you paid (if not more) for the DVD brand new in the first place and considerably more than you would get selling it on trademe. Oh, but the sticker is 7 cents!

I was astounded and appalled by the mind-numbing bureaucracy in action here so I emailed back:

Thanks for your reply.

Am I to understand that to sell a on TradeMe a dvd which has already been classified I have to send it away to be looked at and then pay for it to be looked at? To sell a bunch of second hand DVDs, the effort and expense involved makes the whole exercise pointless. It's no wonder people sell DVDs on TradeMe without the proper labels!

A little brusque perhaps, but the point is that they've set the system up in such a way that it discourages people from doing the right thing and getting their DVDs compliant before they sell them. Anyway, I never got a reply back.

I assume that this their method of making sure that people don't obtain stickers by telling the FVLB that they have a particular disk and then putting the sticker on a completely different DVD that hasn't been rated and then selling it. But this is not a very good method of preventing that activity and has a negative effect for people who want to do things legitimately.

I have a few imported DVDs I'd like to sell on trademe, ones which have been rated here. I don't expect to get more than $5 max for a disk, but I'd rather somebody on trademe got a bargain than me simply sending them to the landfill.

I'm considering simply compiling a list of the DVDs and emailing it to the FVLB and saying "These are the movies I need stickers for, tell me where to send the 7 cents x [number of movies]." I know how that will work, though. I'll be met by a wall of bureaucracy.

BLOODY STUPID.

/rant

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freitasm

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#762158 14-Feb-2013 11:50

By the end of this whole thing you better giveaway those DVDs than try to make them legal for street sale in New Zealand.

reven

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#762175 14-Feb-2013 12:03

well i think thats fair, they need to verify its rating. They can't guarantee its the same version of the film/tv show that has been classified in New Zealand, with all the different versions of films out there its completely possible that a movie may have a scene that has been deleted for New Zealand audiences.

but personally I would never bother with this, I'd just throw them bulk on trademe and take my chances, I've sold zone 1 DVDs on trademe before without nz classification ratings, I guess I broke the law, whoops.

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#762179 14-Feb-2013 12:11

The labels are 0.07 cents each? I somehow think they're actually 100 times that price ;)

Jaxson

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#762182 14-Feb-2013 12:14

Gooseybhai: dude,

that link was in the 5th reply of this thread.

:-)

LOL, sorry I've been away and am only now wading through the new emails in my box.

I've replied asking for specifics on pricing to obtain a sticker for a movie that is identical to one already approved here in NZ. ie same movie, just simply purchased from overseas.

Journeyman

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#762186 14-Feb-2013 12:16

reven: well i think thats fair, they need to verify its rating. They can't guarantee its the same version of the film/tv show that has been classified in New Zealand, with all the different versions of films out there its completely possible that a movie may have a scene that has been deleted for New Zealand audiences.

They can do this by having the applicant send them the barcode number from the DVD. The system they have achieves the opposite effect to what they're attempting to accomplish. I'd say that's a bloody stupid system.

richms

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#762190 14-Feb-2013 12:21

I actually dont like getting discs with those stickers on the cases.

That always is the other option, just sell them sans-case?

Richard rich.ms

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#762202 14-Feb-2013 12:32

You can, but it's illegal and you're open to prosecution. You could do it privately and avoid trademe, but you narrow down potential buyers.

Behodar

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#762208 14-Feb-2013 12:36

richms: I actually dont like getting discs with those stickers on the cases.

When I got my first few DVDs ten years ago, I actually removed the stickers because I thought that they looked ugly (especially on the Lord of the Rings "book-cover" designs!). At the time I had no idea whatsoever that this affected resale.

I've noticed that recently some Blu-rays come with a cardboard sleeve covering the plastic case, with the rating sticker on that sleeve. It's the same sort of thing there; I've binned the sleeves from a few of them because I thought them unnecessary and again I didn't consider resale. The cynic in me wonders whether this is an attempt from the studios to reduce resale volumes.

Edit: And! I understand why the government wants labels on movies sold at retail so that purchasers know what they're getting, but I think that the system needs an overhaul for online sales. When you sell a movie on Trade Me, you select it from a list and it automatically provides details on (among other things) actors, aspect ratio, and rating. The rating is already there for people to see, so why do we need a separate sticker that the purchaser won't even see until after the transaction is complete?

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