Where to get the movies?

I get asked a lot where do I get all my movies that I review here. Some of them I go to see in the theaters on their regular screenings, but some of them I get to see in a previews before their premiere in Finland. I also just rent some of them, mostly those which I'm quite sure I won't like too much. But the majority I just buy on DVD or Blu-Ray. If it's a good movie it stays in my collection, if it's a bad one I'll sell it forward.

So where do I buy them? About 40-50% I actually buy from Finland in stores. I just like to browse them by hand and make nice discoveries from time to time. Dunno how helpful this is to my readers but these are the best movie stores in Finland:

Filmihullu leffakauppa
This is by far my favorite store. Even in European standards it's quite special. The collection is quite small, don't know the exact figures but I'd estimate under 10000 movies in the store, so not large by any means. But the quality is just unbelievable. The focus is in world cinema, early Hollywood classics, art house, some indie productions, some exploitation classics, Finnish cinema and only the selected best from the mainstream releases. I'm not kidding about the quality, you can go to the store, close your eyes, walk around the shelves, pick a random movie and it'll be good. There simply are no bad movies in the store. The service is very professional, ask about any movie and you'll get an answer or they will find it out for you. The prices are not the cheapest, but nothing insane either. Amazing store.

Pieni Leffakauppa
This one is for a movie freak like a candy store for a kid. Huge collection of pretty much anything you can think of. Tons of sleaze, exploitation, asian, sexploitation, all sorts of horror, used mainstream movies and quite a bit of everything else. The service is quite professional, you need something and they'll most of the time find it for you. Prices range from very cheap to quite expensive.

Anttila
Not really a movie store, but a super market with a fairly large movie section. Only mainstream movies, but the discount bins are sometimes a treasure chest. Cheap prices and sometimes very good quality. Wait a few months after the movie is released on DVD and you can get it very cheap here. The service is quite bad as the staff usually knows absolutely nothing about movies, but then again can't blame them.

In addition to those I visit a number of random super markets, record stores and second hand shops which sell movies with varying quantities and qualities. There's so many with none better than the other so I won't list them here.

For on-line movie stores I prefer these:

Play.com
Simple. All prices in euro's and postage to Finland included in the price. They ship all movies as separate pieces no matter how many you order at once. Fairly good packaging and if the product is damaged, send them an email and they'll send you a new one, mostly not even asking for returning of the damaged product. Simple and effective. The collection is huge. Mostly mainstream, but there are a lot of surprises in there as well. The customer service is good and the delivery times are ok. I love how easy it is to order from here, though my credit card doesn't. It's quite cheap, especially the on sale items.

Amazon
My main source for Region 1/A movies. The collection is pretty much as big as it can get, not much you can't find in here. The customer support should be ok, though as I've actually never had to contact them, can't really say. But as I've ordered way over 100 movies from here that's a very positive thing that never has anything gone wrong so that I'd have to contact them. Good packaging and decent postage fees. Prices range from absolutely ridiculous to very cheap and especially those special offers are really worth looking at.

Something Weird Video
Like the name says here you can find something completely different, weird and crazy. Most movies are R1 but there are quite a bit of R0 in there also. Mostly in DVD-R format, but also proper pressed DVD's. Picture quality ranges from horrible to surprisingly good, but then again in most cases the best possible master is already so poor that you can't blame them. The collection is quite wide and ranges to absolute junk to those camp classics that are so bad they are absolutely brilliant. Prices are fairly ok, though of course if you do random shopping you might end up paying a lot for something totally worthless waste of celluloid. Postage is not the cheapest, but nothing excessive either.

CDON and Boostep
I put these together as they are fairly similar in collection, postage fees and packing. Only use them for some special offers they have where you can find something good for very cheap.

EzyDVD
My number one source for Aussie releases. Collection is large and the prices range from expensive to very cheap, especially on the offers. Postage is quite expensive.

HKFlix
And this I use for Asian releases. Fairly large collection, prices are quite high and postage is not cheap either. But still you can find a lot in here which you can't find elsewhere.

I do of course use a plethora of other sites, but most of them I only use once or twice for some specific title or offer.

There are also some sites that I've had some quite bad experiences with, so I'll list them here as well to maybe stand as a warning or "heads up" for those planning on ordering something from these:

Discshop
By far the worst experience that I've had with any store. First time I ordered something from them about two years ago, paid the order beforehand and waited a month for nothing. All of the products were shown in stock on their site. Contacted them about it and they apologized that there's a bug in the system that some of the titles were not in stock. Well waited another 3 weeks and contacted them again, told them to send whatever they have from the order and refund me the rest. A week from that point I got 5 out of 7 titles I ordered and rest of my money back. Second time I ordered only one title, again it was in stock, paid in advance, waited for 2 months, called them and said "fuck off and give me my money back". Got my money back. Third time I ordered 3 Shaw Bros. movies from them about a month ago. I selected the bill me later thingy this time as I thought they would send the bill with the movies. Well a week ago I received a bill with a delay fee for not paying the initial bill in time. This was the first bill I received from them. As it was not much I just paid it and didn't want to waste my time in sorting it up. Still haven't received any movies, so will contact them again to tell them to fuck off and give my money back. I will never order anything from them anymore and really urge everyone else to be cautious also.

DVD Pacific
I used to like this store, one of the first ones where I ordered movies and ordered hundreds of movies from them during the years. Cheap prices and good collection. But then the site got hacked, they stole all the credit card details, mine also. So I had to go through a whole lot of hassle to close my card and get a new one. Well time goes on, no harm done and they assure they have new security system so I start to order from them again. After a couple of months my card all of a sudden stopped working when I was trying to pay with it in a grocery store. It was weekend so the banks were closed so I called to the service number on the card and they told me my card was closed as the limit was exceeded. Needless to say I was quite puzzled. Turned out that DVD Pacific was hacked again and again my card details were stolen and this time also used. Tons of hassle but luckily didn't lose any money or anything like that. But I did lose my faith in the store. Too bad it was good as long as it lasted.

DVDFr
This is a funny story. Couple of years ago I ordered a few Russ Meyer movies from here. I paid with credit card and everything went smooth. They billed my card straight away and the next day I received a mail that my package was on it's way and that I should allow 1-10 weeks for delivery. 10 weeks from France to Finland? Are they bringing it by foot or what?! Sounded quite silly but I was happy things went so smooth. So I waited a week, a month, two months, forgot all about it already, three months, then I remembered where the hell were my Meyers? Contacted them and they said it's on it's way. Waited another month, contacted them again and wanted my money back. They said it's probably got lost in the mail and they'll send another one with express courier without any extra charge, it should arrive in 3 days. Well I was ok with that. Waited again. After two weeks contacted them again and said fuck this, give me my money back. They did and I was pissed, but happy that I got it back without any further problems. Well the funny part is that after almost exactly a year from the initial purchase I receive a phone call from UPS that they have a package for me. I was a bit puzzled what it could be as I didn't have any outstanding orders at that time. Well signed it and surprise surprise it was the Russ Meyer movies I had ordered from DVDFr.