Tariffs & Physical Media

April 7, 2025 1:44 PM

There are ALL KINDS of more important effects expected than this, but it is nevertheless true that us nerds who collect boutique blu-rays may well be hit pretty hard by the tariffs. Orbit has already outlined a "you pay half the tariff, we pay half" policy for imports. Other retailers who import discs to the US and/or labels that ship direct to US customers from overseas are expected to follow suit. Anyone formulating a plan?

Mine isn't that sophistocated: I hit up the Radiance, 101 Films, 88 Films, and Indicator sales to grab big armloads of stuff I have been wanting at pre-tariff sale prices. I figure it will get ugly soon.

Anyone doing anything similar? Or figuring on a budget? Or just shifting their focus to US discs? (Although even those should go up in price, as the materials/production are heavily sourced from overseas.)

Just curious.

posted by DirtyOldTown (8 comments total)

I've already been saving my 4K buys for items I see on sale, which means that a lot of the more expensive 4K discs are just left as hopeful presents on the wish list for others to pick up. For older films, especially those without the 4K transfers, I have been leaning a lot more into bluray. In that category, I've also just started purchasing more from the re-sell market, either thrift or the more commercial joints.

It's my understanding that generally most discs are manufactured outside of the US (Mexico? Germany?), but not in China, so we won't see an insane jump in price for new physical media - yet. But if things continue to go up in price, I will probably seek out items so long as pre-tariff inventories are in stock and then shift to used copies. A part of me thinks, "Well, we may not be able to afford streaming services in the future, so maybe keep building that physical library at a faster rate!" But then there's the wallet side of me that says, "And we can't really afford that."

What I need to do is find a solid used desktop unit with a lot of memory and rip all my discs and place them on a Plex Server, which can be my make shift streaming service. I just need to commit to that and do it.
posted by Atreides at 7:06 AM on April 9 [1 favorite]

So as a distributor this is what I am seeing. I got a LOT of back orders not being fulfilled. Its not unusual for us to see stuff delayed (we primarily deal with imports into Canada so we expect some delay) but it is particularly high right now. I suspect this is an ancillary effect on a number of tariff / US dollar / trade / border related issues - a lot of the paper part of physical media is printed in Mexico, plastics & the various chemicals used in the manufacture come from China, there is a lot of delay at the borders (partially due to confusion on enforcement). In Canada we lost our main duplicator just before the pandemic so all our stuff has to come from the US (I have a large Disney order I need to fulfil but it is taking twice as long as normal). Physical media (Printed Material, Audio and Video) was slated by the Canadian government to be on the last round of reciprocal tariffs but those appear to have been avoided. Probably some other issues but above all no one knows what's going on. Its a very tricky time.
posted by Ashwagandha at 11:38 AM on April 12 [3 favorites]

Regarding 4K discs, if you're interested in the Steelbooks or special packaging? Order them as soon as you can. The US domestic ones with the special packaging seem to be disappearing ridiculously quickly. The standard editions seem fine but the steelbooks etc. are being printed in smaller numbers (I'm guessing a few thousand even for high profile titles).
posted by Ashwagandha at 11:44 AM on April 12 [1 favorite]

Thank you for more of the insider POV, Ashwagandha!
posted by Atreides at 7:28 AM on April 14 [1 favorite]

I did not do a Radiance subscription this year which I kind of regret under the circumstances, although I'd hate to hold them to an unfavorable pricing model, so I guess it's for the best. I expect to throttle back a bit, mostly on boxed sets -- I can still handle the occasional cool single disc. But that Haneke set from Umbrella is probably not in the cards.
posted by Bryant at 1:02 PM on April 14

I have looked at the Radiance subscription, but so far my only sub is Oscilloscope. It's cheaper and you can opt out of titles you don't like.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 1:05 PM on April 14

The Radiance releases are incredible. I just watched their Alain Corneau Hard Boiled set - the films look great.
posted by Ashwagandha at 2:10 PM on April 14 [1 favorite]

But yes, you gotta pick your spots with what you collect.
posted by Ashwagandha at 2:11 PM on April 14