Peerflix
Peerflix is a movie trading service where you sign up and trade DVD's with other users rather than renting them from a central service. There's no monthly fee so you can use it as often or as little as you like, just pay $1 per trade. Each DVD in the system is assigned a Peerbux value, when you ship one of your DVD's you get Peerbux and when you receive one they cost Peerbux. Almost all movies are worth two Peerbux, some of the newer ones are worth three and older ones are often only worth one.
I've been a member for almost two months now and I have to say it's a very cool service, depending on how you plan on using it. I am using it to trade DVD's I don't want anymore rather than using it as an alternative to renting. I've gotten rid of Made and Rocky and a couple of other movies I should've never bought in the first place. I even traded that damn fullscreen version of American Wedding that I accidentally bought and got the widescreen version.
Trading movies can sometimes be difficult. If you've got a DVD that's not a new release it can be a struggle to get rid of it. When someone requests your DVD they send you an email with a link to click to committ to send it, but they also send that email to everyone else trying to get rid of that same DVD. There's been at least four times where I clicked the link in about thirty minutes and it was already too late. Yesterday I clicked the link five minutes after I got the email, but someone else had already beat me to it.
The service has a lot of potential, and since there's no monthly fees there's really no negatives. If you want to use it sort of like a Netflix and trade a lot of movies or just to let someone else have movies that you don't think you'll ever watch again, you should get some value out of Peerflix. Sometimes it requires a little patience and it's not really going to replace Netflix or BlockBuster, but I can definitely recommend it to the movie lovers out there.
Posted in Entertainment & Web/Tech | 5 Comments | Add yours
Comments
2 DJ said...
I looked into using Peerflix and found it to not be a useful service at all. Im surprised to hear that you use it to exchange DVDs that you dont want for ones that you do want, becuase the DVDs that you get dont come with a CASE. Why would you want to add a DVD to your collection that is missing the case? that seems like a really big deal that Peerflix has overlooked, and consequently they have lost a huge chunk of their potential market. Even worse, nowhere on the Peerflix website does it mention that the DVDs sent to you will be without a case. It would be fine for a DVD that I didnt care about keeping, but in that situation, I'll just rent from Netflix.
Posted on July 17, 2005 at 06:34 PM
3 QueenBee said...
Regardless of what service you use DJ, all you need to do is keep some of your old DVD cases when you send out your own products. Simply slide in the included covers and you are on your way.
Hope this helps.
QueenBee
http://www.BarterBee.com
Posted on July 20, 2005 at 11:58 AM
4 Brian said...
DJ, I've only really used it to get rid of the stuff that I can't believe I actually bought in the first place. I've added some "almost" classics and some TV shows that I probably would've never bought. It's great for that kind of thing.
Posted on July 23, 2005 at 11:40 PM
5 Matt said...
I love peerflix (except for the fact that sometimes when I go to confirm I'm sending out a DVD it says "already sent). I think the service is intended to replace Netflix, I'm not currently using it to "trade DVD's that are in cases" per se. I don't own a DVD collection (because I've been using netflix for so long) so I'm using the service to get a movie, watch it once, then send it off again. I don't care if it has a case because I'm not a DVD collector. The services that swap actual dvd cases are no threat to peerflix because they are not trying to go after DVD collectors - they are looking for a fast, cheap, efficient way for people to swap DVD's just like the customers of netflix do. They are going for the rental market, but getting around copyright law by saying that you "own" the DVD (which you technically do.)
Posted on September 23, 2005 at 07:35 AM
1 QueenBee said...
Hey Brian,
I caught your thread and thought I'd chime in with a helpful plug of my own.
You may also find BarterBee.com to be a good alternative to the existing services you discuss. Not only can you trade-in DVD's but you can also trade-in your unwanted CDs and Video Games for the ones you really want.
All transactions are $1.00. Get ANY CD, DVD or Video Game for points and a $1 per-item transaction fee. Maximum $5 in transaction fees per month - get anything you want with no transaction fee after that.
Take a look and join, it's free, and give us your thoughts.
Cheers,
QueenBee
http://www.BarterBee.com
Posted on June 06, 2005 at 03:06 PM