Friday, February 09, 2007

Netflix, Thou Art a Cruel Mistress


Netflix shipping as I see it...


  • If I receive a movie on Monday and Tuesday morning I mail it back, then Wednesday Netflix will receive it and ship out another DVD the same day.

  • It takes 2 days to get to me, so I'll get it on Friday.

  • All this, of course, assumes I will watch the movie the same day I receive it.

  • Based on the above information: Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are the best days to mail movies for optimum turn around.

  • Unfortunately, if you mail it Mon through Wed you would at best be able to send them back Fri through Sunday (which are the worst days).

  • On average we watch 3 movies a week; this works out to just over 12 movies per month.

  • If you started May 1st and watched every movie the same day you received it, and mailed it back the following morning you could watch 18 movies in a month. If you average 2 days to watch a movie the total goes down to 15 movies max for the month. 3 days = 12, 4 days = 9.

  • This is a great deal if the movies are new releases. $4 per new release x 18 movies would be $72 worth of movies for only $17.99 a month.

  • However, if all 18 movies are .99 non-new release rentals, then .99 x 18 = $17.82 worth of movies for $17.99 per month. Not a great deal at all. In fact, some might suggest this is, in fact, a craptastic deal.

  • I'm not altogether sure movie rental stores still have .99 rentals on non-new releases.

So, the more new releases you rent, the more bang you're getting for your buck. Save the movies that have been on DVD for a year or more for cable.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I believe the word is craptacular Larry.

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