Play.com closing ! Is this the end of cheap games and music ? - The Bear and Badger

Kernowgaz

Play.comÂ will become solely an eBay-style marketplace from March.
The business the company was founded on, stocking games and films etc. and selling them cheaply online, will cease to exist.
Play.comÂ is the latest casualty of the government closing the Low Value Consignment Relief loophole, which waived VAT on imported goods from the Channel Islands (includes Jersey). This was closed in April 2012.
All 147Â Play.comÂ staff in Jersey are to be let go, as well as 67 others from Play's Cambridge and Bristol offices, reported theÂ BBC.
The company will rejig operations to run out of Cambridge, where 200 staff will work.
"Moving forward we are intending to focus exclusively on our successful marketplace, which is our main business area, and to phase out the direct-retail part of our business," aÂ Play.comÂ statement read.
The abolishment of the LVCR loophole has apparently resulted in 600 people losing their jobs on the island of Jersey, where only around 100,000 people live.

I'm guessing this will effect all online stores like amazon , tesco and others that sell cheaper games and music that are shipped from jerseyÂ

MattyJ

Nah, not unless they change how things coming from Europe is affected. I think Amazon operates out from Belgium or somewhere rather than them be set up in the Channel Islands.

Kernowgaz

MattyJ wrote:

Nah, not unless they change how things coming from Europe is affected. I think Amazon operates out from Belgium or somewhere rather than them be set up in the Channel Islands.

I've had stuff from Amazon jersey

Matt_82

The biggest Amazon warehouse is in Dunfermline.

Hodge360

I got play.com stuff from Luxembourg before. I assumed they had moved for tax reasons. Guess not.

[Deleted User]

They were great at the start, shame they got shit.

[Deleted User]

It seems to be a bit of a cycle with these sights.

Shopto have started emailing me everyday with offers that aren't as good as they used to be and selling gadgety shite more. Hopefully they won't follow suit completely.

Gremill

XTC_NRG_4_DARKRAVER wrote:

They were great at the start, shame they got shit.

Yeah, they used to be my go-to website for bargains. I haven't used them since July 2011, which I think was shortly after their website became the electronic equivalent of an InStores.

Yossarian

They had a very good deal on Halo 4, joint cheapest alongside Amazon, with an excellent in game helmet that I'm using to this very day.

[Deleted User]

Gremill wrote:

XTC_NRG_4_DARKRAVER wrote:

They were great at the start, shame they got shit.

Yeah, they used to be my go-to website for bargains. I haven't used them since July 2011, which I think was shortly after their website became the electronic equivalent of an InStores.

Same here - it was great for Xmas pressies too.

But haven't used them for ages.

beano

Bought binoculars off a market trader on play for 20quid less than the amazon price over crimbo.

Think before I may have bought, a iPoo dock because it was few quid. Over a year ago now.

Mod74

I stopped using them when they delivered Dead Rising 2 on the Saturday instead of the Friday. So 24/9/2010 then.

And I never got my personalised zombified box cover either. Twunts.

Yossarian

Amusingly timed Edge tweet:

As their markets and libraries continue to grow, how are digital stores adapting? http://t.co/Di3umqSV

By closing.

Sasukekun

Strangely they haven't been cheap for a while. Their prices have normalised and Shopto bypassed them long ago for value for money.

I_R

It's not that surprising that they struggle as soon as they start having to pay VAT, but I'd have thought they had a big enough brand to carry on anyway. Their overheads are still going to be tiny compared to the high street.

beano

How firebox still exist and play struggle is beyond me.

hylian_elf

I sued to shop nowhere buy Play back in uni days (1999-2003). I stopped due to receving what looked like used DVDs at full price after slow delivery.

Paul the sparky

Did Play start out as a mail order company? I vaguely remember looking at the prices of games I wanted on a big list at the back of Sega Power when I was a kid. They seemed too good to be true, and the thought of giving someone money then crossing your fingers and hoping whatever you'd paid for turns up never sat right with me.Â

Mind boggling that Game, HMV and the rest out lasted Play.com, but I suppose there must still be a lot of people wary of buying stuff over the interwebs.

acemuzzy

Any hope of a "CLOSING NOW" sale, and bargains galore? Â Or are those days gone now as they flog their stock wholesale to TheHut or whatever?

Mod74

I think they just off loaded a shit ton of 3DSes

Mod74

That quote mentions the Jersey flower dance, but the rise of downloads -both legal and il- must have been slowly crushing them as sure as being sat on by Gabe Newell would.

Moto70

XTC_NRG_4_DARKRAVER wrote:

They were great at the start, shame they got shit.

This.

Liveinadive wrote:

It seems to be a bit of a cycle with these sights. Shopto have started emailing me everyday with offers that aren't as good as they used to be and selling gadgety shite more. Hopefully they won't follow suit completely.

I noticed the same thing a while ago, all the sites that offered genuine bargains no longer seem to do so.

Yossarian wrote:

Amusingly timed Edge tweet: As their markets and libraries continue to grow, how are digital stores adapting?

By closing.

hahahaha!

Moto70

Paul the sparky wrote:

Did Play start out as a mail order company?

I think I was one of Play's first customers, I had bought a Â£600 DVD player and they had the smallest of adverts in the back of some magazine. I may be wrong but I think this is how they started, selling DVD's and in particular Region 1 stuff...

hylian_elf

I used to buy Region 1 stuff from them. Eventually moved to the much cheaper CD-Wow (who are they now?) and Movietyme (are they still around?).

Moto70

I'm not sure exactly when it was I used them but my daughter is 14 and I think it was around that time that I was using them. I think Mars Attacks was one of the first I bought...

EDIT: A quick look on Amazon says the Mars Attacks DVD came out in '98 so it was then I started using them.

Mod74

I used them when they were Play247.

Along with CDWOW they were one of the very first companies you could buy CDs and DVDs from online in the UK. Predated the UK arm of Amazon by a fair way IIRC.

Moto70

Yeah, that's right. I remember the name changing to Play but couldn't remember what they'd dropped to get there. I can remember seeing the advert like it was yesterday (I was scanning through a magazine in our local newsagent) and ringing them to place my order for 2 DVD's!

Moot_Geeza

Just checked my Play account for the first time in a while.Â I've got 59 pages of purchase history.Â I dread to think how much that would come to if I added it all up.Â When dvds used to drop to Â£2.99-Â£3.99, I pretty much had a constant drip feed of deliveries.Â I tipped the Postie Â£15 one year.

Edit: I once received a phonecall from Natwest saying they'd locked my account as someone had tried to make over twenty online purchases on my card, all under Â£3, in one afternoon....

Mod74

Eeep. I thought my 118 orders was a lot.

Just noticed it was almost a year between my Dead Rising and the previous order due to shiteness. That must have been the last straw.

Rev

We work with them quite closely and its driven by the change in the law but also the likes of Tesco and hmv about to do the same thing. It means they will hold no stock and give them a healthier balance sheet as it won't be seen as a liability.

Webbins

Just checked my order history, 30 physical items with the first being PES3 back in 2003, and 84 mp3s. A lot of my orders were also from the time when they were more competitive and ShopTo didn't exist. Used to visit daily for their hot picks but hardly ever wander that way now, I'm obviously not alone.

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