Not just another flix? Peerflix |
Peerflix slogan of: trade DVDS, don’t rent them, sounds dicey in this MPAA crackdown day and age, until you actually read the details of what the site is about. They are not an illegal P2P filetrading network, but a person-to-person DVD by mail service. Peerflix is in beta, which is where too many services seem to stay these days. The days of not reviewing beta products, I guess, have passed by. A reviewer at Wired points out some downsides to the service: 
A Netflix-like system for trading your unwanted DVDs with others through the mail sounds like a cool idea. But in practice, you wind up with a stack of old discs that no one will take off your hands. That’s been my experience with Peerflix, an online movie-swapping service that applies the principles of peer-to-peer file-sharing to physical DVDs.
The Peerflix blog answers the Wired reviewer’s objection:
Recently, a review in Wired magazine highlighted some common and other not-so-common problems. Specifically, the reviewer faced problems moving some of her older movie collection quickly within the network, and going through the Peerbux purchase process. We are disappointed, of course, to hear that our DVD trading solution did not meet her overall needs. But where else can one get rid of an unwanted Rocky Horror Show and catch Renee Zellweger in Down With Love for only $0.99? For us, the glass is half full, not half empty.
Like the positive attitude there, plus the fact that the company has a blog. Their blog doesn’t have comments enabled, but it does have trackbacks, so I’ll send this message through. I bookmarked Peerflix and intend to return later and be my own judge of the service. Being a new subscriber to Netflix the whole DVD-by-mail scene is currently on my radar. The “flix” part in the name is clearly paying homage to Netflix.
Any other MakeYouGoHmm readers ever try out this service?
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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
Comment by QueenBee — July 20, 2005 @ 1:08 pm PST
I have a son who thinks Peer Flix is great. The video store here does not carry a lot of the Anime DVDs and Peer Flix does. It seems Anime DVDs move much faster and trade better than older non DVD movies. Peer Flix would do well to stock a few “new releases” in the pipeline and “aquire and sell” a few of the ones not moving at all to an exporter of US DVDS. (just a thought…I’m in the music biz and it works well with US CDs)
Looking over the titles for a while now…I would say the “B” horror movies, Anime, and Kung Fu movies are easily traded. New Releases, Top Sellers and big name movies are more hard to come by using Peer Flix — but that may change.
As far as the trading system and the “guarantee” from Peer Flix — it all works smooth and can be trusted. I would take a look and join, it’s free and your first DVD trade is on Peer Flix.
Comment by Tom Clemmer — August 5, 2005 @ 11:27 am PST
An alternative to Peerflix and Netflix. Why buy or rent when you can trade what you have for what you want. GatorPond offer UNLIMITED trading of DVD’s, VHS, Music CD’s, and Video Games for a low monthly fee. No commitments. No Contracts. You keep what you receive or trade it when you are through. For more information, visit GatorPond.com REFERED BY: DALE SMITHEY IN THE SIGN-UP PAGE.
Comment by Dale Smithey — January 28, 2006 @ 4:43 pm PST
Dale - are you leaving a legitimate comment or spamming? One is cool, the other is not. Looks like the latter to me and if that is the case please do not do that here. Thank you.
Comment by TDavid — January 28, 2006 @ 5:11 pm PST
[…] In June of 2005 I looked at Peerflix, the DVD sharing and rental service who’s competition is Netflix and Blockbuster. One reader, Tom, commented that his son thought their service was “great.” The concept of trading DVDs didn’t seem very sound to me then, and still doesn’t, but Peerflix has surived the first year and actually have grown rather impressively. […]
Pingback by Make You Go Hmm: » Peerflix gains 145,000 new users in one year — February 6, 2006 @ 1:06 pm PST