Do your homework before you buy
For the price I paid, 'value for money' is not a phrase I would use. At the time of purchase, there were three categories for this particular box set of Hustle. New sealed box sets were selling for an average of £43, which equates to around £5.38 per season. Used, very good-condition sets, like the box set I purchased, ranged from £18.99 up to £23.95. Then you had the used, good-condition sets that averaged around £17.50, which equates to around £2.18 per season.
There is no detriment to the seller, as they listed this box set perfectly. Don't get me wrong. I am happy with my purchase, and I agree; it is in very good condition considering it is approximately 12 years old and shows very little wear. Each disc is in perfect condition, as are their sleeves. Anyone who knows about DVD sleeve materials knows that those parts that secure the discs in place are the first to go, followed by the hinges. Those little tabs holding the discs in place soon snap off through fatigue with age.
No, my issue is with the company that put the set together, selling it as a complete eight-season box set. Apart from choosing the sleeve covers for the main box holder and individual season covers, they also chose how the discs perform when inserted.
What I mean is: When you insert a disc, your player opens up a screen page, which usually is the menu of what you can do. Things like 'Play All Episodes', 'Subtitles', and 'Extras'. Sometimes, depending on the film collection, you get to see an excerpt, all be it a brief one of what to expect within that season.
What I found with my set is that they are not all from the same production company. The discs in series one, two, and three are all put together by the same company, which is great. This means that when my discs have loaded, I get the same menu screen and opening titles for every disc.
When I put in the discs for seasons four and five, they all start with you having to fast-forward several pages using the right arrow until you reach the United Kingdom language of your choice and select it. Once this is done, you get the menu page, but even that is different from the other seasons, which have only three subjects instead of the usual five. Seasons four and five have different companies, making three companies that have put the first five seasons together, which is wrong.
This suggests to me the high probability that a company collected eight individual seasons and put them together to make a box set, rather than one particular company producing all eight seasons in one go. When I checked seasons six, seven, and eight, all were put together using yet another company, making four different companies used to produce eight seasons of a BBC series production.
There should be consistency from start to finish. All discs from all eight seasons should be identical in every way. This is the first time I have come across so many different opening pages and so many different menus in the 82-box sets I own of many different genres. I have a BBC box set consisting of 22 seasons. They all start exactly the same with identical opening titles, apart from the background photos that change from season to season.
In view of my findings, I may as well have purchased all eight seasons separately, as I found all eight in very good condition, all for £2.99 or less. I also found a seller who had the first four seasons individually wrapped and was selling them as new, unopened, for £5.95 plus shipping That is a very good price but it was not seen when I purchased my box set. Had I taken the route of making eight individual purchases, then I would have saved £3,25. Had I purchased the four seasons for £5.95, then the other four seasons, I would have only saved £1.85p, but the first four seasons would have been brand new!
However, I would not have had the box that secures all eight seasons in one place. If it were possible to purchase such a box, I am sure it would have cost far more than the £3.25 I may have saved.
Verified purchase: YesCondition: Pre-owned