KimchiDVD - SteelBook Retailer Chat Thread

Feel free to discuss shipping, customer service, availability, etc about this retailer here.

List of Kimchidvd.com Exclusives HERE


Frequently Asked Questions:

Q) What is the link to Kimchidvd?
A)Welcome to KIMCHI DVD
Q) I haven't mastered Korean yet - how can I read the site?!
A) Install Google translate on your browser:

Google Chrome HERE
Firefox HERE

Q) How do I register?
A) Turn on Google translate >> Login >> click on "If members to join ..." >> fill in EVERY box >>
click on this box to ensure your member ID is available:

>> Sign up!

You don't need to use Google Translate to register, provided you use the English registration link.

Spoiler

You need to enter both a Celluar phone (mobile) and Telephone number when registering/placing an order, however they can both be the same number (I don't have a home phone number, so always use my mobile number).
Numbers should be entered without a proceeding 0 and you do not need to enter your country code (KimchiDVD add it automatically to your parcel label).

So a UK phone (01452 123123) is specified like this:
Local Area Code : 1452 Phone Number : 123123

A UK mobile (07847 123123) is specified like this:
Local Area Code : 7847 Phone Number : 123123

If you have already registered, afterlogging in you can update your address/phone numbers here.

Q) Do they ship outside of Korea?
A) Yes, worldwide delivery, various shipping options available, for example to UK: (1 x steelbook)

K-Packet is tracked and one Steelbook to UK (with a weight of 450g - which is the typical weight for a lenticular) costs $10.81.

Spoiler

On average it takes around 7 days after dispatch to arrive in the UK - I always use K-Packet when placing orders and my orders have always arrived safely.

I'm not sure if it's insured or not (there's no mention) but assuming you pay via PayPal, their guarantee will cover you if you don't receive your order for some reason.

You can track your K-Packet order using this website, however tracking information isn't always accurate after leaving Korea (e.g. sometimes it doesn't update again before it's delivered, or even after if your postman doesn't bother getting a signature).

EMS $21.80 (Tracked, replacement will be issued where possible if lost)
TNT Premium $37.80 (Tracked, replacement will be issued where possible if lost)

Q) What form of packing do they use?
A) Cardboard Box, with enough bubblewrap to keep things safe, see below: (Thanks to SBC28 for pics)

Spoiler

A pretty sturdy box, which seemingly took some damage during shipping.
(These are pretty much always the same boxes.)

Enough space for the item to "breathe", but snug enough to stop it from moving.
(That white thing is the invoice, which i choose to include, since i am in the USA.)

6 layers of bubble wrap.

Another shot of the bubble wrap, one sheet (4 layers) removed.

One minty mint SB, all the way from Korea.

Q) Is the retailer custom's friendly? (i.e will they mark as gift, or low value).
A) Very friendly, you have various options to choose from:

Spoiler

Q) Will the retailer charges upon order or upon shipment
A) You will be charged upon order

Q) What payment do they accept?
A) Card or Paypal

Q) Customer Services any good?
A) Yes - overall a very good, reliable site to order from.

Cancellations: Send an email to [email protected], including the number of the order you wish to cancel. He'll get back to you as soon as he can.

Replacements: are issued if in stock, if not a refund will be offered.
Refunds: They are normally processed within a few days.

 

[AnubisNefer]

@chipvideo: I agree with everything you posted buddy! In my humble opinion, Kimchi should refrain from so many releases (24-36 release per year). I think they should focus on quality over quantity! Although there are countless films that deserve Kimchi exclusives, it is nice to see that level of selective curation. I think they should do around one "classic/already released" exclusive per month, and maybe another new release every other month (i.e. Frozen, Rush etc.) You see the level of "perfection" Plain Archives has due to the love and care put into every exclusive! I think that is what differentiates Asian releases from the rest of the world! That said, this is not my decision lol... Although this was not my favorite movie, the lenticular looks to be really nice in hand

Sure they will keep the quality high. It's in their best interest to do so.

I honestly don't care how many releases Kimchi can or will release. I'm no OCD completionist when it comes to Kimchidvd releases. I only buy releases I truly like ;-)

Let Kimchidvd release as many as they want. Kimchidvd and Plain Archive both serve the same purpose, but for a slightly different audience.

You could compare it to the equivalent of Zavvi vs Criterion.

Let it stay that way, it's the diversity in company branding and purpose which sets it apart.

One cannot simply live without the other and they both exist because of their own unique purposes.

Even though we as customers mingle between both catalogs, it is the simply fact that we as a customer have a choice, which makes it entertaining for us customers.

I would easily buy a steelbook from any company. As long as it's a quality product.

Thank god for diversity!

 

[chilean]

@AnubisNefer: Some very valid points! I like your comparison to Zavvi & Criterion, very true! Excited to see where Kimchi goes from here

 

[ausnew]

I have a feeling that kimchidvd is going to make as many as they can and still keep this quality. By saying you only want 1 or 2 releases a month you are telling them to make less money. I say keep them coming, if its something I don't want I will just not get it.

It's a dangerous game they play like shooting the golden goose...
Many collectors of Kimchi on this site are completists, they want every release whether they may be really interested in the title or not
With so many releases once people skip one as they simply can't afford it, then the thread is broken - It will be easier and easier for them to skip further releases in the future and Kimchi lose the core of collectors


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Actarus]

Hope that Kimchi will go back to their limited release of 1000 print exclusive(700 lenti + 300 1/4 slip), yes it's limited but as a collector we do love limited releases don't we ? it's not fun not being able to get one but isn't the whole collecting, a huge part of it, is obtaining limited releases ? They did such a wonderful job with Thor and Frozen, would love for them to stay in that way of doing thing. At first I thought they were trying to compete with Blufans but their steelbook used in Snowpiercer are not exclusive steelbook design to Kimchi only...I see they want to make money but by over reaching they might just lose their whole appeal in regards to their exclusivity.

 

[JeMi2010]

I have a question. I've never ordered from Kimchi before and just recently got a pre-order of the Snowpiercer Lenticular Steelbook.

My question is that after choosing my shipping method I didn't choose anything after that aside from sending an invoice. I didn't pick either of the "merchant" options or "gift" options.
Will this affect anything?
I've been reading around and people talk about reduced price and placing a default $25 or something
I just don't understand

Will I get dinged at customs because of this?
Am I able to fix it?

 

[VRob98]

With so many releases once people skip one as they simply can't afford it, then the thread is broken - It will be easier and easier for them to skip further releases in the future and Kimchi lose the core of collectors

Not to mention the frustrating, energy & time sapping business of trying to pre-order the things in the first place. If their servers were at all capable of dealing with heavy load during pre-orders then people might be more tempted to collect the entire series. As it is, the whole process is such an unpleasant and draining experience that many collectors will probably be quite relieved when titles they're not interested in are scheduled for release. Personally, I have zero interest in Perfume, Infernal Affairs or Memento, and I'll be very glad not to have to set any time aside for the usual messy brawl of pre-ordering on those titles.

 

[BradG1984]

The 1 copy of each type per person rule absolutely has to apply to this one. Otherwise it will become the most scalped steelbook on eBAY! People pay stupid money for the Futureshop one (blu banner, seriously, why so much love?! ) so imagine what a Kimchi Iron Man is gonna go for!

 

[Towser]

You'd be surprised! If you think about snow piercer, 666 copies in 10 minutes (just for 1 of the releases). Also think how many people missed out on a 1 per person order. Now let's assume that because of the higher print run that you can have 2 per person. That would be 1332 in 10 mins + potentially more due to the fact more people want this one..
I'd estimate that this would sell out in 10-15 mins based on kimchi server fails.

If a film like Snowpiercer sells that fast then most of us have no hope with Iron Man or Drive, even if Kimchi's servers were running 100%

Ron

 

[charleybusko]

2.5k surely can't sell out in 10 mins though with only 2 editions proposed


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Won't go past 6 mins... easily going to set a Kimchi record
I'm glad it's a 2.5k print since it's a highly sought after steel... many thanks to Kimchi for this.

 

[galareta2332]

So maybe -> 1 Iron Man per person. I mean that if there will be three or two different. One person can chose only one. This gives oportunity to grab one for shure in longer time than 6 min IMO. But for hadcore collectors it may be a punishment...

 

[Marina Blue]

Its not my intention to derail the thread. The old adage that "too many cooks spoil the broth"...for me applies if they decide to do more exclusives per month. I think in general choice is great. That said though, too much choice is not good and only serves to confuse IMO

If you're not capable of knowing what you want, that's not confusion, that's compulsion (to buy everything). The junk with the true collectibles. Not that there's anything wrong with that, provided you have the financial means and that is what you want. But, if you wake up someday and look around and think... "what the hell was I thinking", then you might have a problem and a pile of crap. Most of us have done it.

If there is a large quantity of something addictive, it is the addict that has the problem. Not the supplier.

There is a difference between collecting and hoarding. I think...

 

[VRob98]

And as excitement gathers over the forthcoming pre-order for Iron Man, Kimchidvd do their best to ensure their trusty server is all ready for the challenge...

 

[entreri]

I have a question. I've never ordered from Kimchi before and just recently got a pre-order of the Snowpiercer Lenticular Steelbook.

My question is that after choosing my shipping method I didn't choose anything after that aside from sending an invoice. I didn't pick either of the "merchant" options or "gift" options.
Will this affect anything?
I've been reading around and people talk about reduced price and placing a default $25 or something
I just don't understand

Will I get dinged at customs because of this?
Am I able to fix it?

It depends on where you're located. If your country's customs have a limit on the value of goods, then you might get hit with extra charges. Kimchi allows buyers the option of entering a lower value to avoid this.

If need be, you can try sending an email to Kimchidvd (Tony) to see if he might be able to help.

 

[Real Steel]

I initially belonged to the camp that thinks having single version spaced-out release is better than flooding the market with multiple version releases every month, ie quality vs. quantity.

But after reading the many arguments for and against each route, I have now switched camp to the opposite side. That's cuz like what ausnew said, the multiple releases onslaught will force people to skip and just get what they really want.

So c'mon, Snowpiercer lenticular, I'm awaiting. I believe many people bought multiple versions without the intention to keep them all. Let the onslaught of Iron Man and Drive and whatever cause people to let go of what they don't really need.

 

[paulboland]

They better have the server upgraded before they even consider going live with this

The system would simply totally crash and majority would not manage to get an order in

As this is most likely the most wanted release they would have
The demand trying to order would be just total chaos and panic and would cause total system failure if it was not capable to handle lot of internet traffic at the same time

If it means delay in going live I would be ok with that if we could be sure they have upgraded there system before it was ready

 

[tristar6]

Even if kimchi rent/buy high end servers, it wont guarantee that everybody who wants a steelbook will get it! (for a limited printrun 2,5k for example)

If they get 3000 visitors at the same time 500 will lose anyway.

Dont forget about that!

Natural selection


Thanks Tony and Choi for their great job!!!

 

[paulboland]

Even if kimchi rent/buy high end servers, it wont guarantee that everybody who wants a steelbook will get it! (for a limited printrun 2,5k for example)

If they get 3000 visitors at the same time 500 will lose anyway.

Dont forget about that!

Natural selection


Thanks Tony and Choi for their great job!!!

This will be different than most of the previous releases
The previous releases had massive slow down for a lot of customers and was luck most of the time if you got an order in
With their basic system it could not handle 5000 or more attempts to login in and order same time and this would mean it been unusable for anyone
The bigger online website have very good systems to handle large amount of traffic requests

There system as it is now would end up not capable and would mean most would not even get an order in or even login in
2500 attempted orders at the same time in my opinion with this release will be way over 5000 potential customers trying to order at the same time and their system would just totally fail they be lucky if 100 people managed to place an order


Iron Man is a very wanted release as there are lot of new steelbooks collectors now compared to last time when the other Iron Man releases came out and most of these new collectors don't have Iron Man Steelbook and also collectors who want another one to add to their existing collection

You could easily sell out over 5000 of Iron man today if a retailer released one

 

[Real Steel]

Happy with my full slip version for keeps, that'll do me! I got the lenti too, but I'm not that fussed by it so will trade it for something I really want that I missed previously - when another collector got there first and bought as many copies as possible! Viscious circle, but if you can't beat them, join them!

Haha, I think we are all trapped into this game of lottery by the artificially limited quantities. The only true winners are the game operators.

 

[paulboland]

I'm probably stating the obvious here but logon 10-15 mins or so before the sale goes live (assuming exact time known), and just refresh gently to keep logged in - I think that would help..? I did that with Thor 2 and got the lentic & 1/4 slip copies I was after... Just my opinion.

I already did that myself with the last 2 releases be already logged in


I cant see it been capable their system handling the amount of traffic this release is going to have and I have seen what happens with the last 2 releases Rush and Snowpiercer and yes I got an order in I got both but was a mad experience just to order the 2 titles

Those 2 releases are minor in a massive way compared to Iron Man a very highly wanted steelbook worldwide and this will be the only one available to order and with Thor 2 you have a choices from UK/USA etc

It be of no use to anyone if their system not capable

They need to improve there system servers and with this release if any of you want to get a order in as been already logged in will mean noting when there whose system fails


The demand for another Iron Man Steelbook is huge

Even though its still only going to be 2500 limited and most likely split between Lenticular
- 1/4 slip
In my opinion 2500 is way to low for the amount of demand for this release is capable of

 

[Hooch]

a bit derailed maybe, but for myself I had to make the decision not to buy every release and every version. This goes for both Blufans and Kimchidvd.

Its like in a candystore...I have to select, if I buy one each of everything its gonna hurt!
Even if I do have the money I just cant justify buying multiple of the same film.