Many sites unfamiliar with the high-def disc formats are reporting that Amazon’s 30%-50% off sale is part of a clearance on HD DVD. The fact is that Amazon always sold HD DVD (and Blu-ray) titles for at least 30% off, and their 50% off sale has been going on since before Toshiba’s announcement about halting HD DVD production. For example, this important looking Canadian site is reporting that Amazon’s got a fire sale on movies, and I’m sure you’ve seen this kind of ignorant talk elsewhere.

Why the lack of arson on movies? Retailers aren’t in a hurry to clear out movies since there’s a renewed demand for them from people who want to get the titles before they’re completely out of print.

Also, put yourself in the retailer’s position. Why sell a $30 item for $10 when there are still people willing to pay $20 or $25 for it? The nature of liquidations is that the price only gets drastically lowered as demand for the product at a higher price fades. Consequently, we see huge discounts right now on players. It’ll be a little while before the huge discounts come to movies. The risk one takes for waiting it out is that there will be fewer movies to pick from later on.

It’s much easier to find used movies on sale. For example, stores like FYE and Hollywood Video are likely to have some appealing prices, and there are the hundreds of sellers on eBay.

Some of you are not planning on increasing your HD DVD libraries, while others want to make sure they get their copy of certain titles before those movies are gone for good. Going into this first weekend of the fall-out from Tuesday’s big HD DVD discontinuation announcement, we see that the usual places are still running many of their big sales that started earlier in the month:

• Hollywood Video rental stores should be selling their used HD DVD movies at $10 each, if they haven’t already started

Apparently, some HV stores are actually franchisees and this 2 for $20 plan may only be happening at the corporate-owned stores. Bug the store manager if the sale hasn’t started, he/she probably needs to check their email or make a phone call to confirm.

• 50% off on 98 HD DVD titles at Barnes & Noble, even more off with membership
• 50% off sale at Amazon.com on 150 titles
• 33 Warner titles for up to 57% off at Amazon.com
• Movies under $16 (some are $11 and many are $12.20) at DeepDiscount.com
• Tower has movies at around 50% off.
• Fry’s Electronics has many HD DVD titles for $15.

The specific offer may differ at the stores in your area.

• Planet Earth HD DVD Set $50 off at $29.95 from DiscoveryStore.com!

(Add to your cart and see the discount there) This is the version that was broadcast in the USA with Sigourney Weaver narrating. It’s not as highly regarded as the original BBC version that’s closer to $55, but some people do like this one.

By the way, if you’re aware of sales at European sites or stores, please feel free to share about them in the comments or email me. I’ve heard that Amazon’s German site has a promotion on HD DVD titles which might be a little closer to the “fire sale” description if your native currency is Euros. There are many titles which were Blu-ray exclusive in the USA, but available on HD DVD over in Europe, so many people over here are interested in keeping up with this kind of information.