Is Best Buy Really Selling Blu-rays Again?

Best Buy has Blu-rays on their website - are they bringing back physical media?

If you look right now on BestBuy.com, you can find a few 4K Blu-rays, standard Blu-rays, steelbooks, and other physical media. I will admit, I was excited - until I looked further. I understand why people might think Best Buy is bringing physical media back, which they infamously dropped from their in-store and online inventory in early 2024. People are asking if we’re going to see this in stores again, or if this is the start of some kind of new Blu-ray resurgence. Unfortunately, that’s mostly not the case.

Here’s what’s really happening: Best Buy opened their marketplace to third-party sellers. In the past, Best Buy.com only sold items directly from their own stock. Now, like Amazon or Walmart, they are letting outside sellers list products on their site.

For example, there’s a Ace Ventura 4K steelbook currently available on BestBuy.com. But if you look closely at the listing, you’ll see it’s sold and shipped by PopMarket, a third-party seller that sells in music and media. That means Best Buy itself is not selling or stocking these Blu-rays.

So while you can buy physical media through Best Buy’s website, you’re not actually buying it from Best Buy. The company hasn’t reversed course or started carrying Blu-rays in stores again. And they definitely won’t be brining back any of their past exclusive release. Studios simply aren’t working with Best Buy anymore - that ship has sailed. That’s why you see Amazon and Walmart exclusives, or companies like Shout Factory, Lionsgate Limited, and GRUV.com doing their own steelbooks.

In-store, the only way you might find a Blu-ray at Best Buy is if someone bought it online and returned it. Occasionally stores will put returned items out on clearance. You might see them from time to time at Target (who also dropped most physical media sales) where a Criterion or Kino Blu-ray pops up in the clearance section. That doesn’t mean the store is actively stocking it, it just means they had to put it somewhere before it goes into dead stock and ends up at a wholesaler.

Honestly, I think opening the marketplace is nothing more than a desperation money move for Best Buy. Sure, it creates more options for shoppers, but it also introduces a lot of confusion. You have to read the fine print on each listing carefully because now you don’t always know who’s shipping your product or where it’s coming from. That goes for TVs, players, and any other electronics as well, which cheapens their entire website experience in my opinion.

Pop Market looks like a legit company, so if you want one of these Blu-rays, it’s probably fine to buy. But in most cases, you’re better off going directly to companies that support physical media like Shout Factory, Bull Moose, Diabolik DVD, Hamilton Book, or Orbit DVD. That’s where your money is actually helping the businesses who support these formats.

So, no, Best Buy is not stocking physical media again. You’re not going to see Best Buy exclusives back. The website marketplace is open to third-party sellers, which is why Blu-rays are showing up online. And if you’re lucky, you might catch a returned item in the store clearance section.

Thanks for reading. Sorry for the bad news if you are a movie collector. But it was important to set the story straight and give credit to the businesses that are supporting collectors. Right now, that is not Best Buy.