The DVD of AMC's 'Mad Men'
Lions Gate

Mad Men: For less than $30, you can immerse yourself in the smoky rooms of Sterling Cooper.

Another TV-on-DVD follow-up: When you spend a lot of time putting together recommendations of boxed sets, you can't help noticing that they do represent a big expense at a time when almost everyone, the news tells us, is looking to cut holiday spending.

Presumably, splurge gifts like larger boxed sets are likely to take a hit this year. It's not unusual for boxed sets to cost $200 or $300, which seems like an awful lot to lay out these days. Pamela Goodfellow is a senior analyst at BIGresearch, which gathers information from consumers about buying habits. She agrees that such a set is certainly going to qualify as "an expensive, splurge-like purchase." Not exactly the direction we're all moving.

But of course, plenty of sets are deeply discounted these days — even though that may mean a reduction from $300 to $200. Can a sale price like that move that "splurge-type purchase"?