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Anime bargains


RZ.

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For those of you who like to collect merch, posters, DVDs, etc - what are some of the best bargains you've found? I've been interested in owning anime DVDs for a few years (a financially unwise hobby I do not recommend lol) and as is so often the case, the older and less popular the show, the more expensive DVDs seem to be (and if the anime studio since went bust then say goodbye to your wallet - I'm looking at you, Evangelion).

A year ago I bought a bundle from Ebay with some interesting shows like Speed Grapher, Erementar Gerad, GITS:SAC, Air, Moribito and some films like Patlabor and Blue Gender - which cost me about £50 for what was probably about £80-100 worth of DVDs.

Recently I also found someone in my area selling all three volumes of Claymore for £2.50 each.

By far the biggest bargain I found was someone selling the complete series of Otogizoshi for £3.50 on Musicmagpie - which seems to be a really good site if you're looking for some cheap, not so well known anime series to watch. Quite a few 12/13 episode series going for less than £5.

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I remember back when the anime bubble burst, you would find so many anime DVDs for cheap. Given they were single volumes of a series. I remember picking up the entire Kiddy Grade series for like $20. These days I don't really care to buy physical media as much. 

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Kind of like when DVDs came out and you could pick up VHS tapes for a buck each in the clearance bins.

It occurs to me that I might be dating myself with that comment.  👴

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7 hours ago, efaardvark said:

Kind of like when DVDs came out and you could pick up VHS tapes for a buck each in the clearance bins.

It occurs to me that I might be dating myself with that comment.  👴

Haha! I was about 6/7 when VHS's started going out of fashion. There's still a charm about watching VHS on an old analogue TV you just can't beat. So many memories of watching old kids TV/cartoons on a cold winter morning in 2004/5. I saw someone on Ebay selling the complete collection of Evangelion on VHS a few years ago for about $200 and for a moment, I was tempted!

10 hours ago, OtterNmyWater said:

I remember back when the anime bubble burst, you would find so many anime DVDs for cheap. Given they were single volumes of a series. I remember picking up the entire Kiddy Grade series for like $20. These days I don't really care to buy physical media as much. 

I think DVDs will start becoming cheaper now, and Blu Rays probably in a few years too now that media is moving mostly onto digital streaming platforms. I just like owning physical copies of things, though I'm not really sure why. I'm one of those people who'll spend hours in a bookstore looking along the shelves, so maybe that has something to do with it lol

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51 minutes ago, RZ. said:

I saw someone on Ebay selling the complete collection of Evangelion on VHS a few years ago for about $200 and for a moment, I was tempted!

Can you even find a player anymore for VHS though?  Also, I’d be afraid of damaging the media.  Players had a habit of eating tapes.

 

53 minutes ago, RZ. said:

I just like owning physical copies of things, though I'm not really sure why.

One very practical reason is that stuff tends to disappear from streaming sites as licensing agreements change, often with little or no warning.  There also sometimes collector/investment value in owning your own copy.

I like streaming sites to find new material, but anything I like enough for it to have replay value I buy the physical.  Subscribing to every streaming site gets expensive.  Even then you’re not guaranteed to be able to find a given title online when you want to watch it.

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1 hour ago, efaardvark said:

Can you even find a player anymore for VHS though?  Also, I’d be afraid of damaging the media.  Players had a habit of eating tapes.

This is what eventually led me to mothball my player. Also the cause of many of my involuntary media upgrades :P

1 hour ago, efaardvark said:

One very practical reason is that stuff tends to disappear from streaming sites as licensing agreements change, often with little or no warning

This is my primary reason especially since many titles I enjoyed aren’t considered overly popular. Also a way to financially support the industry & hopefully encourage additional seasons. Unfortunately there are some titles I would love to own but the streaming service that owns the license won’t release one as way to control access & hopefully keep you as a subscriber.

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On 7/1/2021 at 2:05 PM, efaardvark said:

Can you even find a player anymore for VHS though?  Also, I’d be afraid of damaging the media.  Players had a habit of eating tapes.

I'm not sure, but I actually still have a VHS player built into one of my old DVD players. Of course, we never use it. In the case of NGE, now Netflix have gained some/all of the rights, I'm hoping they'll be a new DVD/Blu Ray release soon anyway.

On 7/1/2021 at 2:05 PM, efaardvark said:

One very practical reason is that stuff tends to disappear from streaming sites as licensing agreements change, often with little or no warning.  There also sometimes collector/investment value in owning your own copy.

I like streaming sites to find new material, but anything I like enough for it to have replay value I buy the physical.  Subscribing to every streaming site gets expensive.  Even then you’re not guaranteed to be able to find a given title online when you want to watch it.

As paranoid as this probably sounds, I've always been worried about the dissapearence of the internet because of a solar flare or whatever. I still have an old portable DVD player just in case. That's probably why I like owning physical copies instead of relying on the longeivity of the internet.

I watch most anime on pirate streaming sites these days, but that's mainly since I've been struggling to find employment. I'll probably go for one of Netflix or Crunchyroll again when I have some income.

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