The old subject... Prices...

H

Hokum

Straw Hat Pirate
I was just thinking about Anime prices. Please keep this a reasonable discussion no ranting please...

I tend (but not exclusively) to buy region 2 anime where i can, but i also tend to wait for the boxsets and buy a complete season.

Out of interest, what price would people be prepared to pay for a season?

Usually you have a few options;

1: "First adopter" buy the season disk at a time at £15-18 a disk. Total for a season, £90-110
2: "Box setter" buy the box set when it comes out. Total for a season, £50-90
3: "The sitter" wait for a price drop and then buy the season. Total for a season, £25-40
4: "Bargin hunter" wait for the box set to appear on blowout. Total for a season, £15-25

I'm mainly a 3/2 but it would have to be really special for me to pay more than £50 for a season of anything. £25-30 is my impulse buy limit.

What does everyone else do?[/b]
 
I don't actually know where i fit in. Most probably 1, as i do like to pick up a series as its released. However, if a series is already released, i'd probably go for a box set if available, or aim for getting the DVD's cheaper than their original price. I like my limited editions as well, so that does usually add a fair bit to what i may spend on your general DVD. It does also depend highly on the series for me, my more favourite series i'm probably more willing to spend money for than series i've just asked about/never heard off.
 
I'm utterly inconsistent, with my 50 individual imported TV volumes of Urusei Yatsura on one hand and my cheap and cheerful xxxHolic R2UKs on the other.

There's a calculated process to the apparent madness which factors in exactly what I consider each series is worth to me and then I decide how much I want to pay for it based on that, and wait as required. I am a little bit of a control freak so carefully plan my purchases and have an invisible sweet spot for each show.

I'm not really interested in singles any more at all at any price just because of the amount of space taken up but for some shows I will still do it. It has to be an exceptional series. I will be buying singles for the new seasons of Slayers and Bandai's sub-only doublepack experiments have certainly appealed. If I miss a series which I consider exceptional or it's only out in a "deluxe" box (#2 on your list) I'm happy to set down the money for that and it saves me some shelf space, too. When importing I prefer the deluxe sets over singles to save a few pennies on shipping from most places too.

For shows I know I will like but don't really care about seeing immediately, I'm very patient about waiting for a box set or a bundle deal. There's simply so much out there that I want to see that I can afford to wait for such things to sink low enough to hit that sweet spot I think they're worth.

Everything I buy is a blind purchase except for VHS upgrades (or manga adaptations, in a way). So I think my habits might be a little eccentric.

Edit: Oh and I'm a sucker for certain kinds of LEs. Trinkets aren't so interesting but extra on-disc content or soundtracks bundled with the discs will encourage me to throw away my rules entirely at times.

R
 
Well, it differs entirely on the situation. Normally, I'm a 1 or 2, as I like to buy things fairly new, but since I can only afford so much, I wait on a series (complete one, then buy another).
The thing is if you wait too long for a not-so-popular anime, they may not release a boxset or a bargain version re-release.

However, there are times of luck where I grab the item relating to option 3 (sitter) and wack it onto the checkout (not litterally...).
 
I'd never, ever pay the RRP, or close to it, for a single DVD. The only time I've ever come close to doing that was when I paid somewhere between £10-£15 for the two disc edition of The Lion King because I loved it as a brat.

When a box set is first released it's always far too close to the RRP. I wait until the price drops. With Beez the price never drops, with MVM it's rare to see a 26 episode box set sell for less than £35, the ADV box sets mostly suck and only Manga truly offer discounts.

I'm a bargain hunter -- that's why I spend most of my money on eBay, where you can get used stuff for 1/2 or even 1/3 of the new price. I have no issues with getting second-hand goods if they're still in close to mint condition.

In the case of manga, however, I have been far less tight. For example, after being impressed for the first chapter of Confidential Confessions, I picked up all 8 volumes new, for around £5 each. I also got all of Welcome to the NHK new for the same price. Where as I always feel cheated out of my money when buying anime new, that isn't the case with manga.
 
miscs said:
I would say I'm 3/4 the less money I spend on a particular purchase the more money I have to buy other stuff with.
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I'm much like that myself. In-print R2 thinpacks from Amazon are often acceptably priced, all things considered. Most of the things I can picture myself buying in the forseeable future aren't likely to be from within these shores though.
 
depends how i feel about a series... if im not fussed on it or havent heard much about it all defo fit into 3 and 4.

but if its one of my beloved series *cough*eva*cough* then ill pay top price.
 
I think, usually a 3 but I paid rrp for each disk of fullmetal alchemist. I got about halfway realised it was obscene but continued because I already had most of them.
I can't see myself paying that again or indeed over £40 for a box set unless it was something really amazing. So usually a 3
 
I'm either option 1 or 3. For me the want to see the series in question normally overrides any sense of money (unless its a stupid amount of course, i learned thar lesson with the elfen lied boxset).
 
I'm all over the place with what I spend. Some US series I'll collect in singles, some I'll buy boxsets of if I missed them first time around. UK anime I'll generally only buy if it's cheap. R2J stuff I spend too much on, having long ago broke my promise to myself of not spending more than £1/min on an anime DVD.

Now I'm currently re-evaluating - with the ******, ******, ******, right-down-in-the-shitter pound that we have at the moment, Japanese purchases are just obscenely expensive, and I'm having to cut right back. US release now fall into the same price bracket as UK releases, so I'll probably be moving a lot more of my purchasing over the UK stuff, provided I can wait on release dates and such.
 
£30 is my upper limit really. Anime isn't the only stuff worth buying out there, and I'm looking to Region 1 nowadays because Region 2 boxsets are becoming non-existent or hilariously uncompetitivly priced, or even over-ladden with extra crap I'd frankly be ashamed to own.
 
There's no universal rule for what I'm willing to spend on anime. The amount I spend on a particular series is, in most cases, directly proportional to how much I want to own that series. I'm happy forking out £18 for 50 minutes of Hellsing Ultimate, for example, but there's not the slightest chance that I would have bought Desert Punk at £10 per disc, even if there wasn't a significantly cheaper R1 alternative.
 
most i've paid for a boxset (thinpack) was £25 for the Gits 2nd GIG which to be frank...is worth its weight in gold.
I try not to spend too much money on a single disc dvd....but recently i've bought 5-13 discs of FMA.....a good sum of money... about £130-£140 for the whole series and the film. (i bought season 1 - discs 1 through to 4 for a amicable £24.99)
try not to pay RRP when possible. but i don't like R1....i know i could play it on my laptop....but its the whole NTSC vs PAL which i've had problems with for a long time.....since i bought a ps1 and was horrified to learn that NTSC distorted my games...it sort of put me off R1 for good.

I adore shops like CEX which sell anime at a fraction of the cost....Trigun for £8 is a bargain.
the scroll samurai boxset for £12.....s'all good
 
I certainly fit into 2, I tend to wait for boxsets and now there usually quite cheap, a few coming soon for £37.99 so i'll buy them straight away but have also bought a few coz they were cheap

I got Robotech and Heat Guy J for that reason.
 
If it's either short (3-4 volumes), something I really want, or a series I get sucked into after an experimental 1st volume purchase then I will often (foolishly) dish out for the individual releases. I'm not really one to count on a boxset release unless I know it's been confirmed or it's already available.
 
I'd have to say i'm a little bit of everything really.If the series is good enough i don't mind paying top price eg.part one of blood+ cost me £45 (still waiting on sony to release the second half of the series :x )Most of the time though i wait for the boxsets of which ever series i like to come out and get them then.Almost all the boxsets that i do have are region 1 for two main reasons 1, The price of the region 2 boxset compared to the region 1 is sometimes way too much.Series such Witch Hunter Robin,Planetes & Cowboy Bebop can be bought for less than half the price on region 1 than region 2.The second is availability ,alot of the series i got have not been released or are not due out for the forseeable future eg. blood+,silent mobius,FMP TSR etc.
 
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