How to save money supporting your Anime addiction

[Lovely]

How to save money supporting your Anime addiction: The legal way!


First, lets go over the "Not legal' stuff. And why bootlegs are bad.

Well... just read this Bootleg FAQ (I didn't write this, but I do agree with a lot that the guy says ^^ .)

Basically, if it has both Chinese and English subs. If it has different cover art, and if it has a LARGE amount of episodes on a few number of disks, then it's a bootleg.

Why are bootlegs bad? It's because the orignal creators get NONE of the money and the people who DO get the money are just useless theives. Do you really want your hard earned cash to go to the corrupt?

O.k, so your now thinking... "But... but... I want cheap...."

Have no fear! Lovely is here!

First off, have you noticed that when you watch a show once or twice that you never watch it again? Or perhaps you want to try out a show, but aren't sure if you will REALLY like it or not?

Well then, if that's the case, perhaps an online dvd rental service is your answer! For a reasonable monthly fee, you can watch a LOT of anime. In fact, this is how I watch most anime series lately. It's great because you can see what you like and don't like. Sometimes you can even get surprised! For example, I discovered that I LOVED a show called Infinite Ryvius, a show which I NEVER would of guessed I would be interested in. I then went on to discover that I didn't like Key the Metal Idol, a popular show, that I thought I would like, but it turned out that it just wasn't my cup of tea.

A good rental service that II recommend would be Greencine. Mostly because they have a HUGE anime selection. And unlike a lot of rental sites, they actually go through the trouble of keeping ENTIRE series in stock (as opposed to other sites that may have only a disk or two.)
The only downside to Greencine is that their distribution center is on the west coast, so if you live on the East cost, delivery can be a bit slow.


O.k, so now your thinking. "Renting's fine and all, but I want to OWN."

Alright, alright.

So lets say you have a specific title in mind.
First of all, go to the site, DVD price search.
Put in the name of the series or specific disk you want in the search bar towards the top of the screen. The site then gives you a list of titles, and you click on the one you were searching for. A window then comes up with information about the disk, and a Price list. This list contains the BEST DEAL from various online DVD sites. It even figures shipping into the equasion!

Using this site, I was able to find a GREAT deal for the Fruits Basket box set. I purchased it from Deep Discount DVD for only $59.95 (shipping being free.). The MSRP for this title is $99.95! That's about a $30 difference!


Alright, some other money saving tips. The Anime on DVD forums. Just go to the "retail" forum and you'll find all sorts of great deals for not only interenet stores, but the occasion brick and mortar store as well. Do a little lurking, and sometimes you can even find coupon or two.

As a side note, Ebay isn't evil. Sometimes, you can find a good condition, used (and legit!) title for a good price. Maybe even new. You just have to be careful. Do some research before you bid. Is the store shipping from China? Is the box art different from the original release? Does the seller seem "shady"?
Just use your head and you should be fine.

Alright. Well, I hope I've helped a few of you out and haven't bored you. Thanks for taking the time out to read this. Well, Good luck shopping~!

-Lovely

[Saturn]

Good information Lovely.

I've discovered that Media Play now does trade-ins so you can purchase used anime at a cheaper price than buying new. And without the bother of shopping online for those that can't.

Amazon.com has a used section too, but again, like with Ebay, you have to be careful of those selling bootlegs.

[Lovely]

Thanks Saturn! Ah! and you also reminded me of something!

Best Buy they FREQUENTLY sell their anime DVD's at a good amountl below the MSRP. Internet prices really. So it's never a bad idea to make the trip to a BB and see if they have any good deals going on.

AVOID stores that sell their titles at exactly the MSRP. It's not worth it.

As a side note. "MSRP"= "Mass Sugested Retail Price".

[StrawberryInuPie]

Thanks for the info Lovely-sama. Sadly Inu can't do any of that, cause my mom and grandma are iffy about ordering stuff from online. I just stick to Suncoast and Best Buy..Best Buy has cheap enough prices...The only problem is when checking out new series like Lovely said is whether you like it or not. ^^; So far i've been lucky...once though..

I bought the first dvd of an anime called Stellvia...i stopped watching half way through the 3rd episode..nothing like they cracked it up to be in Animerica and stuff. -_-; Thats the only time though. ^^;; What i do if that happens is take it back, say it didn't work, and hopefully they don't have any other copies. Luckily they won't, but if they do i take another copy, don't open it and just go to a different version of the store and exchange it, like and say i got two of the same or something. Yeah, i wish i could rent though...i have series i'm falling behind on..the dvds keep coming out..*cough*Chrno Crusade, DN Angel, Kaleido Star*cough*

Thanks for the info though Lovely...maybe i can persuade them one day.

[Dessa]

Lovely said:

As a side note. "MSRP"= "Mass Sugested Retail Price".

Actually, it's "Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price"

[Lovely]

Dang it, I knew "Mass" sounded weird. *hangs head in shame*

[Takato]

I know this is supposed to be a thread about legal ways to get non-expensive anime, but let's say you download an anime series illegally but instead of burning it to a cd, you delete it right afterwards. I know that's still illegal, but it's not like I'm keeping it, so it'll urge me to go out and buy the official DVDs later when I can, so would that be ok to do as long as I delete it afterwards (which is what I've been doing these days, partialy because I'm also running out of space in my room to hold all my anime ^^;; )? Because I don't see the difference between downloading like that and deleting it afterwards and renting it expcet for the small fee you have to pay with renting. To support the legit anime cause and to get back on-topic with this thread, if you don't mind watching dubs, you could also see about getting the Anime Network. I've tried to get my parents to order it, but nooooooo. And then they go around and try to give me the downloading is illegal lecture but won't let me have the Anime Network or rent anime DVDs. >< There's also legal Bittorrent sites you can get over the Internet, but I don't know how good those are with anime or what any legal Bittorrent sites there are.

[Jr.]

I was given bootleg .hack//SIGN DVD's for christmas. I didn't buy thm so I'm not a criminal!!

....Don't look at me!! Yeah, he's fun!! *points to smilie!

[Hana]

Lovely said:

Is the box art different from the original release?

How do you know/find out the original box art of a Japanese DVD? Obviously, it's easy to know wat the original is in American DVD's, but if I buy imported, it's not as easy to figure out that the box art isn't original, especially if the art looks geniune. I was fooled like this once, because with very convincing box art, and 4 episodes per cd, I was screwed over into buying a bootleg. >_<

[StrawberryInuPie]

X3 In my bootleg dvd its rather obvious...on the back it says 'vol. 2' and shows scenes from the first couple of eppies.

Like Jr. i didnt know! XD;; Plus i didn't buy, it was given...blame Mitsukai! ; *hides*

[vanman]

The easiest way to tell if it is bootleg is if you can play it in your dvd player or not. If you can, it's bootleg. Any Japanese dvd releases CANNOT be played in American-region-locked dvd players. Plus, Japanese dvds are even more expensive than American ones. If you want to import dvds, then expect to pay upwards of 35-40 dollars per 3 or 4 episodes a dvd.

[Jr.]

My .hack DVD's were bought on ebay and I'm not sure where they were shipped from. I didn't ask about it to much since I didn't really care! I just wanted to watch them!! XD

[vanman]

sorry, Jr. I was refering to instances where the buyer knows that the dvd is an import. If it's a series that is already in the states, it can get a little harder to tell. If in your case, the price of the box and the amount of episodes per dvd should've been able to give it away.

[Jr.]

It's the only DVD set I own so I ahd no way to compare. I just thought it was a special set since I did know that the DVD's only had about 3 or 4 ep.'s each I was kind of suprised to see all 28 on 3 discs, but I didn't think much of it.

I knew nothing about bootlegs. Yeah it was like $30 I believe. I just thought the seller was hard up for cash!

[Lovely]

Yeah, the easiest way to tell if the official Japanese release is to check the region coding.

The U.S is region 1
Japan is region 2

Mostl bootlegs are region free.

Japanese DVD's are also INCREDIBLY expensive, in comparison with the the common prices for DVD's in the U.S.

Anyhoo, a place to get a lot of legit (if expensive) Japanse stuff is at CD Japan. This is actually a Japanese store so the shipping costs can be rather daunting. I've only purchased a calendar from them so far, (albeit it a HUGE and BEAUTIFUL Shaman King one .)