Prices on anime

Hey just thought I would pop in on this discussion I have to say that I don't download a lot of anime because of my 56K connection, I also don't buy much bootleg stuff either because I've had bad experience getting stuff from Pirates who obviously had no respect for the quality of the anime they were distributing, (I think they just mashed keys on their computer until if spit out a disk that had something that resembled a video file on it) plus I think that selling pirated stuff is wrong because your profiting on something that isn't yours. However I do make copies to back up my collection because if you do spend full price on an anime collection then terrorist organizations such as RIAA and MPAA have no right to tell you that you can't back it up so that when the monster kid your baby-sitting decides to throw an $87 dvd in the toaster for his own amusement or the disk simply gets scratched up you at least have a back up copy or if you were smart the $87 DVD is in a fire proof locked safe and it's the back up copy that gets wrecked from every day scratches or unfortunate accidents. I also don't think that it is totally immoral to have a legitimate back up copy of say a friends collection of anime say in case of the unfortunate event that his/her house burnt down and then you would still be able to give them there anime collection back (okay so that's stretching the back up rule a bit but hey) I have seen legitimate Outlaw star DVD's sell as high as $87 a piece!!!! Yah not the whole series just one ligit DVD $87 plus stupid crummy Canadian tax of 14% a 4 episode Rune Soldier DVD is selling at one of my comic book shops for $67 sorry I'm just not paying that unless I know the series is good and I will be macking a back up copy if and when I do buy If that makes me a Pirate the Yo ho you ho a pirates life for me. Also fan subbed non licensed material or at least material that wasn't licensed when I purchased it makes up a large part of my collection. I see nothing wrong with fan subs at all because it gives you the opportunity to see stuff that isn't available in NA and seeing as how I can't download the episodes I need the fansub distros that give out hard copy's through the mail. So I do try to buy licensed stuff legitimately but I'm not about to shun piracy (which anyone who makes their own back up copies knows is practically an art form if you want good quality)

well, it's not as mainstream as family guy, but when virtually every CD store in town has a full wall (or at least a couple full racks) of anime and another full case of boxed sets, I'd say they're obviously selling tens of thousands of copies, which is main stream enough to have reasonable prices. ;)

A lot of the anime I have been watching lately is stuff that's new enough that I have to wait for the japanese fans to make fansubs of it, so there aren't even DVDs for me to buy, but even once they do the prices are.. prohibitive.

I have no problem paying for quality. I have boxed sets of Evangelion, Escaflowne, etc. that are legit, but even they were bought second hand via ebay. Most of my boxed sets of series are high quality (and legit-looking) fakes (also off of ebay), such as Cowboy Bebop and Trigun. All my movies are legit, however. Err... Except for a copy of Spirited Away I bought when I found they weren't going to release it legit for another year+... ;)

whoops, i hit reply on the wrong person. lol. see my reply below Anima. ;) I got distracted wondering what country [s]he was in to not get licensed copies of anime.. (not that I figured it out...)

Same here, all of mine is legit, but I don't get everything I want all the time either. I borrow a lot from friends, and at the moment I am selling my anime VHS collections to get their DVD boxed set companions. (I couldn't afford a DVD player for a while).I guess when you think of it that way, it isn't so bad..

I haven't used Torrent, but I do make use of the net--at least with series--to view anime before I buy it... though I have some anime that was bought on a whim. For example the box for "Kai Doh Maru" is really cool looking, but once you buy it and watch it you realize it's a total rip off.

I was watching it with friends and one of the main character dies about 30 minutes into the movie and I turned to my pals and said "Man! He didn't last long!" ... and then not two seconds later the "movie" ended. The $25 "movie" is 30 minutes long. lol. *Still pissed about that one*

I love DVDs.

1. They are much cheaper than buying on VHS was.
2. They usually have both dubbed and subbed versions.
3. They have plenty of extras never on the VHS (like voice actor interviews, clean openings, stills, etc.)
4. They take up a lot less space.

I had to re-buy Captain Tylor on DVD, which was much, much cheaper than what I originally paid for it on VHS. Though if someone would explain to me why Highlander (the series) and Red Dwarf DVDs are so much more expensive than most other series, that would be nice.

-Lara Amber

thats precisely why Im NOT a die hard anime fan. I cant afford to be one.

for the record those chinese vcd's aren't "legit". A lot of them look legit because real funding went into making the cases look nice and whatnot, but no money from them goes back to the creators of the anime. I have several of those sets (as mentioned before, the cowboy bebop and trigun boxed sets), so I'm certainly not saying "don't buy them", but also don't think they're legit. ;)