Cheap anime DVD sets

[Sean Whitmore]

I stopped buying anime DVDs years ago because they were prohibitively expensive. 6 DVDs at $30 each or a season/series set for over $100...buuuuuuuuuuull[bleep].

But looking around Best Buy, I realize how out of the loop I've been. You can get the entire series of shows like Escaflowne, Scryed, and Cromartie High School for around $30 each. And with slim packaging, which is a blessing for my limited shelf space.

Even ginormous, 300-episode shows like Dragon Ball Z and Yu Yu Hakusho have got cheap season-sets. It's like they're teasing me. "You haven't bought anything in years, now buy EVERYTHING! You can't afford NOT to!"

So is this a relatively new thing? Is it only certain studios? Only titles of a certain age? Is there anything I'm missing, or are they pretty much as good a deal as they seem?


SEAN

[Sanagi]

Escaflowne was the one that came to mind. It's a crazy good deal.

I have no idea how the economics of it works, but it's certainly a pleasant change from the old days of subbed anime tapes for $30!

[Dee3]

Well I got some great advice from Hitakari go to deepdiscountdvds you can get cheap anime there. I also got two DVDs of Bleach on sale at boarders for 20 dollers each. I might also get a season of Kenshin at Streetlight records for 8 bucks. If you want cheap anime you just got to look.

[Nightstar1441]

I actually just picked up Gunslinger Girl from this site:

http://store.chstore.net/anime-dvd.html

And it did a quick screening just to make sure (you know there are a lot of pirated materials out there).

All I have to say is it was worth the money with very high quality picture and sound and very professional packaging (I know it could still be a bootleg - I'm not an expert but it looks the same as when I see the series on IFC)

They have a good stock too and I will be making more purchases!!!

:)

[Alex L]

So is this a relatively new thing? Is it only certain studios? Only titles of a certain age? Is there anything I'm missing, or are they pretty much as good a deal as they seem?

I think they're for re-releases, put out well after the initial DVD's have been sold.

Not sure about that, though.

[Froggy]

I stopped buying anime DVDs years ago because they were prohibitively expensive. 6 DVDs at $30 each or a season/series set for over $100...buuuuuuuuuuull[bleep].

But looking around Best Buy, I realize how out of the loop I've been. You can get the entire series of shows like Escaflowne, Scryed, and Cromartie High School for around $30 each. And with slim packaging, which is a blessing for my limited shelf space.

Even ginormous, 300-episode shows like Dragon Ball Z and Yu Yu Hakusho have got cheap season-sets. It's like they're teasing me. "You haven't bought anything in years, now buy EVERYTHING! You can't afford NOT to!"

So is this a relatively new thing? Is it only certain studios? Only titles of a certain age? Is there anything I'm missing, or are they pretty much as good a deal as they seem?


SEAN

relatively new i think.........and they're a good deal. I got G gundam the whole series for purty cheap[

[The Xenos]

I actually just picked up Gunslinger Girl from this site:

[edited for bootleggery]

And it did a quick screening just to make sure (you know there are a lot of pirated materials out there).

All I have to say is it was worth the money with very high quality picture and sound and very professional packaging (I know it could still be a bootleg - I'm not an expert but it looks the same as when I see the series on IFC)

They have a good stock too and I will be making more purchases!!!

:)

Naw. Those are still bootlegs. Don't buy them. You might as well stick to downloading mkv files ripped from the US DVDs. These DVDs look like copies of the US ones.

My two cents. If you don't buy legit DVDs, why bother buying any at all? No one but bootleggers are making money off of it, why toss your money away. It will likley end up going to organized crime and none of it goes to the actual people who worked on it.

The quickest way to spot bootlegs is to see if they are region free. That's one big red flag. You want to find either reigion 1 (if you're in the US or Canada). If you want a rare anime original Japanese DVD, that will be Region 2. (Though you need a matching DVD player or a region free one to play those.)

I keep posting this site as a guide for how to spot bootlegs.
http://www.digital.anime.org.uk/piratefaq.html

Now there are legit region 1 DVDs on sale cheap as the first poster states. There are sales out there too. Some websites do have good deals on legit DVDs. Some stores and major retailers do too.

I know Right Stuf had a sale of 25 DVDs for $100. Me and some friends got some. I got all four DVDs of Lain finally for $4 each along with a number of CDs.

ADV had a sale and I got Eva Platinum and Nadia for over 50% off each DVD. Though a couple volumes sold out before I could get them. I also got Farscape Season 1 for $45, the original price was like $150.

[Young Avenger]

Naw. Those are still bootlegs. Don't buy them. You might as well stick to downloading mkv files ripped from the US DVDs. These DVDs look like copies of the US ones.

My two cents. If you don't buy legit DVDs, why bother buying any at all? No one but bootleggers are making money off of it, why toss your money away. It will likley end up going to organized crime and none of it goes to the actual people who worked on it.

The quickest way to spot bootlegs is to see if they are region free. That's one big red flag. You want to find either reigion 1 (if you're in the US or Canada). If you want a rare anime original Japanese DVD, that will be Region 2. (Though you need a matching DVD player or a region free one to play those.)

I keep posting this site as a guide for how to spot bootlegs.
http://www.digital.anime.org.uk/piratefaq.html

Now there are legit region 1 DVDs on sale cheap as the first poster states. There are sales out there too. Some websites do have good deals on legit DVDs. Some stores and major retailers do too.

I know Right Stuf had a sale of 25 DVDs for $100. Me and some friends got some. I got all four DVDs of Lain finally for $4 each along with a number of CDs.

ADV had a sale and I got Eva Platinum and Nadia for over 50% off each DVD. Though a couple volumes sold out before I could get them. I also got Farscape Season 1 for $45, the original price was like $150.

That's alot of information. Those bootleggers sure go through alot of work for fool people into buying their poorly produced crap. Thanx for the site.

[Kevin M.]

I got someone who will sell me the entire series DVD set of Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny for about 100 bucks.

[Paploo the Ewok]

I actually just picked up Gunslinger Girl from this site:

boootlegs

And it did a quick screening just to make sure (you know there are a lot of pirated materials out there).

All I have to say is it was worth the money with very high quality picture and sound and very professional packaging (I know it could still be a bootleg - I'm not an expert but it looks the same as when I see the series on IFC)

They have a good stock too and I will be making more purchases!!!

:)

Yeah, those are bootlegs. Really, you can get similar prices just watching for boxset sales at places like http://www.rightstuf.com . Same great deal, but the official DVD's... Gunslinger Girls official release boxset is currently about 39.98, so if you watch for a sale, you could get it for fairly cheap.
I got a used Big O Bandai boxset for 18 bucks including shipping off Ebay once too, while bootleg sellers were selling bootlegged sets for 20 bucks plus shipping.... if you wait, and watch for good deals, you can often get offical releases for far cheaper then a bootleg set. And no contributing to the assorted Hong Kong mafia families who bootleg movies this way ^_^

[Paploo the Ewok]

I think they're for re-releases, put out well after the initial DVD's have been sold.

Not sure about that, though.

Yup, basically, all these are titles that companies have made their money back on thanks to fans who buy the initial release. Anywhere from 1 to 3 or more years later, whenever it's viable, it's then rereleased in a cheaper format. It's still a viable show, so companies give fans a deal, boxset or lower priced disc sales adding to the show's profits [sometimes making it profitable, after breaking even for production costs on the single DVD's], and helping companies acquire funds to license more new anime. It's a good cycle. This even occured in VHS days, with longtime sellers like VIZ's Ranma 1/2 OVA and Movie vhses going for 9.99 SRP each towards the end of the days of VHS.

CPM had a good history of this with their dvd's, repricing old disks to 19.99 at first, then about 9.99 each once they'd been in print long enough..... they had a good system going, and are getting back to it, now that issues with Suncoast are solved [lots of companies like CPM and MB are quite small, and really rely on our purchases to continue releasing shows, FYI]

ps--- though sometimes, you'll have a long wait due to- a) a release being so popular, the single discs sell so well, companies just keep offering them or higher priced boxsets. Like say, Cowboy Bebop, or b) a release that did well enough to finish the series, but not well enough to merit a rerelease of any sort. Like say, my beloved Dunbine.... I doubt we'll see a thinpack for that, until ADV's cleared out their stock of the single DVD's. And of course c) The license expiring, naturally or due to unforseen problems. Those who waited for the cheap boxsets are then cursed with having to track down the OOP dvd's or even VHSes......... most infamously in this category- Sailor Moon in all forms.

[The Xenos]

Sometimes I feel cheap if I buy a series cheap like that instead of getting it as it comes out. Then again, you do have to budget yourself.

At a con I got the Bandai Big O season for either $15 or $20. I also got that Oshii live action trilogy box set for $20.

Pretty much if it's old stock they're trying to flush out, you can find some good deals. Add to that companies already repackaging series in box sets, and you can get quite a deal.

I'm still kicking myself I didn't nab the Nadia box sets with the soundtracks. Though I don't miss the extra music CDs and I found the DVDs individually cheap enough.

[BeastieRunner]

Voltron is not to bad for price. Nice tins.

[Sophisticated_Gamer]

I stopped buying anime DVDs years ago because they were prohibitively expensive. 6 DVDs at $30 each or a season/series set for over $100...buuuuuuuuuuull[bleep].

But looking around Best Buy, I realize how out of the loop I've been. You can get the entire series of shows like Escaflowne, Scryed, and Cromartie High School for around $30 each. And with slim packaging, which is a blessing for my limited shelf space.

Even ginormous, 300-episode shows like Dragon Ball Z and Yu Yu Hakusho have got cheap season-sets. It's like they're teasing me. "You haven't bought anything in years, now buy EVERYTHING! You can't afford NOT to!"

So is this a relatively new thing? Is it only certain studios? Only titles of a certain age? Is there anything I'm missing, or are they pretty much as good a deal as they seem?


SEAN

Lol, I got 120 episodes of yu-yu hakusho for 10$ of off eebay :D lol

To bad it's only older shows, cause FMA is still 25$ for 3 episodes! What a rip off! But damn yu yu hakusho is excelent!

Also I heard it's really cheap at conventions...

[zeroEDGE]

nothing here