Forum - View topicHunting for Limited Edition Anime Swag in Japan
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vanfanel
 Posts: 1242 |
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Stories got around of rare first issues becoming incredibly valuable, and the companies responded by trying to mass produce "collector's items" that collectors thought were going to be worth something someday. The only thing most of these had going for them was first issue status and the variant cover, with a low point being the five variant covers produced for that Spider-Man series they started up just so Todd McFarlane could write and draw it (which he did only long enough to demonstrate that not every artist needs to be a writer). When my dad was growing up in the 1950s, nobody thought of comics as anything but disposable, cheap entertainment. Kids would read them, pass them around, trade them, and they would get pretty beaten-up and dog-eared. Moms would throw them out as trash when doing spring cleaning. Old comics that introduced iconic characters are valuable now because of kids swapping around and dog-earing them...because of all those moms throwing them out, and ensuring that very, very few of those issues survived to the present day in good condition. But during the 90's speculator boom, those "collector's item" first issues were being sold in large numbers. Instead of being read, passed around, and disposed of, they were being bagged, boarded, and boxed unread. Thanks to that, they're pretty much all still here! What ended the speculator boom? The sight of hundreds of copies of mint condition collectors item first issues...sitting in the 50-cent bargain bins of most any comic shop during the late 1990s. Last edited by vanfanel on Thu May 26, 2016 4:48 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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leafy sea dragon
 Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Do you know what happened that caused readership to decrease though? In most other collector's markets that arise out of consumer markets, the collectors just pop up on top of the consumers and they co-exist. Star Wars toys are mostly bought so kids could play with them, and Beatles albums are sold mainly to listen to, with the collector's market never cutting in too deep.
I rarely ever see a market where collector sales cannibalize that of consumers, so something weird must've happened. |
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Uter
Posts: 30 |
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Used to be really into limited stuff. But it's gotten to the point that my goal is to now have less stuff, not more. So unless it's something I know I'll always love or something that's almost certain to increase in value, I don't really worry about it.
Also, anime DVD/BD extras in the US are rarely worth it. I don't see much criticism of it but they never include anything good like a bonus disc or soundtrack. What I really want is extra content. An artbook is okay, but even that... Unless you get them on the first run, they're usually not worth OOP prices. |
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vanfanel
Posts: 1242 |
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As one of those decreasees, I can only speak for myself on this point. The speculator boom ended about the time I stopped collecting, and my feeling at the time was that continuity was getting too messy, mega-crossover events had become a yearly annoyance, and changing art styles and new fads weren't to my taste. I think efforts to chase collectors...to structure huge crossover stories that were transparent attempts to get you to buy more books...did affect the quality of the storytelling. I understand that there's been all kinds of retconning and rebooting going on in recent years. I don't collect now, but if Marvel had staged some event in 1994 telling me that all the stories I loved from the 80's suddenly never happened, I'll bet I'd be hacked off about that too. |
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Thank you. Those are perfectly explainable reasons why readership dropped, and understandable directions to go if they're aiming squarely at the collector market. To an extent, American comic books are still like that now. I initially thought about getting the compilations of Blackest Night when they were new, but even those were so confusing I wasn't sure which ones to buy, so I decided against it entirely. |
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sunflower
 Posts: 1080 |
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I tend to buy all the different manga editions (Animate, Amazon, standard) for Yamane Ayano's books because I love her artwork so much. On very rare occasions I'll do it for American comics if they're using great cover artists, like they did for GRRM's Dunk and Egg series. I buy art because I love the art and want to support whoever put it out there.
But anime, there's little that could induce me to buy one copy let alone two. I'm a fan of streaming. Merchandise gets me if it's cute or funny or unique. I've spent hundreds on items on Yahoo jp or using proxies to get special mail in items like limited lithographs signed by the artist, or the infamous bedsheets Yamane put in her collection box, because come on, that was so perfectly hilarious I just had to have them. For me it's just fun, and since I wouldn't buy it unless I had the money for it, well, why not? |
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reanimator
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I went through my pain of collecting anime exclusive stuffs. Years ago, I collected Japanese import single DVDs to get certain exclusive merchandise only can obtained through enclosed coupons. First attempt was Noir, which I collected coupons included in DVD singles to get a set of SD Noir character key chains. Second attempt was Chobits limited edition DVDs (they included nice stationary sets for each DVD's) and again I collected enclosed coupons for exclusive "Chibits" DVD. I got those exclusive trinkets and DVD all right, but I stopped doing it after the second attempt as it got too expensive and I was more interested in behind-the-scene materials than trinkets as I got older.
As for bells and whistles, my view on store-exclusive bonus is it has to have practical purpose of some kind. For example, Animate store exclusive DVD-box for DVD singles are practical as keeps disc cases in one place. (Back in laserdisc days, Animate used to sell their own empty disc collection boxes separately for 1500 yen. I've seen Cowboy Bebop Animate LD box and You're Under Arrest OVA Animate LD box. I think they stopped selling things like that) I always have a thing for behind-the-scene information, so liner notes/booklets included in JP LE discs and staff & cast audio commentaries are more interesting than toys/trinkets for me. I've noticed that US collectors editions are including bonus materials like trinkets and art books nowadays, but still I'm not interested in them as I don't get interesting facts behind the show. As for art books included in LE/collector box sets, they're too small and thin and I don't care much about "Character Bio" or "Episode Synopsis" in those art books. Besides Japanese book publishers and certain anime studios offer better art books, so I usually get regular edition for US discs. That's just me. Anyway, if you're happy with whatever you have collected, then that's all it matters. Keep in mind that happiness is temporary though. |
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sunflower
Posts: 1080 |
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Happiness is always temporary. I've found that the key to being a happy person is to find joy in all the small things every day and allow them to fill you with strength against the unhappy times. Collecting stuff brings a smile to my face whenever I see it. That's all the reason I need to do it. And if and when a particular bug leaves me, there's nothing more fun than finding people who still have it and giving the collection to them. |
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reanimator
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Wait until Aniplex completely sells out their limited edition and no reprint announcement. It happened to Madoka Magica LE BD/DVD which are sold out. They're going 2 to 3 times the original price on Ebay. The same thing for "Oreimo" LE DVD set. It was going for $200 on Ebay until Aniplex reprinted the discs. |
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omiya
 Posts: 1825 Location: Adelaide, South Australia |
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If you can get to a mini-live event in Japan it can be quite enjoyable. At one event for Ginga Kikoutai Majestic Prince I not only heard the OP and ED singers perform their songs from the anime and talk but also met them and was given a couple of postcards. At another event for the launch of the CD single for the song "Believe" by Kalafina for Fate/Stay night not only did those who bought the single get a postcard but also a coupon for a poster (which I now have framed) but it was also great to meet the locals and catch up with a Japanese friend who held up a sign at the right moment: 
The human side adds a warmth to to the experience that you don't get from just physical collectables. |
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DerekL1963
 Subscriber Posts: 1113 Location: Puget Sound |
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Part of it was also around that time frame there was a spike in prices and decrease in page count leading to lower interest and demand. Less visible from this distance was a change in distribution patterns, the traditional retailers of comics (convenience stores, racks at drugstores, etc...) were getting out of the business (the aforementioned price spike cut mightily into their sales and profits) and were being replaced by direct sales (I.E. comic book stores). In the wake of the bubble bursting, ninety percent of these went under... So consumer readership also went down in part because the comics were no longer widely available to be purchased. Some useful links; http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/TheGreatComicsCrashOf1996 http://www.weeklystandard.com/the-crash-of-1993/article/573252 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_book_collecting#The_speculator_boom |
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leafy sea dragon
Posts: 7163 Location: Another Kingdom |
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Ah, thank you! I can definitely see how a price spike would cause an industry to lose its ground. Was that also to try to squeeze money out of collectors? Considering I know of no other business that has attempted to cater strictly to collectors to this extent since (without it always having been aimed at collectors, like this article's anime and manga goodies), I take it that what happened to the comic book business became a lesson to people who make something with a lot of collector appeal. |
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