Forum - View topicYour Monthly/Yearly Expenses
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relyat08
 Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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^This might be too much of a personal question, so feel free to ignore it, but are you retired Alan45?
Also, I vaguely remember from a couple of years ago, you were saying that you got into anime fandom as a whole not too long ago. Is that right? Or have you been a fan for much longer? In any event, those are some pretty impressive numbers. I can only imagine how crazy your collection is with all of it on display!  You should show it off sometime. 
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23758 |
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I hope Alan45 doesn't mind me answering some of those questions for him. Yes, he is retired. And while he did become an anime/manga fan later on in life, he nonetheless has had it as a hobby for several years. I'm not sure exactly what year he began, but he recently mentioned the fact that he has anime on vhs from when it first came out. His collection is indeed vast, but would be even larger except for the fact that when he double dips on a title to upgrade to blu-ray, for example, he tends to give away his DVD versions for free. Unfortunately, I don't think he is able to show off his full collection because a certain portion is packed away.
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relyat08
Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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I see. That makes sense. Wow, that's very generous of him!
Thanks for the insight Blood-. |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 9835 Location: Virginia |
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@relyat08
Yes, I'm retired, no secret there. At my age people who still work are either those with a "calling" that is their primary focus in life or those too poor to quit. Neither is a good candidate for a hobby like anime.
I can tell you precisely when I got into anime and manga. Unlike a lot of people here I did not view any disguised anime while a child. By the time they started importing anime for Saturday morning shows, I was already an adult. In 1997 (August 1, I still have that receipt) my wife dragged me into a mall comic shop here so she could look at some Star Trek figures. While there I saw a spinner rack of VHS tapes with some art work I recognized from on line. I ended up buying the first Ranma 1/2 TV tape dubbed and the first Oh My Goddess! OVA tape subtitled because they looked interesting. They were, interesting that is. I went back a week later and picked up volume 9 of the Ranma 1/2 manga. Before the end of the year I was checking out all the local outlets and writing to Viz, Dark Horse and AnimEigo for manga and anime I couldn't get locally. It has been an interesting ride since then. I don't have photos of my whole collection, it is spread out over four rooms but some of it is shown in the manga forum. Check page 31 of "Share a picture of your manga collection. |
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relyat08
Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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Your story is seriously fascinating and even a bit heartwarming. 
I'm sure it has been quite the ride. I appreciate you getting back to me! 
I just checked those photos in the manga collection thread and.. Wow! That's incredibly impressive. And, as expected, quite large. It's a shame so much is boxed away, but it would be take a ridiculous amount of space to actually display any more than you do. lol |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23758 |
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So your 20th anniversary as an anime/manga fan is coming up this year, Alan45. Unlike you, I cannot pinpoint an exact day my fandom began for a few reasons. First, my anime career started in two stages: 1) False Start and 2) The Real Thing. False Start including seeing Legend of the Overfiend(!), NGE and Princess Nine, all of which belonged to a friend of mine who was into anime. I think that happened back in 2002 or 2003. I saw a little bit of anime after that - movies like Steam Boy, Sky Crawlers, Akira, Jin-Roh and Vexille - 2077 Isolation of Japan. However, during this stage I did not consider myself a fan of anime. I've always liked animation and so very occasionally, I would encounter some anime.
For me, The Real Thing begin with watching the first episode of Blood+ which was included as an extra on the DVD release of 30 Days of Night (also put out by Sony). Watching that episode made me want to own the series and wanting to own the series made me check out the anime sections of some local b&m stores where I saw a bunch of other intriguing titles, as well (like Gunslinger Girl). The problem is I can't remember when I watched that episode of Blood+. I think it was sometime in January 2009, but there is a chance it might have been earlier, say in December of 2008. In any case, I see by checking my Amazon.com order archive that I ordered Blood+, Part 1 on Jan. 20, 2009 (having discovered I could get it WAY cheaper that way than buying it in a b&m store) so perhaps I will use that as my official anniversary date as a fan. Ironically, I have yet to watch Blood+ to completion even though I attribute my Real Thing anime fandom to it. In fact, my username here is an homage to the show. I watched all of Part 1 and enjoyed it, but it was a while before I obtained Part 2. That sat on my shelf for a long time before I started to watch it. I've seen about 10 episodes of Part 2, but that's as far as I've gotten. I think it is fair to say I have not enjoyed Part 2 any where near as much as I enjoyed Part 1. |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 9835 Location: Virginia |
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@Blood-
Don't feel bad. I got bogged down in part 2 myself. About the time when Saya is befriending someone who is going to turn out to be the enemy. It is in my to watch section, some time, maybe. @relyat08 There are some additional photos in a thread on the subject of storage options, I just can't remember which forum it is in. I'm going to have to put some effort into making photos of the whole thing this upcoming year. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23758 |
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Woo-wee, it's dusty in here!
*coughs as he sweeps away cobwebs* We can't let Alan45 be the threadkiller for this topic. Here's my anime/related spending for 2017: Grand total: $1,768.25 Anime: $1,192.52 (35 TV, 7 OVA, 10 movie) Books: $9.99 (1) Subscription(s): $295.44 (5) Misc.: $28.40 (poster) Shipping/processing: $89.79 Sales tax: $152.11 And I didn't record my 2016 spending here, so... Grand total: $3,449.45 Anime: $1,723.28 (34 TV, 12 OVA, 17 movie) Manga: $947.19 (15 omni, 135 vols.) Books: $71.52 (16) Figure(s): $133.58 (1) Subscription(s): $192.38 (4) Movie ticket(s): $21.50 (2) Misc.: $1.34 art cards Convention ticket(s): $50 (1) Shipping/processing: $143.85 Sales tax: $164.81 And here are my yearly spending totals since I got into this crazy hobby back in 2009: 2017 - $1,768.25 2016 – $3,449.45 2015 – $1,728.16 2014 – $2,550.68 2013 – $3,914.57 2012 – $8,747.29 2011 – $11,636.57 2010 – $3,500 (est.) 2009 - $5,000 (est.) |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 9835 Location: Virginia |
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Expenses for 2017:
The specific titles were mostly listed in the thread “What did you just buy” Manga: 360 volumes for $3340.05 Novels: 63 volumes for $628.14 Manhwa 2 volumes for $16.78 Art Books: 2 for $48.36 Bluray sets: 67 for $2683.45 DVD sets: 9 for $274.97 Figures: 9 for $916.13 Subscriptions: 4 for $166.90 Kickstarter 1 for $220.00 (Aria Blurays) S&H: $151.89 Sales Tax: $245.52 Grand total: $8692.19 For reference here are the yearly totals since I started keeping track: 2010 $8068 2011 $8120 2012 $8896 2013 $7380 2014 $9482 2015 $8160 2016 $9372 2017 $8692 I had the same four subscriptions in 2017 as in the prior year, ANN, Crunchyroll, TRSI’s Got Anime and Otaku USA magazine. I suspect that this year I will have to also subscribe to Netflix and Hidive but I will leave that evil for the day. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23758 |
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I gotta say, Alan45, your annual spending is remarkably consistent. I had five subscriptions last year: ANN, Crunchy, Funimation and two new ones: Amazon Prime and HiDive. I don't count Netflix in the group since I didn't get it specifically for anime (although I do use it for it).
My big ticket item last year was the Aria Kickstarter because I got the $270 pledge, the $60 guidebook which (for Canada) came with a $20 shipping fee. |
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Alan45
Village Elder Posts: 9835 Location: Virginia |
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@Blood-
My spending is mostly governed by what is available. That said I've been a bit quicker to give up on manga series that don't grab me. Of course with figures I have to be rather selective. It would be very easy to run out of money buying figures. The problem with Netflix is that I'm not interested in the bulk of what they offer, just the anime please. This is compounded by the fact that Joy would probably want to watch shows on Netflix. That would in turn require getting Wifi established in the house and likely a new "smart" TV (monster sized at that). As far as HiDive is concerned, I simply need to get A Round Tuit. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23758 |
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Having a subscription for Funi (which I hardly ever use) and HiDive is actually helping me cut back on buying certain titles since I have access to them streaming. It allows me to focus on titles that I really feel are worth owning in physical form.
In the not to distant future, I am going to buy a bunch of Ikea book cases and some display cases and for the first time in years and years will have my anime, manga, figures, non-anime books and non-anime dvd and Blu-ray collection properly displayed. Can't wait. |
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relyat08
Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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^Whenever you get that all set up, you should definitely take a few pictures. I would really enjoy having a look at your pick ups throughout the years.
I successfully cut back a lot this year. My biggest ticket items being just the Your Name 4K release from JP and the Made in Abyss Blu-ray Box sets. Was going to wait on MiA until Sentai's release, but a friend ended up buying me part one, so I was obliged to complete the set.
It was certainly worth it though. Throughout 2017 I spent $2035, compared with $7095 throughout 2016, so I managed to hit about what I was going for. All in all, a good year. I felt like I had to skip a lot of stuff, which sucked, but I'll probably stick to this 2k cap for now. Maybe 2019 will see some increased flexibility. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23758 |
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Definitely. A lot of my releases are just the hum-drum variety (I mean in terms of packaging as opposed to content, but given my earlier prediliction of buying without too much care, it also applies to content more often than I like), but I do have a few treasures. For example, I have a pristine copy of the rare JoJo's Bizarre Adventure OVA artbox and singles that came out in 2003 that I'd love to share a pic of since nobody in my real life gives two shits about stuff like that. By the way, please feel free to describe in detail the MiA Blu-ray box sets. Did they come with subtitles? For cost reasons, I will wait until the Sentai release but damn, I bet the Japanese sets are awesome. |
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relyat08
Posts: 4125 Location: Northern Virginia |
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No subtitles unfortunately, but I'll be picking up the Sentai release as well, so this is just more of an over-the-top way to support one of the best shows I've ever seen, kinda purchase. lol It does have a lot of great content though. There is a making-of documentary(also no subs, but good practice for Japanese! lol) which is pretty cool and detailed, they talk about how the show went through a longer production period, and how they approached the monster designs and whatnot. Also a thick booklet with each box set that comes with 2 episodes worth of storyboards. I'm into production aspects of anime a lot, so it's been really neat to look through. The discs are housed in digipacks with wrap-around art by the character designer for the series(I think), and the outer box art was drawn by the mangaka himself. I'll have to remember to take decent pictures of them at some point. |
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