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Accidental Bargains


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ikillchicken



Joined: 12 Feb 2007
Posts: 7272
Location: Vancouver
PostPosted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 7:23 am Reply with quote
So last week I was poking around this old manga shop. I used to go there in highschool but haven't been in ages. I was basically just there by chance. I was having dinner at the same little strip mall. Killing time so I decided to poke in. Turns out they've got all manga 50% off. Pretty nice. (Although the prices are so high to begin with so no better than I get on Rightstuf). But that's not the point of the story. They have a decent selection but I didn't really find much. I just grabbed a couple volumes of Eden: It's an Endless World. So anyway, I go online tonight to look into maybe getting the other volumes and I realize...this is one of the volumes I got. It's like insanely out of print. Goes for close to $200. Six freakin' dollars it cost me. Brand new still in the shrink wrap. Again, I didn't even realize it at the time. I'd just been sorta half heatedly meaning to pick up the rest of the series. And figured, eh, sure. For the price I'll grab it. Feel like I just won the lottery. Laughing

Anyone else ever have something like this happen? Ever get a really great deal on something without realizing it? Or if that's too specific a scenario, just any stories about stumbling on a really good deal totally by accident.
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ColonelYao47



Joined: 01 Jan 2013
Posts: 274
PostPosted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 9:02 am Reply with quote
I won't say where it is I get my buried treasures in New York but there's a certain used DVD store that I check out every once in a while for OOP anime. For those items, I don't mind getting used copies considering how hard it is to find a copy. The bargain that comes to mind is the Manga Entertainment box set of the Evangelion movies. Somehow, both Death+Rebirth and End were still unopened. I even got the postcard that came in the box. Best $20 I ever spent for an anime-related item...

I also acquired the two volumes of Ghost Stories (with the famous English dub) that are super-expensive online. For those that say anime is expensive, in the right places, it doesn't have to be.
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murph76



Joined: 26 Jul 2006
Posts: 3291
Location: Akron, OH
PostPosted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 10:37 am Reply with quote
I picked up the Paranoia Agent boxed set after it had been long out of print for about $50. An Amazon seller had it listed under Vol. 1 plus series box. The only hint it might be something more was in the description, which mentioned the discs -- plural -- being in excellent condition. So, I took a chance and ordered it.

I'm not sure if this was entirely accidental, because if my suspicion was correct, what I was getting was a bargain. However, that description could have easily been a typo, and I could have just gotten the first volume.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 10:53 am Reply with quote
I've come across some bargains, but none that I would consider accidental in the way that ikc means. And I've certainly never paid only $6 for an item that can fetch $200.

I keep threatening to haunt Toronto's pawnshops but I haven't done it yet. I might come across some deals there.

I mentioned this before, but I have this recurring fantasy (especially during the summer months) of stumbling across a yard/garage sale where the elderly parents of an anime collecting kid who has grown up and moved away is selling off his/her collection dirt cheap because they don't know the value of what they have...

Well, a guy can dream, right?
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Rukiia



Joined: 30 Aug 2010
Posts: 1897
Location: British Columbia, Canada
PostPosted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 6:41 pm Reply with quote
I had that happen to me on Amazon. Some guy from England was selling tons of out of print shows for $17.99, and I scored things like Gunbuster in brand new condition. I didn't even know that one was out of print so my jaw hit the floor when I saw the OOP prices (copies were listed as $100+ on eBay and Amazon!) .

I also had a moment years ago, during the time that I was building my collection, where my local DVD shop was selling Part 1 of Blood+ for $70. Because my roommate at the time was good friends with the owner, he gave me a discount and let me have it for $55. Tell my online friends about my purchase and I get a number of "OMG I HATE YOU!!!!!" messages. Had no idea that the set was so hard to find and so expensive to get.
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Dessa



Joined: 14 Jul 2004
Posts: 4438
PostPosted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 7:42 pm Reply with quote
Man, I wish I'd gotten that deal, Rukiia. I just lucked into Part 2 for $13 at HPB, but I need part 1, too.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23669
PostPosted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 8:12 pm Reply with quote
I scored a bit of deal with Blood+, Part One back in January of 2009. I had seen the first episode for free as an extra on the 30 Days of Night DVD and wanted to see the rest of the series. So I went into an HMV and saw that Part One was selling for $149.99. I said fudge that and looked on Amazon.com. I pretty sure that was my first online purchase, ever. Anway, I found a copy for $52.98 US and with $12.29 shipping it came to $65.27 US. The Canadian dollar was around 80-some cents to the US dollar back then, so in Canadian moolah it probably came close to $75 total, which was still a helluva lot better than $150.

But yeah, $13 for Part Two is a pretty awesome score.
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Sohma_Curse



Joined: 07 Dec 2012
Posts: 512
Location: New York
PostPosted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 9:12 pm Reply with quote
Just picked up Hellisng Ultimate Vol V-VIII Limited Edition Art Box brand new today on ebay for $40. I searched by UPC number instead of simply by title and found the Limited Edition version being sold with a Standard Edition's stock photo (which likely deterred people from even checking the details) but with the Limited Edition's UPC# in the description. I messaged the seller to confirm it was the Special Edition, which he did by describing the box color and cover art as well as telling me he messed up by posting an incorrect photo.

I've been looking for this for a little while now and have only found the Standard Edition (or found the Limited Edition for like $90+). Pays to search by UPC because some of these re-sellers don't even know whether or not the photos they upload correctly match the versions they're selling.
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One-Eye



Joined: 08 Mar 2011
Posts: 2260
PostPosted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 10:39 pm Reply with quote
I've gotten some deals in my time but very few steals and none that I can think of that were by accident. The one score that comes immediately to mind was when I picked up the 2nd part of Birdy The Mighty Final Force OVA on DVD about 2 years ago. I got it from some guy on Amazon for like $8 including shipping. At the time used copies were running between $50-80 IIRC. So I was pretty happy since it was so hard to get. Looking at the only price listed now at $4,999.99 (lol) I'm still pretty happy. Very Happy
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Spastic Minnow
Bargain Hunter
Exempt from Grammar Rules


Joined: 02 May 2006
Posts: 4595
Location: Gainesville, FL
PostPosted: Fri Jul 26, 2013 11:00 pm Reply with quote
First DVD purchase of any type was largely found by chance and may be a rare version of a movie that is not rare at all... in the least.... the world is basically choking on them...

Dragonball Z: World's Strongest. I bought it around 2000, I didn't even have a proper DVD player but I had just bought my first computer and it had a DVD drive.

The copy in question is in a Jewel case for some reason (and I really doubt it's a boot, everything about the art and disc look completely legit, same art as on the regular packaging, just shrunk down for a Jewel case) and because of that, a person at the pawn shop I found it at had accidentally placed in with their $2 CD's. I figured I'd buy it to test out the DVD drive... and have a laugh.
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Alan45
Village Elder



Joined: 25 Aug 2010
Posts: 9809
Location: Virginia
PostPosted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 8:18 am Reply with quote
I hesitate to call this a bargain, but: The strange saga of Kiddy Grade.

I originally bought this show as it came out on singles. There were 8 singles offered. If you bought the first issue they came with "trading cards" with graphics from the show on them. I was still buying from Best Buy at the time and for some reason one of the later singles didn't come in there and I had to buy it on line. It did not contain the cards, a minor irritation.

The show was reissued in four cases, each containing two of the original eight disks. I ignored this until I found them on sale at FYE. I got all four for less than $20 with the idea that they would take up less space than eight cases. Unfortunately the first case was missing disk #1. I didn't take it back for a refund because they had no replacement and I had paid less than $4 for it. I put the disk from the original singles in the case and shelved the new set.

Unfortunately this left me with seven of eight disks of the set. Too good to throw away but with an incomplete set that I couldn't even give away. I went on line to see if the disk 1 single was still available. TRSI had it on deep sale (probably under $10) so I ordered it. Instead of the first single I got a chipboard art box with four cases and all eight disks, and a complete set of the trading cards from the original singles. I kept that version and gave the set of four two disk sets to a friend locally. The remaining seven singles I put in the back of a closet and forgot about them.

When Funimation reissued Kiddy Grade in a light box on four disks, I picked that up as I still needed the shelf space. Recently I was giving stuff away in the Community forum and remembered the broken set of Kiddy Grade. I went to Ebay and found the missing single. With shipping it was less than $5. I figured I could risk that. I ordered it and got the missing disk. That was a couple of months ago and Paypal still has not charged me for the purchase. I was able to find a taker for the singles so now I have only one full set of the show.
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victor viper



Joined: 18 Jun 2011
Posts: 630
Location: The deep south
PostPosted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 1:13 pm Reply with quote
Alan45 wrote:
It did not contain the cards, a minor irritation...Instead of the first single I got a chipboard art box with four cases and all eight disks, and a complete set of the trading cards from the original singles.


Your post caused me to go back and check to see how many of the cards I got. I ended up with only six cards, so several of the volumes must not have had the cards in them. When I was looking through the cases to see where I'd put all the cards, I was looking at the receipts and found that I bought a couple of the singles at Target. Ahh, the days when you could buy anime DVD's at Target.

I don't know how "accidental" this bargain was, but I was at a local media store a few years back and they had all 3 volumes of Synch-Point's release of FLCL for $7 each (used) when they were out of print and hard to find. The odd thing is that same place will put outrageous prices on the most common DVD singles imaginable. For instance, next to a bargain out of print DVD, you'll find a used copy of volume 4 of Madlax priced at $16.99 or something. I'm guessing they just have some big database that says "buy UPC code X for Y dollars, price it at Z dollars", and that database probably doesn't get updated too often. Although if they can buy Madlax volume 4 at $1 at turn it over for $16, maybe the database is working correctly.
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Alan45
Village Elder



Joined: 25 Aug 2010
Posts: 9809
Location: Virginia
PostPosted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 2:02 pm Reply with quote
@Victor Viper
There were a total of 48 different cards, six per disk. They weren't really trading cards since they were specific to the numbered disk. The only way to get duplicates was to buy more than one copy of a volume. Some of the extras that have been put out are sort of lame, but I always liked artwork from the show.

I know FYE and its associated stores work off a database. It is built into the register. I sold to them for awhile but quit when they started cherry picking, taking only one or two volumes from a series and refusing the rest. In any case, they only paid enough to make me feel ripped off. I'd rather give away my extra anime.
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batou37



Joined: 26 Aug 2009
Posts: 455
PostPosted: Sat Jul 27, 2013 8:31 pm Reply with quote
My best bargain, while I wouldn't call it accidental but maybe more unexpected, was through a lot set I bought on ebay. I like to browse through those occasionally as it is possible to find some decent deals from some people that either aren't interested in anime and just want to offload their collection, or a seller who is not a fan and is just selling them. I found a lot that had Funi's Trinity Blood, S-CRY-ed Anime Legends, Witch Hunter Robin Anime Legends set, Boogiepop Phantom (Rightstuf boxset), Rahxephon Grand Canon boxset, and Serial Experiments Lain boxset (the Geneon Signature series one that people were selling for stupid amounts at the time before Funi picked it up.) All of these were still sealed brand new except for S-CRY-ed and I got the lot for $80.
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Spastic Minnow
Bargain Hunter
Exempt from Grammar Rules


Joined: 02 May 2006
Posts: 4595
Location: Gainesville, FL
PostPosted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 11:08 pm Reply with quote
Spastic Minnow wrote:
First DVD purchase of any type was largely found by chance and may be a rare version of a movie that is not rare at all... in the least.... the world is basically choking on them...

Dragonball Z: World's Strongest. I bought it around 2000, I didn't even have a proper DVD player but I had just bought my first computer and it had a DVD drive.

The copy in question is in a Jewel case for some reason (and I really doubt it's a boot, everything about the art and disc look completely legit, same art as on the regular packaging, just shrunk down for a Jewel case) and because of that, a person at the pawn shop I found it at had accidentally placed in with their $2 CD's. I figured I'd buy it to test out the DVD drive... and have a laugh.


I finally found another copy of this in a used DVD store and solved my little mystery. The jewel case was originally housed in a cardboard sleeve that was the size of a regular DVD box. It fits in the bottom of the sleeve and the top half had a reinforced section so it would look normal.

Sort of like the construction of the CD long boxes from the 80's and 90's that CD's were originally packaged in so they would fit in the shelves stores already used for records.
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