Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Are Anime Conventions So Expensive?
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yurihellsing
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IMO the bigger conventions are pretty much worthless to go to as most seem to (Speaking for the British con scene) have been hijacked by Nintendo or what ever the latest bloody game related thing is.
That's a fair point but from what I've read and heard some conventions do attract the bootleggers and just to put this out there I probably pay more back via the 2nd market than I ever would via a streaming sub. |
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Shiflan
 Posts: 418 |
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Very interesting. I had the opposite experience here in the US. Going to a mid-size con (A-Kon), I was disappointed that the dealer's room was half American comic books and one-quarter video games. I think there were a lot of sci-fi toys too. (not that I have anything against any of that, but what are they doing at an Anime con?). The guest list featured a handful of little-known American comic artists and the American dub voice actors for minor characters. Who wants to see any of that? Fast forward to Anime Expo. The guest list is over two dozen people flown in from Japan. Very important, big-name artists, directors, voice talent. Dealers room is 99% Anime goods. Totally different. |
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kazenoyume
Posts: 425 |
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A-Kon is not mid-sized. It's a large con, one of the top five biggest in the country with an attendance of about 30k. Anime Expo is just MASSIVE. It dwarfs every other con in the country. The other 'largest' cons hit about 30-35k, whereas Anime Expo is about 100k. I agree with your complaints about A-Kon specifically though. I've always had that issue with it. For a large con, it seems weirdly out of touch which is one of the reasons I stopped going. Other very large but not as large as Expo cons like Anime Central and Otakon are much better at 'actually being about anime' or at the very least, Japanese video games. The saturation of American comic books and like 10 booths just selling funko pop figures is a problem at conventions though. Pretty much any smaller or medium sized con, this is a good half of their dealer's room any longer. I don't blame the con specifically, but as a person who is there for the subject matter listed on the tin, it is aggravating. There are dozens of comic cons where that merchandise would actually be relevant. As for getting on the case of young people who buy bootlegs, most people don't do it intentionally. And plenty of older fans buy them too. Don't hold bootlegs against the people who buy them, as most of the time it's not deliberate. The problem is the people who sell them, despite strict rules most cons have against them. Regarding young people's spending habits; absolutely none of your business. My first convention when I was a teen, I was working a part time job and I saved up for MONTHS in advance. The con was in May and I worked all extra hours I could over the holiday season to the point I earned a holiday bonus. I was frugal for the next few months, and by the time the con came around, I had a good four or five hundred dollars spending money for just the dealer's room. So yeah I had 'bags of stuff', which good for me. |
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Panzer Vor
 Posts: 648 |
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Here in California, Sac-Anime has the same problem A-Kon apparently has, but even worse. Sac-Anime summer 2015 in particular stands out, given that it was more or less Futurama, Halo, Legend of Korra, and Power Rangers: The Convention. |
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vision33r
Posts: 90 |
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It's expensive because you have to pay insurance, security, and all the city taxes and fees not including the cost of rental and worker salaries.
Which is why I am more in favor of local community anime cons that aren't so commercialized but you still get to see sellers and meet more local area fans. |
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Kougeru
 Posts: 5527 |
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My local con is pretty irritating. Literally the exact same panels and guests for like 3-4 years and massive parking issues. They finally moving to a bigger location this year, so at least that last part shouldnt be too bad this time. They kept making more money every year as more and more people came in but never changed a single thing (until this year, we'll see what happens). I never really understood where their money was going.....
What I really don't understand though, is why people buy things at cons. Everyone has a smartphone. 90% of merchandise I've scanned at conventions has been priced 20-30 dollars HIGHER at conventions than what I found them for on Amazon, amiami, ect. Even with shipping fees included (usually free on Amazon). It's insane to me that anyone would buy these overpriced goods. The only argument I've really seen is "it's the experience" but that doesn't validate throwing money away. "It's the experience" isn't a logical response. |
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Heishi
 Posts: 1317 |
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^ Maybe some people don't like to shop online.
Reading some of the comments here, I gotta ask this: Do the people running these conventions even grasp the concept of what an "anime" convention is supposed to be about? It's theme is supposed to be the nitty gritty: Anime and Manga. Not random western produced stuff like "Halo" or "Futurama"(Really? In an anime convention?). Well, at least the local conventions I go here in the state I live in are about anime and they are not half bad for local conventions. |
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s0nicfreak
 Posts: 21 Location: near Chicago |
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I am also 31 and I have bags of stuff and I'll tell you how/why. I pretty much don't spend luxury money other than at conventions and Japanese festivals. I don't buy dvds anymore (and have never bought a Blu-ray). I pay for Crunchyroll and Netflix (and Amazon Prime, but not primarily for the videos) but those come out of the family luxury budget (the same way cable tv did years ago when we had it), because the whole family uses them - and those combined with the occasional series streamed elsewhere with commercials is pretty much how I get anime. Other than that, my hobbies are video games and knitting/crocheting. Collectively, my family has more video games than I could play in a lifetime, and my husband and kids buy so many that I rarely buy more. Knitting/crocheting, I made self supporting (I sell the things I make) so there's very little luxury money spent there (and to tell the truth, if I stopped buying yarn right now, I could literally keep knitting/crocheting for 11 years... I've done the math). I rarely go to a convention that would require getting a hotel room, and when I do, I split the room with as many people as possible. My family doesn't take vacations, but sometimes my kids will go to a convention with me and we'll split the cost of gas/tolls/parking/etc. I put food and drinks in a cooler and leave it in my car. I don't smoke, don't play the lottery, don't get a daily coffee from Starbucks, rarely drink alcohol, and generally live frugally.
So basically my convention spending money is all of my fun money for 6 months - a year. And maybe part of it is just that I've always spent a lot on this hobby... as already said anime fans use to have to pay a lot more to just watch anime. There was a time when I had to pay $1000 get all the dvds of a 52 episode anime. Now I watch it on Crunchyroll and spend $1000 at conventions. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18182 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Enh, anime cons have always been at least partly general geek fests. For instance, although Anime Central is very decidedly an anime/manga/Japanese video games-dominated affair, any given year in the past few years about a quarter of the cosplayers are depicting American or British sci fi, fantasy, or comic book characters. For instance, two of the best I saw this year were the red beat box-integrated Stormtrooper and the group of Monty Pythonesque monks, and the various iterations of Dr. Who are among the most frequent cosplays.
The dealer's room, however, is still utterly dominated by merchandise related to Japanese properties.
I see a lot of merchandise at 'cons that you can't easily find online from an English language site, if at all. Amongst the items I do mostly look at (often T-shirts, wall scrolls, anime-related CDs, and figs), I've typically found the prices are competitive in person vs. online, especially with shipping costs figured in. |
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invalidname
 Contributor Posts: 2443 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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I gotta go with the null hypothesis here, and ask if anime conventions are "so expensive."
For example, if I look up my nearest NFL team (who went 7-9 last year and didn't make the playoffs), the cheapest, crappiest, can't-see-a-damn-thing tickets in the whole stadium are $43. The most expense are around $250. Plus, parking will be $20 or more. All for four hours of entertainment. Anime conventions -- many of which sell 3-day passes for around $50 -- seem pretty economical by comparison.
What he said. I wouldn't have even known how to search for "Love Live girls, but slouching on their stomachs and looking super-deformed happy", but when I saw Umi at Anime Central, well… 
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kazenoyume
Posts: 425 |
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Yes, and I have absolutely no issue with this. I'm a cosplayer myself, and although I do tend to cosplay anime most of the time, I've worn Doctor Who, Disney, and a few other geeky things here and there to cons. My issue is when the con itself, not the cosplayers, start totally spiraling away from being an anime con. There are generic pop culture conventions and comic book conventions for that. Anime convention programming and merchandise should focus, for the most part on Japanese media (or at the very least, East Asian media). When I go to a convention and see an exhibition hall filled with Western pop culture or look at a programming schedule and see a bunch of panels dedicated to Marvel or Steven Universe or whatever, it's a bit frustrating. Don't call yourself an Anime Con if that's not what you're doing. As for the dealer's hall, I've started importing most of my merchandise directly from Japan myself, so I find that I tend to scout the dealer's room for stuff from older properties that I missed out on stuff for. I really appreciate dealers who bring vintage stuff. Lately most of my spending money goes for the artist's alley though. |
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Freyanne
 Posts: 216 |
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I have noticed how over the years, anime cons seems to be becoming more of a "Anime/Manga + friends" kind of thing (if that made sense). I like variety at cons, but it does bother me a tiny bit when some cons seems to focus more and more attention on non anime/manga/culture (or even video games to an extent) things, especially when it comes to panels. The dealers rooms I've notice seem to have more regular comic shop booths than in the past, which I can understand because hey, it's a dealer's room. But when I go to an Anime con, I'd expect it to be mainly or mostly anime-related.
IIRC, one popular convention in my city had a lot of cosplay guests this year, and that really upset some of the congoers. I skipped going to the con this year, but I admit that even I was surprised at how many cosplay guests they had. I dont tend to go to a lot of the "meet ______!" panels (unless it's a "...OMG i have to meet this person! They're actualy here!!!" kind of thing" , but I admit that I would rather see more industry/creators/VAs guests at a con than cosplay-related ones. And I say this as someone that really loves cosplay.
As a person who LOVES online shopping and definitely knows how to bargain shop, I will admit that I find it really fun to buy things at conventions. Yes, it can be more expensive to buy things at conventions, but depending in what it is, i don't mind paying a little more if I can get it in person. And you never know what you can find at a con; you may stumble across something that you'd never thought you'd see in person, something you wanted to get back in the day but missed out on it, ect. You have also have to factor in if it would ne cheaper to buy it at a con than to import it from Japan, shipping included. Plus, like mentioned earlier, some people dont like to shop online. What does confuse me, is how I've seen some people go to a con, plan to be there for more than a few hours (going to be there for the full day/weekend), and only bring less than $50 total (if even that). Bonus points if they spend all of that money within that first hour. But if someone wants to do that, I won't stop them. (I'm not talking about someone that is on a budget, literally can't bring more money for important reasons, young teenager on limited funds, ect.) |
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Wandering Samurai
 Posts: 875 Location: USA |
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As I've gotten older I have noticed that I spend less money on things at the convention. It's great to go and get the feel of being there, but stuff is getting more expensive, and it's not like I need it right now.
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Eisenmann V
Posts: 212 |
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I assume that's how Dashcon happened, anyway. |
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amagee
 Posts: 333 Location: Orlando, FL |
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I saw some folks mention this but I know that I get into conventions for free as a fan panelist for the most part. My costs this year for four conventions have totaled less than $200 given that I only paid for parking at a single convention and then it was just food and gas.
This does lead to lots of problems for small conventions because people hear that hosting a panel will get them in free and they just throw something out there and give the most banal, awful "presentation" you've ever seen. The best small cons I know - Florida Anime Experience is consistently the best for example - don't offer a carte blanche free pass to panelists so people do work out of passion and it ends up being much, much better overall. Anime Weekend Atlanta is going to brutalize me, as usual, however, because they have the best dealers room for any anime-focused shopper in the American southeast. At least I got enough hours of paneling accepted to get in free and my mate is housing me so I should have quite a bit to spend for the weekend. |
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