Forum - View topicOut of Print/Discontinued DVDs...
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lllwtflll
 Posts: 105 Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada |
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I'm totally new here so I didn't really know where to post this, but I guess it makes more sense to post it here than in the "encyclopedia" forum where I posted it earlier.
My question is this: When an Anime DVD goes out of print or is discontinued, does it become a collector's item? For example I know that I can't get titles I really want such as the Samurai Champloo box set or 5 cm per second, because Geneon went out of business and ADV discontinued Shinkai's film. Are these titles worth more now? Also, if I happened to have Kanon vol. 6, which was never actually released because ADV discontinued it literally like the day of/day after it was supposed to ship, would that be a hot collector's item? Thanks for the help and sorry if this is a completely stupid question; I'm just curious. |
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larinon
 Posts: 992 Location: Midland, TX |
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Remember, an item is only worth what people are willing to pay for it.
To a certain extent, if something goes out of print, then it potentially will have a greater value to some buyers. A few examples: the original .hack//SIGN hexagonal box that came with the first DVD, game preview, postcards, and Grunty plushy. This was a fairly limited edition for a relatively popular show, and soon after they sold out you could find them selling on ebay for almost twice retail price. Another example is the Kimagure Orange Road box set that Animeigo released. Being a smaller company, they had a very strict production run, and even though it already cost 200-some odd dollars to begin with, after they were gone you could see them being bought for a bit more than that (not substantially IIRC). As for Samurai Champloo, Kanon, and so on, first look at these two lists: Geneon titles rescued by Funimation ADV titles "rescued" by Funimation Since Kanon is now under Funimation's control, they will eventually release volume 6 and the inevitable collector's set. I can't imagine they would make any substantial changes that wouldn't match up with what people had already bought in the first 5 discs. In this case, having ADV's Kanon volume 6, if there were such a thing, would probably not bring a huge premium because we'd get the same content eventually anyways. Now, if Funimation were release the 6th disc with a different dub cast (but why would they?), and a 6th disc by ADV existed, then that would most likely be worth something to a number of fans. Other than that, maybe there would be someone out there that might pay a little extra for the ADV branded version. Now Samurai Champloo, since it's not on the list of titles that Funimation got from Geneon to distribute, presumably is still under Geneon's control and will not be reissued at the moment. In this case, it might actually be worth a bit more over what was initially paid. But that's hard to say. If there's still money to be made on a popular title like that, then someone at some point will try to re-release it. I guess the question is: how confident are you that it will be available at a lower price later versus what you see as the auction/selling price right now? And that is completely up to you. I remember a post from maybe few months or a year back when someone mentioned that they saw the original Bandai entertainment Cowboy Bebop boxset selling online for over $200. But then Bandai turned around and sold a boxset for their Cowboy Bebop remix discs at a much much lower price. Certainly the Geneon situation is different, but as they still hold the license it's hard to say what will ultimately happen to it yet. Also consider what happened to Slayers. CPM had the license to the series for years, but after it went out of print, Funimation picked it back up, dub and all, and repackaged and re-released it. (I'm not sure if they did anything else). A similar thing occurred with Lost Universe. I've never thought of anime DVDs as being a collector's market in the way that trading cards or comics or other things are. Certainly we collect them and they have value to us, but the way the market is right now, a certain number of fans don't even care to have the DVD and instead opt to go the download route. If we ever get to the point where devices are no longer made which play DVDs, and the anime in question could no longer be acquired by whatever means exist at that future time (download, etc), maybe then they'll become serious collector's items. Anime being the niche market that it is, I'm always paranoid about picking up releases as soon as they are available, especially limited editions, for the very reason you mentioned. I know not everyone can afford to do the same thing, so it's unfortunate, but that seems to be the way the anime market goes. But even though you probably aren't going to find any bargains for what you're looking for, if you don't mind paying at or near retail price then probably there's a smaller online retailer out there that still has those discs you want, or even a retail store around where you live. |
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Monster in a box
Posts: 671 |
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It's worth noting that Five Centimeters Per Second JUST went out of print a few weeks ago. I still see it at stores, so it's not rare yet.
Now Cardcaptor Sakura, and Sailor Moon; those are shows you'll wind up paying well over retail for. |
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bankai82
Posts: 2 Location: Bowmanville, ON, CA |
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it great that funimation picked up all these shows but what i want to know is adv going under or just cleaning house. some of the show they are giving up are really good. coyote ragtime, pumpkin scissors, welcome to the NHK, etc.
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LydiaDianne
 Posts: 5634 Location: Southern California |
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From what I've been understanding from articles on ANN's front page, ADV is tighening their belt. They aren't grabbing any old title and releasing it like companies where doing a couple of years ago.
Most companies are going with titles that will sell. At least that's what I think. |
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daxomni
 Posts: 2650 Location: Somewhere else. |
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The limited edition items seem to gain in value. Even CCS apparently jumped in value once it became hard to find. But average used anime DVD's don't usually jump in value much. By the time they're truly hard to find we'll all be on the next format anyway.
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