Forum - View topicBuying OOP (Out of Print) Anime
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Olliff
 Posts: 550 |
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Recently, I've been thinking about buying Haibane Renmei. Unfortunately, it is now OOP (out of print), and the prices for the third and fourth discs have gone through the roof.
Amazon shows the cheapest price for volume 3 to be over $30! http://www.amazon.com/Haibane-Renmei-Free-Bird-Vol/dp/B0000DFZZ4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1253733348&sr=8-1 And over $18 for volume 4 without the proper case and some condition issues. http://www.amazon.com/Haibane-Renmei-Day-Flight-Vol-4/dp/B000159EH4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1253733814&sr=1-1 Rightstuf still offers the first two volumes at a reasonable price of $6 each. And at one time volumes 3 and 4 were also offered at this same price. I should of acted but I saving my money for a convention, and it looks like I missed my chance. The cheapest price for all four volumes seems to be $50 at an auction site that's selling used discs. I am pretty sure they are legit since he advertises that they are region 1 and that all of the booklets are included. A screen shot of four separate boxes -- one for each volume is shown. I would like your opinion on this price. I love the series dearly, but I am bit wary to shell out $50 for something used that I could have purchased just 4-5 months ago new for $24. But then again this may be very well be the going rate now. On the same site, you can buy obvious region free bootlegs of the whole series on 2 discs for $10 $15. I have no interest in bootlegs and it saddens me that the site doesn't do more to remove such obvious bootlegs. Even Chinese subtitles are listed on the product description, making them even more clear that they are unauthorized versions. I have perused many auction sites like this and found a few deals that seemed good, but I have been very wary and with good reason of bootlegs, especially when prices are too good to be true. To make this thread more broad and useful beyond my personal problem with buying this series at a fair price consider the following questions: what would you recommend to people who wanted to buy an OOP series at the cheapest price possible? Are there certain sites, or stores that are better options when you are looking for rare or OOP singles? What is your experience with buying OOP series? How likely is an OOP of series likely to be picked by another company and become in print again? Have you ever bought OOP anime as an investment and turned around a few years and sold it for a tidy profit? Feel free to use this thread to talk about prices for buying OOP titles whether for anime in general or for a specific title. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 24131 |
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This is a very timely thread topic for me because, as I recently mentioned in the What did you just buy? thread, I'm thinking about picking up the FLCL volumes. I don't have any answers to the excellent questions you pose since I've not been in the OOP game up until now, but I'll be monitoring this thread to see if more experienced peeps have any words of wisdom.
Oh and I hope the OP doesn't hate me, but I was one of those who was able to slurp up all 4 of the Haibane Renmei volumes from TRSI at $6 each back in the beginning of April... 
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TheTheory
 Posts: 1029 Location: Central PA |
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Don't forget about checking half.com. That looks like it might have some cheaper options than Amazon Marketplace right now. However, even if it requires $50 I'd say go for it. That price is only going to go up at this point because Haibane Renmei is out of print and a widely lauded series.
Yeah, it sucks that you didn't get in on the $6 RightStuf blowout... but you knew it was happening and didn't act. Been there, done that. There are a few things I've found for great prices and didn't act on and later paid 2-3x's as much later on. The important thing is that Haibane Renmei is an amazing series and totally worth $50. Hell, it is worth much more than that. For me, OOP titles is a weird balancing act between scouting Amazon Marketplace, ebay, RightStuf (because OOP doesn't always mean it is out of stock yet...), and if needed half.com (which is my least favorite site for reasons I cannot explain properly). Of course, the problem with out of print purchases is that there is always the potential for a company to re-release a title for much less... Generally I don't feel like I've gotten burned on any of my transactions... the worst being finding out three months after I bought Samurai Champloo on ebay for $100+ that FUNI and Geneon were re-releasing it. Now I see it new for $50 (in a nice, space-saving slim-pack!). But other than that none of my higher dollar OOP purchases have been regrettable at this point. Haibane Renmei is tricky to judge if it will ever see any kind of re-release. I think it is possible FUNI might take a chance on it if the license is cheap enough, but I really wouldn't be surprised if it languishes in OOP, high-priced ebay hell. But basically, in the end I tend to not worry too much about the likelihood of a license rescue if I'm looking at spending higher dollars on an out of print series. For example, I just recently purchased a number of out of print series for higher dollars: Lupin the III dvds 1-15 ($275), R.O.D. bookset ($100), Key the Metal Idol ($50), and I've got Cardcaptor Sakrua in the mail ($400). Lupin was a no-brainer... it will never get rescued because there are too many episodes and it would never pay itself off. The singles are already skyrocketing on Amazon Marketplace and half/ebay. Pretty sure I got most of the volumes cheaper through RightStuf (new) than the going used price. Cardcaptor Sakura was the hard one to pull the trigger on...and it basically boiled down to this: barring a license rescue, there is no way the DVDs were going to become less rare. And for a series as frequently talked about and lauded as CCS that meant that the used DVD prices would only go up. Either bite the bullet now if I wanted to own the series or be ok with knowing that I would never own the series unless FUNI (or anyone else) re-licensed it. But for something like R.O.D. it was an easy choice. Even if it gets licensed again, it will probably be released in two sets for $50 each. It would end up being ~$100 anyway. I'd rather get the Geneon issue, thank you very much. |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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If buying from eBay or Amazon, asking the seller to describe the item works well. Know what the differences between the legit packaging and the commonly-distributed bootlegs are, and scrutinise what the seller tells you using this information. I collected an OOP series from Amazon this way, avoiding the options that were too good to be true.
Places such as SecondSpin have borne fruit for others when searching for rare titles, but I have no experience of shopping with them. I may be wrong about this, but since you're buying singles and not a collection it is less likely that you'll encounter bootlegs. In the case of Haibane Renmei, it'd be more probable for bootleggers to compress all thirteen episodes onto a single release to keep their costs down, and make their product seem more economical to the inexperienced buyer. (Importing from other DVD regions is another option, but not a very cheap or convenient one.) On an unrelated note, 2000 posts! |
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sailorsarah08
 Posts: 471 Location: Houston, Texas |
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The dreaded OOP! Unfortunatly I seem to have a love for OOP items.
My experiances with Half.com have been awful. I payed 100 dollars for the first season of Sailor Moon and it turned out to be a bootleg. I would be careful on Half.com because the seller does not have to show you a picture and they don't have to list everything. I have had good luck at used books stores that sell DVDs. They can be a little bit pricey but it is worth it to be able to see it. Another place that is a place you wouldn't think to look is a resale shop. People get rid of the strangest things and if you find anything there it will be cheap. I got two SM movies uncut for 2 dollars and some change, and I would have never thought to look there. Conventions are another really good place to look. |
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TheTheory
Posts: 1029 Location: Central PA |
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bootleggers don't really bother with singles... I refuse to buy boxsets from amazon marketplace or half. Haven't had any problems yet. |
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richfam
Posts: 34 Location: Lindsborg, KS |
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I buy a lot of used and/or OOP anime, so here's some suggestions.
First, keeping checking Rightstuf at least once a week, because they occasionally get in more copies of recent OOP titles. This is especially true for Geneon releases... I've seen many Geneon items sell out at Rightstuf only to come back into stock later. For example, I bought the first three volumes of Paranoia Agent from Rightstuf at $8 each, but volume #4 was sold out. Amazon marketplace prices for volume #4 were in the $30-$40 range, which was more than I was willing to pay. But five months later, Rightstuf suddenly had a hundred or so copies of Paranoia Agent #4 for sale again, still at $8 each, and I was finally able to complete my set. 
A good place to look for used anime is SecondSpin (www.secondspin.com). They have a large selection, offer good service, and they never deal in bootlegs. They don't provide individual descriptions of each item, so you have to take your chances as far as missing inserts, wear & tear on the case and DVD, etc. If you are a "collector" who wants everything complete and in "like new" condition, the Amazon marketplace will be better, but most of the DVDs I've purchased from SecondSpin have been complete and in good condition. Their prices are reasonable: I got several Trigun and Azumanga Daioh single volumes from them for $5 to $11 each; and sometimes their prices can be quite good: I got all four Stratos 4 single volumes along with the Stratos 4 OVA volume for less than $20 total... which was a sweet deal because it was during one of their free shipping sales as well! The key here (as with any place dealing in used anime) is to check regularly. Items go in and out of stock and in-stock items can change in price from week to week. SecondSpin also has a new week-long sales offer every Friday, and occasionally they have special one- or two-day sales as well.
Who knows? Funimation seemed to pick up Love Hina almost as soon as Bandai dropped it... but FLCL still hasn't been picked up by anybody. |
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Kimiko_0
 Posts: 1796 Location: Leiden, NL, EU |
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Like Zin5ki said, don't forget about DVDs from other regions. MVM has also licensed FLCL and Haibane Renmei, and is still selling them.
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The King of Harts
 Posts: 6712 Location: Mount Crawford, Virginia |
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I'm another example of good service at SecondSpin.com. I've recently used them and grabbed a couple of OOP shows; they occasionally have random CCS and Sailor Moon volumes and several other shows like Haibane Renmei Vol 1 for $6.39. They're very picky about the condition of the discs they have and go as far as putting their own shrink wrap around it. Not to mention they're really cheap and have the greatest sales.
Another site I use is DVDpriceseach.com. They don't use every store, but they have a lot and can find the cheapest price on Amazon. It's really useful for hunting on several sites at once. I have a newfound trust in the Amazon marketplace because I've recently grabbed Girls Bravo 1 + box, volume 2, Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi 3, Kanon 5 and DearS 1 + box and they were all at reasonable prices, shipped very fast, in great condition and, most importantly, legit copies; they're all out of print shows, also. The thing about Amazon is that you have to be patient to find the best price-or the price you value it at- and always have money in the bank to be prepared to grab it fast. If you stutter to pull the trigger, you could get f'ed so it's always best to have an extra $50 or so set aside when you're OOP hunting. Also, don't be afraid to ask the seller any questions you have. I have never trusted Ebay or it's evil spawn Half.com. That place is like a bootleggers paradise. sailorsarah08 backs me up on that.
Spring Cleaning sale? Same here, man. |
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DuelLadyS
 Posts: 1705 Location: WA state |
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I actually picked up Haibane Renmei during one of those 10/25 sales, so I only paid $4 a volume. But I digress...
Anime prices fluctuate pretty wildly for all but a few titles- I typically drop anything I want but not at the current Amazon prices into a Wish List. That way, I have an easy way to keep track of everything and see what might suddenly become affordable... and make sure anyone who might buy me anime for the holidays can see what I need too.  I also avoid Ebay, it's much harder to dodge bootlegs and even more so to get your money back if you end up with one.
Aside from that, just watch around anywhere that might sell DVDs, from rightstuf.com to Goodwill... you never know where something'll turn up, so keep your eyes peeled. |
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mow123
 Posts: 339 |
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Kind of off topic, but how would you go about playing region locked DVDs on your computer without using one of the four times that you are allowed to formally change the region on your player?
This seems like a way to pick up things that may be out of print in your region in other regions where they are still in print for cheap. Think that there is a UK version of Haibane Renmei floating around somewhere. Just curious, is it a British dub or is it still the American dub? |
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Ralifar
 Posts: 205 Location: League City, TX |
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You may have to do some research, but often the Japanese companies have their own English subbed versions. Unless you know someone that lives in Japan it can be kind of difficult to find these things though. If you try and purchase it online and it's DVD region ALL then it's pretty much almost guaranteed that it's bootleg. So if you're in America you can either illegally download some software that allows you're computer's DVD player to be changed as much as you like, which I'm not going to recommend, or you can just buy another dvd player for cheap, install it, and make it region 2.
In the long run it may be easier just to shell out the extra cash. Haibane Renmei is one of my favorites too, so I hope you find it at a reasonable price. I just thought of something else. I didn't really do any research into it though, so I don't know how much it would actually end up costing or anything like that. If you only want the discs and don't care so much about the original boxes and the like then you could rent them from a mail-in rental service and not return them. The fine you'd have to pay may be less than what you'd have to pay if you purchased them through normal means. Last edited by Ralifar on Sat Sep 26, 2009 2:24 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Kimiko_0
Posts: 1796 Location: Leiden, NL, EU |
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Standalone DVD players (the kind that connects to your TV) can often be changed to region 0/region-free/all-regions quite easily. Just do a websearch. There's a site with all the tricks, but I don't have the name right now. I bought my Philips DVD player specifically because it could be switched to region 0 easily.
For computer DVD drives, you need to use a program that can bypass the CSS region locking encryption (which is used when the region of the drive doesn't match that of the disc). I don't know the names of other programs that can do that, but for MPlayer you need a library called libdvdcss2. I have my DVD drive set to R1 because nearly all my DVDs are imported from N-America, but the few R2 DVDs (UK imports) I have are played just fine with MPlayer. |
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The King of Harts
Posts: 6712 Location: Mount Crawford, Virginia |
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I can't verify this for sure because I don't import DVDs, but I've been told that the VLC Media player can play any region DVD. All you have to do is download and install and it works just like any other player on your computer.
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Zin5ki
Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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There is indeed. It is still in print, but you'll have to look around to find a decent price. British dubs for anime stopped existing in the early 1990s. All UK R2 dubs these days are identical to those of the corresponding R1 releases. DVD43 and similar software tools can overcome most regional restrictions sufficiently, such that you can watch foreign discs using the playback software of your choice. |
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