Forum - View topicAnswerman - Why Are Anime Conventions So Expensive?
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CeaseActivity
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Well put. It's hard for us uninitiated to understand just how much planning and money it takes to entertain and provide for thousands of people at once.
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4671 |
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Like Justin said, I'm surprised costs haven't gone up more at my local convention. However, I have noticed that registration has changed so that the cheaper pre-registration deadline is much earlier than it used to be. Some of that, I'm sure, is to save the staff the trouble of dealing with a rush of paperwork and payments too close to the convention, but the added price of "at-the-door" registration can't hurt. They've also gone to a system where your per-registration cost goes up between certain dates, so you have to commit pretty early to save on the registration.
As far as looking at other people's purchasing at the con, I'd agree that it is too hard to know what that person's financial situation is to read much into it. My spending at a convention has gone down dramatically over the years mostly because regular income and online shopping let me spread those purchases out over the rest of the year. |
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Shiflan
 Posts: 418 |
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I'd like to point out that compared to similar events in the business world Anime conventions are actually surprisingly cheap.
I travel to many conventions on business, usually related to either manufacturing/machining, or the plastics industry. Like an Anime con they rent space in major hotels or convention centers. The admission fees are easily as high, if not higher, than my experience with attending anime cons. I also think that the higher costs of some of the cons are very well justified. I started attending cons in the late 1990's. I remember paying (roughly) $20 to get into A-Kon. The next year a friend and I traveled to Anime Expo. At first I was a bit irked by the admission (IIRC, just under $40 for the weekend). But then I was amazed to see the vastly superior guest list, the fact that everything ran on schedule, and so on. Comparatively, it was worth every penny and then some. |
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revolutionotaku
Posts: 900 |
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You can still go to the smaller conventions at hotels and/or community colleges.
Some are as cheap as $15 for a weekend pass. |
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Hardgear
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My local con is $35 for all 3 days if you order early enough. However, even with the recent price spikes, AX is still the better bang for your buck on average IMO. I'm actually at the point in my life now where I'm annoyed that more cons DON'T do what AX does and offer an expensive as hell premium pass so you don't have to wait in line (and other benefits of course). I wouldn't have even considered this a few years ago, but now that I have a decent job I'm starting to realize that comparing the hours I'll be saving not waiting in line to my hourly rate, I'll still come out on top.
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Krey
 Posts: 34 |
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Why is the person asking the question so preoccupied with how much kids are spending? I'm 26 but I know a lot of people that age who spend a year saving up their money for this. Many get no help from their parents, either. If you're really concerned about convention pricing because of how much teens are spending, then it's really a non issue.
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Shiflan
Posts: 418 |
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I thought that was rather odd myself. Not to mention there are FAR greater and more obvious displays of teen spending than paying $40 or $50 to get into a con. How many teens have a gaming console that cost a few hundred $$? Not to mention a pile of games that cost more than con admission for each one? Trendy clothes? The latest smartphone with a recurring bill every month? Paying fifty bucks to get into an annual con doesn't seem like a very big expenditure to me. And compared to what anime fans spent years ago it's nothing. Before the bubble burst in the early 2000's we spent $20 on a tape or DVD with only 2 episodes on it. Buying one season of a show cost well over $100. If you were like me and imported stuff from Japan it cost even more than that. Sometimes a lot more. Now we pay a small monthly fee and can watch whatever we want, streaming. |
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Wrial Huden
 Posts: 149 Location: McKinney, TX |
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And probably have just as much fun, if not more, that the huge conventions. |
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Black_Kendoka
 Posts: 18 Location: Cincinnati, OH |
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I believe I paid about $20 for the whole weekend to attend Anime Punch a few years ago. It was run by the OSU Anime club and held in a small hotel in Columbus. I wouldn't say that I had more or less fun than going to Ohayocon. I'd rather say that the kind of fun I had was different. The larger cons have a lot going on, so that variety keeps things fresh and fast-paced. The smaller ones, like Anime Punch, seemed to concentrate more on building a community, even if it was only for those three days. As for the question about where teens get their money, I guess this guy forgot that some teenagers get allowances and/or have part-time jobs to fuel their habits. Combine this with the fact that nearly all of their income is disposable, it makes it much easier to spend $50 to get into a convention. And since most cons are planned out months in advance, it's much easier for them to save money. I attended my first convention when I was 17, and it was all paid by the crappy job I had at Old Navy. He seems to be putting an adult perspective of money onto kids, when their lifestyles are completely different. |
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explosionforgov
 Posts: 80 Location: United States of America |
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I can't speak for others, but I never really had any spending money as a kid (didn't get an allowance, didn't get money for chores, wasn't allowed to have a job until after college), so I try to be very selective in what I buy-- and I always try to buy at least one small thing for each of my immediate family members, in case they get really upset at the fact that I've bought "stupid, expensive things nobody else cares about".
I also go to very few conventions, and only go to ones close by, which cuts out having to pay for hotels. Once I've focused on my other adult goals (moving out, paying off my college loans, getting a car), I'd like to maybe go to a farther-away convention, or spend a little bit more money than I've been previously able to. I also had a friend who once consistently chose video games over being able to afford food. So I can totally understand being surprised when people spend a lot of money without a second thought. It's not a common thing for me. |
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MetalUpa1014
 Posts: 283 Location: USA |
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This may or may not be an option for people, but I highly recommend actually volunteering at the conventions themselves. Volunteering means that they give you free admission so that's already saving you the cost of entering. If you're willing to dedicate a few hours of your time for the volunteer work, you're still given plenty of leftover time to walk around the floor, go to booths/panels, buy stuff, etc.
I've volunteered at Pittsburgh's Tekkoshocon twice already and plan on doing so a third time when it comes back next year. They even gave me a free second pass that I could give to someone, which I did. The work itself really isn't that difficult. Hours are flexible and you can choose where you want to be stationed. Give it a shot. It can actually be pretty fun at times too. |
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Dextres
 Posts: 428 Location: Decatur, GA |
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This last part here was the biggest highlight to me in the whole article and reiterates the importance of planning ahead in advance, which I like very much. But the most important part, stop looking or comparing yourself to others to what they have and do what you came to the event to do in the first place. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18507 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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Probably also worth noting that anime convention badge prices aren't to any degree out of line with those of other major hobby conventions; the recent Gen Con convention (the largest pure gaming convention in the U.S., if not the world) had a 4-day badge price of $90 for preregistration and $120 at the door, for instance - IOW, either $22.50 or $30 per day, which would be equivalent to $67.50 or $90 for a 3-day 'con. For decades I've gotten around that price by doing the equivalent of one full day of volunteer work (i.e., running events), so there are good options there, too.
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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I have noticed a gradual increase in the cost of the local convention I frequent over the years, though I always understood this to arise from the fact that attendees continue to slowly increase in number, thus adding to the scale of what the customer receives. Much do I imagine that there is something to say on this matter about the relationship between supply and demand, but I am typically loath to consider matters of economics.
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OldCharlieStoletheHandle
 Posts: 1288 Location: Mastic Beach, NY |
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Given how many people around here complain about how the "younger generation" is so entitled and (supposedly) just pirates stuff perhaps we should be praising these "kids" for buying stuff and supporting the industry instead of criticizing them for it.
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