Expensive Anime & Manga Topic: Arm Yourself With Knowledge!

[wingzrow]

So I made this topic in the hopes that we can learn from each other about what anime DVDs are worth a lot or just plain rare.

I just picked up some Sailor Moon DVDs and was surprised how much they went for.

Aside from Sailor Moon, and cardcaptor sakura, does anyone know other series that we should keep an eye out for that might be expensive?

Manga can be really expensive too, especially since Viz never seems to reprint anything they make.

[Kyle15]

The uncut Sailor Moon sets are the most expensive things I know of. Utena's old discs used to be something, but they're not moving anymore on account of the remastered sets from last year. As far as manga goes, Please Save My Earth is a hard to find series. I'm not sure if it is expensive though.

[RCM]

I can't think of any examples of super-rare anime, although some of it is still expensive. However, I've also noticed many anime DVDs i've been interested in are selling new for extremely cheap prices.

[Kitsune Sniper]

I can't think of any examples of super-rare anime, although some of it is still expensive. However, I've also noticed many anime DVDs i've been interested in are selling new for extremely cheap prices.

That's because of several reasons.

For starters, the market is not what it was a few years ago. People just don't want to buy a DVD disc with two or three episodes of a TV show that contains no extras whatsoever. Then we have the gift sets which come out just after a series is completed, which usually go for less than half of the price of the single DVDs.

And THEN we have companies like Bandai who insist on selling stuff at ridiculous prices even though almost nobody will buy them at that price.

I've seen a lot of anime show up on dollar stores and Big!Lots over the years.

Services like Netflix or other -legal- ways of streaming content are also biting into the retail market. Not everyone will want to buy the discs, most people only watch the movies once and store them away...

[theclaw]

Last I recall, later Maison Ikkoku box sets are expensive. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the Urusei Yatsura ones are too. But those so rarely appear for sale at any price it'd be difficult to track.

Finding certain anime probably gets even worse if you go further into obscurity with lasersdisc or imported sets.

[Gameguy]

When They Cry is an expensive anime set, not as expensive as Cardcaptor Sakura or Sailor Moon but it still goes for a good amount. It didn't sell well when it came out and the company that produced the set said they have no interest in ever reprinting it as it sold so poorly. Now the fans of the show are willing to spend a good amount to get the set. There's a parody series on youtube that's pretty funny, it pretty much touches on all the stupid parts of the anime(there's a reason why it didn't sell well originally).

I have to look up more of these, I looked up several lists of expensive anime a few months ago but I forget most of them. There's several sets I would want to get but I would have to sign up with various sites to order them and deal with shipping costs and duty for having them imported from the US. I'm hoping to just find them in person or get them used from another collector instead of a business.

[InsaneDavid]

Sailor Moon on DVD has been on the rise in value for years. Actually it's leveled off quite a bit and if buyers have some patience you can find the first and second season ADV boxsets for $100 - $120 a pop. S and SuperS value is all over the place since there were so many different releases (Pioneer first run, Geneon second release, thinpak box set) but again, cheap ones slip through. The ADV dub DVD's of the first two seasons also have surprising value, especially if you have them all together. If Funimation or another distributor is able to pick up the anime for re-release in America then the older DVD sets will dissolve in value like the old manga (see below). Personally I don't think this is an "if" but instead a "when" - it'll happen, there's too much money to be made. The ADV releases had too many problems anyway, were cheaply mastered, are missing an episode, etc. - typical ADV BS. The Pioneer releases on the other hand were very nice, although it would have been nice for the specials to have been included. This is another reason why one company should come in and start over, do everything, and keep it uniform.

The original Sailor Moon English manga is beginning to, will soon, or already has taken a tail dive in value with the current re-release which, while not perfect, is far better than the Mixx / Tokyopop attempt from over ten years ago. That's not to say it wasn't fine back when it was all there was. An example is a few years ago I sold my duplicate set (I had sold my "read / scan" set years before) of all the book sized Sailor Moon English manga for $450 inside of like three hours as a buy it now on eBay.

As for other Sailor Moon stuff, it's strange. Interest is coming back world wide. Things that for years had high value are slipping fast as the manga. Meanwhile things that were dirt cheap for years and years are bumping up in value really fast.

For other DVD's that pull in money right now I'd say the AnimEigo release of The Super Dimension Fortress Macross. Galaxy Express 999 used to be worth a lot on VHS but it was (FINALLY) released on DVD in the US last year. The most money I've ever spent on an anime DVD was a deluxe Japanese release of Robot Carnival but it never comes up. For expensive manga, the fifth volume of Revolutionary Girl Utena seems to cost crazy cash.

As a side note, if you pick up any other Sailor Moon items, I may be interested in them. I'll offer you a fair price. And remember there are a crap and a half of Sailor Moon bootleg DVD's out there which have very little value, contrary to what eBay may tell you. Once you know what you're looking at it's easy to tell what's authentic, which release, etc.

[Kitsune Sniper]

As a side note, if you pick up any other Sailor Moon items, I may be interested in them. I'll offer you a fair price. And remember there are a crap and a half of Sailor Moon bootleg DVD's out there which have very little value, contrary to what eBay may tell you. Once you know what you're looking at it's easy to tell what's authentic, which release, etc.

I still have those Sailor Moon Spanish translated comics from Mexico...

[ownerizer]

I'm not nearly into the Anime scene as much as I was 5 years ago, (read: single and loving it), but I'm glad the market still has some strength somewhere. Everytime I pick up some anime or manga out in the wild, I pick it up and send it to my sister, who is very much still into it. I've mostly been watching fansubs and stuff but haven't really gotten into anything new, because, well, there's nothing new that really tickles my fancy, so to speak.

I would love to find a CCS DVD box set, but that series is close to 93048239043824 episodes long and from the sounds of things, really expensive.

[pseudonym]

Nothing much to add, the first issue of Akira on Blu Ray (the one with the black slipcase) has been selling for $50+ for the past 3-4 months.

[Gameguy]

I would love to find a CCS DVD box set, but that series is close to 93048239043824 episodes long and from the sounds of things, really expensive.

By CCS you mean Cardcaptor Sakura? The 70 episode series was released on either 18 individual volumes or on 2 separate box sets. There was no legit complete series box set. One site compared the official R1 release with the official Japanese release and found that there were some slight problems with it. The picture was very slightly cropped and the colours are very slightly off too(black looks dark purple), not that bad but I wouldn't pay $300+ for a set unless it was perfect. There's also 2 movies with the second one being the end to the TV series.

I found a list of rare anime DVDs.
http://blog.pricecharting.com/2011/1...nime-dvds.html

[SEGA_Queen]

I found a list of rare anime DVDs.
http://blog.pricecharting.com/2011/1...nime-dvds.html

I just read the list out of curiosity. I was quite surprised to find out that there are Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon sets that are worth money.

Hmm, I wonder if the uncut single Yu-Gi-Oh DVDs are worth anything? They didn't sell very well, so 4kids/Funimation canned the uncut releases after 3 volumes.

[Gameguy]

Oh there's lots more rare/valuable anime DVD sets out there than what I posted above.
http://movies.pricecharting.com/cons...=highest-price

Does anyone collect older VHS releases of anime just to get earlier dubs that aren't available on DVD? I have My Neighbor Totoro on VHS to have the Fox dub(it is on DVD but I haven't found it yet) and a widescreen version of Akira on VHS with the Streamline dub. I have other anime films on VHS but those are mostly because they were much cheaper than the DVDs. It's kind of cool having anime in the original format that they were first made available, mostly with the late 80's or early 90's stuff.

[RCM]

That's because of several reasons.

For starters, the market is not what it was a few years ago. People just don't want to buy a DVD disc with two or three episodes of a TV show that contains no extras whatsoever. Then we have the gift sets which come out just after a series is completed, which usually go for less than half of the price of the single DVDs.

And THEN we have companies like Bandai who insist on selling stuff at ridiculous prices even though almost nobody will buy them at that price.

I've seen a lot of anime show up on dollar stores and Big!Lots over the years.

Services like Netflix or other -legal- ways of streaming content are also biting into the retail market. Not everyone will want to buy the discs, most people only watch the movies once and store them away...

Oh yeah, I'm fully aware the market isn't what it used to be. I briefly worked in the US "anime industry" at Central Park Media maybe 8-9 years ago. Even then you could see where things were going. As you mentioned, services like Netflix have killed demand along with the general cooling of DVD sales. But I don't mind, I picked up several City Hunter DVDs recently from Amazon new for like $2 a piece!

@GameGuy, while I don't really collect anime in general, I did "rip" all my VHS anime tapes to DVD before I got rid of them simply 'cause I preferred the original English dubs. Akira is a great example of this. I'm actually in the process of tracking down the Pioneer Dragon Ball Z DVDs since I'm a huge fan of that voice cast. Sure, the show may have been edited and other liberties may have been taken, but those voices perfectly fit the characters.

[Kitsune Sniper]

@GameGuy, while I don't really collect anime in general, I did "rip" all my VHS anime tapes to DVD before I got rid of them simply 'cause I preferred the original English dubs. Akira is a great example of this. I'm actually in the process of tracking down the Pioneer Dragon Ball Z DVDs since I'm a huge fan of that voice cast. Sure, the show may have been edited and other liberties may have been taken, but those voices perfectly fit the characters.

Didn't the DVD special edition of Akira include the original Streamliine dub as an extra track? I remember that being a huge selling point and it was mentioned in every ad I saw for it.

[Gameguy]

Didn't the DVD special edition of Akira include the original Streamliine dub as an extra track? I remember that being a huge selling point and it was mentioned in every ad I saw for it.

Wasn't that only in other PAL regions? I don't think that came out in North America. The big advertising I remember with the DVDs was a new more accurate dub being included instead of the previous old one. Maybe I'm wrong, the DVD version I have isn't the special edition and I haven't even watched it yet. I just don't remember seeing any mention of the Streamline dub mentioned anywhere on the DVD packaging.


Just remembered a few more sets that seem to be in demand. The Sonic X season sets seem to be selling for a really good amount now. Plus Sherlock Hound sells for a good amount, not all of the volumes are worth much but most of them are. I wish I could find Sherlock Hound in person, it's long out of print. Another one is the Kimba The White Lion box set, it's another DVD set I want to get at some point.

[RCM]

I have the Akira two disc special edition DVD and it does not contain the original English dub, I believe. I remember the pr for that going out of their way to tell us the then-new dub was so much better and true to the script. Bah, I'd take the original any day.

I'd also take an English dub of the five star stories, please.

[neojapan]

I Still have a Full set of the uncut Card Captor Sakura Sealed I bought years ago, i think its valued at $300, tried to sell on ebay when it was worth 200 tho and then it rose up in price, dunno how much its worth now.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Wasn't that only in other PAL regions? I don't think that came out in North America. The big advertising I remember with the DVDs was a new more accurate dub being included instead of the previous old one. Maybe I'm wrong, the DVD version I have isn't the special edition and I haven't even watched it yet. I just don't remember seeing any mention of the Streamline dub mentioned anywhere on the DVD packaging.

That REALLY sucks. I was hoping the original dub would be in because it was one of the first real English dubs I heard that wasn't completely awful.

[Gameguy]

That REALLY sucks. I was hoping the original dub would be in because it was one of the first real English dubs I heard that wasn't completely awful.

From what I could look up that was only released in Australia in PAL format. From what I could see online, it seems people ripped that audio dub, streched it by 4% and synced it up with the NTSC DVD video which is now floating around various sites to download.

It's weird but there was another mention on Wikipedia of another 2 disc DVD release that has this dub but there was no mention of where that was released and I can't find any mention of that anywhere else online. If this actually was released in North America I can't imagine why people would have gone through the trouble of altering the audio from the PAL release instead of just ripping this other NTSC version.