What do you consider to be a good price for the shows you buy?

[nemarious]

I started thinking about this after my birthday last week because I was looking to actually buy some shows. I didn't really know where to start but a friend bought me the first volume of Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood so I figured I'd start with them... well, that kind of spiralled out of control as I was going through various sites looking at how cheap stuff was, especially some of the highly rated stuff. This ended up being my list

Anime Title---------------------------Price (£/$/€)-------------------Price per ep (£/$/€)

Claymore Collection--------------------£11.68/$19.13/€13.32------------£0.45/$0.74/€0.51

Code Geass R1 (AL)-------------------£17.93/$29.37/€20.45-------------£0.69/$1.13/€0.79

Darker Than Black S1------------------£16.99/$27.83/€19.38-------------£0.65/$1.07/€0.75

FMA: B Vol 2--------------------------£8.45/$13.84/€9.63---------------£0.65/$1.07/€0.74

FMA: B Vol 3--------------------------£8.99/$14.72/€10.25--------------£0.69/$1.13/€0.79

FMA: B Vol 4 (*)----------------------£13.26/$21.72/€15.15-------------£1.02/$1.67/€1.17

FMA: B Vol 5 (PO)---------------------£14.99/$24.55/€17.10-------------£1.25/$2.05/€1.43

Soul Eater Complete-------------------£28.31/$46.36/€32.39-------------£0.56/$0.85/€0.64

Witch Hunter Robin (AL)---------------£14.93/$24.45/€17.03-------------£0.57/$0.94/€0.66

Wolf's Rain (AL)-----------------------£14.99/$24.55/€17.10-------------£0.50/$0.94/€0.66

--------------------------------Totals/Miscellaneous Data--------------------------------

Total Spent (£/$/€):-----------£150.52/$246.52/€171.80

Episode Total:------------------236

Average Episode Cost (£/$/€): £0.70/$1.05/€0.81

NB: Average is calculated by average of Price per Eps not Total Spent/Total eps

---------------------------------------------Key-------------------------------------------

(AL) = Anime legends box set. In some cases, like with Code Geass, the original volumes are

more expensive than the Anime Legends re-release version.

(*) = Price is from an offer on Amazon Marketplace that no longer exists which is why there is no

link for that item.

(PO) = Pre-order. Isn't released until 26th September in the UK

So with all that said, I think that's a pretty good price. 70p per episode is pretty cheap considering all the hours that has been put into the development of each episode from VA recording, storyboarding, animation, scripting etc plus there's all the work that the original author put into the manga or novels 70p is not a high price to pay. Overall I think I've spent £200 on anime this year so far and will be getting the Casshern Sins Complete collection at least for Christmas but hopefully the 2 season of Code Geass AL and the second season of Darker Than Black will also be released by then.

So, after my ramblings, I ask you this: What would you consider to be a good/fair/appropriate price for the shows you like? Will you only buy a show once it's come below a certain price? Are there some shows that will pay any amount of money for? What's the most you'd consider paying for a show? And many more along those lines. I'm interested in seeing what other members of the community consider to be 'value for money'.

[Koby]

For the most part I only buy a show once the price has dropped to around $2 an episode or less depending on how well I liked it. Depending on the show you may even find deals where it's as cheap as $1 an episode. As for movies I usually wait till they are $20 or less. I try to buy Blu-ray whenever possible, but I do not spend more for it. Most of my Anime collection has been obtained at $30 or less for 26 episode series sets and $20 or less for 13 or less episode sets. Most of my Blu-ray collections have cost around $20 regardless of episode count.

The highest priced I've ever spent on Anime was before I knew about Anime Downloads when I was much younger and I spent $45 for 13 episodes of Naruto times 4 box sets. Since that time, the highest I can remember spending is $35 each for the two Soul Eater Blu-ray sets.

[nemarious]

I have to say I was surprised by how cheap some of the stuff on Amazon was. On the other hand, some of the pricing is a bit silly but I suppose it'll be mostly down to their supplier's price and demand, but when you have Disgaea for around the same price as Darker Than Black or Code Geass, both of which have twice as many episodes, it seems a touch farcical.

I don't think of my contribution the industry as noble or something before I start but considering the price of some titles, I somewhat sickens me that people are happy to leech/pirate stuff and NEVER contribute at all to the industry they 'love'. It makes me think of the song Critical Acclaim by Avenged Sevenfold with the lyrics:

"All the way from the east to the west

We've got this high society looking down on their very foundations

Constantly reminding us that our actions are the cause of all their problems

Pointing the fingers in every direction,

Blaming their own nation for who wins the elections

They've never contributed a fucking thing to the country they love to criticize"

Of course this isn't aimed directly at pirates or piracy, more the upper classes and CEOs are many Countries, but it rings true for some pirates as well, who are always blaming other people for their own actions but still claim to be upset when a company has to pull out of America or, more so, Europe because of their actions.

Sure I've pirated stuff in the past, starting with games - at one point I had 40gb of PS1 games - and then moving onto a few albums that hadn't been released in the UK, but I'm glad that I've moved on from that. Neither side of the piracy argument is correct in my view. Piracy neither irrevocably harms the whole industry or has no effect; there are always going to be people that will lose out so long as piracy exists. Of course, for a lot of people, the reason they pirate is that they don't have the money but in life you can only buy what you afford so why should that not be the same for things you can make digital copies with?

My own personal policy is to download 1/4 of the total episodes and watch them. If I like what I see, I add to my purchase list, if I don't I delete the files. Sure this isn't a bombproof situation as I have still pirated those episodes, I am aware of how hypocritical this all sounds, but at least I'm making an effort to support the industry, which I'm sure many of the people on this site do.

Of course, I don't want to look to be too far the other way either because then we would lose fabulous sites like this but I suppose the links you guys offer aren't the only draw. I can certainly say, out of my own volition, that it's also the somewhat quirky but friendly community that keeps me coming back. Throughout the hardship that came in making my game, I was continually supported and encouraged by other members, including yourself Koby, and I am as grateful, if not more, for that than the links to the shows I have tried out. Of course, in a way, the links you do provide caused profits for anime companies in that it caused me to buy some of their stuff. Of course, this doesn't completely offset the stuff that I won't be purchasing like The Legend Of Black Heaven of Canaan but, in a way, piracy turned into profit.

I look to my right to where my DVDs lie on a shelf that I put up over the weekend and whilst there is currently a considerable gap between Ikki Tousen, Deathnote and the FMA: Brotherhood stuff I already own to the Big Bang Theory and other comedy DVDs, I can see that gap filling considerably when the rest of the goodies I've ordered are delivered to my door, in fact, I anticipate it being full by the end of the year, after Christmas particularly.

I don't really know why I feel so reflective right now, perhaps it's just my usual mood after listening to some Melodeath or perhaps I'm growing up a bit after my 19th birthday but I've come to value things a bit more I think. I get excited at the thought of opening those parcels and popping the discs into my 360 to watch a couple of episodes and maybe that is why I should be thankful for sites like this, the Anime industry and, indeed, the wider entertainment industries for as, without them, my life would be far more banal.

[Koby]

I've got to say, at least for me, piracy has helped the Anime industry. Since I get to watch them before buying it's easier for me to know which are worth buying and therefore I've bought a ton more series than I ever would have without first pirating. Before I started downloading I owned like 4 Naruto box-sets and a R.O.D the TV box set. Now I have a full shelf of Anime series and there is still a huge wish-list I have for when I can afford to buy them. So sure they can claim us pirates are costing them money, but they can't prove it, and in my case it certainly hasn't. Some people like myself just want to know they'll like something before spending the money on it. After all you're suppose to support what you love, not what you hate.

[nemarious]

Yeah, I can certainly agree with that. I had had some vodka last night so perhaps I can explain my point a bit more concisely this time.

Not ALL pirates are bad but not all pirates have the same morales as you or myself. I certainly agree with the sort of try before you buy thing because that's the same sort of policy I run and I will certainly be more likely to buy the stuff I like knowing that it's helping to produce those shows.

I suppose it was a sort of wistful cynicism that if all people did a similar thing rather than just filling their HDD with gigabyte after gigabyte of shows they never intend to support then perhaps the industry would be more recognised as a staple of the entertainment world.

EDIT: I also want to make it clear that I am not trying to like... point fingers at other members of the community. I don't want to sound like I'm judging people, I just started to think about it more when I began looking at the prices of shows. I mean look at film prices. I recently bought Source Code for £10 which is a 90 minute film. For less than £2 more than that I bought Claymore which has around 600 minutes of entertainment. Sure the costs for producing a series of anime are bound to be less than most Hollywood films, it just seems like there's too much of a gap to me.

EDIT2: I also know what it's like to be hit by piracy. About three years ago I released a small PC RPG. About 2 hours with a new game+ style system. I charged 50p for the license. More people pirated it than bought it so I took it down and out of frustration deleted the files. I regret that but I am also still angry that more people would be willing to spend their time hunting for an illegal version than pay 50p. In total I made less than £40 on a game that took me a month and a half to make. I found a link to an illegal crack of the game that had over 1000 downloads which should have earned me over £500 which would have been a suitable return. I guess my point is, if you love anime, try to support it anyway you can, even if it's only buying one show a year if that's all you can afford. I'm sure that would be a sentiment echoed by many of the people of this community.