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Answerman - Why Do Anime Discs Go On Clearance?


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D00dleB0Y



Joined: 08 May 2015
Posts: 120
PostPosted: Sat Dec 12, 2015 2:21 pm Reply with quote
I own a copy of Sky Crawlers. It was $1.99 at the F.Y.E. I bought it from. How much money could they possibly make on a movie that cheap???
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DmonHiro





PostPosted: Sat Dec 12, 2015 2:22 pm Reply with quote
I was unaware one could run a scorched earth campaign with anime. Then more you learn...
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zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7358
PostPosted: Sat Dec 12, 2015 2:25 pm Reply with quote
HA! I rather like that idea of what they did on Cyber City. Actually though, I really enjoyed it, anyone wanting an over the top 90s action with one of those hilarious old-timey dubs where they added tons of curse words just 'cause (but the acting is still pretty good, I think it kind of adds to it in a way), I definitely recommend it, especially at how dirt cheap it is.
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ParkerALx



Joined: 09 Apr 2014
Posts: 194
PostPosted: Sat Dec 12, 2015 2:40 pm Reply with quote
Does the Cyber City - The Final Collection DVD still hold up today? As in, is the video and audio quality pretty decent? I'm usually wary of picking up DVDs that are more than a decade old, but Cyber City looks like a fun ride.

As much as I love finding a good deal on a show I like, it is sad when it comes about due to poor sales.
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PurpleWarrior13



Joined: 05 Sep 2009
Posts: 2026
PostPosted: Sat Dec 12, 2015 2:45 pm Reply with quote
This happened with Appleseed (the 2004 CG movie). Sentai has long rescued the film and released their own DVD/Blu-ray editions a couple of times, but Geneon's old DVD is still floating out there for cheap. If you get one of RightStuf's "blind box" deals, you are pretty much guaranteed to get a copy of the film. I think what happened with that is that their initial print run sold very well, but they greatly overestimated demand for the second printing.

It happened with VHS too. About 10 years ago, my local Kroger of all places had a $1 bin filled with VHS tapes, most of them were from CPM! It was mostly Slayers, but I picked up Vol. 1 of Utena, and got hooked on the show! It was the first "hard core" anime (non-DBZ/Pokemon/YGO/etc) I ever watched, and I'm still a fan to this day, so these can be a good way to get hooked on shows you may not have heard of. Wink
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brankoburcksen



Joined: 12 Dec 2010
Posts: 126
PostPosted: Sat Dec 12, 2015 3:00 pm Reply with quote
Curious speculation: do you think ADV did the 'scorched earth' thing before its license of Neon Genesis Evangelion ran out? Just wondering what could delay Funimation's "inevitable" pick up of that title.
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EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
PostPosted: Sat Dec 12, 2015 3:28 pm Reply with quote
I assume that's similar to Funi's S.A.V.E. line of double and triple-dipped anime series at clearance prices--
Especially for a fandom that used to think double and triple-dipping series was a "conspiracy" to "make" them buy the same series twice. (Which was one of the factors that helped sink ADV, when fans knew the boxset was coming after the single disks.)
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Zendervai



Joined: 06 Apr 2012
Posts: 197
PostPosted: Sat Dec 12, 2015 3:36 pm Reply with quote
brankoburcksen wrote:
Curious speculation: do you think ADV did the 'scorched earth' thing before its license of Neon Genesis Evangelion ran out? Just wondering what could delay Funimation's "inevitable" pick up of that title.


I really doubt it, if only because while some of the DVD sets are still floating around, they're all sold in excess of $90.
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BigOnAnime
Encyclopedia Editor


Joined: 01 Jul 2010
Posts: 1231
Location: Minnesota, USA
PostPosted: Sat Dec 12, 2015 3:49 pm Reply with quote
brankoburcksen wrote:
Curious speculation: do you think ADV did the 'scorched earth' thing before its license of Neon Genesis Evangelion ran out? Just wondering what could delay Funimation's "inevitable" pick up of that title.
Doubtful considering how it didn't take very long for the various releases to disappear from places like Rightstuf. Heck, the Platinum Set now has bootlegs that are nearly identical to the original Platinum thinpak.

The Holiday Edition disappeared a little over a year after NGE officially went OOP, the thinpak took nearly two years.
http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/showthread.php?7440-Neon-Genesis-Evangelion-(TV)-going-OOP&p=165010&viewfull=1#post165010
http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/showthread.php?7440-Neon-Genesis-Evangelion-(TV)-going-OOP&p=205352&viewfull=1#post205352

Also reminder of why it went OOP as revealed by Madman Entertainment.
http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/showthread.php?7440-Neon-Genesis-Evangelion-(TV)-going-OOP&p=123650&viewfull=1#post123650

Anyway, definitely like some of these bargains you can find, especially since older releases are much, much nicer than most of the releases today. Those inserts, those covers, those thick fat artboxes, those video extras, those DVD easter eggs, and the list goes on. I actually wish anime still got released in singles if it meant that stuff coming back.

It's truly amazing how much left of something like Rightstuf has. Back when you could see how big certain counters were on closeout items, I took this screenshot (Late 2014). Shawne has more copies of this than multiple new series combined.

I looked at some other ADV and Geneon stuff at the time (They were by far the biggest culprits of overprinting. Overprinting was the death of Geneon.), and so many series Rightstuf still had 500-a few thousand copies left of various volumes. It's going to take him ages to get rid of all of this stuff.
http://www.rightstufanime.com/category/DVD/clearance/0.50to0.99

Funny enough, FUNimation later joined in thanks to their constant re-releases. Remember when everything FUNi had would get a new release every single year? Parts, complete set, re-release of the complete set, re-release of that, maybe another re-release of that... Not a good idea considering they're now still stuck with a bunch of old stock because they couldn't wait until the current stock was almost gone before re-releasing a show. They're learning now though, thankfully.
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Joe Mello



Joined: 31 May 2004
Posts: 2264
Location: Online Terminal
PostPosted: Sat Dec 12, 2015 3:56 pm Reply with quote
Hey, I completed my UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie collection through the clearance bin, so the heck with you. Wink
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Top Gun



Joined: 28 Sep 2007
Posts: 4586
PostPosted: Sat Dec 12, 2015 4:08 pm Reply with quote
The first thing that comes to my mind is that poor Dan-Doh Anime Legends entry on RightStuf. The whole set is down to $5 or so right now as part of the huge sale, but I can guarantee that they wouldn't be moving copies even if they were giving it away. I can just picture Shawne falling to his knees, crying, "PLEASE take these off our hands! I'm begging you!"
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relyat08



Joined: 20 Mar 2013
Posts: 4125
Location: Northern Virginia
PostPosted: Sat Dec 12, 2015 4:17 pm Reply with quote
Answerman wrote:
Hopefully, you won't see anime being liquidated. It's fun to go bargain-hunting, but most of the time it happens, it's a sign that (hopefully minor) bad things happened to the publisher. I wouldn't feel any real guilt in partaking of the bargains -- after all, the publisher has already decided to cut their losses by the time it shows up for cheap -- but it's hard for me to take too much glee in seeing signs that an industry colleague has tripped up.


I always have pretty mixed emotions when I see stuff on ridiculous sales. Especially if it's something that I actually was thinking about getting. Like, "why didn't I buy this sooner?!" or "I should have supported this!". I like being able to get things at the best price possible, but I also want to support the industry as much as I can. When I pass up a release of a show that I want and it fails to make money, I always get worried that no one is going to bother licensing something similar in the future. Always particularly worried about that with things like Ping Pong. It almost makes me want to buy multiple copies!
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Tenchi



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 4471
Location: Ottawa... now I'm an ex-Anglo Montrealer.
PostPosted: Sat Dec 12, 2015 4:37 pm Reply with quote
Andre (in the question) wrote:
But I've noticed some stuff never turns up, like Media Blasters, Honneamise & those Toei discs Geneon distributed never pop up in brick & mortar clearance bins.


I saw the Bandai Visual/Honneamise releases of the Patlabor movies on the DVD bargain racks at XS Cargo, a now-defunct Canadian overstock store, in 2013.
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AJ (LordNikon)



Joined: 14 Apr 2009
Posts: 504
Location: Kyoto
PostPosted: Sat Dec 12, 2015 8:38 pm Reply with quote
Haven't bought a disc in years, but I do recall in the day before the collapse, Suncoast, BestBuy and even RightStuf use to have a bargain bin. RACS too to clear out overstocks or stuff that just didn't sell. I'm pretty sure Bob still puts things on clearance from time to time to free up space in the warehouse.

I also remember it use to be a thing on the AnimeOnDVD forums where we would post clearance alerts. There was a time that BJ's Wholesellers and some of the dollar stores would end up with ADV and Pioneer stuff that the big boxes couldn't get rid of. Keep in mind this was 10-15 years ago.
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killa5k7



Joined: 21 Sep 2012
Posts: 18
PostPosted: Sat Dec 12, 2015 10:29 pm Reply with quote
Wife and I discovered all of Wolfs Rain, S-CRY-ed, and various Gundam titles from Big Lots for a couple bucks. Was sad to see Bandai disbanded a bit of time after that but was bedazzled by the cheap prices. Who would have thought selfishly wanting cheap product could be a double edge sword.
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