The "Check this item out on eBay" Thread

The roughly mid-90's and earlier (generally pre-Toonami, pre-anime boom) era of anime & manga fandom: early cons, clubs, tape trading, Nth Generation VHS fansubs, old magazines & fanzines, fandubs, ancient merchandise, rec.arts.anime, and more!
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Drew_Sutton
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Re: The "Check this item out on eBay" Thread

Post by Drew_Sutton »

usamimi wrote: Sat Sep 10, 2022 10:02 am YEAH the anime VHS market is kinda nuts right now. Even more nuts is the vintage anime T-shirt market--I've seen some people trying to sell old anime shirts for $1,000?!? If people are actually paying that much for them, I regret getting rid of some of my old t-shirts back in the day, lmao.
Yeah, I lament getting rid of some of my shirts, too but more because I would want to wear them again but yeah, someone handing over 1K is tempting.

I have no idea where it's coming from - tapes or t-shirts. Are folks actually completing a sale at these prices? It's one thing to drop an ad for $700 of tapes or a thousand dollar t-shirt and just have that ad languish as we all have a laugh at it. But is someone actually buying these things at the listed price?
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Re: The "Check this item out on eBay" Thread

Post by usamimi »

I've seen some people actually buying non-rare anime on VHS for really marked up prices on instagram--it seems like places like instagram, Depop, and other "boutique" places are driving these kinds of prices, and they're slowly trickling into ebay and etsy, too. It seems mostly younger collectors who are fascinated by dead media and ~aesthetic~ rather than older fans like us. Still, the ripple effect is showing, as it's driving up prices everywhere now. :|
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Re: The "Check this item out on eBay" Thread

Post by davemerrill »

I still see anime VHS for $1 in the thrifts on occasion -and then I see it in the antique malls for $10. I guess seeing it on Depop or Instagram for $100 is the natural progression of such things. Give it a few years and the fashion victims buying these items as decorations in their hipster pads will start liquidating for pennies on the dollar, when times get tough or when somebody gets evicted because they spent all their rent money on $500 vintage anime t-shirts.
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Re: The "Check this item out on eBay" Thread

Post by mbanu »

Drew_Sutton wrote: Sat Sep 10, 2022 11:05 am I have no idea where it's coming from - tapes or t-shirts. Are folks actually completing a sale at these prices? It's one thing to drop an ad for $700 of tapes or a thousand dollar t-shirt and just have that ad languish as we all have a laugh at it. But is someone actually buying these things at the listed price?
I would guess two competing ideas.

First, a lot of poor otaku became rich through working all the time in technical fields. However, some folks wake up one day and realize the last time they were happy and worry-free was when they were wearing that old anime t-shirt, which they no longer have. They decide that they want it back -- if there are more people with that feeling than there are anime t-shirts, the prices can start to get a little crazy.

Second, otaku and hipsters have a sort of weird relationship, as has been mentioned. Hipsters lust after authenticity, and otaku are authentic. However, as anyone who has spent a lot of time in a large group of otaku have noticed, many can also be kinda unpleasant. So old otaku stuff becomes appealing because a hipster can wear an old Dr. Slump t-shirt or whatever and might get surprised by one 40-something weeb rather that 20 20-something weebs if they wore a t-shirt for a new anime. :lol:
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Re: The "Check this item out on eBay" Thread

Post by chibiboi »

mbanu wrote: Tue Sep 27, 2022 7:19 pm
Drew_Sutton wrote: Sat Sep 10, 2022 11:05 am I have no idea where it's coming from - tapes or t-shirts. Are folks actually completing a sale at these prices? It's one thing to drop an ad for $700 of tapes or a thousand dollar t-shirt and just have that ad languish as we all have a laugh at it. But is someone actually buying these things at the listed price?
I would guess two competing ideas.

First, a lot of poor otaku became rich through working all the time in technical fields. However, some folks wake up one day and realize the last time they were happy and worry-free was when they were wearing that old anime t-shirt, which they no longer have. They decide that they want it back -- if there are more people with that feeling than there are anime t-shirts, the prices can start to get a little crazy.

Second, otaku and hipsters have a sort of weird relationship, as has been mentioned. Hipsters lust after authenticity, and otaku are authentic. However, as anyone who has spent a lot of time in a large group of otaku have noticed, many can also be kinda unpleasant. So old otaku stuff becomes appealing because a hipster can wear an old Dr. Slump t-shirt or whatever and might get surprised by one 40-something weeb rather that 20 20-something weebs if they wore a t-shirt for a new anime. :lol:
I think this is exactly it (speaking from experience) a lot of millennials yearn for their childhood because we're in a little rough spot right now navigating our 30s, realizing we're not young anymore and also failing to live up to society's expectations of adulthood. And we're grasping onto our nostalgia like crazy. Also we are at an age now where we can afford things that we never could before (I just spent hundreds of dollars on ADV's crappy uncut Sailor Moon DVD set because I remember seeing them for $200 each at Best Buy in 2004 and thought $80 per set nowadays was a deal). I've also personally started trading VHS fansubs because I never got to experience that as a kid since I grew up in the transition period between analogue fansubs and digisubs.

I know a lot of Gen Z are also collecting vintage merchandise much like how people collect vinyls. Mostly for ~aesthetics~ but I think they also yearn to experience something that they never did.

And I definitely know a lot of people are willing to pay exorbitant amounts for authentic vintage items. And yes, 90s is vintage now and film/TV shows set in the 90s are considered "period pieces" in the industry XD
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