What is missing from your anime or manga collection?

[Ben]

Unfortunately, I do not own an LD player. I wouldn't mind getting one eventually, though--for trying to get import LDs of stuff that hasn't gotten DVD releases over here.

Just a friendly tip, I've gotten some friends into collecting LDs, and a great way to snag a nice player cheap is to hit up your local pawn shops and thrift stores. A lot of them have had LD players sitting on the shelf since the 90's and will let them go for next to nothing. In particular you'd want older ones that are a bit oudated and don't sell merchandise online; I actually was in a local pawn shop that had a Pioneer CLD-600 series LD player with $50 on it, offered them $20 for it to buy for a friend, and they took it! Here's a helpful guide to LD players as well: http://www.mindspring.com/~laserguru/digitalage.html Pretty much Pioneer and Panasonic are the only LD brands worth bothering with, DO NOT buy a combo LD/DVD player, and with Pioneer the higher the number the better. That site breaks it down more in depth.

Edit: Also, the part of that guide about deinterlacers is VERY outdated, don't go by that. There are much better options for upscaling to modern HDTVs (the XRGB-3 is the best if you can afford it), that guide was written with rear projection HDTVs in mind.

[usamimi]

Thanks for the tip! I browse one or two local thrift stores about once a week, surprisingly I've yet to see an LD player...though I've occasionally seen LDs here and there (usually crappy movies, sadly.) I've never checked out any of the pawn shops, though, I might have to give that a try.

[yusaku]

I want to say that you must always have in your mind what you are looking to obtain. It is good to make a list or catalog of the anime and manga stuff you really want to get. This is helpful because often times you will go online or into a book, thrift, or pawn shop and see the very item you were wanting. Only you might pass it by because you were not expecting to see it. Plus, most of the time people who see old anime and manga are usually trying to get rid of the the items. The promotion for the wares ended years ago; and most anime fans may not know what the anime or manga is about. The price can be so cheap I will buy duplicates and triplicates. Move fast and swift when you buy multiple copies because the price goes up in a couple of days. I bought "His and Her Circumstances" CD's for like a 1$ - 5$ a piece. You best believe the price stayed above five dollars for months. Of course, the price does go back down but it usually takes a couple of months. I do periodic searches on the internet sites ebay and amazon to find those rare CDs and DVD's. I just did one tonight and some thrift store is selling a CD so rare I could not find it for less than $175 bundles with two other CD's from the same anime. They only want twenty dollars! I am glad I looked tonight. That CD is out of print and extremely hard to find. I intend to make a more detailed catalogue of anime and manga I want to make sure I catch them for sale cheap.

[usamimi]

I have a list of all the things I'm constantly "on the lookout" for...I do need to update it, since I've actually managed to find a few things on it. I take it with me whenever I go to conventions, and sometimes if a friend is going to one and they offer, I'll send them my list just in case they spot something for me so they can pick it up & I can pay them back later.

[llj]

LDs are of interest to me, too, but disc rot is something that's keeping me at arm's length from it. I like reading about people's collections and looking at the art, but it's real important that I don't have to worry about an older format not working when I get it. Maybe if LDs made a comeback like vinyl, and they "fixed" the disc rot problems in re-releases, then maybe...

[Ben]

LDs are of interest to me, too, but disc rot is something that's keeping me at arm's length from it. I like reading about people's collections and looking at the art, but it's real important that I don't have to worry about an older format not working when I get it. Maybe if LDs made a comeback like vinyl, and they "fixed" the disc rot problems in re-releases, then maybe...

I understand why you would be wary, but just to clarify that, disc rot only happened with certain LD publishers, particularly the lower end ones, that used inferior coatings on their releases. It's not unique to LDs, though, the average recommended life of a CD before there is a chance of rot is 20 years, if you get CDs that were not pressed well in the 80s the same things happens (and as DVDs age will be happening, too). A lot of people misidentify disc rot when the problem is really a warped disc, that was stored in extreme cold or hot (say in a storage unit or basement), or that were stacked face down instead of upright (which also causes vinyl to warp). If you dig through that site I linked, it actually lists the studios known for rot. Just to give you an example, I have never had an issue with rot on a single Criterion LD, but that's because they used better quality coatings. So there isn't anything to "fix", some were made cheaply and some weren't.

Edit: Just wanted to clarify a couple of things, related to anime on LD. I have never had a problem with Animeigo LDs, and Japanese LDs in general were very high quality, I have never had an issue with a JP import LD. It was actually some of the big American studios you need to watch out for. Here's a great example: the Akira LD was handled by two studios, Criterion did a deluxe release and then I believe MCA (or maybe it was MGM) did a cheaper barebones version. That Criterion version is a safe buy, no worry of rot, but the cheaper release is almost guaranteed to have rot. Now, that doesn't mean you couldn't buy a warped Criterion LD that was at the bottom of a 20 LD facedown stack for 10 years, but what has happened is that people who don't know LDs pop in a warped one, it doesn't work, and then they immediately proclaim laser rot. Great example of warping: Half Price Books sells LDs, and at least the one near me stacks ALL OF THEM face down in piles of 10 or so. This is exactly how you ruin an LD (or vinyl too), I would never buy an LD that was stored this way.

[Drew_Sutton]

I browse one or two local thrift stores about once a week, surprisingly I've yet to see an LD player

I'm like you - I've never been able to find LD (or even Betamax) players at my local thrifts. Either I don't go enough (which is entirely fair to say that) or I've always hit them at the wrong time. I eventually went to Craigslist and found a couple for sale, luckily, the first one I contacted was interested. Players are probably much easier to find - looking for anime LDs on CL has been a bust here in Atlanta. Probably because every private party that has them doesn't want to give up on them, or they're going to make more money off of them on eBay. If I wind up in the SF Bay Area again this year, I might hit it up to see if I have any better luck.

I wouldn't mind getting one eventually, though--for trying to get import LDs of stuff that hasn't gotten DVD releases over here.

This was one of the primary reasons I got my LD player (the other was to get JP LD sets of series whose US DVDs that went OOP and command high dollar amounts online or had changes dictated to them) and it used to be a very cost effective venture - you could get packs of 3 or 4 discs for under $20. I got one of my favorite films, Macross: Do You Remember Love, for $5. I gave up hope on Maison Ikkoku DVDs here and got the whole TV series on LD for $50 (nevermind the almost $150 I spent on shipping it -.- ). Now though, prices are moving up for no other reason than there are other fans thinking like you and I. I've been looking into getting one of the first successful sports/shojo anime on LD, Attack No. 1, and complete LD sets start at $150 on eBay. I also wanted Zeta Gundam on LD because the theme songs got removed on the US release, nope, those are $300. That's what I got my DVDs in the super-duper-specialty-boxset for. I see singles there occasionally for 10 to 15 bucks a pop, but I'm always paranoid that I'll wind up missing some (or can I really live w/o a complete set?)

Most of the stuff I find that's still cheap are singles of stuff that had really heavy print runs and a long DVD shelf life in the US - Tenchi Muyo! Ryou-oh-ki OAV 1 and 2 immediately springs to mind. I see them between 5 - 10 bucks all the time.

Now... the real thread topic at hand ...

How you go about tracking down rare videos? Would you bother getting the "B" rated stuff? Would you focus on anime or manga?

Like I mentioned before, I've used Craigslist a bit in the past with some success and I look for stuff on eBay quite a bit. I look for both manga and anime, though I am super picky on pricing. Would I bother with "B" rated stuff? I certainly would - if it was B-List stuff that I was for some reason enamored with it. Something like Elf Princess Ren or Natsuki Crisis which aren't great by any stretch but I remember having lots of fun. As for manga, I try and look for wide versions of older stuff or unlicensed stuff, just to try and save on space.

[SteveH]

I'm also in the "Need Dunbine v. 11 & 12" club. It's not so much wanting to finish the story (yeah, that too) as it makes my OCD ramp into overtime, seeing those two empty slots!!

I finally finished off the Gatchaman boxes, the last two volumes of Gun Frontier and I'm really cranky to get the third season of the live action show from the '60s I Spy. This has been announced as an upcoming 'full series' set but dammit I don't want to buy it all over again...

Dunbine is a personal pain in the ass, because I did EVERYTHING I could for that show, ADV did such a crap job of selling it past the 6th volume.

I'm serious. I was working at Suncoast, I had a good relationship with the district manager, when I saw that v.11 and 12 wasn't even in the system to special order I put a strongly worded request up thru the channels. This was HIGHLY discouraged. Store level staff, even managers, were NOT to talk to the buyers at the Home Office. It used to be different but the Best Buy buyout of the company really screwed things up. That's an entire epic story. Anyway. We got the volumes in the warehouse but I never had the spare money to order them and I couldn't do the 'order for store stock wink wink' dodge we were doing for product that we in our store knew we could sell but Home Office didn't bother to ship to us (it was becoming so damn stupid as the company self-destructed. 2004 was the last 'good' year). I mean, what's the draw for a video store when Big Box stores are beating you to death on Major Mainstream Studio releases, like the Harry Potter movies? NICHE! The stuff the Big Boxes didn't carry. I got us 10 copies of Calamari Wrestler when it came out and we sold out and actually ordered more!

So anyway, I had special order slips all written up for Dunbine v.11 and 12, waiting to pull the trigger and *whomp* 2005 and company bankrupt and abayo, y'all!

I grit my teeth and cry hot tears of manly shame.

[yusaku]

Steve I remember the going to the local Sucoast all the time. Next to comic book stores, Suncoast was the best spot for anime. The company kept many titles on hand compared to other stores. I mostly look online for anime titles now. There are a few titles that come through used book stores and thrift stores. Ebay, Amazon, and the RightStuff.com are shopping central for me right now.

Usamini I was wondering how often do you update your list and do you every buy duplicates? I try to buy duplicates for items if I can find them cheap or if they are out of print, rare and I really like the item. What do you think about buying duplicates? I also do put duplicates in a separate location should a natural disaster, theft, or fire occur.

[Ben]

Funny that you guys mention Suncoast, I actually used to buy all of my anime at my local On Cue, which was originally a record store and then started carrying LDs and DVDs, and in particular stocked a ton of anime selections. What's interesting about that is they were bought out by Suncoast circa 2002. They actually kept existing as Sam Goody after that, and then FYE after Sam Goody. That store is still standing as FYE and stocking a lot of anime titles to this day, though not nearly like in the 90's when they were On Cue or even the early 2000's as Suncoast.