The Old School Otaku Lounge

These days I mostly buy off cdjapan if I can get ahead of them in their preorder cycle. If I mess up, I often hope that a book will show up on otaku.com. They've been excellent in terms of shipping books over the past few years, but as of late, they seem to have fewer and fewer new releases. (Their ebay store is higher priced sometimes than their website, so I always look in both places to compare final cost of an item with shipping.)

I have had no problems with Animate USA. I ordered/preordered some Gintama/ Natsume BOok of friend's merchandise and it came fairly quickly. Much cheaper than buying that stuff through CDJapan.

I'll use Rightstuff when I want DVDs....

Ah, I've never ordered anything from otaku.com, good to know they're reliable!

yesasia.com and playasia.com are also reputable. Peter has his store...jlist.com

Ah, yes, I've ordered from all 3 of those! Peter from Jlist is nice, he's always quick to answer questions on Twitter.

I have yet to buy from here, but Animeigo still has some of their series for sale on DVD! O:

http://www.animeigo.com/home

I really should buy all the anime series they have available, especially since they're brand new and cheaper than elsewhere online. XD;;; Thank god I looked it up.

Oh, I've bought from Animeigo direct tons of times. They're great, reliable, and ship super fast. (Though their website literally hasn't changed since it went online in the 90s, lol.)

When Lum was going out of print, I bought all the movies they had in stock and a bunch of the TV show DVDs....I also got some of the You're Under Arrest! DVDs before they went out of print. I'm still bummed I was never able to snag a copy of Metal Skin Panic or Spirit of Wonder...now they're ridiculously hard to find. :/

usamimi wrote:Oh, I've bought from Animeigo direct tons of times. They're great, reliable, and ship super fast. (Though their website literally hasn't changed since it went online in the 90s, lol.)

When Lum was going out of print, I bought all the movies they had in stock and a bunch of the TV show DVDs....I also got some of the You're Under Arrest! DVDs before they went out of print. I'm still bummed I was never able to snag a copy of Metal Skin Panic or Spirit of Wonder...now they're ridiculously hard to find. :/

Oh man I've always wanted to see Spirit of Wonder. I guess I'll need to be on the lookout for that one.

YEAH people try to sell that one for ridiculous amounts because supposedly right after it came out on DVD, they lost the license for it, so they had to stop making and selling them. Cheapest one on Amazon is currently $70 http://www.amazon.com/Spirit-Wonder-Mis ... a%27s+ring

I heard Metal Skin Panic was a similar story, but even less were made because it was like...the first DVD they printed or something? Cheapest is $200 on Amazon! http://www.amazon.com/Madox-01-Metal-Pa ... skin+panic CRAZY.

I also own their Bubblegum Crisis set, Vampire Miyu, and most of their OAV releases that are all still available on the site. I love all of their extensive notes, they harken back to fansubber days when they'd try to explain things that might be "too Japanese" for a casual fan to get. I wish more legit translators did that instead of trying to find "American equivalents" for it.

Wow, I am not surprised that Metal Skin Panic fetches such a high price. I bought that one and Crusher Joe for only $10 or less several years ago. I snatched their KOR and Yawara when they went OOP, and did not have enough money to invest in UY at the time. I am glad I picked those two up, especially now since they go for so much money.

HLJ is a nice company. I've met Brian a couple of times and befriended him to a degree via e-mail. I met Scott, too. Sid and Ryan remain elusive. I like their YouTube videos because they are very personable. I've talked to Brian at length at model shows, and I will likely see him again at the Summer Wonder Festival next weekend.

I've noticed that 'nice' gets thrown out a lot when discussing our retailer friends - and with justification, no-one knows the pleasures of vicarious geekdom than another geek, after all. I've had dealings with many shops in the past, but the one that is closest to my heart and to my shame is my old local store which is still kicking after nigh on 40 years in the game - AND 25 of those years serving the anime crowd.... This is one for the Brits though, I think...

The Sheffield Space Centre!

http://www.space-centre.co.uk/