Article: Cheap and legal
Cheap and legal
Perhaps the most common complaint that I here among anime fans is that their hobby is too damn expensive, especially if you want to watch stuff that isn't on cartoon network. At a cost of thirty dollars to a dvd being a fan can really hurt the wallet of most teenagers and college students. There is a real temptation to just download the stuff. However for those of you with a good conscience or a fear of what the industry might do to you there are ways of getting anime cheaply and still be clean. I know how otherwise I could have never seen well over three hundred different shows with the amount of money I make.
1.Renting The first thing you want to do Is check out your local video stores and libraries. They are great sources of cheap anime. Although the selection can leave something to be desired there is always the possibility of finding something good. Even after you see everything you want you should always check back every couple of months to see if they have anything new.
2.Online renting There are sites that allow you to rent from their library of dvds for a monthly fee. When you are done watching them you simply mail them back and they will send you more dvds. The cost per month is around 18-30 dollars a month. This is an option that I personally use as it allows me to watch a wide variety of shows, especially those I am not that interested in seeing more than once. There are several places you can go but as for myself I use greencine as my personal service.
3.Box sets and thin packs While it may be tempting to rush out and buy the latest anime series I found out from experience that there are a lot of somewhat older shows that are always at least as good as the newest thing. What is more important for the thrifty spender is that these older shows are often cheaper to get, especially when they come out in box sets. I have found box sets of twenty six episode long shows for as low as fifty dollars.
4.Best buy used and online stores While the Standard market price for an anime dvd is usually thirty dollars or so the savvy consumer can find them for less than that. A good place to look is the nearest best buy. They often stock new dvds at less than normal prices. They don't have everything but their selection is decent. There are also places you can get them used. Also just about any online store I have seen offers anime dvds at a lower price than in video stores. One thing is you do want to check and make sure they aren't bootlegs, because that is like paying for fansubs and nothing is dumber than paying for fansubs. The easiest way of doing that is to look at the cover art and see if it matches the art advertised on the licenser's website.
5.Umd While I don't know all that much about it there is a new format called umd which works for the playstation portable. While only a few titles are available for it right now one thing I have noticed is that they are cheaper than normal dvds. While this may be no help to most of us, if you have the system in question it is probably worth checking out.