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Old 2003-11-07, 11:05   Link #1
Megane
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The "Where do I buy..." Thread

Goal: I'd like to put together a thread which will help those who want to support the anime industry by spending some of their hard-earned money on it. I certainly remember that in the last Animesuki, there were a considerable number of questions relating to where people should go to buy their anime/manga/OSTs. Hopefully this thread will be somewhere that they can go to for some advice. So, I'd like to ask the forum members for their help in suggesting good places to go (not just online, but physical stores too, if you can think of any). I don't want to limit the advice to anyone because of their geographical location, so don't limit your suggestions to American retailers. Preferably I'd like to hear your submissions over PM, so that they can be checked over before posting, but please feel welcome to post in this thread when it comes to constructive criticism. That should save the moderators some work when it comes to deleting bad site links. I'll try to edit this post regularly with any ideas you give.

Conditions: No Spam. No Bootlegs. No Silliness.

How to spot bootlegs:
  • Offering unlicensed anime on DVD or VCD with English subtitles. (The occasional Japanese release does have English subtitles)
  • English and Chinese subtitles available.
  • Large number of episodes per disc. (6 is rare on an offical release, 7+ is highly dubious)
  • Suspiciously low price. (This one is a lot harder to spot)
(NOTE: These are general guidelines. In some rare cases official releases may fit some of these criteria, or some bootlegs may not fit any of them. Please be careful)
For information regarding how to identify an official Region 2 Japanese Disc, see these posts by kj1980 or AvatarADV.

DVDs
International
http://www.dvdpacific.com (Deals in $(USD), but prices can be displayed in many other currencies)
http://www.yesasia.com (Not just anime, not just Japan)

Europe
http://www.archonia.com (Based in Belgium)

America
http://www.rightstuf.com/
http://www.animenation.com/ (Also see the The Official Special Offers Thread)
http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com (Might be suitable for international orders)
http://www.animeonestop.com (Anime section of http://www.digitaleyes.net)
http://www.animecornerstore.com

United Kingdom
http://www.play.com (For Region 1 DVDs visit http://www.playusa.com)
http://www.up1.co.uk (AKA United Publications)

Sweden
http://www.webhallen.com

Finland
http://www.filmifriikki.fi

Manga
See ElvenPath's Where to buy Manga thread.

Music
See ElvenPath's Where to buy japanese/anime music thread.

Merchandise
America
http://www.animenation.com
http://www.animecornerstore.com

Europe
http://www.archonia.com (Based in Belgium)

United Kingdom
http://www.natsukianime.co.uk

Last edited by ElvenPath; 2010-07-02 at 10:23. Reason: A few more edits
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Old 2003-11-07, 11:08   Link #2
outlaw55
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Accually Amazon is probably a better secure source for getting DVDs too. Your site listed is QUITE expensive for DVDs and amazon's DVDs are MUCH cheaper (that site is all RETAIL prices and you are paying more than you would have to!!!). Always check around sites you know you can trust for the DVDs for the cheapest price !!!

For Merchandise
http://www.animenation.com

Last edited by outlaw55; 2003-11-07 at 14:35.
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Old 2003-11-07, 11:25   Link #3
Megane
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Quote:
Originally Posted by outlaw55
Accually Amazon is probably a better secure source for getting DVDs too. Your site listed is QUITE expensive for DVDs and amazon's DVDs are MUCH cheaper (that site is all RETAIL prices and you are paying more than you would have to!!!). Always check around sites you know you can trust for the DVDs !!!

For Merchandise
http://www.animenation.com
Amazon is much cheaper?! Let's do a little comparison shall we:

Cowboy Bebop DVD 1
Amazon $26.98
DVDPacific $19.41

Full Metal Panic DVD 1
Amazon $26.98
DVDPacific $17.32

Initial D DVD 1
Amazon $17.99
DVDPacific $12.48

And I could go on and on. I think you must have made some kind of mistake I'm afraid.

[EDIT] Typo. Also, prices were correct at time of posting.
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Old 2003-11-07, 11:32   Link #4
SirCanealot
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UK= www.play.com !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111

Also, since I an required to spam this thread:


I HATE YOU ALL


Ahem.


Thank you.


Good day, sirs.
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Old 2003-11-07, 11:47   Link #5
EvilTomte
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I have no idea about places to buy anime outside of Sweden. But I'll contribute what I can for swedes. It's not much though.

http://www.webhallen.com/ (has a section dedicated entirely to anime, rather good reference)
http://www.sfbok.se/ (the only place I know of that deals with manga in sweden)

I'm sure there are lots and lots more places in Sweden. But this is what I can come up with right now.

Good initiative anyway, Megane. I'll come back with more if I can come up with anything.

Last edited by EvilTomte; 2003-11-13 at 20:15. Reason: It wasn't sf.se, it is sfbok.se. heh. stupid mistake.
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Old 2003-11-07, 11:51   Link #6
xris
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Quote:
Originally Posted by outlaw55
Your site listed is QUITE expensive for DVDs and amazon's DVDs are MUCH cheaper (that site is all RETAIL prices and you are paying more than you would have to!!!).
I don't know what prices you were looking at outlaw55 but you are totally incorrect there.

DVDpacific are very good, even more so when you add International Shipping (for those of us not residing in the U.S.of A.).

I've now ordered from them a number of times and the price, availability and speed of delivery are all very good.

Here are the turn round time for my first few orders (I live in the U.K. so had them shipped via International Priority Air Mail). First order, 7days. Second order 5 days. Third, fourth, fifth order 8 days. Some orders have taken longer but that was due to the fact they needed to backorder the item. Also, shipping cost was $9 for three DVDs (but recently dropped to $8 for three).

Amazon in the UK are proving to be the cheapest place to obtain manga (as long as you order more than £25 at a time then it's free P&P).
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Old 2003-11-07, 13:27   Link #7
GHDpro
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Wow... thanks for the Amazon.co.uk link. The really are cheap for
manga -- heck, probably cheaper than their American cousin.

Anyway for ordering from Europe, here is another good site to get
DVDs, manga (English, Japanese and French), anime magazines (like
Newtype USA) and merchandise: www.archonia.com

Just don't order from them from Ireland and use normal shipping
or you'll be waiting 6-7 weeks... Well even to the Netherlands
(they're located in Belgium) they were slow (1 week), but anyway...

Another site for ordering DVDs, manga and anime magazines from Europe is:
www.up1.co.uk

Finally, although I've not ordered from them once, if you want
Japanese or other lega Asian DVDs, check out:
www.yesasia.com
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Old 2003-11-07, 14:31   Link #8
outlaw55
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well exuse me, but look at all the shows, I looked up several I BOUGHT, not all the shows you are talking about. As I finally stated, go with sites you know and trust and SHOP AROUND for the best price. All of the shows I had searched for had standard retail price, so sue me i didn't search for those few that WERE cheaper. I shop around too, just choose the cheapest price....that is my point really....in all reality I could probably search and go on for hours about what on that site is more expensive too, if you want examples feel free to PM me about those instead of flaming in this thread. The IS NO place with "the cheapest price" for EVERTHING, just shop around...jsut dont' cut someone's head off for something you had to SEARCH to find better prices of.....geez.....just shope where you want to, but i usually go for the cheapest price and shipping......
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Old 2003-11-09, 12:46   Link #9
7thMethuselah
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not trying to promote one company or another but I ordered alot via www.archonia.com allready and I must say I'm quite happy with their service. Delivery is always within a week upon payment, always well packed, etc...

If you're from Belgium, it's also very easy to order via regular mail (and cheap).
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Old 2003-11-09, 12:58   Link #10
ironfrost
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For merchandise in the UK, I like natsukianime.co.uk - there are quite a few artbooks, pencil boards and whatnot listed on the site, but the best thing is that if you want a specific item that's not listed they'll try to find it for you. I got some Konjiki no Gash Bell merchandise from them recently, for example.

Also - I would put play.com as a more prominent link than playUSA in the UK section - it's usually about 20% cheaper, and also people importing series that have had a domestic release is a big problem for the UK anime industry.
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Old 2003-11-09, 14:17   Link #11
GHDpro
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 7thMethuselah
not trying to promote one company or another but I ordered alot via www.archonia.com allready and I must say I'm quite happy with their service. Delivery is always within a week upon payment, always well packed, etc...
Well I haven't had any trouble with them either -- apart from that I won't order from
them from Ireland again (at least not using regular mail). From the Netherlands my
orders have been fine (ordered 15+ times from them so far, and even bought from
them in person at the Anime 2003 convention).

And while in a previous post I mention Amazon.co.uk to be cheap, I did some comparisans
and found Archonia to be even cheaper in most cases (plus they stock Newtype USA)
which Amazon doesn't.
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Old 2003-11-12, 04:21   Link #12
Iron Monkey
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Well, I live in Canada, and it seems www.dvdpacific.com has very good prices. As long as it's cheap, I don't mind the 9-21 business days it takes for them to ship it here. I just ordered my Transformers Season 1, 2, and 3 part 1 from there, and their prices are so much cheaper than Futureshop.ca, even with the shipping fee. Now, let's see how long it does take for it to get here.
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Old 2003-11-12, 07:00   Link #13
NenMaster
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whats the best international to UK?
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Old 2003-11-12, 15:41   Link #14
Lambda
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People in the UK might want to check out this guide: http://compsoc.net/~flend/anime/anim...ide/index.html
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Old 2003-11-12, 19:33   Link #15
xris
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NenMaster
whats the best international to UK?
A number of people on these forums have used DVDPacific, myself included, and highly recommend them.

They have very good prices, P&P is low (especially when you order at least three DVDs at a go), turnround time is good (see my previous post in this thread for examples), have yet to pay any Custom duty (thanks to the way they are packaged). DVDs cost somewhere around £11 to £15 each and that includes Air Mail postage!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lambda
People in the UK might want to check out this guide: http://compsoc.net/~flend/anime/anim...ide/index.html
While that's a good starter, I would like to point out that the UK selection is somewhat out of date. I've used a number of those suggested but not for the last year or more because they are now either defunct or better sources have appeared. Would not longer recommend MovieTyme, far from it, avoid if possible. DVDexpress have moved on. UP are relatively expensive compared to shipping direct from the States.

If fact, the links at the start of this thread are current and recommended.
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Old 2003-11-13, 20:12   Link #16
EvilTomte
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Haha, I just noticed I had made a huge mistake. It's not http://www.sf.se/ .

It's http://www.sfbok.se/

sf.se is a cinema site. Heh, I wonder how I could mix it up. >.<
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Old 2003-11-14, 11:28   Link #17
outlaw55
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Cheap places are good, but it is also good to look for sales.

Right Stuf is expensive, but they have some good deals in their weekly deals section, I got Trigun yesterday for $70 cheaper than retail (about $13 cheaper than dvd pacific).

Also just a side note, I post a lot here on this computer at school and I won't BS you, when I was looking at the dates on dvdpacific at the 800x600 resolution it cut off their prices (right after retail)...LOL, anyways, here is the right stuf site in case you want it search for sales:

http://www.rightstuf.com
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Old 2003-11-17, 18:06   Link #18
LuciaMelody
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What about Deep Discount DVD? http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/
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Old 2003-11-17, 19:22   Link #19
zalas
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LuciaMelody
What about Deep Discount DVD? http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/
www.digitaleyes.net seems to have nice prices on both used and new anime. Their used selection tends to have cheaper prices if they have a lot of a certain disc in stock in their used department.
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Old 2003-11-19, 10:53   Link #20
SanttuH
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Well, i'd like that you'd add a place where you can buy manga from finland. URLs are http://www.fantasiapelit.com they are fast, but their shipping costs are a bit high.. so i also have ordered from http://www.akateeminen.com but their collection of manga is much more smaller, but shipping costs almost don't exist . And then there's always http://www.goodfellows.fi also a place where you can get manga, haven't ordered from there but i have picked them up, very nice selection there, too. So all of those are finnish sites to get manga.
Sorry i didin't PM these, i'm too lazy.
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