Once you start down the anime path, forever will it dominate your destiny...

I have been collecting Anime and anime memorabilia for over four years now. During that time, I have had some experience dealing with various websites ordering and purchasing various items. As a result, I feel that I am qualified to offer a few tips to the would-be anime buyer on where to find the best prices and selection.

Go for DVD's!

While having the picture clarity and extra features that DVD's provide is a nice bonus for regular movies, for anime I feel it is especially important. Most anime DVD's, except for the super main stream titles such as Pokemon and the like, come with both dubbed audio tracks and the original Japanese audio track with subtitles. In order to do the same with a VHS tape, you would have to buy two tapes. For the sake of argument, say that tapes usually cost about $20, while DVD's go for $30. This means that while DVD's are more expensive, they are a much better value. Another benefit of DVD's is that they don't degrade over time and/or with multiple viewings. If you don't have a player yet, there is really no reason not to unless you are really strapped for cash. I have seen basic players for under $100 in major chain electronics stores such as Best Buy.

Friends don't let Friends Buy Off-Line

If you are going to seriously get into anime collecting, don't purchase your anime at a retail outlet. Retail outlets charge the full MSRP price for all DVD and VHS titles they carry. Websites, on the other hand, carry these same titles for $5-10 less. This is a simple case of economics, as it costs a lot of money to build and maintain physical retail stores. A website, freed from this overhead, doesn't have to charge as much for its products. Admittedly, this benefit is somewhat counteracted by the shipping charges. However, if you are buying 3-4 disks or tapes at a time (which I recommend), then the shipping fee is divided up and the total price for each item is still less than what you would pay at the counter. If you absolutely have to buy at retail, I have had excellent luck finding what I have been looking for at Suncoast Motion Picture Company stores. Suncoast consistently has the largest off-line anime collections I've seen. A close second are Best Buy stores. This chain is a little more hit and miss. Some locations seem to have a pretty wide selection, while others are more limited. I should also note that I often browse stores such as these, not so much to buy but to get a look at what is available and see if there is anything that I might like to buy online later. I have also seen several smaller shops during my ramblings, and if you are lucky enough to have one that is devoted to anime or manga in your immediate area I would highly encourage you to check it out.

Imperfect Solutions: Renting and Buying Used

Even with the price reductions that can be had from buying online, there is still no denying that buying new anime titles can become very expensive in short order. There are some ways to circumvent this problem somewhat, but they aren't perfect. First, one could use a rental service such as Netflix to rent anime. This service works as promised, sending you DVD's in the mail complete with return packaging. These discs can be watched at your leisure, all for a moderate ($20-40) monthly fee. The drawbacks to these services, however, is that there are usually a limited selection of anime titles to choose from. Also, the number of copies of each title tends to be low. As a consequence, you could be placed on a waiting list for months while you wait for a copy to become available.  Buying used DVDs from websites such as Half.com has proved to be the best solution for my anime cravings. This website is an extension of Ebay, but instead of selling things for auction items are put up for sale at a set price on a first come, first serve basis. The advantages of this system is that you can get perfectly good DVD's for 50-70% off (my best find thus far is a volume of Gasaraki I bought for only $5!). Since DVD's don't degrade, there is usually no issues with buying used ones. If they are somehow scratched, a number of methods exist to repair them. The downside of buying used titles is that it is hard to find new titles through this service, and the availability of a particular title is dependant upon whether or not anyone is selling it at that particular time.

Website Guide

These sites are the ones that I have purchased from in the past. I have provided the URLs and a short description of each.
 

Anime Castle -http://www.animecastle.com/	This site has some of the best prices on new titles that I have seen. They also carry a fairly wide selection of anime soundtracks. While they carry other anime paraphernalia, this site focuses on videos and music.
The Right Stuff - http://www.rightstuf.com/main.shtml	This site is one of the biggest out there. Their selection is very large and varied...I would say that if you can't find it here, it probably isn't to be found. However, their prices are somewhat higher than other sites, and their selection of toys and figures is a little thin.  But otherwise, this is a well stocked site.
chibiTOKYO - http://www.chibitokyo.com/	When I first started shopping at this site, it was called Vengence of Excalibur or voe.com for short. At the time, they were also focused on everything but actual anime videos. Action figures, wall scrolls, manga, you name it, they carry it. They have since started to carry DVD's as well, but their selection and prices aren't the greatest yet. If you are looking for a good source of anime memorabilia, this is it.
Half.com - http://half.ebay.com/	This is where I have started to buy most of my anime. There is normally a very good selection of titles available, although there often aren't many brand-new titles since this site deals with used items. I have had great luck dealing with this website. All my items arrived in good condition with complete packaging, as promised by the sellers. The prices here can't be beat, as they are often only a fraction of what the MSRP values are. This is definitely were one can get the most bang for his or her buck.

Conclusion

My anime buying experience is far from complete. These sites are the main sources for the items in my collection, but there are a large number of other sites out there that may provide comparable selection and prices. My final word of advice to all of you collectors out there is to shop around! Search engines like Google can produce a number of very useful online stores to compare prices at. On a final note, please email me if there is a online retailer that you have had good experiences with and think I should know about!