Brighter Red Alert to Anime Anonymous
Chris Zasada August 7, 2009

I’m not sure how much longer the Anime Anonymous is going to let this winding trail of self-destruction twist into the highway of my life, causing massive pileups, but at some point they’re going to have to act or face losing federal funding for gross negligence. They could simply firebomb Right Stuf International, which I suspect tempts enough people into the dark place, requiring AA to step in, but that would cut off their main source of addicts to console and run them out of business. It would be like that other AA carrying out terrorist attacks against Budweiser.

This ridiculous startup is my failed attempt at revealing yet another massive purchase with Right Stuf in a humorous way that should make sense to maybe three of you. History has repeated itself with a vengeance, and Right Stuf has had yet another massive sale on anime DVDs, and this one might have been the best ever in terms of rare DVDs. I cashed in on some Girls Bravo for $4 a piece, an incredible deal when you consider the entire series fetches over one-hundred beans, though I’m missing the infamous volume two, which a few extortionists are hocking for another one-hundred bucks on Amazon. I sold three sets without volume two in there, and now I’m scrambling to find the damn thing, and have been hit with out-of-stocks three times already. I managed to score an entire set for sixty bucks on Half, so if I can keep that up, it would make more economic sense to buy series sets and throw all but volume two away, though the thought of tossing anime in the trash makes me want to toss myself in there as the garbage truck’s walls come closing in, so best not to think it.

The point of that was the point out how great this sale was. It was so incredible I blew, get ready for this, $792 all told, with eight smackers mercifully spared because a friend of mine went in with me for two DVDs.

Yes, it was my largest purchase ever over the length of a Right Stuf sale, and my largest purchase of anime at once over (even if you don’t count the grand total, I blew six big ones on the first day). Because it was made over the course of a few orders and I couldn’t wait to tear into that thrifty goodness, I don’t have a picture of what eight massive Right Stuf crates would look like, so I Photoshopped a concept of this phenomenon, allowing for a small one for overflow due to space-eating series boxes:

Yeah, looks about right.

As I began to allude to, there were many deals I couldn’t resist. This time around, there were so many titles that are out-of-print, and even if they saw a re-released, they were cheaper to buy in their original forms for four bucks a pop.

There were also some titles I purchased even though I already had them just to get the collector’s box. Yeah, I paid real money for a box, but a neat looking box that would cost the saps who bought it when it first came out an extra ten dollars, so who’s the moron now (all of us)? A few of the boxes had special promotional swag that cost the companies maybe two dollars to include and justified a twenty dollar hike, and these sets were definitely worth the four bucks, like Gunslinger Girl pack with the free cloth poster or the Case Closed set with cloth poster and keychain. The biggest swaggy item was the live action Cutey Honey movie, which included a metal lunch box and a keychain. I was so excited, I bought two.

The resell value on these items are also much greater, allowing me to sell a fraction of the items back and recoup some costs. Don’t try to judge me for admitting this. Just check behind the tables of your favorite anime vendors at conventions, and you’ll find Right Stuf boxes most of the time, and they’ll be charging five or more times the price on items worth less than the four bucks they paid for it. I’ve sold at least three-hundred dollars worth of anime from this shipment so far, so while I won’t be making it all back, I’m putting a sizable dent in my bill.

While I’ve already integrated some of the remaining items into my collection, many of them have been placed in a box for Christy to buy for me for birthdays, Christmas, or after a particularly good roll in the hay. This saves her the trouble of being caught in the anime section of Best Buy and being accidentally labeled an anime fan and it ensures I don’t have a Christmas filled with doubles that have to be returned and a pissed-off mate who blames me for her lack of shopping ability. That, my friends, is a win-win.

At least until the AA shows up, because all of this is really a desperate cry for help. Or more shelf space.