Vendors Old and New

[-Nu-]

I have been coming to Fanime for a long time (even before it was held at the San Jose Convention Center). Throughout the years, I look forward to meeting familiar faces as I am sure a lot of others do. We build friendships with these vendors as we talk, buy, and, share our love of the con. For those of us who attend other conventions, we absolutely love seeing our favorite vendors at other conventions as well. Sometimes we might not remember their names, or the name of their store, but we recall the merchandise or the service that we receive/observe.

I am happy to see a lot of new faces at the convention but also greatly disappointed by the lack of others. I completely understand that vendors attend other conventions at that time and may choose a different convention over Fanime, business was not that lucrative this time around, or traveling across the country is not feasible this year. These are not just businesses but they are people too. Paying a ridiculous amount of money each year (not including, travel, food, hotel, etc) is unfair to these vendors. I understand that there is a fee but many of these vendors might not even break even because it is so high. For many, this is their job and if the vendors don't make money than they don't eat or have a place to live. As the vendors go, so goes the con and its fans.

This being said, I would like to welcome back Anime Depot to Fanime. I (along with my group of friends) purchase a variety of items at the convention but the items I spend the most on are DVDs. I have not bought any DVDs for the last couple years until today. I only buy my DVDs from Anime Depot because they are knowledgeable, courteous, trustworthy, friendly, and understanding. They go above and beyond for all of their customers and it saddens me that they could not attend the past few years. I understand not everyone feels the same about these vendors but I am sure there are quite a few that are quite loyal when it comes to these vendors.

Whoever is in charge of the dealers, please remember to treat your friends with respect and appreciation. They are people first.

Welcome back Anime Depot and we hope to see you again next Fanime !

[Amanojaku]

I love Anime Depot, and their guy in charge has some interesting behind the scenes stories with dealing with with some other semi-sketchy dealers.  You can probably imagine who that might include :x