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[phoenixphire24]

Rei makes a good point.

Keep in mind while you're at the con that deepdiscountdvd.com carries a lot of anime box sets for 60-80 bucks, or less. Evangelion Platinum thinpak's going for 55 at the moment. In any case, there are lots of places to get better prices on stuff.

Here are a few things that typically are good to buy at Fanime:

Wall Scrolls- Especially near the end when they're selling 2 for 20 and you can haggle with some dealers.

Figures/Collectibles- Stuff like Cels and figures are about the same price as you'd find anywhere else, sometimes they have sales on the sets.

Shirts/Apparel- Stuff like bags and shirts sometimes have good deals going at Fanime. Or are difficult enough to find otherwise that being able to just pick up a particular shirt saves you time enough to be worth it.

Soundtracks- Anyone who collects soundtracks know that they're expensive no matter how you go about it. Sometimes they have good deals on the soundtracks at fanime, so keep an eye out.

Here are a few things that are NOT good to buy at Fanime:

Manga- Chances are you have a Barnes and Noble or Borders card which entitles you to either 10 percent off (at BN) or 5% off and 5% of your purchase getting stored away in store credit (at borders). Of course, there's always additional sales going on too like buy 4 get the 5th free, or the occasional buy 2 get the 3rd free. Both of which can help you greatly expand your manga collection at a very small price (6 volumes of naruto for 30 dollars? Yes please.) Unless you stumble across very good prices or very obscure titles, Manga isn't a good buy.

DVDs- Tempting as it is to rush in and pick up a box set, chances are you'll get robbed blind in the Dealers Hall. Going back to the deepdiscountdvd.com example again...last year I was walking around the dealers hall and came across a box set. I forgot the title of the series, but I was interested in it at the time. It seemed like a decent price too, about 20 bucks cheaper than typical retail price. Score, right? Well, I decided to wait, hoping for a better sale, and went web-surfing that night. Coming across deepdiscountdvd.com I found that same box set for another 40 dollars off the price I saw IN THE DEALERS HALL! (with no shipping fee. Ground shipping is free on deepdiscountdvd.com.) This is what will happen 9 out of 10 times. Often times they'll try to charge 25 bucks per DVD at the dealers hall. You can get them for 17 to 20 elsewhere. Good DVD buys are few and very far between.


In any case, that's about all the advice I have to give. Hope it helps.

This why I try and find things I'm interested in online first and keep the prices handy. Guru's right, with the internet and popularity of anime now, it's not hard to find good deals. Finding out how much things are before going will not only help you figure out how much money to bring, but also if it's worth buying at the con.

[FanFicGuru]

Definitely, but also remember that you don't want to spend all the money you were planning on bringing to fanime on deals you find on the internet beforehand. lol...

As for typical prices, you can expect your average 8-disc Anime box set to run anywhere between 100 and 160 dollars. They might be selling a few thinpak sets, in which case they go for 60-80 dollars.

DVDs, as I said before seem to be sold at 25 dollars a piece, with a few sold at around 20 a piece.

Manga has regular price most booths, save the last couple days when they sometimes have a buy 2 get 1 free type deal or buy 1 get one half off.

Cels, sheesh...I guess if you're a collector you have a better idea of the range, from what I saw the cels range from about 50 to 300 or more. My friend picked up a Minmei cel last year for about 350 dollars. Supposedly there's a method to his madness. *shrug*

Soundtracks sell for about 35-55 dollars, some soundtracks might sell for as little as 25.

Wall scrolls sell for about 15 dollars a piece on the first day...but wait around and they'll end up 2 for 20.

Figures...it depends on the size I suppose. I picked up a good quality Alphonse figure, about 9 inches tall, for around 30 dollars. Some of the smaller ones that they sell in sets are 10 bucks a piece, of course those are more of a gamble. (However, you may get lucky as my friend did and pull the rarest one out, first thing. She got the Cloud [color] version out of the kingdom hearts figure set. That thing's worth over 50 bucks now) But they can definitely be fun. The bigger, more collectible figures go for anywhere between 55 and 150 or more, but I don't think they have that many really RARE figures. So, in short...
small figures:7-15 dollars
Medium-big figures: 20-55 dollars
Collectible figures: 60-150

One element I completely forgot was Artist Alley. How shameful of me...
let's incorporate that into our little budget calculating information...

Fan-art: Now, I've seen my share of very talented artists, as well as...shall we say, not so talented artists. Chances are you'll find at least 1 or 2 artists that absolutely knock your socks off and you'll want to buy all their stuff. A decent option would be to get a poster (most well-established artists frequenting the Artist Alley have a few made) and one or two color prints. Of course, it all depends on your tastes. Perhaps you don't like color as much...who knows. In any case, here's a breakdown that I've noticed on prices:
Black and white print: 5 dollars
Color print: 7-10 dollars (more if the print is rare or custom drawn...say 10-20 dollars more...)
Poster: 15-30 dollars
Miscellaneous keychains/other small items: anywhere from 3-10 dollars...typically the smaller items won't go for much more unless they have actual metal on them or something.

Apparel- Ah yes, the shirts/bags and other fun things to come away with. Of course there's one shirt that every con-goer buys, and that's the Fanime shirt for the designated year, and sometimes if their old shirt has been destroyed, Fanime whips out retro shirts...also a good buy. But we'll assume you just buy one. I believe the fanime shirts sold for 20 even? Someone correct me if I"m off. Anyways, besides the fanime shirt you'll find other shirts in apparel booths for 15-20 dollars. Sweaters jump up to 25-45 dollars...maybe a little more. Bags are anywhere from 20-50 depending on the size. There are hats and stuff too, they usually sell for 15. So...
Shirts: 15-20
Sweaters: 25-45
Bags: 20-50
Hats: 10-20

Let's see...am I forgetting anything? I don't know...let's make a simulated budget off of this (using the highest estimated cost, for safety)

So, I wanna have a good time at fanime. I have my room and it'll be taken care of, and food. So let's just look at how much I should bring for loot. Like a good consumer I've scoped out sales nearby and found out Borders buy 2 get one free sale is going beyond Fanime weekend and I've set aside about 100 dollars to spend there sometime after Fanime ends. After checking out deepdiscountdvd.com I found a number of box sets that I wanted and keep their prices in mind for while I"m looking around in the dealers hall.  So I"m looking for wall scrolls, figures, fan art and a couple soundtracks, with maybe a shirt or two...and possibly a bag.

More specifically, I want 2 wall scrolls, two decent sized figures, 3 prints of fan art, 3 soundtracks, a fanime shirt as well as 2 additional shirts and a new bag.

Wall scrolls (last day)- 20 dollars
Two figures- 110
3 prints- 30
3 soundtracks- 150
Fanime shirt- 20
2 shirts- 40
new bag- 50

So, that means I should bring about 420 dollars. Now of course this could be over what you really want to buy, considering I budgeted for the most expensive possibility. But you should always budget using the most expensive possibility because that allows you to have leftover funds.

So, let's say I stuck with this model. I decided I'm eating crappily all weekend, two meals of fast food a day (I do NOT recommend this, btw...I'm just using what will probably be the most popular economic solution). Friday I get there for dinner, so that's only one meal and monday I leave around lunch so there's one meal. 6 meals total at about 10 bucks each means another 60 bucks. As for my room, I decided on having just one roommate in a two bedded room...at 109/night for three nights that's 327 with tax bump it up to about 360. That's another 180 for the room.

So, grand total? 660 dollars. That covers food, three nights' stay, and all the loot I described earlier.

Pardon if the breakdown was exhaustive, I hope it helps some of you...and if anyone has any comments or additions, feel free to add on.

^_^

As for the room,