FUNimation selling extra Dragon Boxes at Dallas Comic Con

[TheGreatness25]

Oops, my bad, that was auto-correct. I meant "reiterate." lol I re-read it like, "What? Oh, damn!"

You're right, I shouldn't have used those kinds of terms. But I was definitely not using them in the literal sense.

This is kind of taking advantage of the Dragon Ball fans. FUNimation knows that the die-hard fans who would buy this, would be willing to spend a pretty penny on the set. But that doesn't justify doing that to those people. Why not re-release the level sets and sell them for $100 a pop (for 13 or so episodes)? By the logic that, "Hey, it's a niche market that would pay for it," you're kind of justifying such a thing.

Why is it that when we are talking about the Dragon Boxes, we look at them as totally different than any other product? Why should they be treated as such? You could get the Japanese ones for cheaper at this point (I know I did, at least).

Once again, my entire gripe is how they are going about it and trying to make it seem like it's a good thing with such a cheery attitude. It's like Verizon sending out a tweet that reads, "Hey, everybody! We're doubling your monthly rates! This is an exciting time for us as we go forward! Thanks for being customers!! We love ya!"

[ABED]

You're right, I shouldn't have used those kinds of terms. But I was definitely not using them in the literal sense.

This is kind of taking advantage of the Dragon Ball fans. FUNimation knows that the die-hard fans who would buy this, would be willing to spend a pretty penny on the set. But that doesn't justify doing that to those people. Why not re-release the level sets and sell them for $100 a pop (for 13 or so episodes)? By the logic that, "Hey, it's a niche market that would pay for it," you're kind of justifying such a thing.

Why is it that when we are talking about the Dragon Boxes, we look at them as totally different than any other product? Why should they be treated as such? You could get the Japanese ones for cheaper at this point (I know I did, at least).

Once again, my entire gripe is how they are going about it and trying to make it seem like it's a good thing with such a cheery attitude. It's like Verizon sending out a tweet that reads, "Hey, everybody! We're doubling your monthly rates! This is an exciting time for us as we go forward! Thanks for being customers!! We love ya!"

Fair enough.

FUNi isn't keeping prices of those sets low because it's being nice, they are trying to price them to bring in the most revenue.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Are they not different than other products?

But this isn't a monthly increase, FUNi isn't a utility with a monopoly in a given location. That would definitely be immoral. These would be one time expenditures made by a few die hard fans.

[TheGreatness25]

I guess we could just agree to disagree

[ABED]

I guess we could just agree to disagree

I don't agree to that (Simpsons reference)

[jjgp1112]

The reason why the outrage mystifies me is because this isn't even a regular release. As far as I know, these are only being sold at that specific convention for a couple of days so...why not try to get the most money out of something you're not likely to actually sell again in the near future? They're dusting an out-of-print release out of the vault for a couple of days, not putting it back on the market.

[OmegaRockman]

The reason why the outrage mystifies me is because this isn't even a regular release. As far as I know, these are only being sold at that specific convention for a couple of days so...why not try to get the most money out of something you're not likely to actually sell again in the near future? They're dusting an out-of-print release out of the vault for a couple of days, not putting it back on the market.

I don't think it's so much the price gouging that's bothering people. Rather, it's the fact that Funi is acting like they're doing this as a favor to the people who missed out on the Dragon Boxes initially, saying things akin to, "Hey! We pulled a couple of these out of our vault just for you guys who attended the con! Aren't we so good to our fans?", while kinda tiptoeing around the fact that they're charging scalpers' prices. It's kind of a dick move, IMO, and this is coming from someone who really likes Funimation. Like to the point where I wanna work for them someday. It would be nice if they would at least go lower than the standard Ebay prices, even if it's at a slightly greater price than they were initially sold for. Like maybe $50-$60 a box instead of $100 and up. That would seem more like a genuine gesture to the fans who missed out than what they're doing here. But yeah, this whole jacking up the prices so high while acting like this is a special treat for the Dallas congoers isn't cool. It's a little shady, to be honest. I mean, I still like Funi, but this isn't one of their proudest moments, to say the least.

[TripleRach]

Oh and you want to talk market price? I dare you to find one company out there who is officially, first-hand charging $4 per a 20 minute episode. Go find that for me. You won't, not in today's world.

Well, that's not too far off from digital video prices I've seen on iTunes, Amazon, etc for single episodes. Not to mention Japanese home video prices. $4 an episode would be a steal there. And some American anime companies do use that level of pricing.

Although I'm not trying to defend FUNimation here. At all. I'm just saying their pricing wouldn't be completely unusual if it were the original MSRP.

[ABED]

"Hey! We pulled a couple of these out of our vault just for you guys who attended the con! Aren't we so good to our fans?"

But at least you get them. I'd much rather pay a tariff than not be able to get something because of a quota. So, silver lining and all.

[Kingdom Heartless]

I feel they could have avoided a lot of scrutiny if they'd taken a few minutes to have a few of the art's corresponding voice actors sign the boxes before putting them up for sale.

[B]

The reason why the outrage mystifies me is because this isn't even a regular release. As far as I know, these are only being sold at that specific convention for a couple of days so...why not try to get the most money out of something you're not likely to actually sell again in the near future? They're dusting an out-of-print release out of the vault for a couple of days, not putting it back on the market.

This right here is what is honestly, to me, the most maddening part. The concept that there is a "vault" to begin with. That they made X amount and then decided retailers would get Y amount. On top of never formally telling anyone that was their plan. You'd think the smartest way to "get the most money out of something" would be to sell what you have until, y'know, there is no more. The idea that the product is "not likely to actually sell again" is a purely deliberate move on the company's part, and it makes zero damned sense.*

If it was back on the market, even at the ridiculous price, then at least anybody who wanted it could get it. And again again, it opens the wound that the series is unavailable in an un-mucked form on home video, digital purchase, or streaming.

*(as I'm typing that, it becomes obvious that yes, it makes sense from the viewpoint that if DBZ was ever released "perfectly," they couldn't sell it again. But who on Earth besides an employee of FUNimation is in favor of that?)

[rereboy]

Disgusting.

"We just repriced these on-site to be comparable to current market prices."

It would be fine if they were selling them for their original price, but to mark them up to what the scalpers are selling them for is vile. It's such a disgusting way to treat fans.

It's a one-off for a convention, but that's no excuse. If anything, keeping them the original price would be a nice way to reward fans for actually turning up.

Horrible. Stupid. Disgusting. Do not like it one bit. If it's at all possible, they desperately need to release the footage in a different, cheaper format. Bad luck if you missed out on the limited edition fancy packaging, but let people buy a cheap collection of it, at least.

Nobody is forcing anyone to buy them, you know...

[VegettoEX]

Nobody is forcing anyone to buy them, you know...

Do you, or anyone else giving this response, at all acknowledge how completely tone-deaf FUNimation's original post is, and especially their follow-up?

I dunno. Maybe because I'm both in the fandom AND do this stuff for a living, but this would never fly and my mouth was indeed agape when I saw it.

No, you don't have to buy it. Of course. We know that. Everyone knows that. The last thing this is about is literally whether or not you personally have the capacity to buy what they pictured.

[rereboy]

Nobody is forcing anyone to buy them, you know...

Do you, or anyone else giving this response, at all acknowledge how completely tone-deaf FUNimation's original post is, and especially their follow-up?

I dunno. Maybe because I'm both in the fandom AND do this stuff for a living, but this would never fly and my mouth was indeed agape when I saw it.

No, you don't have to buy it. Of course. We know that. Everyone knows that. The last thing this is about is literally whether or not you personally have the capacity to buy what they pictured.

Actually, my post was meant to focus what should be focused, imo. This isn't an actual moral debate, nobody is trying to hurt anyone else, nobody is violating anyone's rights nor is anyone forcing anyone to do anything, thus, an exaggerated outrage over the issue is rather pointless. Furthermore, what actually influences supply is demand and what will determine an agreeable price will be both demand and supply. Therefore, if the people on the supply side refuse to meet the people on the demand side, there will simply be no agreeable price and no sales, so that should be the focus of the people on the demand side. So, a company releases a product that we feel is inadequate in either price or quality or is the result of a policy you don't agree? Don't buy it. That is the appropriate response and the most effective response.

That was the point of my post, which I tried to make with just a few words. You say that people already know this, however, despite knowing this, they still lose themselves in exaggerated outrages over the issue calling it "disgusting", "horrible", and so on, like they were commenting some type of crime, so, a reminder of the context of the issue, which is what my post was, seemed to be needed.

[ABED]

Nobody is forcing anyone to buy them, you know...

<br abp="700">Do you, or anyone else giving this response, at all acknowledge how completely tone-deaf FUNimation's original post is, and especially their follow-up?<br abp="701"><br abp="702">I dunno. Maybe because I'm both in the fandom AND do this stuff for a living, but this would never fly and my mouth was indeed agape when I saw it.<br abp="703"><br abp="704">No, you don't have to buy it. Of course. We know that. Everyone knows that. The last thing this is about is literally whether or not you personally have the capacity to buy what they pictured.

<br abp="705"><br abp="706">Actually, my post was meant to focus what should be focused, imo. This isn't an actual moral debate, nobody is trying to hurt anyone else, nobody is violating anyone's rights nor is anyone forcing anyone to do anything, thus, an exaggerated outrage over the issue is rather pointless. Furthermore, what actually influences supply is demand and what will determine an agreeable price will be both demand and supply. Therefore, if the people on the supply side refuse to meet the people on the demand side, there will simply be no agreeable price and no sales, so that should be the focus of the people on the demand side. So, a company releases a product that we feel is inadequate in either price or quality or is the result of a policy you don't agree? Don't buy it. That is the appropriate response and the most effective response.<br abp="707"><br abp="708">That was the point of my post, which I tried to make with just a few words. You say that people already know this, however, despite knowing this, they still lose themselves in exaggerated outrages over the issue, so, a reminder of the context of the issue, which was what my post was, seemed to be needed.

I'm in full agreement here. I get what people don't like about FUNi's response, though I'm not upset by it. What does irritate me is the circumstances that lead to things like this in the first place - namely, the destruction of the picture. While I have the DBoxes, I'm a little scared that something might happen to even one of the discs and there's no good alternative to them. I'm not sure if these DBoxes will sell at the convention at those prices, but even if they do, the biggest reason they would be able to is because no other release is a close enough substitute.

[rereboy]

Besides splitting up the series and censorship what has VIZ done badly to the series.

Liberal and tarted-up translations, poor quality printing, binding and paper on collector releases and scatter-brained approach to releases to name a few. I'm not one of Viz's biggest critics, but there have been definite shortcomings.

Can't say I agree with the sentiment. Viz's releases are pretty good overall. They have some issues, but there's no actual huge issues, including in Dragon Ball, except for fans who view minor flaws (like minor edits or not perfect translation) as a huge problem.

[Hanshotfirst1138]

Selling one of the Dragon Boxes for $150 to fans who would begrudgingly buy them because of their love for the series is thievery, to be honest. That's $1,050 for all of them. You don't do that to your fans. In today's world, paying nearly $4 for ONE episode is ludicrous. Sorry, but it is. There is nothing special about this release, to be honest. It's got a cute box and book. Oohhh! Meanwhile it's the same show they released several times over. I can watch it on their channel and Hulu for nearly no cost. What's $50 per year for their channel? In addition to DB, I get access to their giant library.

I know the big thing is, "If you don't like it, don't buy it!" but the fact that they'd even have the audacity to try to sell these things for a price that they are definitely not worth is just shady. They're getting their prices based on morons on eBay.

The Dragon Boxes aren't worth that much. I know we're conditioned to believe that OMG we just have to get the show as it was intended. But let me ask you something, are you a fan of the series or a fan of the Dragon Box colors and the top and bottom of the picture? It's the same show. I know that the Dragon Box looks nicer, but you're not missing out on anything. This is me speaking as someone who has them and the Japanese ones. It's nice to have, it's cute to look at, but it's really not worth it at all.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that whoever thinks FUNimation is in the right here probably got these things as they came out for $40 and don't care if others have to spend over a grand on them.

These sets aren't worth that much. Sure, some fans will feel a burning need to get them, but it's really a giant ripoff. I will support FUNimation all day long, but even I'm not going to say that they're right in this case.

The Dragon Boxes cost more than a freaking Ferrari on the aftermarket. I have to assume that Toei probably limited the quantities they could produce, and that's why they're so sought after on the fan market. I doubt they'll rerelease them. I've been trying to watch the show for the first time since the Cartoon Network years, but subbed this time. My friend is a DBZ-head, so I could borrow all of them from him, but they're the damn 16X9 cropped ones. Hulu appears to have the original 1.33 version, but they're missing some of the show for some reason. It's the same with Dark Shadows, I guess they have a certain number of episodes they can license at a time for some reason. I suppose I could hunt around at library for the old singles, but man, that'd be a pain. Crunchroll don't seem to have it either.

Dragon Box huh? Put it on blu ray.

They couldn't, the whole show was mastered on video, hell I think they can't even find a lot of the film masters for it, hence the whole "original broadcast audio" thing.

Is FUNimation real? I just don't get this. How can a company do some much cool stuff, like release BoG and RF in theaters, and releasing cool things for other series, but just do all this stuff with Dragon Ball. Cropped DVD's, cropped Blu-rays, ignoring surveys, and now, scalping Dragon Boxes. I can't stand it. I just can't. I love Dragon Ball, and I'm so sad that Viz and FUNimation don't treat it with the respect it deserves. It really makes me feel like we'll never see a proper good release for the whole series, both, manga wise (all 42 volumes uncut and with a good translation), and anime wise (Dragon Boxes for DB, movies, and hell, even GT.) It's really sad that we have to face this truth.

Besides splitting up the series and censorship what has VIZ done badly to the series.

Viz's censorship practices have affected lots of manga, usually ones where there is disappointingly no alternative. Though Viz's translation is much better when it's not trying to match up with the dub.

Besides splitting up the series and censorship what has VIZ done badly to the series.

Liberal and tarted-up translations, poor quality printing, binding and paper on collector releases and scatter-brained approach to releases to name a few. I'm not one of Viz's biggest critics, but there have been definite shortcomings.

Like I said, they've been censoring a lot of stuff for the purposes of localization. It's disappointing, but as the biggest manga distributor in the U.S., there's not exactly much alternative.

[TheGreatness25]

The Dragon Boxes cost more than a freaking Ferrari on the aftermarket.

... A toy model of a Ferrari? All together, the Japanese ones could probably fall around $2,000. The FUNimation ones, you could probably get for $1,050 (FUNimaton's prices). If that's how much Ferraris cost, I'd have one in my driveway.

[Hanshotfirst1138]

That's still an insane amount of money to have to spend to get a whole series on DVD...

[ZodaEX]

Selling one of the Dragon Boxes for $150 to fans who would begrudgingly buy them because of their love for the series is thievery, to be honest. That's $1,050 for all of them. You don't do that to your fans. In today's world, paying nearly $4 for ONE episode is ludicrous. Sorry, but it is. There is nothing special about this release, to be honest. It's got a cute box and book. Oohhh! Meanwhile it's the same show they released several times over. I can watch it on their channel and Hulu for nearly no cost. What's $50 per year for their channel? In addition to DB, I get access to their giant library.

I know the big thing is, "If you don't like it, don't buy it!" but the fact that they'd even have the audacity to try to sell these things for a price that they are definitely not worth is just shady. They're getting their prices based on morons on eBay.

The Dragon Boxes aren't worth that much. I know we're conditioned to believe that OMG we just have to get the show as it was intended. But let me ask you something, are you a fan of the series or a fan of the Dragon Box colors and the top and bottom of the picture? It's the same show. I know that the Dragon Box looks nicer, but you're not missing out on anything. This is me speaking as someone who has them and the Japanese ones. It's nice to have, it's cute to look at, but it's really not worth it at all.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that whoever thinks FUNimation is in the right here probably got these things as they came out for $40 and don't care if others have to spend over a grand on them.

These sets aren't worth that much. Sure, some fans will feel a burning need to get them, but it's really a giant ripoff. I will support FUNimation all day long, but even I'm not going to say that they're right in this case.

The Dragon Boxes cost more than a freaking Ferrari on the aftermarket. I have to assume that Toei probably limited the quantities they could produce, and that's why they're so sought after on the fan market. I doubt they'll rerelease them. I've been trying to watch the show for the first time since the Cartoon Network years, but subbed this time. My friend is a DBZ-head, so I could borrow all of them from him, but they're the damn 16X9 cropped ones. Hulu appears to have the original 1.33 version, but they're missing some of the show for some reason. It's the same with Dark Shadows, I guess they have a certain number of episodes they can license at a time for some reason. I suppose I could hunt around at library for the old singles, but man, that'd be a pain. Crunchroll don't seem to have it either.

Dragon Box huh? Put it on blu ray.

They couldn't, the whole show was mastered on video, hell I think they can't even find a lot of the film masters for it, hence the whole "original broadcast audio" thing.

Is FUNimation real? I just don't get this. How can a company do some much cool stuff, like release BoG and RF in theaters, and releasing cool things for other series, but just do all this stuff with Dragon Ball. Cropped DVD's, cropped Blu-rays, ignoring surveys, and now, scalping Dragon Boxes. I can't stand it. I just can't. I love Dragon Ball, and I'm so sad that Viz and FUNimation don't treat it with the respect it deserves. It really makes me feel like we'll never see a proper good release for the whole series, both, manga wise (all 42 volumes uncut and with a good translation), and anime wise (Dragon Boxes for DB, movies, and hell, even GT.) It's really sad that we have to face this truth.

Besides splitting up the series and censorship what has VIZ done badly to the series.

Viz's censorship practices have affected lots of manga, usually ones where there is disappointingly no alternative. Though Viz's translation is much better when it's not trying to match up with the dub.

Besides splitting up the series and censorship what has VIZ done badly to the series.

Liberal and tarted-up translations, poor quality printing, binding and paper on collector releases and scatter-brained approach to releases to name a few. I'm not one of Viz's biggest critics, but there have been definite shortcomings.

Like I said, they've been censoring a lot of stuff for the purposes of localization. It's disappointing, but as the biggest manga distributor in the U.S., there's not exactly much alternative.

Umm actually the whole show was mastered on film, not video. Hence all the film grain.......................

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Umm actually the whole show was mastered on film, not video. Hence all the film grain.......................

A show can be edited on video and still retain the film grain. The first two seasons of Buffy The Vampire Slayer were shot on 16mm (like Dragon Ball), mastered on video and they still have grain.