Masako Nozawa's $3000 USD Autographs

[Cursed Lemon]

The real question is, is she even getting the lion's share of the money from this

[lola2323]

Yeah, it's disgusting using an actor's advanced age to say "get it now or she could die and you'll regret it".

I don't even think Masako Nozawa would condone it, as she seems like such a sweet lady from all the interviews I've seen.

I was at a convention last year where Veronica Taylor was the guest of honour. People could pay for either an autographed item or a photo with her. I opted for the latter but as she saw I was holding a Pokémon Blu-Ray she was kind enough to just sign it too.

I know conventions are an important source of income for these people but admire actors like that who go out of their way to be kind to fans and don't like seeing them be taken advantage of.

When supply is low and demand is high, prices can skyrocket. Similar to niche hobby markets or even promo sites no deposit bonus 20€ casino that catalog bonus offers and explain their appeal. A great resource when you want to play on the best terms. If all 90 pieces were sold so quickly, it essentially confirms that people really value it that way.

Fans deserve respect, not pressure tactics. Stories like your Veronica Taylor moment prove genuine kindness still exists at conventions!!

[Saiya6Cit]

Aghhh ... I will try to tell you this in the nicest way that is possible for me considering today's events... and please do not take it wrong:


Pay 3000 USD for her signature now, or pay 15000 USD once she has passed away.

[Yellow Flower King]

This is just something that I find fascinating. Masako Nozawa is scheduled to make an appearance at the "Nostalgia Con" in Anaheim in June, and this "FGS autograph" company was selling off a limited number of tickets (90 to be exact) to get a piece of official Dragon Ball merch signed by her. I was curious about this so I checked and saw the $3000 USD price tag and my jaw dropped. https://fgsautographs.com/products/masa ... 91ae&_ss=r
I understand that she's made very few appearances for U.S. events, with only 3 being conventions, if this site is to be believed (https://animecons.com/guests/bio/4662/masako-nozawa). And, her autograph is fairly uncommon in the U.S. from what I can tell, but do you think that it's really worth $3000? Is this just late stage capitalism at its finest? Is her career and legacy as the only Japanese voice of Goku that high of a value?
I understand supply and demand, and that value is decided by the buyers ultimately (the supply sold out in under 2 days), but the cost still seems ludicrous to me. The official Instagram was also hyping up how "you're owning a piece of history" and how "she's unlikely to ever come to a US con again" or "unlikely to sign autographs ever again", and really hinting at her age without mentioning it directly, and it all felt a little bit gross to me.

I wanna tell this to Nozawa.

"Snap, girl. I think you dropped something. MY JAW!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbihoQRDjTY

"COME ON!"

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

Pay 3000 USD for her signature now, or pay 15000 USD once she has passed away.

Neither is justified, and I sincerely doubt Nozawa herself would approve of her autograph being sold for such prices.

[eledoremassis02]

Pay 3000 USD for her signature now, or pay 15000 USD once she has passed away.

Neither is justified, and I sincerely doubt Nozawa herself would approve of her autograph being sold for such prices.

Yea, I honestly rather not get it at that point. As much as I love her Goku, just seeing her in person would be enough. If you (figuratively) got the money to drop then go for it.

[TheBigBoy]

Nozawa is scheduled to make an appearance at the "Nostalgia Con", and this "FGS autograph" company was selling off a limited number of tickets to get a piece of official Dragon Ball merch signed by her. I checked and saw the $3000 USD price tag and my jaw dropped. Is this just late stage capitalism at its finest?

Capitalism is basically built on "less for more". People and companies alike will try to get as much $$$ as possible from people while providing as little as possible. Unfortunately, there are countless people around the world who are willing to pay an arm and a leg for the bare minimum. This is not late stage capitalism; this is capitalism in its purist form; it was always meant to be this way. The sad thing is, the biggest supporters of unregulated capitalism are the ones who get hurt the most by it, as we're seeing in the United States right now.

You see this dynamic playing out everywhere right now. Disney World, while not cheap, was accessible to middle and working class families. Now Disney realizes they can get a lot more out of a family who is willing to pay $10,000 once a year than a family who will spend 5 grand there once a decade. They're milking the rich basically and locking everyone else out.

I used to be really into pro wrestling and ticket prices have absolutely skyrocketed and become unreasonable. Even if they sell less overall and shrink their core audience they're making money hand over fist. K-shaped economy.

[Saiya6Cit]

Pay 3000 USD for her signature now, or pay 15000 USD once she has passed away.

Neither is justified, and I sincerely doubt Nozawa herself would approve of her autograph being sold for such prices.

I agree with you (as usual Amigo). Sadly, as others have pointed out, the autograph industry became very profitable. I paid the equivalent in Mexican pesos MXN to 25 USD in 2013 for Red Ranger autograph in my Home City Guadalajara Mexico once (Jason Font, red ranger from time force) and it included a high resolution printed picture (It was that or 5 USD for him to sign on a piece of paper) and star wars guys always charged about the same amount in Mexico.

3000 is a lot. But it is like pokemon cards, they guarantee you the price will increase. Don't make me start on the topic, this is similar to the penny stocks and the gold fever.... uhhhg...


As others mentioned, I hope she live many more days to come and the guys who are paying for it with the sole intention of reselling it, never get to do it to a high price, I mean, not soon.

[BootyCheeksJohnson]

Pay 3000 USD for her signature now, or pay 15000 USD once she has passed away.

Neither is justified, and I sincerely doubt Nozawa herself would approve of her autograph being sold for such prices.

I agree with you (as usual Amigo). Sadly, as others have pointed out, the autograph industry became very profitable. I paid the equivalent in Mexican pesos MXN to 25 USD in 2013 for Red Ranger autograph in my Home City Guadalajara Mexico once (Jason Font, red ranger from time force) and it included a high resolution printed picture (It was that or 5 USD for him to sign on a piece of paper) and star wars guys always charged about the same amount in Mexico.

3000 is a lot. But it is like pokemon cards, they guarantee you the price will increase. Don't make me start on the topic, this is similar to the penny stocks and the gold fever.... uhhhg...


As others mentioned, I hope she live many more days to come and the guys who are paying for it with the sole intention of reselling it, never get to do it to a high price, I mean, not soon.

I haven't even thought about this thread in a long time, but for anyone interested I made a video around the same time I made this thread where I calculated the amount of hours of voiced animation that Nozawa has provided to see if the price is "worth it" or not: https://youtu.be/aGuoG21Gofc

[BernardoCairo]

Anyone can sell anything for whatever price they want (especially when we're not talking about essential goods). So this doesn't really bother me much.

[Doctor Seaweed Roll]

Just so you know I asked Aoni Productions via email & they said you can request a signature from a member of their agency by sending a fan letter to this address:

[Talent Name]
c/o Aoni Production
Aoyama st.sion Bldg. 5F
Kita-aoyama 3-1-2
Minato-ku, Tokyo-to 107-8572

Notes:

• [Talent Name] is to be replaced with whoever you are wanting the letter sent to.

• If you want to send more than fan letter to more than 1 VA you must put them in seperate envelopes & pay postage on each one individually.

• They warned me that due to some of the VAs being popular or busy with active voice acting it might take a while for them to get back to you.

P.S. Here's a pretty good translation software for Japanese that i used to help with contact Aoni productions
https://www.deepl.com/en/translator
I hope y'all find this info useful & can get some signatures without the exorbitant prices that those people are selling them for

[SHINOBI-03]

So this thread exists? Let me share the bullshit I've witnessed on my side

So a Hobby store specializes in trading cards and authenticating celebrity autographs announced last month that Masako Nozawa was going to be their latest guest slated for May 14th, this is the same company that invited Ryu Horikiawa for a guest appearance few years ago that I also attended by the way.

For Masako Nozawa, they've announced the prices and everyone thought they were joking. They had them in tiers or Waves as they called it, each one is more expensive than the other, and the prices were like this:

Wave 1: 14,680.00 AED, or $4,000
https://speedycomics.ae/products/wave-1 ... ce-of-goku

Wave 2: 18,350.00 AED, or $5,000
https://speedycomics.ae/products/wave-2 ... -goku-copy

Wave 3: 37,000.00 AED, or $10,000
https://speedycomics.ae/products/wave-3 ... ce-of-goku

To put it into perspective, comic conventions were indeed getting pricier each year, or at least for Middle East Film & Comic Con which is the biggest event of the year, but their S-Tier Hollywood guest appearances never reach this high of a price point. At most maybe a 1,000 AED or about $300, so for Masako Nozawa's autograph and photos to cost as much as 1-month worth of a work salary it was too much to pay for. And when wave 1 prices were announced I thought the following waves would be cheaper but to my shock they were more expensive.

Meeting Masako Nozawa has been one of my long time dreams as a Dragon Ball fan and as a fan of anime voice actors in general, but not like this. So obviously, as much as I wanted it to happen, I couldn't waste $4,000 - $5,000 on just one autograph, not even for this. My money may have not been robbed, but they still robbed me of a once-in-a-life opportunity.

[Kenji]

Listen, I don't care if you're the Queen of England, paying thousands just for your presence alone is a waste of time, money and self-respect. Masako Nozawa is just another regular-ass human being. True, she impacted our childhoods, but we don't know her as a person, we don't know her beliefs and values, or how she uses her wealth and influence. For all we know, she could be another J.K. Rowling or Tōru Furuya. I highly encourage y'all not to put people on pedestals.

[M16U3L2015]

For all we know, she could be another J.K. Rowling or Tōru Furuya. I highly encourage y'all not to put people on pedestals.

I understand that we shouldn't idealize anyone, but that comparison to a transphobic and an abuser it's excessive.

[Yellow Flower King]

I agree, I think innocent until proven guilty. For all we know this could be the work of the con.

[Doctor Seaweed Roll]

I agree, I think innocent until proven guilty. For all we know this could be the work of the con.

do you mean a Con Artist or the Convention?

Listen, I don't care if you're the Queen of England, paying thousands just for your presence alone is a waste of time, money and self-respect. Masako Nozawa is just another regular-ass human being. True, she impacted our childhoods, but we don't know her as a person, we don't know her beliefs and values, or how she uses her wealth and influence. For all we know, she could be another J.K. Rowling or Tōru Furuya. I highly encourage y'all not to put people on pedestals.

I don't mean to be a smug arse but on September 8th 2022 they got a king again named King Charles III.

[Yellow Flower King]

I agree, I think innocent until proven guilty. For all we know this could be the work of the con.

do you mean a Con Artist or the Convention?

Listen, I don't care if you're the Queen of England, paying thousands just for your presence alone is a waste of time, money and self-respect. Masako Nozawa is just another regular-ass human being. True, she impacted our childhoods, but we don't know her as a person, we don't know her beliefs and values, or how she uses her wealth and influence. For all we know, she could be another J.K. Rowling or Tōru Furuya. I highly encourage y'all not to put people on pedestals.

I don't mean to be a smug arse but on September 8th 2022 they got a king again named King Charles III.

The convention. I knew it would be confusing but decided to just say con. Guess I had to elaborate after all.

[Kenji]

Y'all are missing the point, honestly.
The comparison I made was absurd by design because none of us know what Masako Nozawa is as a person in general.

I don't know about any of you, but before I give money to anybody, let alone a celebrity who quite frankly doesn't need any of it, I have to know if it's actually going to a good cause. Masako Nozawa isn't struggling by any means, so what is she going to use it on? Is she going to donate to charity? To animal protection groups? What are her buying ethics? Is she funding oppressive groups/politicians? Is she making an effort to reduce her carbon footprint and combat climate change? The list goes on and on, and there is absolutely no way of making sure.

Meanwhile, I have loved ones who I know are struggling and could very well use $3,000 to pay for basic necessities.
At the end of the day, I don't think giving money to someone I don't know anything about past a parasocial level just because they voiced a fictional character I'm fond of is a meaningful cause. But y'all do you.

[Yellow Flower King]

Again, we dont know if its her to the conventions themselves. For all we know they are bleeding her dry. I need more evidence, innocent until proven guilty.

[Doctor Seaweed Roll]

Again, we dont know if its her to the conventions themselves. For all we know they are bleeding her dry. I need more evidence, innocent until proven guilty.

I will send her a letter after Dragon Ball Super: Beerus airs episode 1 & I will take a photo of the letter I get back both in the original Japanese & in an OCR Translated form.