The Anime Depot enforces the practice of buying only original goods. This begs the question then: why buy originals?
Besides the usual spiel you read everywhere, like “Support the industry”, “Do not help the pirates”, or “Give back to the industry that worked to entertain you”, we have our own list of reasons as to why we want to push for the support of original goods:
- It’s worth the price. Sure some of these goods are off-the-charts in terms of pricing but its quality is guaranteed. Try buying a knockoff and see if it lasts even beyond a year. T-shirts are good examples.
- It’s cheaper than pirated goods. Believe it or not, most knock-offs may look like they are cheaper than original goods. However most are really not. For example, a nice pencil board (which can double up as a sturdy wall poster) only cost RM14. A cheap pirated A4 poster cost RM10 and is in a bad shape to begin with.
- More variety. Have you ever wondered what else can you buy besides crappy-quality posters, badly produced figurines, low-quality t-shirts, and easily-broken accessories? We sure did but we were very contented with what we got. Until we came across stuff like pillow-cases, A3 posters, limited edition accessories, cups, and the like. Pirated goods cannot offer you so much variety in terms of merchandising.
- Re-production/remakes/revised versions of older items. Reprints and revised designs for limited edition runs or special occasions are the stuff original goods will ever offer. Pirated goods have no taste for such marketing ventures.
- Original goods keep up with times. Somehow bootlegs then to be a whole lot slower on the uptake of new titles. We know what it’s like when an anime or manga title just fires up the soul, driving us to look for goodies to adorn our walls and shelves with. However, all we get is old DBZ stuff and Naruto knick-knacks. Not that DBZ or Naruto is a bad thing but c’mon, get with the programme already! Original merchandise at least have some stuff that are made for the new titles trickling through.
- Longer staying power. Originals, unlike pirated goods, tend to be produced in numbers, which means having enough stock for everyone. Whereas knockoffs only get a single run and when that’s finished, it’s gone. Whatever happened to sustaining the fanbase?
More will be added as and when we come across more reasons to buy original goods. Of course, we strive to bring you only the best reasons to consider and not the usual market-speak here.
