Personal Dork Assistant

Beats Money Market

Best Buy had a Preferred Customer Weekend and had the Cowboy Bebop Movie on sale, so let's burn buck-fify of gas to save a dollar-forty. Turned out that both San Diego BB's were sold out of the CBM, which is some sort of signpost of an emerging cultural trend or something like that, but at the time it was just a real big pain in the ass. The trip wasn't a total loss, though, as I found a copy of the .hack//SIGN Limited Edition Volume 1 sitting on the shelf. Don't be fooled by Amazon's "Available in 1-2 Business Days" tag. The eBay prices tell the real story. Didn't even have to pay MSRP, thanks to the 10%-off Best Buy coupon. So despite all the people there picking up the Bebop movie, nobody recognized the collectable value of the .hack//SIGN box. Curious, especially considering .hack//SIGN is running on Cartoon Network, too.

The smart thing to do would've been to leave the box shrink-wrapped and put it on eBay in six months, but I'm just not that sort of guy. Frankly, I was perfectly happy to watch the show on CN via Tivo (only way to go when it's on Saturdays at midnight), but I liked the soundtrack, and the limited edition release was the only way to get it, aside from cheap Chinese bootlegs or expensive Japanese imports. The tulip-investment aspect barely justifies paying triple the price of a normal DVD for an extra cardboard box, a CD, a T-shirt, a plush toy, and some stickers. Of course, the otaku eats it up. Used to be that the boxsets are released as a less expensive collection after the individual discs have been out for a while. Now, the box is a costly "bonus" included with the first disc encouraging you to buy the series and fill the box. And with releases like .hack//SIGN, people are begging to be ass-raped at the register in exchange for even more sweatshop-produced tchotchkes (plushie made in China, T-shirt in Burma). Hopefully the XL t-shirt will shrink a little bit with washing, since wearing it as a full length dress isn't really an option for me, I don't think. Fucking fat fucks. I bet any shirts in Japanese releases aren't XL. At least I now have semi-appropriate attire if I decide to go up to Anaheim for Anime Expo next week.