The road to finanical ruin – A 2008 quarterly damage report
With rising commodity and oil prices, I find my disposable income slowly shrinking with inflationary forces. Even though I've been driving for years, I never fail to feel the pinch every time I top up my vehicle since it's the price of a 1/8 PVC figure. Even while enjoying the occasional culinary indulgence, I can't help but think this delectable dish could get me an even more delicious artbook. I believe I need a raise/strike lottery. XD
Since that's unlikely to happen soon, it'd be wise to sit down and count the cost of my passion so that I could exercise more financial prudence for the rest of the year.
Figures
Quarterly damage for 4 figures: S$310
Preorders for 7 figures: S$580 (estimated)
My quota and budget for figures this year remains at 18 and S$1500 respectively, despite skyrocketing PVC prices. With 3 months (for preorders until Dec) to go, I'm confident of sticking to the set quota. I better since artbooks is now the real kicker in my expenses.
Artbooks/ art mooks
MEGAMI Creators vol. 10
Megami Deluxe vol. 10
Megami Creators vol. 11
MEGAMI Mag Feb 2008
Amano Kozue Illustrations works III - Cielo
Kirakira reki ~ Mikeou artworks
Dengeki Hime Ilustration collection - Girls museum
Super lollipop
Tsukiyo no Chakai - Tinkle artworks
Hiyori Nagomi - GotoP artworks
Zero no tsukaima perfect visual collection
Quarterly damage for 11 publications: S$520
Chronicle
Clear ~ Visual fanbook
Shingestu ~ Chouniku artworks
Preorder for 3 artbooks: S$150 (estimated)
The scary thing about artbooks is there's no real way to project total purchases since I don't have a good source of info on new artbook releases to better manage my illustration needs. I need to curb those impulse buys.
DVD
Quarterly damage for DVD: S$90
Full metal panic~ the 2nd raid
Preorder damage: S$50
I have given up on Taiwanese R3s since they are so much more expensive than R1s especially with Therightstuf's 40% sales. Still, I continue to be tempted by the Aria R3s since we may never see a R1 release. Canvas2 R3s are also beckoning me despite their ludicrous S$180 pricetag.
Although it's only April, I have already pledged S$1700 to The PassionTM. Since I hope to stick to my budget of S$3000 in 2007, I had better watch those artbooks purchases which is the untamed component of my expenses. Pity I can't live without my car anymore else the S$10000 per annum would greatly boost my 2D cause. Wow, just think of the figures I can buy. XD
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April 22nd, 2008 - 08:29
Bro, shouldn’t it be ‘Q1′ rather than ‘Quarterly’?
In any case, there’s a Parkinson’s Law of income where demand for goodies increases to consume any surplus income available i.e. financial restraint until the next loli figurine pre-order is out! :3
April 22nd, 2008 - 08:57
Is S$10000 the maintenance cost of the car (gas, mechanic, etc) or are you renting a car every year? I have no idea how much things cost in the Glorious Democratic Paradise….help me out here Zyl….uhhh…Singapore, so please forgive my ignorance!
April 22nd, 2008 - 12:59
Heh, I think I spent about $1000US on DVDs in the beginning of the year. Now, I’m broke with only enough money to get those Lucky Star and Emma DVDs I pre-ordered. I think my 2007 spending went over $4000US on anime, manga, and other related items. Kinda glad that I avoid collecting figurines…
April 22nd, 2008 - 22:45
Ignore sunk costs and soldier on!
April 23rd, 2008 - 06:40
Zyl: heh, I get the feeling parkinson’s law don’t apply to anime fans.
So many of us are spending beyond our means/eating beyond surpluses. Ah the cost of our passion 
Ender: The truth is most Singaporean drivers ‘rent’ their cars from the bank (we take 7 to 10 year loans for our vehicle).
A typical monthly installment ranges from S$500 to S$800 (assuming you’re not driving the BMW 6 series). Petrol is S$300 per month and insurance and road tax comes up to about 2k a year. The 10k is not taking into account maintenance and parking costs. 
Asrialys: Wow! To spend US$4k solely on anime/manga merchandise is quite a bit indeed. What did you get at the start of the year?
Kabitzin: Apparently I have the uncanny ability to do just that, especially when I see PVC or 2D bishoujos XD
April 23rd, 2008 - 08:56
So I see you have Super Lollipop.
You a Fairy Musketeers fan?
I don’t buy figures and I only have one artbook. But if you add up anime style videogames (for Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, and PS2), DVDs (my collection is 50% J.C.Staff series), and assorted comics, I estimate about US$500 since the start of the year.
Speaking of artbooks, do you have anything by Kito or Yuji Himukai?
April 23rd, 2008 - 10:05
Well… you could try to carpool. ^^; Or bite the bullet and take public transport, using the car only when strictly necessary. I guess I’m pretty lucky when it comes to my transport expenses, because I walk to work. ^^;
The only time I need to spend on transport is when I need to go to other branches or if I need to attend classes at my company’s HQ. That said, my biggest expenditure for Q1-2008 is my new PC (a total overhaul and self-built). About S$1300 for the hardware, and an additional S$750 on the software, plus maybe another S$200-300 on new games (since my PC can now support their system requirements).
I realise the irony in how I am anal about acquiring only legit PC software, but freely watch fansubs at the same time. Progress has been slow, but I am slowly converting my fansubs to legit R1s DVDs. Ever since I acquired employment, I no longer have a valid excuse not to get the R1 DVDs, so it is time for me to pay back the companies what I owe them.
However, it doesn’t help that anime is actually 3rd on my hobby list. My primary hobby is still model kits, and I have spent close to S$1500 on new models in Q1, with S$500 more in the week to come.
Cheers.
April 23rd, 2008 - 18:44
I blame it on Geneon and RightStuf’s awesome sales
-Gankutsuou complete
-Koi Kaze complete
-Tenchi in Tokyo complete
-Tenchi Universe complete
-Ultra Maniac complete
-25 DVDs for $100 from that ADV sale (Kaleido Star, Kino’s Journey, Madlax, other stuff)
-Various single volumes to complete/start other series -_-
Doesn’t quite seem like $1000, but since I lost my records, I just listed what I had on old e-mails.
Yeah…most of this was pretty much BEFORE February. Imagine being as impulsive as me and having to hold out on new released between then and now.
April 24th, 2008 - 07:16
Sixten: I wasn’t a Fairy fan until Super Lollipop.
I don’t have anything from those 2 artists but thanks for highlighting them! *adds to bookmarks*
Skane: My biggest expense for this year soo far… is my housing loan XD Still I’m glad I got it before the property boom. Prices are beyond mad now. I too am trying to do my bit for the anime industry by getting R1s or R3s. I’m still waiting for my Nanoha As DVDs…. where art thou? XD
Asrialys: it’s hard not to be impulsive when the passion calls
Glad you got ultra maniac! It’s a really enjoyable series except for ep 21(?) where the ALL animators took a break and their 7 yr old kids took over the production XD
April 24th, 2008 - 12:07
Stripey, you have Super Lollipop and you just bookmarked Kito’s “Sora-Hate” and Yuji Himukai’s “Underground Fish”. If you haven’t already lost all right to deny that you are a lolicon, you have certainly lost it now.
The international lolicon community is honored to have you join us.
Let us embrace the dark side together.
April 25th, 2008 - 07:19
I’ve been keeping a track of my Q1 expenditure, but I haven’t actually looked at it as a total. Though I can say it’s quite large, lol. I’m also curious to see if you’ll stick to your quota come end of the year. If anything, I know I’ll blow away last year’s expenditure.
April 26th, 2008 - 04:40
I used to love how cheap R1 got, until recently, when I started selling my DVDs. T__T Some of them, almost new(like, still shrink wrapped), I had to sell them for about 1/3 of the price I got them for.
Personally, I like Taiwanese R3, because their packaging is usually better than that of R1 (Plus, I heard their video quality is about the same as R2). But, I have to agree, R1’s insanely cheap price these days is really tempting.
*p.s: I cannot believe you are buying all those figures. Didn’t you say you were going to buy like 5? lol…
April 26th, 2008 - 09:56
Sixten: As long as my government don’t add stripes to my tail, I’d admit it to the honorable faction of this love.
Adun: Looking at what you have been getting so far, you will probably be battling Moyism for the biggest spender of the anime-blogs
Looking forward to your report some time!
muhootsaver: I can’t really compare R3s with R1s since I’ve only been getting the boxsets/thinpak equivalent for R1s
As long as the DVD quality is acceptable, I don’t mind skimping on the frills (ie packaging) 
May 4th, 2008 - 09:01
Ouch.. thats alot hahaha… my spendings officailly start this april sighs… I couldn’t resist the Figma figures… they all look so poeassible that my hands are moving faster to order them than my head is thinking about all the “fun” stuff I can do with them… lol… Art book wise I am sort of tamed though… Tempted to get many but the thought of lack of shelf space really put me off.. As for DVDs… gotta hold back… so far I don’t see any series that are especially awesome that warrant collection but I am considering Rahxephon since it’s one of those that i didn’t finish watching…. sighs… $$$ please US don’t fall into recession… =X
May 7th, 2008 - 07:35
Heh figma is sooo going to ruin so many people’s retirement
Personally I’m not drawn to articulable figures. 
They give me the feeling of being toys rather than artwork. XD