Ask John: Does Buying Used Anime Support the Anime Industry?

Question:
Is it unethical for anime fans to buy used anime and manga goods? After all, used good sales don’t support the original creators, right?

Answer:
The answer to this question will probably vary depending upon the perspective of the respondent. So I’ll provide my own reply, but I can’t guarantee that my answer will concur with that of other people. At best, the commercial exchange of pre-owned anime merchandise does contribute to the sustenance of the anime industry. At worst, it does little harm. The exchange of used anime goods may compromise some sales of new merchandise, but that’s an inevitable prospect of the anime business.

The sale of “new” anime merchandise profits the original creators because the seller had to pay an initial purchase price for the merchandise, and part of that original purchase price will end up in the hands of anime artists. However, profits from secondary sales do not directly flow back to the original distributor and on to the original creators. But reducing the process to such a simplistic state ignores important considerations. American specialty retailers like AnimeNation and Anime Jungle stock pre-owned anime merchandise. Japanese chain retailers such as Mandarake and K-Books deal extensively in pre-owned anime merchandise. At the same time, these retailers also stock new anime goods, so revenue from sales of pre-owned merchandise convert into the purchase of “new” inventory that supports the anime industry.

Japanese retail chains like Book-Off don’t stock new release merchandise, but their impact on the anime industry still isn’t pure absconding from the anime industry. Sales of pre-owned merchandise attracts customers and encourages consumers to purchase more anime merchandise. Consumers that purchase pre-owned anime merchandise are, I suspect, also likely to purchase new anime merchandise. Furthermore, the exact impact of pre-owned sales is probably impossible to determine because pre-owned sales do not reflect an equal number of absent new merchandise sales. Especially in Japan, many pre-owned anime items available for sale are old, out of production items or limited edition items that don’t have contemporary “new” alternatives. So a pre-owned purchase does not represent a choice of pre-owned instead of new. And a pre-owned purchase does not necessarily represent an alternative to a new purchase. The fact that a consumer purchases a pre-owned item does not guarantee that the same consumer would have purchased an alternative new item under different circumstances. The anime creation industry only definitely loses potential revenue when a consumer makes a choice between an available second-hand and new copy of an identical or equivalent item. Not every pre-owned sale meets that criteria, meaning that not every pre-owned purchase definitely represents lost revenue for anime creators.

The anime industry itself must realize that pre-owned merchandise exchange is inevitable simply because anime goods are non-disposable, physical products. Invariably a percentage of the consumers that purchase a product will eventually no longer want or need that product. Since anime goods aren’t disposable or consumable, the only viable means of disposing of them is giving them away or selling them. The very nature of anime merchandise creates its own competing pre-owned market. In other words, the anime merchandise production industry itself is responsible for creating the pre-owned anime merchandise market.

At its worst, pre-owned sales that literally replace sales of new merchandise, still have some contributing value to the anime industry. Purchasing a pre-owned official product is still preferable to purchasing a counterfeit or bootleg product because at least a pre-owned purchase doesn’t encourage pirates and counterfeiters. While used anime merchandise sales may divert some revenue from the anime creation industry, I’m personally hesitant to call purchasing legitimately produced and distributed anime merchandise “unethical.” I think that the sale and purchase of pre-owned anime goods has intangible benefits for the anime industry and its fans, and consumers who are especially concerned about the impact their purchase of pre-owned merchandise has on anime creators are always able to buy additional “new” merchandise to replace funds which they believe have been diverted from anime creators.