Have you ever done this...?

Sometimes, I forget that I own something -- a book, a CD, something -- and I buy a second one by mistake. I haven't done this often, and usually when I have done it, it's something that's of minimal cost. Once I bought the same album from the iTunes Music store America and Japan ("Blue Planet," by Donna Lewis -- certainly worth buying once). (Now that I think about it, the copy I got from the Japanese iTunes store was free, from the Japanese Coca-Cola MyCokeRewards site.)

But, once, I spent a bit more.

These are two copies of the same movie, The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? I bought the first one, on the left, when I was living in Kagoshima. I first bought it because I was (and am!) a fan of Macross/Robotech, and this movie will most likely never have a legitimate U.S. release due to a combination of factors (Harmony Gold being difficult to work with, limited demand for older anime movies, etc.). It's labeled "Perfect Edition", but the video is kind of choppy and skippy...

Anyway, when I was leaving Japan for the states after the end of the JET Programme job, I unloaded a lot of DVDs and CDs and other stuff that I had purchased (and I had purchased a lot. JET paid almost too well). I thought I had sold this one back too, due to the video quality being not the best.

Fast forward a few years...Now I'm working in Tottori, and I have a car, and easy access to electronics/toy/CD/DVD shops (actually just one. All in one store. DeoDeo...). Fortunately for me, I have a much more limited budget, and far more awareness of how limited it is.

When I saw that they had re-mastered DYRL, I decided to pick up a copy. (It took me about six months to convince myself to buy it, actually.) The newer edition had perfect video and sound, but didn't have the trailers and other extras that the earlier edition had. Still, I figured that I had already given up the other DVD, so what the heck.

Fast forward again, to about June of this year. I'm back in the states, and going through boxes of stuff in my parents' basement that I had sent home back in 2004...and I come upon the earlier copy of DYRL.

DAMMIT!

Normally I wouldn't have reacted so extremely, but that first DVD was ¥7800, and the second was ¥6800. What with the fluctuation of the exchange rate, that's about $68-$70 a piece.

Well, at least it's a good movie...