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Is this trip really worth it?

The summer of 2016 would be my first experience ever going to a convention; this convention being Anime Expo or AX for short. At the time I was just 17 years old and with my three best friends also the same age, committed to going to the event despite no prior experience. The first problem was that the event is held at the Los Angeles Convention Center and we were cenetered in San Diego. Considering this is the biggest anime convention in the country and it was “only” around an hour and 45 minutes away from us did not deter us from going. If anything, we were tunnel-visioned into going due to this being the closest anime convention to us. Despite being the most memorable experience for me, I most definitely remember all the problems that occurred for me.

First would probably be determining the opportunity cost of going on this trip and the trade-offs that would incur. Is the trip worth my time? Is the amount of money I already invested and going to invest worth it for this limited time? Probably the most redundant topic in microeconomics tends to be one of the most important when it comes to decisions made. 

Is this trip worth my time?

At the time, this event would span from July 1 to July 4. This would mean that I would be returning to SD during the Fourth of July. In this case, we would be leaving during the afternoon, so we would not be missing out on the fireworks. From July 1-3, however, I would be missing out on time hanging out with my other friends who would no go on the trip with me. Possibly going somewhere with my family could be an option as well. However, I deemed that the time spent for this trip was worth it since I can always hang out with my other friends and my family during some other day during the summer whereas this event is only from July 1-4. Though I might miss the morning festivities of our Fourth of July festival, we would be arriving around 3 to 4 pm so we would not be missing much. My family does not set up a tent or do a big barbeque fest, so for the most part I would just be with my family at home till the fireworks which means that I would be using my time doing something rather than nothing.

Is the amount of money I already invested and am going to invest worth it for this limited time?

As I do not have a job and sadly do not really have the motivation to pursue a part time, the amount of money I have is limited. Compared to several events, AX tickets are relatively cheap. For instance, the cost of a weekend pass to Coachella in 2016 was $399 or $435 with shuttle. The cost for a four-day Disneyland pass without park hopper is $305. The cost for a four-day pass to AX at full price (which is what I paid since I got my ticket pretty late) $90 ($95.20 with tax). Also since we are staying the full four days, we needed to book a hotel which came up to about $120 per person. One of my friend’s dad brought us from San Diego to our hotel in LA and to the convention center so we did not have to pitch in for gas and parking for that trip. Luckily for us, the hotel we were staying at was near one of the accomodated shuttles to the convention center, so we did not have to pay for extra transportation from our hotel to the venue. Considering I had never gone to an event like this, I had no idea how much money would suffice so I had really only saved about $200 dollars for the entire four days excluding the cost of the ticket and the hotel. I don’t receive an allowance, so any money I had saved up was basically all the money I had saved for the entire year for this event. Since I have already experienced goign to this event for two years, I can say that $200 dollars was nowhere near a safe amount as I hadn’t portioned my money as best as I could. I had an idea of what I wanted to buy at the convention, but didn’t research the costs of those items and ended up not getting as much as I could. I also faced a trade-off of saving money to not buy food in Koreatown so I could potentially buy more stuff the next day. By the end of my first two days, I had incredible foot pain, and was basically living off ramen with just about half of the amount I saved gone. In these circumstances, you could assume that the money I invested was not really worth what I was experiencing only two days into the event. However, I can attest that the experience of being with your friends in a hotel playing board games, laughing while eating ramen, and even getting excruciating foot pain from walking around the venue for hours on end in sandals was amazing. It was such an amazing experience that we were planning on going to AX the next year. At the time, I was already thinking about how much more money I would need to save for the next year since I realize the amount I had brought was not enough. In a sense, the amount of money I had spent on getting a pass, my portion of the hotel, and how much I brought to spend was just an initial investment in whether or not I would attend this event again. 

Is this trip really worth it?

For the most part, it definitely was. Despite the initial costs, the aspect of the event itself gave me enough of a reason to willingly pay to attend. Paying for these costs ahead of time before I am even able to attend the event itself despite possible setbacks that could prevent me from going shows that I thought the experience of this trip was well worth the costs. There wasn’t really a huge opportunity cost in going on this trip except for my time and I had felt that the time I would commit to this trip would be better spent on the trip rather than what was available to me at my house. The trade-offs of the trip were moreso towards transactions to my body. To be more specific, outside the convention center were these bacon-wrapped hot dogs that were each $5 dollars. During the first day, we had to wait in line for about five hours to pick up our passes (as we had left during the morning around 6 and go to the convention center around 7:45/50). The line was brutally long despite our early departure (for context AX has historically been known as LineCon due to the insanely long lines to get into the convention center to get your pass since at the time there was no pass shipping). The smell of the hot dogs were so good, but due to the amount of money I had, I restrained myself from getting one throughout the entire trip since I felt it was too expensive for what I was getting. Of course I was extremely hungry throughout that five hour period, but I went through it and explored the exhbition hall and artist gallery with my friends for 2 hours before we decided to go eat out, which I was glad I did as we went to eat some of the best/filling korean food I had ever had for $5. Throughout the trip, I had made the trade-off of holding off on my hunger by never buying food at the convention center due to the price of the food there. Even if I was tired and my stomach was grumbling, I always chose to manage through it till we got to our hotel where we had snacks or if we were going to eat out in Koreatown where I knew I was going to be extremely filled for less. 

In the end...

My first experience with AX was filled with it’s challenges and moments. Since the experience was as great as I thought it was, we ended up making this our yearly thing. I went for AX 2017 with my friends and fixed most of the problems that occurred during our first trip. I managed to buy my pass earlier and for cheaper since there was a Black Friday deal for AX passes (getting mine for $59.15 compared to the $95.20 from last year). I ended up bringing around $450 dollars to the trip this time around because I knew my initial $200 was not enough for four days. This time, however, I had to pay parking plus gas, which really took a good chunk out of what I brought, but I still had enough to feel secure in what I was buying. One of the problems I had faced during AX 2016 was that I didn’t have enough money to buy a lot of the things I wanted. Though for AX 2017 I had a lot more money to spare, I passed up on a lot of items during the first day due to an understanding there would be a lot of sales during the last day. However, a lot of the items that I wanted ended up getting bought on the first day, so I was kicking myself throughout the trip for not splurging a lot more earlier. I also didn’t portion my money as I had really planned too. I made a guideline on how much I should spend for certain items, but I ended up being consumed by buyer’s greed and would buy anything I thought looked nice at the artist gallery, where I ended up spending a lot more than I planned on prints versus other items. I still upheld on not buying food at the convention center due to their prices, but I since our hotel this time didn’t have continental breakfast, I would starve throughout the morning due to not having breakfast and going straight to the convention center. Despite fixing a lot of problems the year after, I was still experiencing other problems that would either arise from the circumstances I was in, or from fixing previous problems. As with tradition, my friends and I are planning on attending AX 2018. With passes being shipped this year, we won’t have to really worry about a tiresome 5 hour wait (AX 2017 went by a lot faster, with us only being in line for about an hour or so). We managed to get the hotel we got during AX 2016 that was near a shuttle so the costs for gas were decreasedby a lot and the parking costs were basically mitigated. A plus is that this hotel was cheaper than last time ($107 versus the $119) and it has continental breakfast, so I won’t be starving during the morning. As of now, I plan on bringing less money than the year before, but this time, I made sure I made a list of specific items I want and how much I am willing to spend on a certain set of items. I’m going to try my best to fight buyer’s greed and hopefully spend a lot more responsibly, understanding my willingness to pay on items, my opportunity cost on such items and myself, and the trade-offs in doing such.

Justin Clenista

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