I haven't gone to an anime convention since Anime Expo 2002.
My con history:
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Robotech/Star Trek convention in 1987 at hotel by the Los Angeles Intl Airport:
George Takei was there. English voice actors for Robotech Macross Saga Minmei and Lisa were supposed to be there. Only Minmei's appeared (Reba West) though. I got her autograph on the back of the convention schedule.
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Anime Expo 1998:
Drove there each day with two of my friends from work. Attended the Cel Collectors Meeting. Learned that it would be better to buy ITOYA folders to put my cels in instead of buying those clear flimsy things I was using previously. I jogged into the dealer's room to get to the cel dealer's tables as soon as I could. There was a lot of jostling for elbow room around those tables.
Spent $510 on four cels from Anime Wink and Asylum
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Anime Expo 1999:
Me and my two friends from work stayed at the hotel this time so we didn't have to drive each day. Attended the Cel Collectors Panel. I walked quickly between the cel dealers tables when I got into the dealer's room.
Spent $648 on two cels from Usagi's House.
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Anime Expo 2000:
Me and one of my friends from work (the other one didn't really want to go anymore) attended. Attended the Cel Collectors Panel. I waited until there weren't many people standing around the cel dealers tables before I went through the cel folders at the dealer's tables. I no longer felt like getting into positional elbow-room matches.
Spent $325 on two cels from Ed Noonchester and Media Blasters table.
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Anime Expo 2001:
I stayed at the motel while my friend and I attended AX2001 on the first day. He only attended the first day. I lightly browsed around the dealer's room. I recognized a few people there. I was already close to getting my fill from anime series from my second phase of collecting so I didn't buy anything. I attended the Cel Collectors Panel and left when the discussion portion was over.
Spent $0 in the dealer's room.
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Anime Expo 2002:
I drove over for the first day to attend with my friend from work. We sped through the dealer's room, sat through three panels and watched a few anime screenings.
At this point I was in my third "collecting phase" where I was mainly trying to collect from ren'ai game anime series. Dealer's at AX didn't have these series. So there wasn't much reason for me to check anymore. I only checked for nostagic reasons. We left the convention around 4:30PM.
Spent $0 in the dealer's room.
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None of my friends had any interest in attending Anime Expo 2003.
That's about it.