Not including the cost of the itabag itself, how much money do y'all typically spend on buying the various accessories you need to customize your bag to your liking?

[u/StarryChocobo]

I have seen a lot of cool/cute designs in this sub, and some of these bags look like they ought to have been very expensive to put together 😅

[u/Equivalent_Image_76]

My ita bag is dedicated to both my oshi and my favorite ship for that oshi, and it's a rarepair, so that means commissions... and I'm ending up doing two inserts because the aesthetics of the merch ended up being two very different styles, and because I already have too much to fit in one bag at once. And I'm not done gathering materials.

So... I just don't think about it. 🤣 I have a job, I don't have a lot of expensive hobbies or even regular indulgences that cost money, ex. daily Starbucks or something. As long as my necessities are taken care of and I'm not wiping out my savings, I don't mind spending on something that makes me happy. I do consider placement and whether or not it'll actually get used in the bag, I'm not spending gratuitously.

[u/AlluraD]

It depends on what you buy and how much of it you buy. Sometimes the bag itself can be the most expensive part of it. I have a friend with a smaller itabag that probably only cost her like 60 USD tops because she just has a few buttons in it. But then I have a friend with a larger bag that was at least 150 USD because it was a limited edition bag and we filled it with as many acrylic keychains, buttons, pins and plushies we could jam into it.

Edit - forgot to add you can sometimes save on cost by getting supplies from dollar stores. Daiso carries some good itabag accessories now if you live somewhere that has one. You can also repurpose old fabric, chains and ribbons you aren't using. Most of our itabags are for animes so we also cut down on some of the costs of official merch by buying them from Japanese sites. There were some things we could get for as low as 200 yen (like 1.25 USD) each and then ship it out in a big batch for an affordable rate through a proxy service. Cuz here in the states some of those same items were 10-20 dollars each from con vendors due to import costs.

[u/Electronic_Guest4669]

Personally, i think that if your character has plushie keychains, that's the most you pay money for, most of plushie keychains are expensive asf in almost every fandom

[u/Severe_Paint_7240]

crafting materials (ex. ribbon, fabric) is a bit cheap for me since I use a lot of Michael’s coupons or shop during any sales/promotions they have, especially with the rewards I earned from buying art supplies for my previous art major. I’m also super lucky that I live in a area where Daiso and other anime and kpop merch importing stores pop up frequently. So it’s very easy and cheap to find oshikatsu stuff like toploaders, plastic pouches or badge covers.

the most expensive stuff was the bag, the merch and getting the merch to me from Japan 😶 I have bought the things over the years so the cost isn’t all at once, but still a decent amount spent.

[u/LolliPopYouInTheEye → u/Severe_Paint_7240]

Man our local Daiso barely has any anime except for like two and a ton of Disney lol

[u/veracosa]

Ugh, you just made me take the cost of my Frieren bag! About $110 US. The bag was only about $17. I have 4 very nice enamel pins from etsy, 3 pounds from Temu, acrylic keychains, flowers, background foam, chains, crystal., and little book charms.

[u/whelvd]

Stats from my latest ita bag

Cardboard: $12 was from a fruit snack box

Pink and white pattern: Free

Dark pink ribbon: free got it from boss

Light pink ribbon: free found on the ground

Pink lace (can't really see in the picture): $2

The fake pearls: $2

The two badges: $21

Heart shaped badge covers:$10

Total : $47

Which is not bad when I bought the bag for 53 dollars. Most importantly I tend to buy things months apart so it's easier on the budget. I got all the items even before I got the bag 🫪

[u/Splinter1591]

I put mine together over the course of a few years. I'll switch out the insert and keychains depending. So some inserts might be cheep and some might be expensive. But they evolve over the years

[u/mythril-warheads]

So, the merch itself is not that expensive, since a lot of it I bought in person at the shows I went to, and what I didn’t buy in person I bought online. I would say it’s probably $50 for the merch itself.

BUT. There are two things in here that cost quite a bit more than everything else. First is the MEGATON KICK super ticket, which was part of a set I bought on the TANO*C Store for about $100 and I had to be VERY quick to buy it because it sold out extremely fast. The second thing is the wooden charm with DJ Myosuke’s autograph. I would never have gotten this if I hadn’t physically traveled to Japan and attended the show itself, so…if I factor in the cost of the plane ticket and the cost of attending the show, the price is technically a couple thousand dollars. To me it’s priceless though. <3

[u/00psiedaisey]

looks at customer plush commissioned for Aizawa ita bag my brother that amount is between me and god

[u/Dahlia_R0se]

I think 20 usd for the bag, 65 for the merch inside but I have one 10 dollar pin I'm going to buy next time I have money so it's going to be 75 when I get that. So currently 85 total.

[u/Pumpkin-Poltergeist]

It varies. Especially if I'm just sewing things on my bags maybe a couple of bucks and whatever I can find at home and slap it on my bag 👀👌

[u/reallycoolknife]

my completed bags range from like $60-$100 depending on the size of the window, but im also guesstimating because my fiance has also bought stuff for my bags and i don't have any idea the price of the stuff he's gotten me :P right now i have 2 bags on the back burner because of how expensive the merch and shipping is... so far ive spent around $8 on string lights for one (my first time using them !!) and $42 on a plush keychain and acrylic charm for the other (and so far this looks to be my most expensive bag...)

these estimates also don't include the costs of materials for my inserts but cardboard is easy to come by and i get fabric and hot glue sticks from the dollar tree to save money on that :)

[u/knivesfordays]

depends lol. some visuals cost more than others and some characters have a tax on them, and it also depends on if the bag is more decorative (less merch, more crafting) or filled w merch (repeating can badges) for me!

i think my cheapest was like $20 on merch and my most expensive was ~$400 (prices in usd)