I have been coming to the Expo for 13 years (although I’ve only been four times), but I am only vaguely aware of the costs. I decided to see how much it would actually cost a person to come to this shindig. I will be basing a lot on what it costs me, but your mileage may vary. Also, I am pro-rating things, as I do this for three people, which is a better way to go, as the costs are spread further around. Doing this as a solo is a costly proposition. Let’s do the math. Grasp your calculator.

If you are going, you are going in all the way, so it’s a four-day pass. Because of the way you do this, it’s $140 for the four-day pass, plus $11 for them to Express Mail the ticket to you, plus another $5 or so for processing fees (our costs for this was close to $455, but this is for three people). If you were doing just one-day, those were like $70 a day, so the four day is a better deal. And you can always decide to flog your ticket to recoup some fees, but, again, it’s the whole kit and kaboodle. (Personal aside: despite all the headaches, I could never understand going for one day. You miss out on so much.)

You’re going to need a place to stay. You take advantage of the hotels that have subscribed into the AX lodging program. The least expensive hotel is the Kawada at about $190 a night and 1.5 miles from the venue (don’t worry; it’s on the shuttle run). The most expensive is the Ritz-Carlton. It’s about 4/10^th of a mile (and I don’t know where they measure that from), but nearly $400 a night. The bulk are between $220 to $240. You will need four nights.

We were at the Biltmore Millennium. So, base costs were $976 for the four days, PLUS Taxes and Fees, so that’s another $256, PLUS parking fees of $45 a night (and they all charge this fee), PLUS an additional charge of $20 a night, as we had a third guest, PLUS a $25 a night resort fee (for use of the pool and/or exercise room and that is a mandatory; you can’t not get charged for it, even if you don’t use it), so things add up pretty fast.

You will need to GET there, right? As it is a ‘mere’ six-hour drive for us, that ended up being another $225 for gas (two full fills and an emergency stop-over; I’ve got to talk to the mechanic on this). Here is where it gets uncertain. If you are in Seattle or New York City or Tokyo, you will have to (a) fly in to LA Interplanetary Airportal and (b) rent a car. Those are a pair of fees I am uncertain about and I would assume you would red-eye the flight out and back, but still…

A round trip flight from NYC to LA is at least $400. You may be able to find a better deal, but this is just an overview, OK? And a car rental, at the base price, is another $200. And you have to fill the car to the point that you got it at. Now, the venue is only about 20 miles away from LAX, but it can take 40 to 70 minutes to do, depending on the traffic and how well your GPS is working for you.

There is a Shell Station at 504 W. Olympic, but it charges higher costs than other places (when I was there, the ‘cheap’ gas was still $5.65/gal). But do you want to drive around to find a cheaper station? Well, yes, as you will gas up closer to the airport, where it might be marginally better and you will get it as close to the start mark when you got the rental. I mean, the car rental place will charge a lot for their gas.

Yeah, food. Can’t live on bottles of Pocari Sweat alone. Now, if you can drive, you load up the ice chest with whatever food from home and bring that with you. And with the Ralph’s on W 9^th (“Where no prices…”), you can stop in for spot purchases. Otherwise, you may have to allot yourself $50 a day per person for eating. Remember, the venue is really expensive. I trucked to the Ralph’s to get a sandwich and a drink for about $10, far cheaper than just an Asian Chicken Salad ($14) there.

And I am not even going to address the issue of merchandise. That is very personal, but you will be dropping some major coinage to get what you desire. I mean, I saw some guy pony up $500 for some framed artwork. Even I gave a Grant to get a very rare Ariel Pop Figure (which I hadn’t seen anywhere else, not even at Hot Topic).

This is the reason I only go every four years. Aside from avoiding convention burnout, for us, we dropped (excluding merch) around $2500 for the three of us (the math may be off, as I glazed over a bit; I’ll be putting in a ton of overtime for this one to pay for it).

And I know, for a lot of people, it’s the experience and I agree with that, but you should have a good understanding as to what it’s going to be. And the sad part is that costs are going to rise, so who knows how bad it can get.

Still, it is a lot of fun to go to it.