Purchasing Manga and Other JP-written Works
TLDR: This is a rant, and do people even waste their money on manga anymore?
I visited the only Japanese book store chain in California over the weekend, leaving disappointed because they didn't have any of the Prisma Illya art collections in stock. I couldn't believe there were other people besides me that would spend $45 on something like that, but that's besides the point. I ended up settling for [url=http://i5.minus.com/iwEfYDP3wjTR5.jpg]some manga[/url] and the total was about [url=http://i6.minus.com/iEIx4STNuIzVc.jpg]$32 after sales tax.[/url]
Why? I understand that retailers have to make profit, but this is a 50-60% mark-up we're talking about here. Sure, it may only be a few-dollars difference, but we've got a problem if you're seemingly raising the price with an RNG. Who decided to mark Nisekoi up 55%, but Space Bros 75%? Space Bros is more popular than Nisekoi, has 10x more stock (i.e. supply/demand), and the volumes are roughly the same size (i.e. costs the same to ship). Where is this 20% difference coming from? The reason why I don't have every volume of Space Brothers, or even the 6-volume span of Non Non Biyori already is because of this ridiculous price hike.
And then there are the manga that don't get featured in JUMP, or aren't as popular in the western/Japanese-American group. Manga like Thermae Romae are nearly double the JP retail price; compare that to TLRD, which only costs $6 per volume -- only $2 up from JP retail. However, the biggest offender of this bulls/hit inflation are light novels. Demand for them is so low, that they're ridiculously expensive [for what you're paying for]. I was tempted to buy a few volumes of Nanana's Buried Treasure to read during the downtime between my classes -- until I looked at the back cover: $11.00, up from $5 retail. I pray that the value of the USD continues to grow past the yen so JP-written works can become more affordable.
But in the end, this is [b]still[/b] cheaper than buying English-translated, licensed manga.
5 Comments • Newest first
Kinokuniya mark up their imports stupidly high (like 30-50 dollar price range for magazines)
But hey that's still pretty cheap for manga. In Australia a manga volume (ENGLISH PRINT!) costs around 15-18 dollars Australian! They always make me sad when they print the prices of USA and Canada 4-6 dollars cheaper. But this isn't just Kinokuniya this is every bookstore in the whole country. If I could read Japanese I'd probably opt for Japanese print cause they're way cheaper than english print for me
OT: I'm one of the few who still buys manga; you can't beat the feeling of reading manga volumes before bed (literally grew up doing this; borrowing whole series from libraries and staying up late reading them ) But then again I only buy manga that I [i]really [/i] enjoy (seriously just a weird kid who likes to collect stuff)
[quote=traderweak]Go search for internet, print them out and find wallpaper you like and make it covers for your DIY manga.
I pretty sure this is cheaper. but need effort only.[/quote]
The only problem is finding raws. Japanese raws can be hard to come across in many situations, especially if you want raws from earlier in the series. Manga sites usually only host English manga, and sites like Senmanga don't usually have what I want... WHERE DAT NAKI SHOUJO NO TAME NO PAVANE BE AT
my friends and i all split so its cheaper
but rly ur really lucky to have a book store theres none where i live, have to buy overpriced (Shipping) goods online
[quote=Irony]you should just move to japan
or buy from amazon[/quote]
Thanks, but I like the United States.
And Amazon(jp) costs more due to shipping.
you should just move to japan
or buy from amazon