Forum - View topicNEWS: Imported Manga at Borders and Waldenbooks
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mrhomiec
 Posts: 29 Location: Arizona |
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heh, no. they don't even know what translated titles are good =P at least here they don't. and woopty doo, the price is a whole $2 more than the average manga. wow, so high. if you think about it, it's not that bad. so you can buy japanese manga online for about $3-$5, plus s&h, that's about $8-$10 right there for normal shipping. if you wanted faster shipping, it would be around $12-$15. so quit your complaining, i think this is actually a really good deal. no hassle of ordering online, no credit card number, and no worrying if the mail decides to delay it. |
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Tempest
 I Run this place.ANN Publisher  Posts: 10471 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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Wow, I didn't know chapters/Indigo ripped people off so badly on manga, many of their other books are very reasonably priced. I suggest you go somewhere else, order your stuff from a specialty shop or if you don't have access to one, order it online from amazon.ca. You'll save $2.50 per volume and if you order more than 4 at a time the shipping is free. -t |
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Haiseikoh 1973
 Posts: 1590 Location: Waiting for the Japanese 1000 Gunieas. |
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I kinda find it funny the people who bemoan Downloading Anime and instead "Pay the Artists" and crucify anyone saying they support Fansubs would turn cheap over Imported Manga. |
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ACDragonMaster
 Posts: 405 |
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For the people who actually know how to get ahold of Japanese manga at a more reasonable rate, it *is* a big deal. Also, Borders could have handled it better. They're obviously purchasing their manga at something near Japanese retail, rather than ordering from the publishers themselves. Doing that, especially ordering in bulk, would probably knock a few bucks off that price pretty quickly. And $10 import manga, I might actually consider buying. Which is ironic because one of the series they're carrying is one I do in fact currently read. But as it is, it's cheaper to send money to a friend in Japan and have them purchase and mail me whatever I'm looking for. |
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Sword of Whedon
Posts: 683 |
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You seem to greatly overestimate the market for untranslated manga. While it's not insignifigant on a national scale, on a local it's infentesimal outside of the biggest cities NYC/Chicago/LA etc, that's why there's J bookstores there already. |
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AnimeHeretic
 Posts: 179 |
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The prices seem rather marked up. Here's some prices for JP manga that I recently bought at Kinokuniya-- in yen and the marked up $ price per volume:
Azumanga Daioh: 680 Yen, $10.55 Negima: 390 yen, $6.05 Yawara: 581 yen, $8.15 Yotsubato: 600 yen, $9.30 Azumi: 485 yen, $6.75 Given that the $ has been averaging +/- 102 yen, the mark up here is about $2-3 I think the only time I got hosed price wise was when I got "Daitenzin" imported from Japan by way of a UK company. I got reamed by the weakness of the dollar there (12 GBP for a $6 book-- but I think Natsuki Anime ripped me off) |
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Haiseikoh 1973
Posts: 1590 Location: Waiting for the Japanese 1000 Gunieas. |
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Wow. Just, Wow. You obviously aren't getting it. Borders seems to be targeting areas where there is no easy access to such Manga, or where there is no Book-Off or whatever. It's called OPPORTUNITY. |
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hkrok76
 Posts: 118 |
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i'm glad I have Kinokuniya, asahiya, sanseido, and also little tokyo within reasonable driving distance away. Unfortunately, not everyone has that luxury. If you like a fringe product in an area where it's not available, than yes, you should expect to pay more. it's a sad thing, but that's business. Supply and demand rule our country. Not a lot of demand for untranslated manga, so they need to make up for it by jacking up the price. 13 bucks is definitely too much though. Maybe you can get a lot of Japanese people to move into your neighborhood. Anyway.
Small tankoubans go for 5 to 6 bucks at the store, the larger ones range from 8 to 13 bucks depending on size. Kinokuniya is the most expensive of all the stores I am near, but they carry the fringe "otaku" products, so meh. Anyway, i hope borders pulls this off....but I doubt it'll do that well. Although people who want to get these to learn, would most likely buy it instead of sitting at the stores and reading like I see all these jackasses do. Buy the books and support the companies -_- Oh well.. |
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Sword of Whedon
Posts: 683 |
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They have selected "a number of stores" Nowhere is there a list of the stores that I've seen And I'll bet dollars to donuts none of those stores are in Peoria, or anywhere else lacking a dense multicultural environment like the cities I listed before. Again, you can order them online or over the phone very easily at half the price Borders is charging, and not that much more after shipping, which is the point you keep missing when I keep telling you all you have to do is call them, tell them what you want, give the m a CC number and they'll box it up. Just choose the Kino location closest to you geographically. At best with 90%+ of Borders locations you'lll have to special order your manga that (most) of you can't read at triple the Japanese price. |
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quincyarcher
 Posts: 164 Location: Age of Paranoia |
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Well, I'm certainly not happy about the price, but I'm in the middle of no-where as far as untranslated manga goes. Those on the west coast are a little more lucky, but in the boonies of NC, it certainly looks a little more reasonable.
Amazon.co.jp's nicely priced(and surprisingly quick), but it's still not as easy as going down to the mall and grabbing a book. While, I wouldn't depend on it for buying all my Japanese manga, I certainly wouldn't mind shelling out a few extra bucks if it meant instant gratification. |
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Annie_Jr
 Posts: 424 Location: New Mexico (boring...) |
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I was visiting a town a couple of days ago, and I noticed at some bookstore in the mall, there was imported manga there. I never knew there was a test going on. It's a neat test, and I even bought something.
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animaniac
 Posts: 246 Location: Idaho |
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Cool idea though I doubt they will sell much- bilingual would probably be better for sales. I'd by some just to collect especially at low prices
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Calli
Posts: 38 |
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Being in a slightly less rural part of the state, I feel like it might help if I shared my experiences with import manga purchases. Amazon.co.jp isn't terribly fast (then again, I go with standard shipping) and the tarriffs and shipping kills you. Fifty dollars for fifteen dollars' (approximations here) worth of books isn't nicely priced in my book. After seeing their booth at Animazement in 2003 (I think?) I do all my ordering through Sasuga now. The prices are much more reasonable. If you can get out to the RTP area, the convention's coming up in May, by the way. After looking up the Japanese price on my World of Narue volumes, and comparing how much I paid at the con booth -- thirteen bucks is insane. I don't know the details in shipping, though, so for all I know they're also getting an extra 1200 yen slapped on per book (well, wait, not that much if it's $13 US -- maybe 900?) thanks to shipping and customs. Bear in mind, though, that's speculation. I kind of doubt that the entire price is gouging, though, unless Borders/Waldenbooks is also getting hosed. |
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ACDragonMaster
Posts: 405 |
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Take purchasing a manga at exactly Japanese retail, let's say $4. Factoring a decent shipping and handling rate and tariffs and such, that can bring it up to around $8. Now assume that you're a large business who needs to make a certain level of profit per book, and $13 is what you sell it for. On the other hand, a store like Kinokuniya is ordering directly from the publisher, rather than buying it at retail. And probably imports it in a bulk that they have some fixed rate they pay on that. And thus they're able to sell for a good deal cheaper. |
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Sakura Shinguji
Posts: 199 |
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Apparently not, considering "Boku was Imouto..." apparently includes two underage siblings participating in sexual activity. There's either rampant ignorance going on as far as the higher-ups in charge of this are concerned, or they're looking to expand their target demographic in a really risky and interesting way. Me, I'm just waiting for the news report once some soccer mom decides to pick this book up for her manga-loving kid, Japanese skills or no, because of the cute cover art, and then discovers what's inside. |
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