So, my book were ３５１２円. In USD today, that's $38.16. I was charged $56.57. That $18.41/１６９４円 in shipping.

A little steeper than I expected, but I'm not really used to ordering much from Japan directly, so... maybe that's rather reasonable.

Hope that's helpful to someone else. I guess being charged means they shipped today, so, that's Monday, October 26th, 2009. I'll let you guys know when they get here

That's about $7 each, with shipping? Yeah, I think you'd be hard pressed to buy new manga for less than that. They're about that much at US branches of Kinokuniya, because they have to take shipping into account too. (And except for jpqueen.com, I don't know any Japanese used bookstores that ship to the US, although if you're ever in New York or California you should drop by Book-Off.)

When I used to order from Book-Off I'd typically try to do one big order per year of about $100-120, because the per-book cost of shipping goes down the more you order.

Anybody wanna give me a date to shoot for and share previous average wait times with bk1?

sethg Wrote:So, my book were ３５１２円. In USD today, that's $38.16. I was charged $56.57. That $18.41/１６９４円 in shipping.

A little steeper than I expected, but I'm not really used to ordering much from Japan directly, so... maybe that's rather reasonable.

Hope that's helpful to someone else. I guess being charged means they shipped today, so, that's Monday, October 26th, 2009. I'll let you guys know when they get here

I ordered about 7600 yen of manga and light novels, so I guess hoping for $20 shipping was ambitious...Sigh, probably still cheaper than buying from another site or buying the English version.

sethg Wrote:Anybody wanna give me a date to shoot for and share previous average wait times with bk1?

Hi, I live in Michigan, USA. My first order from bk1 was about 5 months ago and it took a little less than 2 weeks for my order to arrive by way of the SAL shipping option. I think this is also assuming every item is readily available in stock; all of the items I ordered had the *ship within 24 hours* status on them. Just a few minutes ago, I put in my second order, only this time I have a manga book under the 7-21 days (GANTZ Volume 1), so I expect it to take longer this time. I hope I helped somewhat.

Thanks Kreva! I'm in Tennessee and all of mine had the 24 hour symbol as well, so I'm hoping for about 2 weeks. I'm so excited. Very little delights me more in life than receiving nice packages in the mail

yukamina Wrote:...or buying the English version.

Is english manga expensive? I've never read any... I doubt the thought of buying it would ever really enter into my mind if I didn't want to learn Japanese. I'm pretty shocked by how much I'm enjoy it, though, honestly.

My methods right now are to either go with good anime i've seen or check the manga out first on onemanga.com first.

If you're cheap go to BOOK-OFF. kinokuniya is too expensive for me (ie. minami-ke was like 6 dollars or maybe 8 & at book-off it's probably 3 and at the asahiya that's closing in 2 days it's like 2). I dont think I'll ever buy anything kinokuniya unless I specifically find about some books that I just have to read that book-off doesn't have etc.

I love book-off for the $1 section for 文庫 & manga etc. that way if i end up buying some book/manga i don't like, it's not that big of a deal.

Looking at Book-Off's website, it looks like they have 4 in Socal but none in the Bay area. Now I'm jealous! Having lived in both, I can fairly say we deserve it more up here :p

Although I bought from YesAsia instead of bk1.jp, I thought I'd post the shipping times for that company, in case someone else was interested.

I ordered 4 light novels and 2 mangas (total weight of 1.13kg) on Tuesday, October 27 for about 55$USD (shipping was free since the order was above 40$). It was shipped on Saturday, October 31 and I received it on Monday November 9. I live in Quebec, Canada. So the shipping took a bit more than a week from Hong Kong to Canada.

I was quite pleased with the quick shipping time sethg, I hope you get your books soon too!

Copycatken Wrote:I ordered 4 light novels and 2 mangas (total weight of 1.13kg) on Tuesday, October 27 for about 55$USD (shipping was free since the order was above 40$)

I liked the sound of 'free shipping' but on closer inspection it looks like the way YesAsia make this work is by having everything be twice the price of bk1. (I guess that's not surprising really...)

bombpersons Wrote:Good deal?
http://stores.shop.ebay.com/japan-books-...ec0Q2em322

Bad deal?

Everyone can put their trust in http://www.bk1.jp/

pm215 Wrote:

Copycatken Wrote:I ordered 4 light novels and 2 mangas (total weight of 1.13kg) on Tuesday, October 27 for about 55$USD (shipping was free since the order was above 40$)

I liked the sound of 'free shipping' but on closer inspection it looks like the way YesAsia make this work is by having everything be twice the price of bk1. (I guess that's not surprising really...)

Yeah, it's pretty much the case that the shipping cost is "integrated" into the price on YesAsia.

As of yesterday, my birthday, Nov 11th, no manga. I'll check again today around 3 pm. I really hope they're here. Nyah. I was so set on that 2 week number. I have no patience when waiting for things in the mail.... It's like... Christmas morning

Yay! Arrived on November 12th. Everything is beautiful, new, and, let me just say, incredibly well packed! Like, no joke, I took a while to marvel at the beauty of the packing.

I would write more, but, uh, I'm reading Shinchan

Do describe the wonder of the packaging please

On my end, YesAsia put all my books into bubble wrapping, but there was still a bit of space in the box. So when it was lightly shaken, you could hear the books move around in the box.

Just briefly, it was incredibly tightly packed. There was nice foam lining everything and it was packed so that no movement could take place. The books (feels weird to call manga books) were packed together within plastic and stacked upon one another. The box itself was neatly taped shut and then bound with two yellow plastic bands. If I had a decent camera, I'd take some pics.

Lemme just say, I'm happy to get everything. I knew I'd love Death Note. ２０世紀少年 looks great and has a nice heft to it. However, it has no furigana... which is fine, it just makes learning new words a bit more difficult. My girlfriend is thoroughly enjoying Nana. The real gem, though, has been Shinchan! I LOVE IT!!! I haven't even cracked the others since I started reading Shinchan. Really brilliant and hilarious stuff. I was laughing aloud in the library earlier.

Wow, looks like I'll be trying out bk1.jp for my next Japanese book purchase. Such glowing praise from everyone on this board.

Since I have some actual Japanese books now, I can probably estimate the shipping cost too

sethg Wrote:The real gem, though, has been Shinchan! I LOVE IT!!! I haven't even cracked the others since I started reading Shinchan. Really brilliant and hilarious stuff. I was laughing aloud in the library earlier.

Did you hear that the author died recently? (Asahi article) Sad news...

Lol, thank you for passing that along. Yeah, I know, and I was awfully saddened, but I find it funny. Yesterday I met up with a buuunch of Japanese exchange students and I showed off my new manga. Every time I pulled out Shinchan they were joyous, and then suddenly dropped their smile, and said, "You know... he fell off a cliff."

Heh... eeeeveryone.

But you couldn't have known that Thanks for passing it along... He will be missed.

Quote:現場で回収された臼井さんのデジタルカメラには、登る途中の景色を撮った３０枚以上の画像が残され、最後は荒船山の艫岩（ともいわ）の絶壁から下を見下ろす写真だったことを明らかにした。

Raise your hand if you've taken a picture of your own death!

Based on the good feedback, I just purchased the new version あずまんが大王 3 volume set from http://www.bk1.jp. It was my first time making a purchase from a Japanese language-only website (I was a bit nervous throughout the registration/purchase process), but I think everything went smoothly.

If this all turns out well, I may have a new go-to manga on-line store. Thanks for the tip!

I'd recommend you using "in Japanese" in quotes when you're searching for a book through Amazon, etc. Depending on what book you're looking for, some of them can be really affordable if it's selling from your country. There's one site that sells Japanese books with flat rate $8 shipping for orders under $100, and free for over $100. Though the name of that site escapes me now.

Where did you dig up this old topic?

Here in Germany Japanese manga is crazily overpriced. I would just buy a ton of them in Tokyo and stuff them in a bag. When flying with Lufthansa you get to carry 2 luggage pieces with each 23kg max. One bag full of manga should be enough for a couple of months ; )