So, I'm not a real manga freak, but lately I need something a little lighter and fluffier (more pictures!) than novels. I have a few Death Notes and some One Piece's someone donated to me, but I'd like more. I checked YesAsia (which is where I got the Death Note stuff), but the prices start to stack up pretty quickly and they don't carry the Samurai Champloo set that I want.

So where do you guys get your cheap, japanese manga?

P.s. Don't say Japan...

I think that bk1.jp is cheapest for new manga because you can pay for really slow shipping, and they charge directly in yen (I guess this can be a disadvantage depending on the valuation of the yen and the dollar, but there's no extra markup built in.)

jpqueen.com used to be good for used manga, but I think they mostly deal in doujinshi now.

Check out ebay if you don't mind it used. I grabbed a few volumes over the summer for about $1-2 apiece. Try searching for "japanese manga lot" to find where people are putting it up in bulk, usually on the cheap side.

$2/volume is a great price. I searched eBay and didn't find any around that price.

Get them new from Amazon Japan. $30 shipping, so 1 volume is $34, 2 is $38, and 10 is $70.

Where to get them used? MIT Anime Club has a library program where you can borrow them (it's $25/year, up to five at a time) and they have a pretty big library. But you have to live near MIT :-( Regular libraries do not carry mangas, either English or Japanese :-(

lerris Wrote:Check out ebay if you don't mind it used. I grabbed a few volumes over the summer for about $1-2 apiece. Try searching for "japanese manga lot" to find where people are putting it up in bulk, usually on the cheap side.

Oh God, don't tell people about eBay. How am I going to keep cleaning up on all the great manga there? -sigh-

BK1.jp is a good bet for anything you can't get on eBay, though. Like most of the newer stuff.

jcdietz03 Wrote:Regular libraries do not carry mangas, either English or Japanese :-(

Mine does, but only in English. Don't listen to anyone that tells you yours won't until you've actually checked.

Half-priced books has a small collection in the foreign language section. Priced around 3 to 5 bucks. I thought it was a pretty good deal.

Check out Sasuga Books for Japanese language books and manga. They have a large selection of both new and older titles. They are based in Massachusetts (I think) so shipping is quick (and free for orders of $40 or more).

Edit: not in the $1 to $2 range though - didn't see the emphasis on cheap.

If you try Amazon.co.jp's Marketplace, shipping is ¥1,200, not ¥2,700 (or whatever they normally charge), even though the shipping is a bit slower. I think it takes like 10ish days to the U.S. Just search the Marketplace page for 海外 to find a seller who'll ship to your country.

I've used it before -- works great!

Edit: Here's a link to their typical shipping rates: http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/help/seller/s...DFUN59W30B

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

http://www.bk1.jp/

Used them recently -VERY reasonable shipping charges and you get points which translate to money off.

jcdietz03 Wrote:Get them new from Amazon Japan. $30 shipping, so 1 volume is $34

...this is why Amazon Japan is about the worst possible place to buy new manga, their shipping charges are extortionate. I'm another fan of buying from bk1 and shipping by seamail.

pm215 Wrote:

jcdietz03 Wrote:Get them new from Amazon Japan. $30 shipping, so 1 volume is $34

...this is why Amazon Japan is about the worst possible place to buy new manga, their shipping charges are extortionate. I'm another fan of buying from bk1 and shipping by seamail.

If only they shipped outside of Japan the way they do inside. You know, free and next-day.

pm215 Wrote:

jcdietz03 Wrote:Get them new from Amazon Japan. $30 shipping, so 1 volume is $34

...this is why Amazon Japan is about the worst possible place to buy new manga, their shipping charges are extortionate.

Yeah, it's a shame -- they've recently increased their shipping price quite a bit, probably due to the good performance of the yen vs. the dollar. 5+ years ago, it was my favorite way to order things. The shipping was fast and very reasonably priced, especially if you were getting several items.

wccrawford Wrote:

lerris Wrote:Check out ebay if you don't mind it used. I grabbed a few volumes over the summer for about $1-2 apiece. Try searching for "japanese manga lot" to find where people are putting it up in bulk, usually on the cheap side.

Oh God, don't tell people about eBay. How am I going to keep cleaning up on all the great manga there? -sigh-

Haha, um... oops? It was my greatest discovery over the summer. I was addicted to the site for a while.

Oh by the way, you're in Orlando as well right? Like a year ago you were asking about local places to buy Japanese stuff, did you ever end up finding anything even close besides Florida Oriental or Japan HQ?

there's book-off if you're near Manhattan It's on 42nd street near the new york city public library. you can look it up.

I haven't been there yet but I read in some online review that naruto or some other popular manga was $3 per volume.

If craigslist is popular where you live, you might try that. For example I bought the complete 20th Century Boys set (22 volumes) from someone for $20. Checking my local CL right now, someone's selling 6 volumes of Yotsuba for $20...wish I had seen that before I bought the whole series full-price at Kinokuniya!

I should add: the absolute best chance I've had for buying untranslated manga was earlier this year when a local manga cafe had a going-out-of-business sale. They had thousands of books (mostly older ones) for $1 each. I picked up a complete set of Berserk for $33 and some other stuff that looked interesting (hey, at $1 a book, why not?). That kind of opportunity is rare, but keep your eyes out for stuff like that (I actually found out about it on craigslist).

Blank Wrote:I should add: the absolute best chance I've had for buying untranslated manga was earlier this year when a local manga cafe had a going-out-of-business sale.

Btw, Asahiya Bookstore in NYC is going out of business on october 31st.

What is the policy concerning sharing links to repositories of scanned manga in japanese?

Policy: Share! IceCream did.

Okay, so I put an order in at bk1 for some manga at 11PM on Sunday, October 25th, the year of our lord, 2009.

The price: ３５１２円

I chose SAL shipping, as that seems to be the most popular/cheap thing to do.

As soon as I figure out how much I'm being charged for shipping, I'll update and let you guys know.

And for those curious, I got:
-Death Note 2, 3, & 4
-Crayon Shinchan 1
-20th Century Boys 1 & 2
-Nana 1 & 2 (for my 彼女 )

Let's hope the shipping is nice. I'm excited!

Okay, if you have IRC and know how to use DCC..

#lurk on IRCHighway has about ~5,000 volumes of japanese language manga available.

See link: http://gotlurk.net/?do=botlist , click on [UR]Dan to see the available volumes.

Go to the FAQ linked at the top for a brief introduction on how to DL the volumes.

Feel guilty.

sethg Wrote:I chose SAL shipping, as that seems to be the most popular/cheap thing to do.

The seamail option is cheaper still but you do have to be prepared to wait a couple of months for it to arrive (and I suppose in theory you could be unlucky and have the container your manga is in fall off the side of the ship :-))

I don't know if I could wait months 1ヶ月 at most.

2 months is long enough for someone to steal your manga off the boat, finish reading it, and put it back

Kinokuniya might be a good option: they have branches in the US, so you won't have to deal with overseas shipping. Selection won't be as massive as amazon.co.jp, etc, of course, but I often frequent their store in SF and am satisfied enough with the inventory.

With Kinokuniya, you can place items in your cart and pick them up at the store.
Even better, they tell you which stores carry which items.