Author Topic: Does anyone know about manga?  (Read 2813 times)

Re: Does anyone know about manga?
« Reply #15 on: September 12, 2018, 10:27:40 am »
What are examples of sought after/out of print/rare/whatever manga volumes?

It can be hard to pinpoint, as series popularity can wax & wane, and titles do get republished. the baselines for finding rare stuff:

-last volumes cost more than first
-Shojo costs more than Shonen
-The newest version, if the title's been rereleased, is more expensive.

I've seen the last two volumes of Sugar Sugar Rune regularly hit the $80 mark, that's the priciest I personally have come across. Random volumes of Bastard! can run $30-50 (that whole series is out of print, so prices flux a lot). Sometimes long-running series like Hunter X Hunter can see random volumes spike in price if stock runs out... these don't last since a reprint is usually not far off.

I will say this much- don't buy anime or manga speculatively. The market is volatile. Popularity rotates quickly, the abundance of free/cheap streams and downloads (legal or otherwise) makes it hard to see what's popular and what's profitable, and titles can go in and out of print too fast for one to capitalize on. I remember years ago Rightstuf did a bulk blowout where you could get 25 DVDs from a specific list for $100. One of the series in it was Princess Tutu, but only volumes 2-6. Worked great for me, I got volume 1 for Christmas. People threw it in as order filler, watched what they had, and discovered a surprisingly dark fairy tale under that cutesy name. End result? Prices for volume 1 spiked to well over $100 as people clamored to finish their set. Within a week of the price spike, the company announced a complete set re-release coming in a month. Prices stayed high for a little bit (no idea if any sold though), then it all crashed down after the re-release. I was paying attention for a friend interested in the series... if that hadn't been the case, Id've missed the whole thing. At this point, the popularity window is long passed and you can get the whole series under $20 easily enough- which is less per disc than the big blowout sale that started this lil' rollercoaster.


This is absolutely true. I've seen anime boxsets sell for $100 and then a year later they're down to $30 for no apparent reason. Likewise, seemingly random volumes of manga will spike in value like crazy, while others will drop like a ton of bricks. Sometimes with can be explained by a series getting an omnibus or a re-release of some kind, but often it just sort of happens. I think since the manga collecting scene is very small, I think if just one person buys a specific volume of manga for some resellers overpriced BIN, all the other resellers jack the price up, creating a false impression that the volume is now worth X about of dollars. And what often happens is few people if anyone buy it again at that price, forcing the price to go down again. I've see this happen time and again and yes, speculation is a terrible idea with anime and manga.

Re: Does anyone know about manga?
« Reply #16 on: September 12, 2018, 11:36:59 am »
The other 5% of used Manga is highly sought after, typically because it is out of print an still has a large enough fandom to keep demand high. I've seen used manga volumes in this category range from around $10 all the way up to the hundreds.
What are examples of sought after/out of print/rare/whatever manga volumes?
There is a series I love called Flowers of Evil that was released several years ago. It's only 11 volumes, but a few are worth serious money. Volume 10 has been infamously hard for me to get because it goes for $70-$80 often. Other series that have stupid, expensive volumes in them are Red River, From Far Away, and Battle Royal. There are probably many others, but those come to mind.

Flowers of Evil volume 10 has an RRP written on the back of $10.95 USD

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Flowers-of-Evil-Volume-10-Oshimi-Shuzo-Good-Condition-Book/192634141099?epid=175720464&hash=item2cd9e3b9ab:g:-Z8AAOSwB-1Yoruy

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Flowers-Of-Evil-Volume-Volume-10-ENGLISH/132768340159?hash=item1ee99c18bf:g:igwAAOSwV01bhIHk

There's buy it nows of $120 or $500, bruh, it's not even about samurais or mechs or other baller subject matter.




Re: Does anyone know about manga?
« Reply #18 on: September 12, 2018, 05:50:52 pm »
The other 5% of used Manga is highly sought after, typically because it is out of print an still has a large enough fandom to keep demand high. I've seen used manga volumes in this category range from around $10 all the way up to the hundreds.
What are examples of sought after/out of print/rare/whatever manga volumes?
There is a series I love called Flowers of Evil that was released several years ago. It's only 11 volumes, but a few are worth serious money. Volume 10 has been infamously hard for me to get because it goes for $70-$80 often. Other series that have stupid, expensive volumes in them are Red River, From Far Away, and Battle Royal. There are probably many others, but those come to mind.

Flowers of Evil volume 10 has an RRP written on the back of $10.95 USD

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Flowers-of-Evil-Volume-10-Oshimi-Shuzo-Good-Condition-Book/192634141099?epid=175720464&hash=item2cd9e3b9ab:g:-Z8AAOSwB-1Yoruy

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Flowers-Of-Evil-Volume-Volume-10-ENGLISH/132768340159?hash=item1ee99c18bf:g:igwAAOSwV01bhIHk

There's buy it nows of $120 or $500, bruh, it's not even about samurais or mechs or other baller subject matter.


That's what people are asking, but I doubt people will pay that much, especially because Flowers of Evil has been getting the omnibus treatment since late last year, with the final Omnibus coming out next month. These people are delusional though especially the person wanting $500. The most I've seen it go for is $80 if memory serves me right, which is still a lot for a single volume of manga.

Re: Does anyone know about manga?
« Reply #19 on: September 13, 2018, 04:45:10 am »
For awhile I was really into finding obscure English-release manga from 2002 and earlier.

Viz's '90s releases of Urusei Yatsura, Maison Ikkoku, and the early Ranma versions. Oddball titles like Futaba-kun Change (a Ranma clone), Silbuster, and Sorcerer Hunters.

I've also got just about all of Central Park Media's old NSFW releases, like Time Traveler Ai, Chirality, Midnight Panther, Legend of Lemnear, and the super rare (but admittedly terrible...  ::) ) Fantasy Fighters.
« Last Edit: September 13, 2018, 04:46:47 am by zenimus »