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Harder and Harder to find Manga


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Lyrai



Joined: 04 Sep 2005
Posts: 173
Location: Potatoes (Idaho)
PostPosted: Wed Feb 16, 2011 3:51 am Reply with quote
Lately, I have been noticing that some manga titles are getting harder and harder to find, with later volumes being downright impossible to locate. My personal foil is the Tsukihime manga, which seems to have crumbled with DrMaster. Volume 6 is impossible to find for under $50, which is ludicrous.


Anyone else have favorite titles that they can't seem to find?



{Am stickying this thread because of its relative popularity. ~nobahn}
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Kruszer



Joined: 19 Nov 2004
Posts: 7981
Location: Minnesota, USA
PostPosted: Wed Feb 16, 2011 5:10 am Reply with quote
To say nothing of volumes of Tsukihime, past volume 6, which were never even released by them. It's not really the fact they seem to have died that angers me, it's the fact they died and didn't tell anyone so that all their readers continued to hope for future releases from them. Mad

As for me, damn near every manga I read would qualify half of them are AWOL and the other half come out so infrequently that I forget what happened in the last volume. I guess I have a knack for choosing trouble titles. Anime cry

Some aggrivating ones that come to mind are the fore mentioned Tsukihime and a couple Del Rey titles, Princess Resurrection and Suzuka, that were supposed to be transferring back over to Kodansha who presumably would finish their release. Remote also seems to have been out of print for a while and unfortunately I only became interested in reading it recently.
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RAmmsoldat



Joined: 19 Oct 2005
Posts: 1261
Location: North wales coast
PostPosted: Wed Feb 16, 2011 12:14 pm Reply with quote
Yeah i had a mad scramble to find eyeshield 21 volume 2 for a reasonable price, im finding alot of older books are going up to silly prices. Any copy of blame! is out of the question, some of the battle angel alita last order stuff too

Im not overly confident picking up old series these days because of all the screw ups from the publishers and the thing that irks me most is that usually you will hear nothing from them about it.
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Shenl742



Joined: 11 Feb 2010
Posts: 1524
PostPosted: Wed Feb 16, 2011 4:03 pm Reply with quote
Volume 12 of Bastard was, well, a real bastard to get. I was finally able to get a copy for $20 off of ebay.
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zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7357
PostPosted: Wed Feb 16, 2011 4:46 pm Reply with quote
It's rather annoying how Viz just lets stuff go OOP unless it's ungodly popular even for them. And they don't yet have a print on demand thing. So I recently plunked down $60 for volume 20 of Firefighter Dagio. Seeing how the whole series sold less than 2000 copies, I didn't have much hope of getting it any cheaper, so I bit the lure, here's hoping! It seems something was delivered, but I'm at the dorm, curses!
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Tamaria



Joined: 21 Oct 2007
Posts: 1512
Location: De Achterhoek
PostPosted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 2:37 am Reply with quote
Yeah, lots of Viz titles are OOP and hard to find. Luckily, I've found most of the ones I want Anime smile

I've got every volume of Banana Fish, Basara, Saint Seiya, Maison Ikkoku Phoenix and Firefighter Daigo. Red River and From far Away are complete as well. I'm up to date with Excel Saga and Eyeshield 21. I've got Four Shoujo Stories, Even a Monkey can draw Manga and A,A'. I got all books for MSRP or less. The only thing I'm still looking for is Saikano 7. Oh and maybe Dance til Tomorrow 6 and 7.

Outside of Viz I still want sixteen volumes of Five Star Stories, Cyborg 009, Kindaichi Case Files 7 and 12, four volumes of What's Michael and volume 2-7 of the German edition of Rose of Versailles. While my luck is kind of incredible, I doubt I'll ever be able to clear my OOP wishlist.
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timesteel



Joined: 04 Aug 2009
Posts: 202
Location: California
PostPosted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 2:43 am Reply with quote
Well for me it's phoenix volume 4. I managed to get 2 volume 1's for under $30 but 4 is hard to find for under $200
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timesteel



Joined: 04 Aug 2009
Posts: 202
Location: California
PostPosted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 3:12 am Reply with quote
Also the Fist of the north star volumes that were published in English most are over $50 each on amazon.

Last edited by timesteel on Sat Feb 19, 2011 12:07 am; edited 1 time in total
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zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7357
PostPosted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 8:43 am Reply with quote
Like Tamaria, I'm pretty lucky on a lot of Viz things, though half the time it tends to be by accident because I have no idea what will become rare in the future. I've gotten a bit better at predicting I suppose, but for the time being, I've got all of Banana Fish, Maison Ikkoku, Monster, had all of Saikano (before I traded it due to not liking the series very much), Even a Monkey Can Draw Manga, Please Save My Earth, Here is Greenwood. I'm also missing only volume 6 of Firefighter Daigo now, so close to completion! That's just from Viz, from DMP, I've got both Antique Bakery and Flower of Life volume 4 (which was printed two years after volume 3 and had a far lower print run than the rest of the series). Tokyopop lost lots of series rights a ways back so from that I've got Kodocha, Marmalade Boy, and Planetes. Firefighter Daigo is the only time I've ever paid more than MSRP for those missing volumes, just the one so far, but 6 might end up like that too. I do have incredible luck on most of the other things so running out of a little bit on that series towards the goal doesn't phase me.

Things I have that I suspect will go waaay OOP in the future: Dr. Slump and Hikaru no Go (up to date, only missing the last unpublished volume and can't wait to get it!). Dr. Slump already has a volume (#9) way OOP and as for Hikaru no Go? I just can't imagine it's a top seller even though it should be.

Now, in the case of some of those series, I had been collecting them all along or at least way before the series ended. But for most of them I didn't start collecting them until after the series had completed and a few of the volumes were way OOP. It's such a hassle if you haven't been collecting them from around the start, but it's not like there's unlimited money for me to try everything out either, not to mention that Borders used to be the only place I could buy manga from and they didn't carry Banana Fish or Firefighter Daigo among other things, how was I supposed to know about those series if I couldn't see them at Borders? Now that I'm proficient with the internet, it's not a problem, but pretty much through high school I was stuck to brick and mortar stores. I think I missed out on a lot of series just because of that alone.

One reason that Vertical is so awesome for me (aside from the hero cape they're always wearing) is that I recall them saying that they didn't want to let stuff go OOP. They've already reprinted Ode to Kirihito, MW, and Apollo's Song, some of their earliest releases. I'm honestly not sure how they're marketing, I think they're going outside of the manga fanbase to get comic fans and they do print stuff other than manga, but they're just awesome!
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Tamaria



Joined: 21 Oct 2007
Posts: 1512
Location: De Achterhoek
PostPosted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 9:26 am Reply with quote
[quote="classicalzawa" ]Please Save My Earth, Here is Greenwood.[/quote]

Got those two. Again, it was pure luck. I got Here is Greenwood 1-6, 8 and 9 from an Archonia sale and I snagged the last few copies of certain PSME volumes at the same time. I got Here is Greenwood 7 a few months later together with the last Basara 20 from RACS.

Quote:
That's just from Viz, from DMP, I've got both Antique Bakery and Flower of Life volume 4 (which was printed two years after volume 3 and had a far lower print run than the rest of the series).


Flower of Life 4 took me by surprise. I had mine pre-ordered for ages, but I heard some people who were only 2-3 months late missed it.

Quote:

Tokyopop lost lots of series rights a ways back so from that I've got Kodocha, Marmalade Boy, and Planetes.


Yep, me too. Again, lots of luck. I got most books from Boekenfestijn and other sales. I think I paid less than €15 for Planetes as a whole...

Also, Boekenfestijn is awesome. You can still find Blame! there with some luck.

Quote:
Things I have that I suspect will go waaay OOP in the future: Dr. Slump and Hikaru no Go (up to date, only missing the last unpublished volume and can't wait to get it!). Dr. Slump already has a volume (#9) way OOP and as for Hikaru no Go? I just can't imagine it's a top seller even though it should be.


You're probably right about Hikaru no Go. Some stores seem to be having trouble keeping later volumes in stock, so I suspect the print-runs are smaller now.

Quote:
Now that I'm proficient with the internet, it's not a problem, but pretty much through high school I was stuck to brick and mortar stores. I think I missed out on a lot of series just because of that alone.


For me it was the other way around. Not many stores sell imported manga in the Netherlands, so I've always ordered most of my stuff online. But you know what's funny? It's the stores that don't have a website where you'll find the real gems. A sparkly new Four Shoujo Stories, for instance <3
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zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7357
PostPosted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 9:53 am Reply with quote
Tamaria wrote:
Flower of Life 4 took me by surprise. I had mine pre-ordered for ages, but I heard some people who were only 2-3 months late missed it.

Huh, that's odd because I ordered it off of TRSI last winter and still got it. I had gotten 1-3 at a used bookstore for $5 each and quickly discovered that hey! there's 4 volumes! And it's such a great series that I demanded that I have the last one. So I didn't hesitate to order it. It was practically right after that that I found that people were really getting screwed over on finding it. I actually saw quite a number of copies at Otakon though, so maybe people should check cons.

As for brick and mortar vs the internet, there are plenty of used stores I check out and get some awesome stuff from. It finally jump started me on getting Hikaru no Go after all. I got the first 18 volumes of GTO for $3 each at another one. And the comic book store near my college has $5 manga where I got all of Land of the Blindfolded, Marmalade Boy, and Kodocha for $5 a volume, among other things for $5 each. That same comic book store was able to get GTO 23 in for me, the only GTO volume I paid full price for (the last 6 I got for $5 each at Otakon). So yeah, I always check out used places and little comic book stores (another little comic book store was where I found Saikano 7 new in shrink wrap. They were even having a moving sale so it was 20% off the cover price).
But when it comes to getting new stuff or newer releases, I can get great deals online, much cheaper then when I used to use my weekly $20 allowance to get two manga without any coupons or whatnot. I still check my cheap hotspots before ordering online, I got almost half of Hikaru no Go that way, but sometimes the internet is the only way to go to find some things.
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Tamaria



Joined: 21 Oct 2007
Posts: 1512
Location: De Achterhoek
PostPosted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 4:31 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Huh, that's odd because I ordered it off of TRSI last winter and still got it. I had gotten 1-3 at a used bookstore for $5 each and quickly discovered that hey! there's 4 volumes!


The stores I know had a hard time keeping it in stock. Perhaps the print-run was barely large enough to meet the original demand?
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zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7357
PostPosted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 5:25 pm Reply with quote
Tamaria wrote:
Quote:
Huh, that's odd because I ordered it off of TRSI last winter and still got it. I had gotten 1-3 at a used bookstore for $5 each and quickly discovered that hey! there's 4 volumes!


The stores I know had a hard time keeping it in stock. Perhaps the print-run was barely large enough to meet the original demand?

Hmm, perhaps, but then again, if they were going by original sales of the first three volumes, what about people like me who bought it used? I don't think used sales factor into that. For the time being, I'm just happy I got a copy before even the internets ran out! I'm willing to chalk it up to extreme luck, really.

And when it comes to finding those hard to find manga, luck is certainly a factor, is it not Laughing ? The one stat you ignore in any RPG (that even has it) turns out to be the most useful in real life.
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RAmmsoldat



Joined: 19 Oct 2005
Posts: 1261
Location: North wales coast
PostPosted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 6:08 pm Reply with quote
just had it again, getting a list together think "oh i'll get monster on there that was supposed to be good" volume 3 for the bargain price of $200 = no thank you viz

Hopefully they will put out a big edition or somthing or some reprints so i stand a chance of getting em.
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zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7357
PostPosted: Thu Feb 17, 2011 8:11 pm Reply with quote
And of course volume 3 of Monster would be the first one to go OOP, you'd need friggin' clairvoyance to foresee that one.

That's my other problem with those hard to find volumes, it's always random ones, like that one light bulb on the christmas tree lights string that goes out while everything else is fine (unless you are still using lights from the 90s, in which case everything beyond that light is also out, but then if you refuse to read more without that one volume, I guess it can kinda be like that too)
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