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Answerman - Why Are Later Volumes Of Anime and Manga So Hard To Find?


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Nate148



Joined: 24 May 2012
Posts: 465
PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2016 9:15 am Reply with quote
Dunbine v12 any one Very Happy
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Animegomaniac



Joined: 16 Feb 2012
Posts: 4070
PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2016 10:25 am Reply with quote
Nate148 wrote:
Dunbine v12 any one Very Happy


I rented it from Netflix a few months ago; Ironically, it was volume 4 that was missing. Double subversion, I watched that volume on Youtube but the series was only posted up to that volume.

Honestly, the series wasn't worth all the effort it took me to watch it.

But to the subject at hand, this is a great reason why we're switching or switched to complete seasons and omnibuses... and whatever AoA feels like doing with a show and whatever Ponycanyon feels worth stealing from AoA. On the other hand... no, I'm in the process of condensing my multisets into 6 DVD cases; I'm more a fan of the idea of extra art than the physicality of it.

I'm still looking for Miami Guns vol 4 myself; I never intended to get the series and I got vols 1-3 free when I got Hare + Guu... it's complicated... but I did watch the series prior to this. I know vol 4 is my favorite and that it's a nice cap to the whole series. It's just that 1) I know I'll never find it by itself and 2) I'll probably never find it in a set of four.

It could get relicensed. Also, pigs may be genetically modified so that they become airborne; I'm just not holding my breath waiting for it.
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Themaster20000



Joined: 05 Aug 2014
Posts: 863
PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2016 10:37 am Reply with quote
Dark Horse is the absolute worse when it comes to this. Multiple volumes of Berserk are OOP,the recent Lone Wolf and Cub omnibus is apparently OOP despite being out for only a few months. They really dropped the ball on the whole manga division the last few years.
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4410
PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2016 10:56 am Reply with quote
There is always that line between waiting for a sale or price decrease, and getting something while you still can. Fortunately, the switch to the 12-13 episode sets that some companies did made it a lot easier because oftentimes there are only ever one or two volumes to get.

The prospect of massive price hikes or going without is also why I make sure to get something I liked if a company is going out of business, or a license is expiring. Actually, while waiting in an autograph line this year, I had other convention attendees comment on how I had original Geneon, Bandai, or ADV releases. At first, they thought I must have paid through the nose to get them until I told them that all I did was buy them when they first came out.
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roesnail



Joined: 02 Aug 2005
Posts: 67
Location: San Diego
PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2016 10:57 am Reply with quote
I remember coming across this problem with ADV's Macross release. I had the Anime eigo sub only sets already so I didn't bother getting them. think around 07-08 I started looking for them and couldn't find the middle volumes for months until I went to a swap meet and found someone selling them for one dollar. The dude had doubles so now I own the ADV release twice over
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Triltaison



Joined: 03 Jul 2011
Posts: 717
PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2016 12:14 pm Reply with quote
I've known this, so it's always been confusing to me when the first volume is the rare or expensive one. I passed on Code Geass R2 back when it came out because I was waiting on a box to match my original series' Limited Edition box and CDs, but one never came out for R2. Now, the first volume is usually over $45 and all the others are under $10 (I constantly find the second volume for $2-$3). There are so many bootlegs on the market for that series that mimic the real packaging nowadays that I'm just going to wait for Funi's release at this point. Another weird one is the first half of Magical Project S is usually over $60, whereas the second half is often less than $10.

I'm in the same boat with Miami Guns, but also hope to one day come across a reasonably priced R.O.D. TV volume 3. I hoped the prices would climb down when the AoA newer set came out, but they actually went up because the AoA one was so expensive. They seem to have leveled out a bit now, but $60-$80 is still too much for a used DVD when that's double the retail price.
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EricJ2



Joined: 01 Feb 2014
Posts: 4016
PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2016 1:00 pm Reply with quote
The obvious example would be THE all-time holy grail of anime DVD, Viz's Maison Ikkoku Vol. 8.
By which time, Viz had been putting out the new post-dub episode volumes out so grudgingly--as website/Amazon exclusives--we were lucky they finished the darn thing at ALL, and they were happy to put out just a few versions to finally get rid of it.
That may also be why the current Ranma 1/2 S7 is so hard to find.

You'll notice many of the complaints in the original question are about Viz titles...
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CurseTheSky



Joined: 21 Nov 2015
Posts: 236
PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2016 2:01 pm Reply with quote
Themaster20000 wrote:
Dark Horse is the absolute worse when it comes to this. Multiple volumes of Berserk are OOP,the recent Lone Wolf and Cub omnibus is apparently OOP despite being out for only a few months. They really dropped the ball on the whole manga division the last few years.


I hear you. I recently spent nearly $100AUD on volume 16 of Gantz...volume 15 and 17 are still in print and at retail price...between volumes going out of print quickly and their mangas costing more than other publishers...let's just say i'm not a fan of Dark Horse!


Most expensive manga i have ever bought though is volume 8 of Code Geass: Laluche of the Rebellion. After six months of searching for and failing to find a cheap copy of this, i gave in a forked out $300 for this one volume.
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CheezcakeMe





PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2016 3:42 pm Reply with quote
Please Save My Earth vol. 11 - $10
Please Save My Earth vol. 12 - $10
Please Save My Earth vol. 13 - $300
Please Save My Earth vol. 14 - $10

Whut.

Sometimes it's so random.
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jenny10-11



Joined: 25 Jun 2015
Posts: 98
Location: Australia
PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2016 6:44 pm Reply with quote
The trials and tribulations of a series collector. Before I started collecting manga, I was collecting the BBC Doctor Who novels. Took over a decade to finaly complete my collection due to later books being harder to find. It taught me a lot about buying rare/ OOP books. Mainly, if you have the money and the item's reasonably priced, buy it straight away. It's also easier to find OOP books if you have somebody else looking for them with you.

Whenever I'm thinking of getting an old series, I always check out price and availability on eBay and the Book Depository. I've found viz manga is pretty good for keeping some of their older titles in print, but Dark Horse, as much as I love their titles, absolutely sucks at it (which makes me so glad I picked up Kurosagi as it was getting published).And don't even think of getting a book from DMP or any of their subsidiaries; those books go out of print before they're even published. Honestly, if a series is still coming out, pre-order as many titles as you can to prevent any frustrations about not being able to find it later.
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nargun



Joined: 29 Mar 2006
Posts: 924
PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2016 7:01 pm Reply with quote
CheezcakeMe wrote:
Please Save My Earth vol. 11 - $10
Please Save My Earth vol. 12 - $10
Please Save My Earth vol. 13 - $300
Please Save My Earth vol. 14 - $10

Whut.

Sometimes it's so random.


The volume in shortest supply will be the volume that everybody needs to complete their sets, and at the demand-levels we're talking about it doesn't take a huge amount of variation in absolute terms for one or another volume to become clearly in shorter supply than the others. I mean, there's not that many people who want complete sets of PSME, so a couple of dozen copies less of v13, or basara v7, a level that can just happen pretty much randomly, will make a visible difference. And once that happens that volume becomes the one that everybody's chasing: all the others can be had from incomplete sets.

So, yeah. The rarest volume becomes much more expensive than the others.
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Randamo



Joined: 18 Dec 2014
Posts: 23
Location: Central Coast, Australia
PostPosted: Fri Aug 19, 2016 11:14 pm Reply with quote
Yes, my Maison Ikkoku set is missing vol 8 but hesitate to spend $45 for a single used copy.
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relyat08



Joined: 20 Mar 2013
Posts: 4125
Location: Northern Virginia
PostPosted: Sat Aug 20, 2016 12:08 am Reply with quote
I'm going to start one of those leach businesses where I JUST buy the volumes in the latter half of a series. The 7-9th volumes of a 10 volume series, etc. and wait for the series to go OOP. Then I can charge ridiculous prices and make bank while doing nothing at all! It's brilliant! Cool
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gravediggernalk
Space Cowboy



Joined: 13 Oct 2013
Posts: 246
Location: Alabama
PostPosted: Sat Aug 20, 2016 1:03 am Reply with quote
I was going to buy the Gunsmith Cats manga last year . . . but one of the volumes was more than 70% of the total.
Quote:
Dark Horse is the absolute worse when it comes to this. Multiple volumes of Berserk are OOP,the recent Lone Wolf and Cub omnibus is apparently OOP despite being out for only a few months. They really dropped the ball on the whole manga division the last few years.
I don' think I'll ever finish MPD Psycho if Dark Horse keeps it.
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ParkerALx



Joined: 09 Apr 2014
Posts: 194
PostPosted: Sat Aug 20, 2016 4:23 am Reply with quote
I'll be dealing with this situation in the near future as I finish collecting Tokyopop's release of +Anima. "New" copies of the tenth volume start at around $50 on the secondhand market. Not too outrageous, but it's a bit much for one book.
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