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NEWS: Some Viz, Dark Horse Manga Titles Increase in Price


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Mr. sickVisionz



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 2171
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 3:16 pm Reply with quote
HellKorn wrote:
I'm continually amazed at how people fail to realize that we're talking about a niche hobby, especially one during an economic recession.


Raising prices isn't some end all cure all. Eventually you price people out of the market. Ideally the increase in revenue per issue sold is enough to even out the amount of people who buy less because it costs more. Only time will tell if this turns out to be the case.

Personally, I like Naruto but it's kinda a joke to me. With other "real" manga selling for $9.99, Naruto will probably be one of the lowest priorities on my list of stuff that I purchase every month.
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JohnnySake



Joined: 22 May 2008
Posts: 582
Location: Auburn Hills, MI
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 3:21 pm Reply with quote
Yes, the retail prices going up is not cool, but let's not forget about the various sales out there. Every one in awhile Right Stuf will have a manga sale for a particular distributor.

This may not apply to everyone worldwide, but being a card-carrying Borders Rewards member can help you with a 25%, 30%, or 35% discount on one book almost every week. (I bought Hayate X Blade manga with a 40% discount recently.)

Just because the retail price has gone up, doesn't mean you're beholden to that price.
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HellKorn



Joined: 03 Oct 2006
Posts: 1669
Location: Columbus, OH
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 3:23 pm Reply with quote
Mr. sickVisionz wrote:
Raising prices isn't some end all cure all. Eventually you price people out of the market. Ideally the increase in revenue per issue sold is enough to even out the amount of people who buy less because it costs more. Only time will tell if this turns out to be the case.

Right, but I don't think Viz is terribly concerned about, say, the future of Naruto with this price raise. Given how well the book did when three volumes were delivered in one month, this strikes me as negligible when we'll seen one volume every three months.

What this seems to be representing are the lower-tier titles for their Shonen Jump/Advanced and Shojo Beat lines that are not raking in massive money (like Naruto, Bleach, Death Note, Vampire Knight, Ouran High School Host Club, et cetera). That's the gamble that Viz is taking here.
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MetatronM



Joined: 26 Mar 2004
Posts: 281
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 3:25 pm Reply with quote
Egan Loo wrote:
kokuryu wrote:
Nobody understand why manga is on average $10 a volume in the US when its sold for $3 to $5 in Japan.


A check of the Japan's recent comic ranking charts indicates that most manga prices start at 440 yen (about US$4.60, tax included), while some go up to 860 or 980 yen (US$9.10 or US$10.30). Almost no new manga sells for just the equivalent of US$3 to US$4. Manga prices have risen in the past year in Japan also.

This is more the work of the dollar's weakened value versus the yen of late more than actually raising prices, though. It wasn't very long ago that 440 yen was at or less than US$4.
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Imperialkat



Joined: 30 Nov 2006
Posts: 227
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 3:25 pm Reply with quote
An official confirmation of things known by some people of this forum and others for some time now.

Quote:
They went the wrong way. They should have dropped their prices by $1 to $2. This will only ensure a swifter death to the printed manga industry in the US unfortunately. Nobody understand why manga is on average $10 a volume in the US when its sold for $3 to $5 in Japan. Scanlations with flourish even more because of this.


I understand why you think a price drop would help: it would lead to more sales. However, there is no gaurantee that it would work that way. SJ titles sell the way they do mostly because of their exposure and a price change probably won't affect the numbers of the big titles all that much. Also, scanlations would flourish even if manga was $1.

Quote:
if they're going to increase the price of Naruto to the same as that of series not published in their SJ line or run in the SJ mag, then they need to pull it from the line and release it bi-monthly like the majority of their other series. I don't see the point in them nearly catching up, then going to a tri-monthly schedule, which will only succeed in making them fall behind again.


Well someone beat me to it, but they release it tri-monthly in Japan. If they released bi-monthly they would catch up and have to revert to the Japanese pace anyway. Also, the point of faster releases is just that--to catch up to or get near the Japanese releases then slow to match their pace. This way the company has some cushion in case of a (short) hiatus by the manga-ka (read: Hunter x Hunter, not Hellsing). It has little to do with price.

If anything needs to be sped up its One Piece.
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ninjapet



Joined: 20 Apr 2009
Posts: 1517
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 3:26 pm Reply with quote
I only buy manga when I have gift cards or if it's on sale.

When I went to Acen I waited till the last day to head over to the dealers area with manga. I was able to get a hold of volumes 7+8 of Negima! for around $8 each instead of the normal $12-$13

I don't mind paying more for titles under Del Rays name. There translations are way better then SJ I think.
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littlegreenwolf



Joined: 10 Aug 2002
Posts: 4796
Location: Seattle, WA
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 3:32 pm Reply with quote
Mr. sickVisionz wrote:
Personally, I like Naruto but it's kinda a joke to me. With other "real" manga selling for $9.99, Naruto will probably be one of the lowest priorities on my list of stuff that I purchase every month.


Real manga? Oh geeze I just laughed so hard I'm getting cramps now. Now manga from Japan isn't even thought to be "real" manga anymore.

What is the fandom coming to? Rolling Eyes
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GATSU



Joined: 03 Jan 2002
Posts: 15279
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 3:43 pm Reply with quote
This is probably for the best. The companies were going to have to separate the real fans from the wannabes one of these days, and this was the only way to do it.
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Nathaniel7



Joined: 25 May 2009
Posts: 5
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 3:53 pm Reply with quote
Well at least it's not a ten dollar price increase, like it was with video games a few years back. Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy
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vashfanatic



Joined: 16 Jun 2005
Posts: 3489
Location: Back stateside
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 4:00 pm Reply with quote
ninjapet wrote:
I don't mind paying more for titles under Del Rays name. There translations are way better then SJ I think.


Anime hyper

Del Rey's releases are filled with translation errors. "Puffer fish-sensei" from the first volume of Nodame Cantabile comes to mind.
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Mikuru



Joined: 08 Nov 2007
Posts: 124
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 4:17 pm Reply with quote
As an avid Berserk buyer this sucks. Does anyone else in the Berserk fandom feel like they're the only person who buys Dark Horse's volumes and doesn't keep up with the scanlations? Because I do. Sad
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grave_digger18



Joined: 05 Oct 2008
Posts: 106
Location: quebec city
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 4:27 pm Reply with quote
I think people are exaggerating a little. its only 1 or 2$. When i go buy berserk, the price ranges from 13 to 16$ based on the exchange rate and cost of delivery.
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taster of pork



Joined: 11 Nov 2008
Posts: 594
Location: My House
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 4:42 pm Reply with quote
This doesn't bother me to much. Their lucky that I love Berserk enough to want to pay almost any price to read it.
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firedragon54738



Joined: 24 Sep 2007
Posts: 3113
Location: wisconsin
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 4:48 pm Reply with quote
time to use to book coupons i all ways get
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Mikuru



Joined: 08 Nov 2007
Posts: 124
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 4:48 pm Reply with quote
taster of pork wrote:
This doesn't bother me to much. Their lucky that I love Berserk enough to want to pay almost any price to read it.

Maybe Darkhorse knows this Anime hyper
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