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


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kokuryu



Joined: 07 Apr 2007
Posts: 915
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 2:07 pm Reply with 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.
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Hi-Chan



Joined: 11 Oct 2007
Posts: 115
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 2:08 pm Reply with quote
Not really unexpected with the others bumping up their prices.i do wonder if this means viz is raising prices across the board or on just their top selling titles;which can probably sustain reasonably high increases without a large drop in sales.But if prices continue to rise over the next year or so it is likely lesser selling series could be hurt.I would especially be worried about some of the shojo line being hurt by rising prices and viz either having to lengthen the time between releases or put some on hiatus.For people who say that will not happen look no further the shojo beat .
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ninjapet



Joined: 20 Apr 2009
Posts: 1517
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 2:14 pm Reply with quote
it's a $1 or $2

not that much, as long as Del Ray and Yen press don't end up charging like $15 for Soul Eater and Negima! I'm fine with it. Because Negima already costs me about $12.50 with tax
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vashfanatic



Joined: 16 Jun 2005
Posts: 3489
Location: Back stateside
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 2:15 pm Reply with quote
Inflation. It happens, unfortunately.
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Brand



Joined: 30 Jan 2006
Posts: 1028
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 2:25 pm Reply with quote
kokuryu wrote:
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.


Because market isn't large in the states as compared to Japan so they can't even come close to selling as many volumes as Japan does to make it worth at lower prices. Plus the cost of licencing fee, and etc.

Honestly, it's not surprising in today's economy. Plus 10 to 15 years ago I was paying 15 to 20 dollars for a volume of manga so really if it's still in the 10 to 15 dollar range I can't really complain about it.
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Egan Loo



Joined: 25 Feb 2005
Posts: 1300
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 2:30 pm Reply with quote
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.
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teh*darkness



Joined: 16 Feb 2007
Posts: 901
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 2:32 pm Reply with quote
All I have to say is, 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.
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Sandstar



Joined: 06 Dec 2006
Posts: 196
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 2:37 pm Reply with quote
kokuryu wrote:
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.


Because, in Japan, they sell a metric ton of weekly magazines, which help subsidize the price, as well as the fact that they sell a ton of tankubans, which means they can sell at a lower cost. In the US, ALL of the money comes from GN sales (with a few series getting serialized in SJ). So they have to charge more to make it worthwhile. Anyone who doesn't understand that is a greedy idiot.
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magicalgirlj



Joined: 29 Oct 2008
Posts: 106
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 2:40 pm Reply with quote
is this just Naruto or is it all of their titles?
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braves



Joined: 29 Dec 2007
Posts: 2309
Location: Puerto Rico (but living in Texas)
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 2:41 pm Reply with quote
teh*darkness wrote:
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.


The JP volumes are released every 3 months too, so they won't be behind by a lot. They'll be consistently 1 or 2 volumes behind.

Quote:
is this just Naruto or is it all of their titles?


It seems to be everything under the Shonen Jump, Shonen Jump Advanced and Shojo Beat labels.


Last edited by braves on Wed May 27, 2009 8:47 am; edited 3 times in total
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Greed1914



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 4410
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 2:42 pm Reply with quote
I knew it was going to be Berserk as soon as I saw Dark Horse in the headline. Oh well, it's not a huge jump and I'd rather pay a little more and keep it going than have it disappear because it wasn't profitable.
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magicalgirlj



Joined: 29 Oct 2008
Posts: 106
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 2:54 pm Reply with quote
man why does manga have to be so bloody expensive in the US. I wish I loived in Japan.
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revilenigma



Joined: 11 Sep 2008
Posts: 45
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 3:00 pm Reply with quote
at least it's not $50 per volume like back in the day.
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littlegreenwolf



Joined: 10 Aug 2002
Posts: 4796
Location: Seattle, WA
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 3:03 pm Reply with quote
Ah, well back to buying used manga I go. Heck of a lot cheaper, and most in pretty new condition.
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HellKorn



Joined: 03 Oct 2006
Posts: 1669
Location: Columbus, OH
PostPosted: Tue May 26, 2009 3:03 pm Reply with quote
magicalgirlj wrote:
man why does manga have to be so bloody expensive in the US. I wish I loived in Japan.

Refer to these two posts. (Though it should be noted that a magazine like Afternoon actually runs at a loss, where sales of individual volumes make up for them later.)

I'm continually amazed at how people fail to realize that we're talking about a niche hobby, especially one during an economic recession.
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