Guide to ordering manga on-line
Lanzer (08/18/2002)
For those of you who are interested in buying manga from Japan, there are currently a few excellent bookstores with decent shipping rates. Even if you can buy manga from local Japanese bookstores, having them directly shipped to you might be a cheaper choice in some cases.
Let me list the available bookstores first, then I'll cover how to calculate the shipping cost for getting the best deal.
Note: All links require slight knowledge of Japanese, except for Santa Books. Amazon also has partial english support.
Manga Oh Book Club (Japanese) [EMS]
MangaOh has the best selection of manga goods including recent manga magazines and calendars, plus a lot of recommended titles with good descriptions. Though they only allow shipping through EMS. I recommend going through them when shopping for books, but to actually order them I would then go to BK1 or Amazon.
Amazon.co.jp (Japanese/English) [2-3 weeks air] [2-5 days express]
Amazon's Japanese division seems to be the best organized bookstore with a very
comprehensive searchable library and list of publishers. However, the major
draw back is the high shipping
cost. Shipping to the US is $12 for air mail (2-3 weeks), $27 for express
(2-5 days), and each additional book is $3 added to the shipping cost.
Black
Cat Yamato Book Service (Japanese) [UPS]
Good selection, has search engine also. UPS shipping only, Shipping cost is
$12US for every 1/2Kg, which is more suitable for larger manga orders.
BK1 (Japanese) [EMS] [Air] [SAL] [SEA]
Offers regular shipping methods, SAL shipping (1 week) is what I prefer, rate
is about $10US for 1kg. Though selection is only limited to large publishers
like Kadokawa and Kodansha.
Santa
Books (Japanese) (English) [EMS] [Air] [SAL] [SEA]
Used book store with a rather small selection of manga. Good shipping rate,
with English support. Though they don't accept credit card, which isn't very useful. You can order items found in their Japanese pages also.
Kodansha
Bookclub (Japanese) [UPS]
Credit card accepted, UPS shipping only. Obviously, they only sell books published by themselves.
When ordering from any of these bookstores, the biggest concern is the shipping cost. Here's a little calculator that might help you in ordering your manga:
Conclusion
I recommend mail order just because it's convinient, it's fast, and it doesn't cost much more than buying from bookstores in the US. Infact, any manga orders above $9 actually cost less than buying locally!
The drawback is that those bookstores are all in Japanese, but it's no different than shopping anywhere else, just drop items into the shopping basket then check out. Amazon even has a totally English check-out system.
So if you're looking for one or two manga titles, BK1 is the place to be. For orders $25 (about 3 books worth) or above, you can start looking at Amazon for their English support and better selection.
Personal Experience
On August 18 I ordered an A4 sized manga from Bk1 and requested SAL shipping. On the same date I made an order for 4 illustration size books and two manga at Amazon. I couldn't wait to get my hands on the Magi-Cu magazines so I paid the extra 12 bucks for DHL express. ^_^;
August 19 - Order made from Bk1 had been sent.
August 22 - Amazon sent a mail saying that one of my artbook might cause a week of delay.
August 24 - I didn't check mail until that day so I took the artbook out of my order.
August 25 - Amazon said that one of my manga is out of stock (4-6 week delay), so I cancelled that book too.
August 26 - Amazon order was shipped.
August 29 - Amazon order arrived. 5 books totaled 5445yen, shipping 4200yen.
September 11 - My order from BK1 arrived. Turns out SAL does take some time to deliver. But at $6 i'm not complaining. ^_^
I Paid $15 extra for express shipping, and the total came to $82US. My local bookstore charges 1.4 times the cover price and the local tax is 8%, which would make a total of $82 also if I were to buy these books from my local bookstore if they're available.
All the books were pretty securely wrapped by a thin film of plastic, and though the corner of my manga was a little bent it's not damaged or anything. Overall I'm just happy that I can order the latest titles without the wait. ^_^
As for the cancelled books, they are rather old titles from smaller publishers, so I guess typically if you want those titles you'll just have to wait till they can special order them in... For me I'll probably hunt for them when I'm in Japan.
I used to have links to US merchants
that mail order manga also. If anyone have their URL, please e-mail
me. Thank you!