“Crazy cat lady of manga”
That’s actually Deb Aoki’s phrase, I’m just borrowing it temporarily for the purposes of this post.
When the roommate and I lived in the Fangirl Abode of Doom ™, we shared 4 Ikea bookshelves between us, and all shelves were packed with manga. We were smug about our respective collections, and prided ourselves on purchasing manga that few people in the fandom cared about.
Then, there was a point when I stopped buying manga every week. The books were no longer on the shelves but on the floor, and honestly, I think I was only reading half of the books that I bought. I was only buying the manga out of obligation to the series. I felt like I was being “loyal” to the publisher and manga-ka by continuing to purchase the series on release day. Like Deb, I felt like I needed to give these unloved books a good home, and what better home than an apartment shared by two fangirls?
But the money can only go so far, and I actually wanted to buy or do other things than read manga — hence the manga-buying break. Gaps suddenly grew in the collections. I think the long shonen manga series suffered the most since I would forget what was the last volume that I had so I avoided buying the newest volume since I didn’t want to buy duplicate copies (which still happens, but hey, it’s an occupational hazard).
Now that I’m in a serious manga-reading period again, I’m realizing that not buying the books as they were released is backfiring against me. Publishers are dropping out, licenses are expiring, books are going out of print, and certain volumes of books which are OOP are selling for ridiculous amounts in retailers. I was looking to purchase volume 7 of Please Save My Earth, and was aghast to discover that not only is it nearly impossible to find, but the few sellers that do have are asking hundreds of dollars for a $10 manga. As much as I love the series, I will not pay that price for one book. At that point, I’m not supporting the publisher nor the artist, but the unscrupulous middleman.
It’s getting to be trickier to be a manga fan. I want to support the manga industry, but at the same time I don’t want to be in debt, broke, or starving to indulge the hobby. I have to figure out how to find the middle ground in this, but right now, I haven’t found yet it.
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:26 am
Your issue with PSME 7 (a volume I also can’t get my hands on) is something I talked about in a recent panel at Anime Boston, and I think this is a real problem. I hadn’t thought about people like you who have been long-time fans, but fell off buying each book as it came out–coming more from my own perspective as a newer fan facing the impossible task of catching up on classic series that were released before I was buying manga at all. With middle volumes going out of print, it makes it impossible (or at least reeeeaally unattractive) for new fans. Why start a series if you already know you won’t be able to finish it? I don’t know what the answer to this is, because I’m sure the publishers have reasons for letting these volumes go out of print. Still, it’s incredibly frustrating!
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:33 am
@Melinda: I’m glad that you brought it up in a panel too. As arrogant as I think that the manga publishers are reading this, I think it’s a great idea that other fans who don’t read all the anime/manga blogs also realize this is happening.
You bring up a good point — I’m mostly familiar with a lot of the ‘older’ series, but if I did want to get into a new one that’s highly recommended, I don’t think I want to get into all of the trouble hunting out volumes through various channels. I didn’t want to mention it in the post itself, but if I were a new fan and the books just weren’t accessible, then what’s stopping me from seeking out scanlations? I personally don’t want to resort to that yet and I’m persistent enough to look for copies of the books to fill up the gaps.
June 3rd, 2009 at 11:19 am
@Anna, you know, I’ll go as far to admit that I *have* resorted to scanlations in this situation at least once. I hated it, but it let me continue on with later volumes at least. It’s hard for me to feel guilty when the book I *want* to buy isn’t available, and without it, I can’t go on to buy later volumes. Of course, there are a lot of classic series that have never been scanlated, so this is not even necessarily an option in every case. Again, I have hated doing it, but if even I have resorted to this–someone who really cares about supporting the US manga industry–I can’t imagine there’s much standing in the way of it for more casual fans.
June 3rd, 2009 at 12:44 pm
[...] Original post: 2 screenshot limit» Blog Archive » “Crazy cat lady of manga” [...]
June 3rd, 2009 at 11:21 pm
I have two suggestions that may help. One is to check out your library system; you may be able to get the missing volumes through inter-library loan. Your librarian may even be able to get books from outside your library system.
The other possibility is Paperback Swap: http://www.paperbackswap.com. People are constantly posting random volumes of older series there; if you join, you can set up a wish list and you will be notified when the books you want become available.
June 4th, 2009 at 12:10 am
I just stumbled across your blog, and I might be able to help. I love Please Save My Earth; I actually bought volume 7 a few weeks ago through emerchandise.com (at retail price). They have a few other volumes up there as well, if you’re looking to complete your collection. It was beastly trying to get ahold of each of the volumes at reasonable prices (I started collecting late), so I hope this will help you out.
June 4th, 2009 at 7:50 am
[...] encounters the problem of the missing middle volumes at 2 screenshot [...]
June 4th, 2009 at 8:26 am
Because I fear that occasional OOP book, I find myself going on buying binges whenever Right Stuf has a studio sale. It is very time consuming trying to keep track of what volumes I need, and the amount of books that enter my house is alarming. Even if it was my full time job, I would be working overtime for weeks to catch up on the backlog. Sometimes is it overwhelming and I wonder why in the heck I bother, but then I read something that really captures my imagination and it makes all of the headaches worthwhile. Still, keeping up on those long running series is rough!
A library only recently opened in my community. I haven’t been there in over a year, but the shelves were pretty barren the last time I was there. Manga? Nope, they don’t have much. To catch up on those missing holes in my collection, I am forced to hunt eBay, amazon, Deep Discount, etc. To make things worse, i just can’t skip a volume here or there – that drives me nuts, which does make it hard to go back and pick up a series that I had to skip when it first came out. The publishers do need to make a better effort to make all the volumes available, but when there are licensing issues or they go the way of the dodo, it’s hard for everyone.
June 4th, 2009 at 8:40 am
I second Brigid’s suggestion about trying an interlibrary loan. I’ve found World Cat to be extremely helpful in finding whether libraries near me have something I want. I was able to try Akira and Short Program this way — two out of print series that regularly sell for inflated prices. This allowed me to be more patient in my online searches and I finally was able to snag those same books for non-crazy prices.
I first got into manga around 2001 or so, so I was lucky that my burgeoning passion for it coincided with the release of a lot of long-running classic series. I was one of those who bought every volume, and I still do that now. There are several longish series where I have every single one (Nodame Cantabile, Fullmetal Alchemist, Red River, Kekkaishi, etc.) but have yet to read any. There’s something to be said for the pleasure of simply *owning* something and knowing it’s not going anywhere.
June 4th, 2009 at 9:35 am
@Brigid: Thanks for the suggestions. I actually have been using the library for certain series that I want to read but don’t want to own anymore (e.g. One Piece, Bleach) and it’s nice that both are popular enough that the New York Public Library gets copies as quick as I would’ve if I had bought the books themselves.
@Celia: thanks for the rec for emerchandise! I really appreciate it.
June 4th, 2009 at 10:39 am
I’ve run into this sort of problem.
with the series ‘Emma’
only it gets worse. I’m missing volumes 6 and 7 [the final volumes of the main story. those after are all side stories and such]
the bit i Really hate is that i COULD have bought them. at the time though, i didn’t have 4 and 5. and you couldn’t get THEM. [worse still, the libraries here abouts NEVER GOT 6 and 7, though they have 1-5 *sigh*]
i was actually willing to shell out the stupid amount of money asked for them by one US retailer [still the best deal to be had according to amazon, mind] … taking shipping and exchange rates into account, the two books would have set me back NZ$100 +… couple of weeks later i get an e-mail ‘oh, sorry, actually, those books we were charging you stupid amounts for? we don’t have them after all. here’s your money back’
…. at least they gave me my money back without issue *sigh*
it would have been cheaper to buy both seasons of the anime. [seriously, shipping costs are Evil]
then there was one person trying to sell one of those volumes for over US$300. it’s insane.
lesson learned, i guess. I’ve now been almost overspending trying to catch up on Oh, My Goddess! before any volumes of That go out of print. [i may be in trouble with volume 23 :S]. on the upside, they’re reprinting starting from 1 as well as from 21, due to when they caught up with the Japanese releases and so on. that helps.
umm, yeah. that’s my few cents
June 4th, 2009 at 10:45 am
I have always been able to get those middle volumes for reasonable prices. It can take a lot of patience (by a lot, I mean 4 months) but it happens if you want it enough. Other than patience, I can offer some general advice -
- There’s an order to which stores will sell out of newly out-of-print volumes, based on where people are likely to shop. Stores which specialize in anime/manga, such as Rightstuf, will sell out first because everybody looks there. The next store which goes out of stock is Amazon. Then it’s any other general online store which sells manga. Next in line are online stores which specialize in something other than anime/manga – such as online comic book stores, or Kinokuniya (Japanese specialty store). These specialty stores are the end of the line for new copies online. Then there are brick-and-mortar stores – suburbs are the best place to hunt for oop middle volumes. I have never found them in urban stores, probably because everybody looks there too, but it has to be somewhere which can sustain a number of book/comic sellers. This is the furtherest I have ever had to go, but if brick-and-mortar fails, you can still do what Connie did to get Basara 19 & 20 – http://slightlybiasedmanga.com/2009/03/09/basara-19/#comments
- Fortunately, based on my quick checks, PSME 7 hasn’t completely wriggled its way out of the system. It looks like its current stage is in online stores with a specialty other than anime/manga (and emerchandise, apparently).
- You can completely circumvent the above process through eBay lots. The more I collect, the more firmly I am convinced that eBay lots are, bar none, the best way to pick up any manga which has been licensed for more than three years. And one of the reasons is that you can often slip in some of those hard-to-find middle volumes. For example, less than a year ago, I got a lot of the first 11 volumes of PSME, including Volume 7, and I hadn’t realized that it was a rare volume (though maybe then it was less rare).
- Finally, Please Save My Earth is totally worth the effort.
June 4th, 2009 at 10:49 am
A friend of mine got rid of a truck load of manga and gave them to me to do away with. I decided to keep volumes 3-8 of Kodocha before trading in the rest. I was able to win a bid for volume 1 on ebay. So now I’m on the lookout for volumes 2, 9, and 10…
June 4th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
[...] encounters the problem of the missing middle volumes at 2 screenshot [...]
June 5th, 2009 at 1:54 am
I found a great help for the problems your mentioning a great site called paperbackswap http://www.paperbackswap.com I’ve only been reading manga a few years and have found several series on the site I also have formed buddy relationships with people and we swap series,the good thing about this site is that it supports the industry, you are not allowed to post former library books or advanced reading copies.
July 2nd, 2009 at 9:18 am
I just hit the Volume 7 wall, as well. What the HELL was the publisher thinking!?
We collected PSME back when it was getting re-released in the early 2000s, up until volume 7 mysteriously never showed up. Volumes 8 and 9 did.
The publisher should be ashamed for this. It’s blatantly obvious that they put out at least 95% less copies of volume 7 than they did for 6 and 8.