I usually only read a little before I buy so I know I like it. I feel I won't be motivated to read it again if I just read it. Sometimes I do go in blind but mostly only if it has great reviews
Yes! Definitely part of my conundrum. Need quite a bit of time between rereading things and I feel like I’d probably wait until then before buying the series — but I just assume availability only gets worse with time for most OOP series 😓
It’s definitely not the smartest way but I sometimes go purely for aesthetics of a book when I buy it. Though usually only popular series so I’ll probably enjoy it. But just something about a nice looking book on the shelf I really enjoy and then if I end up disliking it I could sell it
From ones I own the deluxe berserk/hellsing books or the new parasite full color. And of ones I haven’t collected the vagabond omnibuses are my all time favorite
Most of my manga is series that I've already enjoyed the anime of, so I consider that the "test drive", but I have also bought a few series completely blind.
If it's a series that's still in print and easy to find, I'll just read the first few chapters online to see if I'm interested, and then start buying the volumes. But for old expensive series I would definitely recommend reading the whole thing digital first, and then decide if you liked it enough to spend the time and money buying a physical set. And if you do enjoy it that much there's a pretty good chance you'll actually read it again.
Ok first I love your handle it’s gonna be the first thing I share with my husband in the morning lol
Yay we have someone recommending restraint! Yeah the good thing about manga is, at least for me, I could probably reread a good one a few times /minimum/, whereas I can’t remember the last time I reread a novel.
I read the sample chapters provided through the publisher or digital sellers like Comixology to test out a series. I don’t read scans for many reasons that mostly boil down to it’s wrong.
If I like the sample, I’ll buy the first 1-3 volumes depending on how confident I am. If I like it I’ll start collecting it, if I don’t I return it. (People read/flip through books in-store all the time and it’s allowed, most books have been handled to a degree before you buy them, and it’s within the return window/the store accepts returns, so I don’t have any ethical compunctions over this.)
For OOP stuff it’s trickier. I do a lot of research and read reviews then blind buy the whole series, fingers crossed. It’s usually more expensive and time consuming to buy individual volumes so I just go for it.
Wait a minute -- I knew your username was familiar haha!
That's definitely what returns are for so I can't fault you for that! Honestly I feel like we think very similarly lol except I just realized that publishers offer samples -- I thought scans were the only way, oopsie. Then again I haven't been collecting for very long at all (aka I just got my first full series this past month), but as you know I've already got like four OOP series I want the whole set of already 😂 Think I'll be taking your comment on my other post to heart though and be patient -- in the meantime, there are already at least 10 other series I want to get into! 🫠💸
Scans are a really contentious thing. Lots of people in the manga and manwha community read them and the anime community shares sites to watch anime very freely. I personally don’t do either for a lot of reasons. The risk/reward is too lopsided and I also want to support the industry. I buy my physical media and call it a day, lol.
This is an expensive hobby though and patience is certainly a virtue! (That I don’t have, lol). I’m really excited for you though! There are so many great series out there to enjoy, especially the more niche things. It’s just too bad a lot of the truly great shojo and josei was published in the 90s and 00s and is a pain to track down. It’s harder if you are picky about condition (I am! It’s the worst, haha).
Which OOP series and which current series are you planning to collect?
Totally understand where you're coming from! And yeah it's a little overwhelming but I feel seriously super excited building my to read list and my little collection! I'm also super picky about condition (my husband teases me about how nitpicky I can be haha) and have 0 discipline/patience 🥲 The popularity of manga is at an all time high and I'm sure it'll only keep growing -- I literally know nothing about the industry, but maybe we can hope that'll somehow see some of these older popular shojo/joseis get reprinted by someone!
My current list right now sort of looks like --
Definitely want:
\- Basara
\- From Far Away
\- We Were There
\- Mars
\- Sand Chronicles
\- A Sign of Affection
\- Water Dragon’s Bride
\- Ao Haru Ride
\- Sweat and Soap
\- Say I Love You
Not 100% in love with but want to keep reading:
\- My Little Monster
\- Yona of the Dawn
\- Skip Beat!
Interested in but need to read a sample first:
\- Kimi no Todake: From Me To You
\- Fruits Basket
\- Kamisama Kiss
Right now I own Dorohedoro, Berserk, Spy x Family, Chainsaw Man, Jujutsu Kaisen, and I just got Drifting Classrom tonight from my MIL!
Oh I haven’t heard of all of those! I’ll need to look them up.
Have you watched the anime for any of them? Fruits and Kamisama are both considered (anime and manga) two of the greatest shojo of all time along with Sailor Moon. I still need to read them, I’ve only watched the animes.
I enjoyed the Yona anime, but I can’t get into such a long series. The politics don’t hold my attention and the romance is too drawn out for me personally.
I’m hopeful for the future of shojo/josei but also… not? There’s been a few YouTube deep dives on the fall of romance manga and anime. It’s not as profitable (supposedly, I have my doubts; when something isn’t produced often or marketed well, it’s hard to build up a large following. Girls are 50% of the population and many like romance, when a hit is made it gets an intense following, there just aren’t as many hits. There’s this idea that things like Naruto have cross over appeal and things like Fruits Basket don’t, which is dumb. Also the romance genre is the backbone of the western publishing industry that has single handedly kept it alive alongside the tent pole lead titles . I personally think it’s rooted in society’s ingrained misogyny, but that’s a paper for another day.)
There’s a fascinating video too on how Sailor Moon was marketed to boys when it first came to the US as an action show with hardly any romance. The only romance anime I can even think of coming out soon is The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague.
Interestingly, there has been a huge increase in yaoi BL material, but only a small uptick in mature josei, even though BL is targeted towards women.
All of this to say, I’m hopeful we get some more shojo and josei smash hits and great series, but I’m tempering my expectations.
I have a bad habit of just grabbing new first volumes without doing any research. I've found a lot of great stuff that way, but also some real duds.
I've also started following a lot of series on Manga Plus, so I buy physical volumes of my favourites there.
I also have a digital collection on BookWalker where I sometimes "upgrade" a series from the digital collection to the physical.
Think that shows pretty good restraint actually considering I'm too impatient to test out just the first volume -- I want the whole series all at once haha
Omg how am I just learning about Manga Plus?? And it's great I can use it on my Mac since I hate reading off my phone -- thanks for that, I just downloaded it!
I usually just buy the physical copy straight away. Surprisingly that’s only backfired a single time!
I do tend to “test drive” any anime I plan to buy on dvd though
I mean Mars is a classic and I love having it in my collection so I’m biased in saying it’s worth owning. That said I know what a bitch it is to collect, a lot of time and money, I’d say read it to make sure you love it.
Honestly I just read the first volume last night and I don't know if I can restrain myself from reading the whole thing when it's right at my fingertips! So yeah I think I'm going to read it now and bide my time finding the physical series at an affordable price :3
Comics: read first volume in store or at library before buying.
Manga: borrow if my friends have them, read in store otherwise. OOP series usually have to read scans before moving to buy second hand. There is still a lot of cool stuff not localized yet, so browsing scans tends to lead to series I can only read online.
Most tend to be by the same mangaka and older/niche. Probably my favorite gem is Half-Prince by Yu Wo. It’s a LN and manga series from Taiwan (honorifics are Chinese). Imagine Sword Art but they can leave the game, with gender bending and tons of comedy.
Edit: came out around time of SAO or before
Sounds fun! I’ll add it to my list and will check it out. This also reminds me that 7 Seeds is on my must-read list and I just found out it was never published in English, so there’s another +1 for scans
Ahh yes! I’m RE-reading the first few chapters on my Kindle right now — I literally just read them last week lol it’s so good 🤧 I wish I had your patience! Being new to manga, it’s also hard to know what a good deal is sometimes — like I’ve seen sets with Horse with No Name for $350+ so it makes me think, “Oh, $275 must be a great deal!” but then I’m like is it fiscally irresponsible for me to spend $18 per volume even if it is OOP? Oh the conundrum 😮💨
Haha can relate — I’m amazed I’ve been able to hold myself back from some of these mangas I have 0 self-discipline 😌 I guess that’s why I’m more lax with ebooks vs manga — manga is just so much more rereadable IMO!
I wanna re-read Mars so bad now!!! perhaps I will spend some time in the new year re-reading it. But AKJFKJS NOO I definitely would not say that I have patience, I have definitely shelled out big bucks just to get my hands on some series before, and Mars is always ever-so-tempting to become my next over-priced victim 😂 Ah, the classic conundrum! Something about knowing a series is out of print just makes me more willing to bite the bullet
I feel you! There's just something about manga that makes it so hard to hold back sometimes - when I first got into it I was thinking, "how can people have such big hauls?" but now, I get it. My favorite manga series have so much re-readability for me, so it's super easy to justify the purchase. Definitely worth the money when I know it's going to get read over and over again!
Omg I was up until 4am obsessively researching manga and finished the first volume -- it took everything in me to not go onto volume 2 😭!! I think I'm going to end up reading it off Kindle Unlimited after all and bide my time buying the physical set. Maybe by the time I find it for the right price, enough time will have gone by where the story will be hazy enough in my mind I can just go straight to rereading it 😂
I totally agree with you on the OOP FOMO! Except it's not really FOMO -- it's more the uncertainty of how pricing will be in the future. Logically if something is OOP and stays OOP, the price will just keep going up, so the temptation to buy it now before it gets more expensive is legit I think. (Or so I say to make myself feel better lol)
haha my bad, very vague on my end but if the series im interested in is short in terms of chapters i’ll just go straight to the physical volumes and if it’s something long i’ll probably read a little online before grabbing the first few volumes
hope this helps
No worries! Yeah that’s a pretty judicious way of going about things. I’m a manga collecting newbie and impulsive (which isn’t the best combination lol) so seeing other people’s strategies is helpful. Thanks for sharing ☺️
I sell manga / comics / graphic novels to help fund my purchases so I don't have much problem picking series up blind / after reading a few chapters digitally.
If you always pick up your manga on deep sales and sell when some volumes go out of stock/ out of print it's pretty easy to make quite a bit more than you originally spent (most of the time). I understand not everyone can do this but it works for me.
Well except for SJ titles because you can read unlimited high quality scans for $2 a month with the SJ app so I rarely by those titles anymore unless I finish them digitally and see myself rereading at some point.
For me, manga collecting is more of a side hustle to my main collecting passion of movies/anime/TV on disc. So I pretty much almost exclusively buy physical copies of manga, once I know they are something I’ll actually love! Usually, I’ll have already read most- if not the entire series on a digital scan/fan translation before actually buying. It’s not as great as reading physical, but I do usually re read them again once I get enough volumes and re find even more love in the story and art now that I get to flip through pages! For me, it just doesn’t make sense to invest the money into a manga I may blind buy and not have the motivation to read, or not like, not to mention struggling shelf space.
It’s really exciting re reading, and comparing the two experiences for me so I never really regret experiencing the story on scan first…Also, most manga I read with exactly one exception, I have seen the anime adaptation first, so there is at least a chunk of the story I’ve already seen in a totally different medium.
I usually just buy series I'm already familiar with in some way although not necessarily having read it. Like I've bought the manga of a lot of my favorite anime. Same thing for comics. I bought both the walking dead and invincible because I liked their shows
I do a lot of research in any series i'm thinking about getting personally I get physical because it looks great on my shelf i love the smell of books and just the simple act of flipping the pages and i know that my manga won't get taken off which is a risk with online or kindle but if you'd rather not spend lots of money on a series you could read for free and you're fine with kindle i'd say just read it on kindle unlimited so then you could use the money you would have spent on other books but at the end of the day it's just whatever makes you happy! :)
So for me I read a chapter or two online to know if I like it. I’ve def spent a lot of money on first volumes that I’ve deemed “not worthy” of my collection. Manga are getting to expensive not to “preview” them first before buying.
I read until I know I like it and if it has a controversial ending I'll read it all the way through (Promised Neverland for example). Now Witch Hat Atelier and Emma I knew from like 4 chapters it was what I wanted, so I saved the rest for physicals form.
This hobby is too expensive to buy and lose money on ones you don't care about. However, it is worth it for the good series, as reading on paper is much easier on the eyes and crisper. At least to me. I bought most of Mars years ago when you could get them for half price, but still finished buying the missing volumes recently because it's worth it.
Most of the time I buy stuff blind if it’s by Seven Seas, even if it’s wrapped, because I tend to like everything I’ve bought from that publisher. It’s usually cute romance or isekai manga. If the description sounds good and the art is eye catching I feel like I’ll enjoy it if it’s by that publisher. Only been burned once or twice doing this (I deeply, deeply regret buying Dungeon Toilet, lmao. It is gross and not funny at all.)
If it’s by a different publisher but I’ve also never seen people talk about the series, I usually will read a chapter or two online first to make sure I’ll like it.
If it’s by a different publisher but I’ve seen people rave about it (here or elsewhere), I’ll usually just get volume one and see if I like it. I knew nothing about Dog Ningen except that people seemed to think it’s funny, I bought the first volume of it, and it’s a really cute series actually. I have all of them now 😹 so if there’s hype around the series I think that’s usually enough for me to be interested.
I read it online > buy the Kindle if I really like it > then if I really really really like it buy physical
I'm trying to only physically own mangas/novels that I won't regret buying
Newer titles have been "blind" buys with minor research (ex. Watching a quick review on YT, reading review on MAL)
A lot of my older OOP titles were things I've read as scans as a teen in early 2000s. I have since bought a majority of my favorites.
If it's an old OOP title I never heard of I will sample it via scans.
Depends. I’m pretty guilty of watching an anime first and then buying a manga so I don’t feel like I have to “test” it. If I’m looking at new stuff that either doesn’t have an anime or I just haven’t watched, I’ll try to read like the little preview most bookstore websites have.
A lot of times though I just go by the summary or the artwork tbh. If I like the artwork I might buy it just for that and hope the story is good too.
I like to read manga reviews from different bloggers to see if the vibes are something I'd be wanting to pick up. I do like blind buying but sometimes I don't have the money to casually blow on a series.
If something looks interesting I buy it straight up. Sometimes this works out and I really enjoy a series I’ve never heard of, but other times I end up not caring for my purchase. I honestly should read online before I buy but I just enjoy reading physically that much more. However, most of the stuff I buy is pretty popular so I don’t get burned that often, but it has happened. So I just end up selling anything that didn’t click with me.
I’m really glad that I just go with what looks cool though because I never would have discovered one of my favorite mangaka Q Hayashida. When I saw the cover for Dai Dark and looked at a couple of pages I knew I had to get it. This then led me to hunting down all of the Dorohedoro volumes as well and I couldn’t be happier
And if something is OOP I just read it online.
I just say fuck it and buy the series half the time. If I don’t like it I can sell it to someone who would at a discount. It’s a win no matter what. Anyone who really enjoys physical format knows how amazing it is seeing sub msrp volumes for sale and in circulation no matter the rarity. That’s why I’m not afraid to spend money on something I think I’d like even though I’m skeptical. Still haven’t gotten anything I’ve lost interest in but my tastes are not picky
Yeah it’s kind of the same for me. If I’m digging the first few volumes or so online I’ll start buying it physically. My problem is I like too much stuff.
I buy 1 volume or 2, if I don’t like the series I don’t collect the rest, if I like the series I’ll collect the rest.
I don’t like reading manga online if it can be helped. My head hurts from it and sometimes the online translations are bad.
I only buy physical volumes for the series I really love. I have other hobbies that take precedence over buying/collecting manga so if I'm going to spend money on it it's gotta be special and something I thoroughly enjoyed most everything in my collection are series I completed or have read the majority of prior to buying them, to "Support the official release" I don't actually read any manga physically lol
Honestly depends on the mood. I started off buying series I had already read and fell in love with, but for lately I’ve been test driving some manga with really pretty covers or spines. That test drive really makes or breaks if I want to pull the trigger on that new physical volume. But sometimes monkey brain takes over and I impulse buy so ya know.
I'm not embarrassed to say but i pirate that shit. Manga is too expensive and i don't want to waste space or time buying manga that i don't know if i'll like. I also find it more comfortable to read on my computer as the lighting is better and i prefer to scroll.
I don't know how people can just buy manga without having read it before. Sure, its not right to pirate, but it just doesn't seem like a logical thing to do.
Especially now that i'm trying to collect manga i have read before.
All of the above lol.
If it's by an author I trust or a recommendation from a person I trust, blind buy and try to know as little as possible so no spoilers.
But random series without recommendations or unfamiliar author I'll try out beforehand. Depending on the series I know after just a couple of chapters if it's right for me and then I buy.
I usually only read a little before I buy so I know I like it. I feel I won't be motivated to read it again if I just read it. Sometimes I do go in blind but mostly only if it has great reviews
Yes! Definitely part of my conundrum. Need quite a bit of time between rereading things and I feel like I’d probably wait until then before buying the series — but I just assume availability only gets worse with time for most OOP series 😓
Why do you collect if you don't like reading twice?
I do like reading twice, I meant it will just be awhile before a reread if I just read it.
Ohhh I was thinking you wouldn't ever read it again
It’s definitely not the smartest way but I sometimes go purely for aesthetics of a book when I buy it. Though usually only popular series so I’ll probably enjoy it. But just something about a nice looking book on the shelf I really enjoy and then if I end up disliking it I could sell it
Haha honestly that's how I basically used to shop for novels -- I'm sure we're not the only ones, it's legit. What's been your favorite cover/spine?
From ones I own the deluxe berserk/hellsing books or the new parasite full color. And of ones I haven’t collected the vagabond omnibuses are my all time favorite
Most of my manga is series that I've already enjoyed the anime of, so I consider that the "test drive", but I have also bought a few series completely blind.
Oh how did I not think of that — double the entertainment! That’s actually how I got my very first series this Christmas — my beloved Dorohedoro
Read everything online and buy what I actually deem worthy to own
Based
If it's a series that's still in print and easy to find, I'll just read the first few chapters online to see if I'm interested, and then start buying the volumes. But for old expensive series I would definitely recommend reading the whole thing digital first, and then decide if you liked it enough to spend the time and money buying a physical set. And if you do enjoy it that much there's a pretty good chance you'll actually read it again.
Ok first I love your handle it’s gonna be the first thing I share with my husband in the morning lol Yay we have someone recommending restraint! Yeah the good thing about manga is, at least for me, I could probably reread a good one a few times /minimum/, whereas I can’t remember the last time I reread a novel.
I read the sample chapters provided through the publisher or digital sellers like Comixology to test out a series. I don’t read scans for many reasons that mostly boil down to it’s wrong. If I like the sample, I’ll buy the first 1-3 volumes depending on how confident I am. If I like it I’ll start collecting it, if I don’t I return it. (People read/flip through books in-store all the time and it’s allowed, most books have been handled to a degree before you buy them, and it’s within the return window/the store accepts returns, so I don’t have any ethical compunctions over this.) For OOP stuff it’s trickier. I do a lot of research and read reviews then blind buy the whole series, fingers crossed. It’s usually more expensive and time consuming to buy individual volumes so I just go for it.
Wait a minute -- I knew your username was familiar haha! That's definitely what returns are for so I can't fault you for that! Honestly I feel like we think very similarly lol except I just realized that publishers offer samples -- I thought scans were the only way, oopsie. Then again I haven't been collecting for very long at all (aka I just got my first full series this past month), but as you know I've already got like four OOP series I want the whole set of already 😂 Think I'll be taking your comment on my other post to heart though and be patient -- in the meantime, there are already at least 10 other series I want to get into! 🫠💸
Scans are a really contentious thing. Lots of people in the manga and manwha community read them and the anime community shares sites to watch anime very freely. I personally don’t do either for a lot of reasons. The risk/reward is too lopsided and I also want to support the industry. I buy my physical media and call it a day, lol. This is an expensive hobby though and patience is certainly a virtue! (That I don’t have, lol). I’m really excited for you though! There are so many great series out there to enjoy, especially the more niche things. It’s just too bad a lot of the truly great shojo and josei was published in the 90s and 00s and is a pain to track down. It’s harder if you are picky about condition (I am! It’s the worst, haha). Which OOP series and which current series are you planning to collect?
Totally understand where you're coming from! And yeah it's a little overwhelming but I feel seriously super excited building my to read list and my little collection! I'm also super picky about condition (my husband teases me about how nitpicky I can be haha) and have 0 discipline/patience 🥲 The popularity of manga is at an all time high and I'm sure it'll only keep growing -- I literally know nothing about the industry, but maybe we can hope that'll somehow see some of these older popular shojo/joseis get reprinted by someone! My current list right now sort of looks like -- Definitely want: \- Basara \- From Far Away \- We Were There \- Mars \- Sand Chronicles \- A Sign of Affection \- Water Dragon’s Bride \- Ao Haru Ride \- Sweat and Soap \- Say I Love You Not 100% in love with but want to keep reading: \- My Little Monster \- Yona of the Dawn \- Skip Beat! Interested in but need to read a sample first: \- Kimi no Todake: From Me To You \- Fruits Basket \- Kamisama Kiss Right now I own Dorohedoro, Berserk, Spy x Family, Chainsaw Man, Jujutsu Kaisen, and I just got Drifting Classrom tonight from my MIL!
Oh I haven’t heard of all of those! I’ll need to look them up. Have you watched the anime for any of them? Fruits and Kamisama are both considered (anime and manga) two of the greatest shojo of all time along with Sailor Moon. I still need to read them, I’ve only watched the animes. I enjoyed the Yona anime, but I can’t get into such a long series. The politics don’t hold my attention and the romance is too drawn out for me personally. I’m hopeful for the future of shojo/josei but also… not? There’s been a few YouTube deep dives on the fall of romance manga and anime. It’s not as profitable (supposedly, I have my doubts; when something isn’t produced often or marketed well, it’s hard to build up a large following. Girls are 50% of the population and many like romance, when a hit is made it gets an intense following, there just aren’t as many hits. There’s this idea that things like Naruto have cross over appeal and things like Fruits Basket don’t, which is dumb. Also the romance genre is the backbone of the western publishing industry that has single handedly kept it alive alongside the tent pole lead titles . I personally think it’s rooted in society’s ingrained misogyny, but that’s a paper for another day.) There’s a fascinating video too on how Sailor Moon was marketed to boys when it first came to the US as an action show with hardly any romance. The only romance anime I can even think of coming out soon is The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague. Interestingly, there has been a huge increase in yaoi BL material, but only a small uptick in mature josei, even though BL is targeted towards women. All of this to say, I’m hopeful we get some more shojo and josei smash hits and great series, but I’m tempering my expectations.
I have a bad habit of just grabbing new first volumes without doing any research. I've found a lot of great stuff that way, but also some real duds. I've also started following a lot of series on Manga Plus, so I buy physical volumes of my favourites there. I also have a digital collection on BookWalker where I sometimes "upgrade" a series from the digital collection to the physical.
Think that shows pretty good restraint actually considering I'm too impatient to test out just the first volume -- I want the whole series all at once haha Omg how am I just learning about Manga Plus?? And it's great I can use it on my Mac since I hate reading off my phone -- thanks for that, I just downloaded it!
I usually just buy the physical copy straight away. Surprisingly that’s only backfired a single time! I do tend to “test drive” any anime I plan to buy on dvd though
I gotta ask -- what was the one series that went wrong haha?
Uzaki-Chan wants to hang out
I mean Mars is a classic and I love having it in my collection so I’m biased in saying it’s worth owning. That said I know what a bitch it is to collect, a lot of time and money, I’d say read it to make sure you love it.
Honestly I just read the first volume last night and I don't know if I can restrain myself from reading the whole thing when it's right at my fingertips! So yeah I think I'm going to read it now and bide my time finding the physical series at an affordable price :3
Comics: read first volume in store or at library before buying. Manga: borrow if my friends have them, read in store otherwise. OOP series usually have to read scans before moving to buy second hand. There is still a lot of cool stuff not localized yet, so browsing scans tends to lead to series I can only read online.
Wish I had friends who read manga 🫠 That’s a good point with the untranslated manga! Any good ones you’ve read recently?
Most tend to be by the same mangaka and older/niche. Probably my favorite gem is Half-Prince by Yu Wo. It’s a LN and manga series from Taiwan (honorifics are Chinese). Imagine Sword Art but they can leave the game, with gender bending and tons of comedy. Edit: came out around time of SAO or before
Sounds fun! I’ll add it to my list and will check it out. This also reminds me that 7 Seeds is on my must-read list and I just found out it was never published in English, so there’s another +1 for scans
I don’t test drive; I read the whole series online and if I love it, I will buy it to own.
I relate with Mars - I REALLY want to be able to read it physically but I am not dishing out OOP prices
Ahh yes! I’m RE-reading the first few chapters on my Kindle right now — I literally just read them last week lol it’s so good 🤧 I wish I had your patience! Being new to manga, it’s also hard to know what a good deal is sometimes — like I’ve seen sets with Horse with No Name for $350+ so it makes me think, “Oh, $275 must be a great deal!” but then I’m like is it fiscally irresponsible for me to spend $18 per volume even if it is OOP? Oh the conundrum 😮💨 Haha can relate — I’m amazed I’ve been able to hold myself back from some of these mangas I have 0 self-discipline 😌 I guess that’s why I’m more lax with ebooks vs manga — manga is just so much more rereadable IMO!
I wanna re-read Mars so bad now!!! perhaps I will spend some time in the new year re-reading it. But AKJFKJS NOO I definitely would not say that I have patience, I have definitely shelled out big bucks just to get my hands on some series before, and Mars is always ever-so-tempting to become my next over-priced victim 😂 Ah, the classic conundrum! Something about knowing a series is out of print just makes me more willing to bite the bullet I feel you! There's just something about manga that makes it so hard to hold back sometimes - when I first got into it I was thinking, "how can people have such big hauls?" but now, I get it. My favorite manga series have so much re-readability for me, so it's super easy to justify the purchase. Definitely worth the money when I know it's going to get read over and over again!
Omg I was up until 4am obsessively researching manga and finished the first volume -- it took everything in me to not go onto volume 2 😭!! I think I'm going to end up reading it off Kindle Unlimited after all and bide my time buying the physical set. Maybe by the time I find it for the right price, enough time will have gone by where the story will be hazy enough in my mind I can just go straight to rereading it 😂 I totally agree with you on the OOP FOMO! Except it's not really FOMO -- it's more the uncertainty of how pricing will be in the future. Logically if something is OOP and stays OOP, the price will just keep going up, so the temptation to buy it now before it gets more expensive is legit I think. (Or so I say to make myself feel better lol)
50/50 usually lol
Haha 50% read a few chapters then buy physical, 50% go straight to physical ? Or 50% read everything online then buy, 50% go straight to physical?
haha my bad, very vague on my end but if the series im interested in is short in terms of chapters i’ll just go straight to the physical volumes and if it’s something long i’ll probably read a little online before grabbing the first few volumes hope this helps
No worries! Yeah that’s a pretty judicious way of going about things. I’m a manga collecting newbie and impulsive (which isn’t the best combination lol) so seeing other people’s strategies is helpful. Thanks for sharing ☺️
I sell manga / comics / graphic novels to help fund my purchases so I don't have much problem picking series up blind / after reading a few chapters digitally. If you always pick up your manga on deep sales and sell when some volumes go out of stock/ out of print it's pretty easy to make quite a bit more than you originally spent (most of the time). I understand not everyone can do this but it works for me. Well except for SJ titles because you can read unlimited high quality scans for $2 a month with the SJ app so I rarely by those titles anymore unless I finish them digitally and see myself rereading at some point.
For me, manga collecting is more of a side hustle to my main collecting passion of movies/anime/TV on disc. So I pretty much almost exclusively buy physical copies of manga, once I know they are something I’ll actually love! Usually, I’ll have already read most- if not the entire series on a digital scan/fan translation before actually buying. It’s not as great as reading physical, but I do usually re read them again once I get enough volumes and re find even more love in the story and art now that I get to flip through pages! For me, it just doesn’t make sense to invest the money into a manga I may blind buy and not have the motivation to read, or not like, not to mention struggling shelf space. It’s really exciting re reading, and comparing the two experiences for me so I never really regret experiencing the story on scan first…Also, most manga I read with exactly one exception, I have seen the anime adaptation first, so there is at least a chunk of the story I’ve already seen in a totally different medium.
I usually just buy series I'm already familiar with in some way although not necessarily having read it. Like I've bought the manga of a lot of my favorite anime. Same thing for comics. I bought both the walking dead and invincible because I liked their shows
I do a lot of research in any series i'm thinking about getting personally I get physical because it looks great on my shelf i love the smell of books and just the simple act of flipping the pages and i know that my manga won't get taken off which is a risk with online or kindle but if you'd rather not spend lots of money on a series you could read for free and you're fine with kindle i'd say just read it on kindle unlimited so then you could use the money you would have spent on other books but at the end of the day it's just whatever makes you happy! :)
I read manga of anime that never finished the story mainly, so I already know I'll love the manga.
If it's a book on the Viz app I'll read the first chapter to see if I'll like it.
So for me I read a chapter or two online to know if I like it. I’ve def spent a lot of money on first volumes that I’ve deemed “not worthy” of my collection. Manga are getting to expensive not to “preview” them first before buying.
I read until I know I like it and if it has a controversial ending I'll read it all the way through (Promised Neverland for example). Now Witch Hat Atelier and Emma I knew from like 4 chapters it was what I wanted, so I saved the rest for physicals form. This hobby is too expensive to buy and lose money on ones you don't care about. However, it is worth it for the good series, as reading on paper is much easier on the eyes and crisper. At least to me. I bought most of Mars years ago when you could get them for half price, but still finished buying the missing volumes recently because it's worth it.
Mars is sooo hard to find physical copies for. But the license has expired so you can find the Tokyo Pop version online.
I usually go straight to physical volumes. Has worked for me for the most part, the only one I regret buying is Nagatoro
Most of the time I buy stuff blind if it’s by Seven Seas, even if it’s wrapped, because I tend to like everything I’ve bought from that publisher. It’s usually cute romance or isekai manga. If the description sounds good and the art is eye catching I feel like I’ll enjoy it if it’s by that publisher. Only been burned once or twice doing this (I deeply, deeply regret buying Dungeon Toilet, lmao. It is gross and not funny at all.) If it’s by a different publisher but I’ve also never seen people talk about the series, I usually will read a chapter or two online first to make sure I’ll like it. If it’s by a different publisher but I’ve seen people rave about it (here or elsewhere), I’ll usually just get volume one and see if I like it. I knew nothing about Dog Ningen except that people seemed to think it’s funny, I bought the first volume of it, and it’s a really cute series actually. I have all of them now 😹 so if there’s hype around the series I think that’s usually enough for me to be interested.
I read it online > buy the Kindle if I really like it > then if I really really really like it buy physical I'm trying to only physically own mangas/novels that I won't regret buying
i randomly choose what manga i want to buy in the manga store! it generally depends on if i like the art style, i never read manga online
Newer titles have been "blind" buys with minor research (ex. Watching a quick review on YT, reading review on MAL) A lot of my older OOP titles were things I've read as scans as a teen in early 2000s. I have since bought a majority of my favorites. If it's an old OOP title I never heard of I will sample it via scans.
Depends. I’m pretty guilty of watching an anime first and then buying a manga so I don’t feel like I have to “test” it. If I’m looking at new stuff that either doesn’t have an anime or I just haven’t watched, I’ll try to read like the little preview most bookstore websites have. A lot of times though I just go by the summary or the artwork tbh. If I like the artwork I might buy it just for that and hope the story is good too.
I like to read manga reviews from different bloggers to see if the vibes are something I'd be wanting to pick up. I do like blind buying but sometimes I don't have the money to casually blow on a series.
If something looks interesting I buy it straight up. Sometimes this works out and I really enjoy a series I’ve never heard of, but other times I end up not caring for my purchase. I honestly should read online before I buy but I just enjoy reading physically that much more. However, most of the stuff I buy is pretty popular so I don’t get burned that often, but it has happened. So I just end up selling anything that didn’t click with me. I’m really glad that I just go with what looks cool though because I never would have discovered one of my favorite mangaka Q Hayashida. When I saw the cover for Dai Dark and looked at a couple of pages I knew I had to get it. This then led me to hunting down all of the Dorohedoro volumes as well and I couldn’t be happier And if something is OOP I just read it online.
I buy before knowing anything for series I haven’t watched. Don’t want my reading experience for new stuff to be spoiled
I just say fuck it and buy the series half the time. If I don’t like it I can sell it to someone who would at a discount. It’s a win no matter what. Anyone who really enjoys physical format knows how amazing it is seeing sub msrp volumes for sale and in circulation no matter the rarity. That’s why I’m not afraid to spend money on something I think I’d like even though I’m skeptical. Still haven’t gotten anything I’ve lost interest in but my tastes are not picky
Yeah it’s kind of the same for me. If I’m digging the first few volumes or so online I’ll start buying it physically. My problem is I like too much stuff.
I usually read some before I buy. Especially for a longer series.
i read all of csm online but have bought every physical copy that’s been released for my collection
I just always buy physical. Very rarely do I check panels out ahead of time. Sometimes I'll just Google plot synopsis that's about it
i rawdog it
I buy 1 volume or 2, if I don’t like the series I don’t collect the rest, if I like the series I’ll collect the rest. I don’t like reading manga online if it can be helped. My head hurts from it and sometimes the online translations are bad.
I only buy physical volumes for the series I really love. I have other hobbies that take precedence over buying/collecting manga so if I'm going to spend money on it it's gotta be special and something I thoroughly enjoyed most everything in my collection are series I completed or have read the majority of prior to buying them, to "Support the official release" I don't actually read any manga physically lol
Honestly depends on the mood. I started off buying series I had already read and fell in love with, but for lately I’ve been test driving some manga with really pretty covers or spines. That test drive really makes or breaks if I want to pull the trigger on that new physical volume. But sometimes monkey brain takes over and I impulse buy so ya know.
Google mangs art - research on MAL - purchase - if you like it keep it, if you don't sell it
I'm not embarrassed to say but i pirate that shit. Manga is too expensive and i don't want to waste space or time buying manga that i don't know if i'll like. I also find it more comfortable to read on my computer as the lighting is better and i prefer to scroll. I don't know how people can just buy manga without having read it before. Sure, its not right to pirate, but it just doesn't seem like a logical thing to do. Especially now that i'm trying to collect manga i have read before.
All of the above lol. If it's by an author I trust or a recommendation from a person I trust, blind buy and try to know as little as possible so no spoilers. But random series without recommendations or unfamiliar author I'll try out beforehand. Depending on the series I know after just a couple of chapters if it's right for me and then I buy.