10 Best Places to Buy Manga (Prices and Discounts)

best places to buy manga

Manga is getting harder and harder to find. It’s sold out everywhere. How does one find the manga you’ve been looking for in this type of climate? Well, worry no more, because we did all the work for you.

In this article, we’re going to look at the ten best places to buy manga. Most of these are online retailers, and fellow buyers have verified their reliability. Still, if you want to experience going to a brick-and-mortar bookstore, we have options for you too.

Let’s get to it!

1.) Barnes and Noble

Barnes and Noble is an excellent place to buy brand-new manga. They are a trustworthy brand and have been around since the 1800s.

Their online website is easy to navigate, and they have a good refund policy. Their prices on manga are consistent with the suggested retail price. This ranges from $9.99 to $14.99 per volume, depending on the publisher and the title.

If that’s a little steep, you can wait for sales and deals. They regularly have seasonal promotions, such as an additional 20% off, and buy 2, get one free. They also offer free shipping for orders over $35.

If the manga you are looking for is catered to a niche market, they may not have it. However, their manga selection is more extensive in-stores compared to online.

You may observe this in the photos below showing one part of the manga section of a Barnes and Noble bookstore. The second photo shows the number of manga available on their online store: just 222.

2.) Amazon

Amazon is a reputable household name, and it is a good place to check out manga. It has thousands of available manga on the website. There is a good chance that you would find non-mainstream titles there.

There is also an option to pre-order upcoming releases. The more that people pre-order, the lower the price goes. It also has more available boxed sets compared to other websites.

While Amazon has similar list prices to Barnes and Noble, it conducts more frequent sales. It also provides discounts on brand new manga and has a low threshold for free shipping at $25. Further, if you have Amazon Prime, you can get free shipping with any purchase.

3.) Booksamillion

Booksamillion is another great place to buy manga. They maintain retail prices on their manga. However, they offer great deals specifically for their members.

An example is their Manga Millionaire sale, where you can get $10 off online manga purchases of at least $50. They also do buy 2, get one free during certain promotions.

They also offer unlimited free shipping and 10% off every purchase for their members. Upon sign-up, they even receive a gift card and coupons that never expire.

The membership fee is $25, and you can use it both online and in-store. According to users, it pays for itself rather quickly.

If you do avail of their membership, the savings are well worth it. Otherwise, you may want to look elsewhere. Non-members have to pay $3.99 for shipping on every order, plus $0.99 per item.

One important thing to note is that book a million has a lot of back-orders. This means that many titles are usually out-of-stock, and you may have to wait 2-4 weeks to get your order.

4.) Rightstuf

Rightstuf is one of the best sites to look for cheap manga. For example, a manga with a retail price of $9.99 goes for $7.49 on their website. Meanwhile, mangas that typically sell for $13.99 can be had at $10.49.

Because of these deep discounts on everyday prices, they rarely make sales. However, if you’re going to buy in bulk, know that they also offer plenty of boxed sets. Free shipping also starts at $75, so if you’re only looking to buy one volume or two, expect to pay at least $5.49 on shipping. Rightstuf may then have the best deals for you.

5.) EBay

eBay is good if you’re looking for either used or brand-new manga. Because of the market, prices are usually competitive. You may even find manga and sets that have long been out-of-print.

The price and shipping fee will vary across the board. However, some sellers ship for free, even if you’re buying a $4.99 manga.

One caveat is that you have to choose sellers who are well-reviewed. Ask for pictures of the actual product, and make sure to examine closely for defects and tears. This is especially true for boxed sets, as you have to ask for photos of each included volume.

6.) Thriftbooks

Thriftbooks sells both new and used manga. They usually sell their new manga for $0.10 to $1 cheaper than the retail price. Free shipping starts at $10, so this is a good deal for single-volume purchases.

Meanwhile, their prices on used manga are very competitive – especially of older editions. Just make sure to check the condition of the manga. They have four options for used manga: Like New, Very Good, Good, and Acceptable.

Consider this first volume of Skip Beat manga on their website. A brand new one costs $9.78 on Thriftbooks. Meanwhile, the very good, good, and acceptable copies go for $4.69, $4.19, and $3.99, respectively. That’s a discount of 50% or more.

Their one disadvantage is that amidst all their titles, they offer very few boxed sets. If you’re looking to complete your collection, you then have to look for the volumes one by one.

7.) Instocktrades

Instockstrades is well-loved in the manga community. It has cheap manga, great packaging, and speedy shipping times.

It usually offers 25%-30% off the retail price. Mangas and sets produced by Dark Horse can be obtained at an even deeper discount, going as high as 42% off.

Free shipping starts at $50. Otherwise, you pay a flat rate of $4, which is still fair.

The only downside is that the website frequently has unavailable series and volumes. For example, you can buy Berserk volumes 1-30 from them, except they don’t have volumes 17 and 19 in stock. This means that you may have to look to other websites to complete your collection.

8.) Bookoutlet

Book outlet is great for finding cheap manga, as they usually offer 50%-66% off retail price. There are stories of manga readers snapping up amazing deals from them.

For instance, one customer could buy all nine tankobons of Made in Abyss for less than $40. Since they give free shipping for purchases above $35, his purchase amounted to just $4.44 per volume.

Given these amazing prices, their stocks get snapped up pretty quickly. You will have to visit their website frequently if you want to purchase anything.

9.) Book Depository

One great thing about Book Depository is that you can purchase from their website no matter where you are in the world. Furthermore, they offer free shipping worldwide on any purchase.

The only clincher is that these costs are factored into their display prices. Hence, they are usually 30% more expensive than other sellers that are local to America.

However, they usually have good deals on boxed sets. This is more considerable during Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.

10.) Midtown Comics

Midtown Comics offers a base of 15% discount on all their manga, and this goes up to 40% – 50% during sale season. You have the option to buy online and then pick up your order from any of their branches. You can also avail of their free shipping for purchases over $90.

You need a little patience when navigating their website. The search results do not always reflect volumes that are already out of stock. This means that if you’re willing to pre-order or wait for a volume, you have to be deliberate about searching for it.

In summary:

To show the price variation in these stores, I used the typical cost of a brand new Attack on Titan manga volume and boxed set.

StoreSingle-volume priceBoxed-set priceFree shipping thresholdAdditional discounts and sales
Barnes and Noble$9.99$39.99$3520% off, Buy 2 Get 1
Amazon$9.89$29.99$25Low pre-order price, free shipping for any purchase with Amazon Prime
Booksamillion$10.99$39.1210% off any order and unlimited free shipping for members, $10 off $50
Rightstuf$8.24$32.97$75
eBay$9.16$35.66
Thriftbooks$9.19$36.37$10
Instocktrades$8.24$32.96 $50
Bookoutlet$6.11$24.45 $35
Book Depository$12.97$39.92Any orderBlack Friday and Cyber Monday
Midtown Comics$8.49$33.96$9040% – 50% sale

Now, it’s time to hear from you:

Did I miss anything?

Do you think that mangas are worth the price?

Whatever your answer is, let’s hear it in the comments below.

10 Best Places to Buy Manga (Prices and Discounts)

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