Quote from smashed_head_angel
I think I didn't make my question clear. What I mean is why we can publish a Malay version cheap and the English version not.
Tora Aman the publisher of Detektif Conan do have license from Japan.
i still have my doubt about the licensing (it ain't hard to type "Hak Cipta Terpelihara.." so and so and claim that the whole thing is legal. trust me when i tell you i know a few people who think this alone is enough to them to claim licensing rights to any media.) unless i see some official documents or trusted news on the matter.
here are some viable explanation i can think of, aside from economic status between nations;
1) shipping and tax; shouldn't be too hard to figure that out. most countries that i know of, my country included, that claim they have no tax usually means "oh, the tax is hidden in the price tag". so a CD that costs, say $22 with a $5 tax, puts the price tag at $27, and them telling you there is no tax.
2)paper quality; comparing my volumes of Evangelion, Vagabond and FMA with "Budak Getah" and HxH, there seems to be significant difference; the english volumes feel smoother, hence the higher quality. paper quality and their price may not seem much, but stack em' all together and they can make quite the difference in retail price (which may explain why that one volume of HxH, slimmer in looks and using a different paper than the rest, cost a tad bit more). another thing to take into consideration is the possibility that there may be some form of subsidiary between publishers and printing companies in Malaysia, overall making production of these volumes, in turn the retail price, cheaper.
3)Market; the US manga industry is relatively new. it has yet to reach that point where the ratio of their local consumers to the overall population would allow them to sell those volumes a tad bit cheaper, while balancing a decent profit annually. the Malaysian manga industry, while new as well, has to deal with a population of a rough estimation 30 million to U.S's 300 million; wouldn't take a lot of people and that much time to reach the point where manga would be popular enough to lower the price. also note that companies like Comic House had a chinese publication as well (if i remember well), that may as well contribute to said rapid rise in popularity.