This poll is missing an option, the one "would not buy more because the stuff I want isn't being released". Voted I'd buy more, becausee I would, if the stuff I wanted were available...

I think this is a trolling option.

If it does cheaper i would buy more volumes, i mean how much can it be cheaper? in here(my country that is) if changed to dollar, each manga only cost you about $1,65 at the most(not bunkoban, standard manga but not paperback), $1,85 at least for adult-oriented manga (same, no paperback)

I would definitely buy more, the price is the main reason why I don't buy a lot of manga volumes. Of course, unless the manga being cheaper means it being of much worse quality - if the translation or pictures were bad, I wouldn't buy it at all. I think I could accept worse quality paper, not completely white (I think the Japanese manga is printed on medium quality yellowish kind of paper...?), but if it was the kind that some of cheap paperback books are printed on (grey, falling apart, looking more like toilet paper than something you'd print a book on) I wouldn't buy the manga either. So - cheaper manga: yes, bad quality: no.

Where's the "I would start buying" option?

And yeah, the "What I want is not released" thing... that.

That would fix one of two problems but it still wouldn't help if the chapters haven't been released in English yet lol

Japanese manga is generally about 40% cheaper than English manga (obviously because of the cost of purchasing licenses and paying translators and editors to change it into English.)
I find myself buying MUCH more Japanese manga (since learning Japanese) than I ever did of English manga, because the cost is much more reasonable! Most manga are anywhere from 400-650 yen for a brand new volume, with a few more obscure publishers charging a bit more.

I wouldn't buy more. The only reason I read manga is because it's free. Granted, it's illegal, but until scanlators are forced to stop by whatever means, this is the only way I'll read them. I enjoy reading manga, but not enough to pay money for it (with a few exceptions; I plan to buy a couple series I really enjoyed in the future, but that's it). I guess I also think this way because I could easily live without manga.

I saw prices between the $2 and the $25 for the same volume ( for example the Mushishi wideban volume 8-9-10 combined, I bought it only for $2.5, but I saw places where i cost around $25 ), so I bought directly cheap paper manga for that price, so yeah, if paper manga were 40-50% cheaper, I would be more likely to buy it? (even if it is second chose manga).

Also if I would come to the option "I would buy less" , then I would like to point out that a lower price is not always a lower quality. A good example that I have in mind, is when I bought a couple volumes of Tokyopop, they went bankrupt so I couldn't complete it (unfinished series), until I found a small store in train station neighborhood of the university city. Their it stood the complete collection of the incomplete Tokyopop series, I was rather shocked to find it (released by Chuang-Yi), it was cheaper than the Tokyopop version (20%) and the biggest surprise printed on high quality paper and a full translation (also the suffixes), the volume was smaller but in a much higher resolution.

And finally toward the electronic copies, I wouldn't mind that, but I would never use rental. I strongly disapprove with the way some publisher swindle their customers with a high rent ( around the purchase price) for a ridiculous short time.

I haven't purchased manga in English for quite a while now, but this poll is really quite useless.

If the question is 'how can we get more customers' obviously dropping the price will attract more. However, it would also be completely unsustainable. Translators, editors, and licenses are all quite expensive, and the sales volume for something that has already passed its prime popularity outside of Asia just would not be able to make up the difference.

This isn't a viable solution to the problem at hand. The real issue is that just about everyone here feels (like most people who pirate) that they are ultimately entitled to the effort of others for free. Because that's the bottom line, and 'free' is a pretty tough price to beat.

Sure, I'd buy more, if the quality of the paper isn't decreased that is. But I think manga volumes are already cheap enough as it is, and to make them even more cheap, it would mean that the mangaka isn't getting as much as they should deserve. I don't think it should change at all unless you decreased the quality of the paper or if you made it legitimately digitally obtainable.

Actually, when I realised German-language manga was about 30-50% cheaper compared to English-language manga I switched. Because I would be able to buy significantly more volumes this way.

Even though reading German langauge is a lot harder for me than English language I still do it. Because I can buy more manga. A lot of German manga titles will cost me about €7 while they'll cost me €12 in English.

And the best part is: I'm actually improving my knowledge of another language. Less "uhms" and "errs" the next time, when I'll go to Germany!

I'd definitely buy a more volumes than now. Currently, I buy mangas at 9 bucks a piece. It may be not much, but I could use every dollar I get for some other things (school fees need to get paid, rent, living expenses, trips, eating out, etc) since I don't earn much. I save money for my mangas (a dollar a day, XD ) so if the prices really got cut off in half, I could buy twice the amount of mangas than before. Woooh!

It'd be nice if ink was cheaper as well.

I already buy quite a bit of manga.
If they were cheaper, the money that was saved from what I would originally buy would just be used to buy more. I guess. I mean, I'm collecting the manga that I know I would read again at the moment. There are a few that I see that look really interesting and I would consider buying and yeah, if they were cheaper I'd probably buy them. Especially the manga that isn't licensed by Viz or something. The reason why I most of the series I buy are licensed by Viz is because they're one of the cheaper providers. Dark Horse and Yen Press are a lot more expensive I find. It's still expensive overall though. I don't even want to think about all the money I've spent on my collection over the years

I don't expect this to happen anytime soon anyway though. If anything they're going to become even more expensive. They've already been raising the prices of manga. It's a nice thought though, manga being cheaper, but it's a fairy tale life if they half the price. Only chance that's gonna happen is when a company goes tits up and they have to sell their stock, but then it's not worth it because they haven't finished translating the series *loltokyopoplol*

First make the manga I want available in my country cause shipping each time a volume from the UK making the actual delivering cost more expensive then the book itself is just such a hassle / annoyance.

I buy every manga I really like already, but I suppose I'd be more inclined to buy more if they were that much cheaper. I'd probably start buying the ones I simply like too.

I bought claymore because it used to be 7.99 rather than 9.99 (the usual price)

Now my favorite series like berserk or gantz are anywhere between 12.99 and 14.99

I tend to not buy much manga outside of the ones I like. Never anything new, it is way too expensive.

Yep, I think I'd actually buy some manga (*cough* gintama *cough), because the current market price is too high for me ($15-20 plus tax where I can get it - Chapters). If it were $7.5-10 dollars, I may actually consider buying something

Why I value translated manga at less than the market price: the scanlation groups seem to care more about the quality of their work than people paying for it - they are actual fans instead of just translators.

I'd like to see how much profit publishers (like Tokyopop, Viz) make on each translated volume of manga on average. It would help me put things into perspective.

And yes, the fact that publishers can't get out the series I want is something that also deters me from buying (is anyone publishing Oujitachi wa Izonsuru or Tsumi ni Futari)?

I voted that I'd buy significantly more, since I already buy all my manga

Well, as for me...

When English manga is about $5(AUD) I'll buy all the ones I want.

In Japan, when I'm in Bookoff I seriously just buy all the manga I want. And if it's not there and I really want it, I go buy it from the book store. Even though I can't read all of it, I'll buy it because I've seen/read/heard good things about it before and I want to own it. Main concern is "how do I get this back home", because manga isn't that light, and secondary concern is "do I still have enough money to spend on the rest of my trip".

As a highschool student with no job, I rely on the money I recieve as gifts/spending money, so I don't have that much to spend, but if I did I would buy significantly more manga.

Some of them manga I've bought, I bought because I'd read the scanlations - I guess I just like having a preview of the thing I'm buying before I buy it. I'd really like it if there were more manga cafes in Australia.

IF - big if - I could afford to buy the magazines that publish manga (the Japanese ones), I'd at least have a better idea of what I was buying... only problem is that manga magazines outside of Japan tend to be really expensive because of the shipping. (TT__TT) I buy one every 2 months and it's marked up about 150% from what it cost in Japan, because the shipping price is high and then the retailer has to make a profit.

If it was cheaper, I could buy more.

Keep in mind that manga can run upwards of 30+ volumes for some of the more popular series so 50% decrease would be HUGE if you think about it. For me it is around $10-15 per english volume. Regular English fiction novels are usually only around 3-5 in a series at maybe $15-20. The cost spent on have a set is a big difference.

My first purchase, I remember quickly snatching up $8 volumes of a series I enjoyed when books went on sale, there were 14 volumes lol.

Yea Japanese book prices are way cheaper and better quality but the shipping costs a ton unless you're buying A LOT from a single site. Not to mention exchange rate charge.

maybe if i start earning my own money.. it still costs so much.. and i dont want to burden my parents with another addiction.. i already have my eating addictions and my novel addiction.. so i dont want to be the burden child.

matters not.. I would always read scanlations
even back then in my home country where 1 book manga costs 1,5 $, I didn't buy any.
the reasons being scanlations are simpler, better accessibility and of course, free.
The only downside is that I can't read them while I'm taking a dump.

I would start buying manga if it was that cheap (but I voted for "I would buy significantly more volumes", since there isn't that option). You really have no idea how much it costs in my country... I've seen manga volumes costing about 14€ each (without shipping! The shipping would be about 4€), specially if they are recent. And you wonder why they are that expensive? It's simple. Japan -> USA -> Europe -> and then my country. I've been trying to get all the volumes of a manga that I love, but... 9€ each volume and 4€ just for the shipping... I don't have that much to spare. So yeah. If it was about 4€-5€ each volume, I wouldn't mind buying them. I've thought of buying them on Amazon (UK), but it's still expensive... Way too expensive... And I can't trust mangas bought in second hand. I want them in mint condition.

My problem with paper manga isn't the price or the quality of paper. I resent poor translations and censorship that often occurs in licenced titles. They can print them on old newspaper and sell them for one dollar for all I care. Any book that gets censored is just expensive toilet paper to me.

My purchases of manga increased exponentially when I moved to Japan and manga became insanely cheap. Even a brand new volume is less than half the cost it would be for an older volume in England, and when I go to a used book store I can buy 3 volumes for 100 yen.

The other up-side is that the manga is in it's original format. I really really hate it when English translations censor the art or completely erradicate all references to Japanese culture. Some things can not be translated and to try detracts from their meaning. The scanlators address this issue far better by simply adding a explanatory note and leaving everything else in tact.

I would buy more English manga if it was both cheaper and more faithful to the original Japanese. I understand that not all manga is censored, but the desire to completely Anglophy (is that even a word?) a manga is present in pretty much every translation I've come across, which is ridculous because I have yet to meet a single manga lover who didn't know about the honorifics system in Japanese, and other common cultural references persistent in most manga.

isn't this almost the same as that other thread "if price wasn't an issue"

'cos it sounds about the same


If it was cheaper i would still have some problems since there is not much market for manga in my country, it would be easier to bought it online tough,

I agree with the two above me, Drunkguy & Cuthien. For me, it comes down to the quality of the translation & its faithfulness to the original work. As an example, I could not continue Battle Royale because Tokyo Pop had butchered it so much, the manga (if it can still be called that) became unrecognizable to me (think of an old man's idea of American teen slang put in every sentence; yeah, that bad).

I am forced to quote someone by saying, 'Don't be smart; just translate.'

Apparently, companies do this Westernization in order to attract 'new blood,' but what they don't realize is that they are repulsing some of the existing fan base. Just look at what happened to Tokyo Pop, who had to close down; Viz should learn from their mistakes.

I'd only buy a bit more. I haven't purcahsed manga in well over a year and the only tiles I have an interested in buying are Gunslinger Girl (which hasn't come out in the US in years), Ichigo 100% (which I think got dropped), and Nana (which is on hiatus). I own volumes of all of those (18 of Nana, 10 of Ichigo 100%, and all of the post anime season 2 GG that is available in the US) and would be buying solely to complete something that I set out to do back when I was really into manga.

I don't have the space, and it's not like what I would buy is in english anyway.

When I think, "OH! I really love Skip Beat and it's here at the bookstore. I should buy a whole bunch!" then I remember that I don't have 300$ lying around. If it only would cost me 150$, I could definitely do it in sections and buy 10 volumes at a time. But 300$ is way out of my range for being fiscally responsible.

That's why I buy my favourite mangas, as long as they are released in English and less than 10 volumes long.

Anyways, I picked "I would but significantly more volumes". Basically, I would buy even the longer mangas like Skip Beat, but there is no way that you'll ever find copies of Gantz in my room. XD

I wish the shipping fee is cheaper, since not all countries has the luxury of free shipping and with EMS (and like) as an only option it can be quite ridiculous.

But back to the poll question, if manga were cheaper, I'd probably go back to experimenting again. I used to buy unknown stuff now and than, sometimes with a terrible result, so now I try to get a reliable feedback before buying.
However, if the manga is cheaper I could treat some of them as I buy magazines for example - just for quick reading before recycling, if I don't like or want them anymore.

And as some already mentioned, not only the price, but the fact that many titles are not available at all is quite a problem.

For me, what it boils down is this: space.

I have three bookshelves full of manga, and even then I have to stack some on top/over crowd the shelf... whatever. Point is, if I had a physical copy of everything I've read, I'd need a storage unit or a second house.

I could sell the junk I've already read to free some space, but then I'd hate it if I couldn't reread a manga when I'm discussing something, so that's out.

I mean, look, I ain't no cheapskate; I'll always buy if it's an option. I genuinely love manga and wish to contribute. I just wish for companies to see my problem, or rather, the world's problem: the convenience of digital, space-less files vs. books - or the combination of both. Hey, don't get me wrong. I like my books, but I seriously can't afford the space to grab everything I might want to read.

Viz seems to get it... somewhat. I have their app on my phone and buy junk from them if I have to, but if other companies refuse to conform, obviously I'm gonna grab the scanlation.

Conform or die, English manga companies.

My problem is that most of the manga I read are only in Japanese. I can't read Japanese, so it is pointless for me to buy them. I do read Blood Alone, and I buy it WHEN they get around to translating and publishing it. I'm almost glad that I don't read a lot of manga that are published in English because the releases are so damn slow.

The price of Blood Alone doesn't bother me. It might be $10...not much honestly. I guess if I was buying a lot of manga at one time, I would like cheaper prices, but if it's just one, it's fine with me.

If the mangas I read are liscensed in English then I would definitely buy them. I just love reading on paper as opposed to on a screen. It's better for my eyes and I love the feel and smell and overall experience of a book. Call me a book otaku

there is a time when paper mangas published in my country were around 40% cheaper than they are now... that is b4 the global economic crisis, when the national currency is stronger...
yet compare to that time, the amount of mangas that i buy nowadays are higher..
i don't think price tag would effect my decision to buy mangas much (if not at all)

ps: if u're lucky you might find a big set manga with a huge discount (50%) in the book store here (usually old titles).. that's how i complete my aria-aqua set.

Assuming price is the only change, I'd use the money I'd save to buy more manga (and shelves). Simple as that.

I visited Waterstones a few months ago and happened upon an entire stand of Berserk volumes selling for £2 (approx. $3/4).

Poll's over:

Question: If paper manga were 40-50% cheaper, would you be more likely to buy it?
Choices:
I would buy all my manga - votes: 3079 (21.3%)
I would buy significantly more volumes - votes: 6528 (45.1%)
I would buy a bit more - votes: 2239 (15.5%)
I would not buy more - votes: 341 (2.4%)
I would buy less - votes: 29 (0.2%)
I prefer buying electronic copies - votes: 623 (4.3%)
I would only read scanlations - votes: 1633 (11.3%)
There were 14472 total votes.
The poll ended: March 31st 2012