This poll from Achiyugo is a hypothetical situation. How much does the price point matter to you on paper manga? And this assumes you have access to buying it (such as buying via the Internet!)

You can submit poll ideas here (and try to keep them manga/anime-related):
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903

Previous Poll Results:
Question: A new anime adaptation comes out for a manga series you've already read. Do you watch it?
Choices:
Watch it as it comes out (weekly, etc) - votes: 4813 (40.7%)
Wait a little before starting to know how good it is - votes: 3581 (30.3%)
Start from the middle once the anime deviates from the source - votes: 209 (1.8%)
Only start when the entire series is over - votes: 1682 (14.2%)
Don't watch it at all - votes: 1540 (13%)
There were 11825 total votes.
The poll ended: March 24th 2012

I've always wondered why you'd bother watching the anime version if you know (or assume) that the manga version is better (assuming that the manga came first). It's the same exact stuff happening... just animated.

Last edited by lambchopsil at 12:48 pm, Mar 31 2012

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A just ruler amongst tyrants

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.

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not necessarily a trolling option. people might want their manga on better quality paper (which of course would cost more), hence the option.

Hmm, that's not how I read it at all. In my mind I thought that hypothetically the poll is asking me if manga volumes that are usually...10 dollars let's say, suddenly cost only 5 dollars would I buy more. No quality change or anything, just price change. I answered I would buy significantly more. Still, I don't think it's really a trolling option, because maybe they'd buy less out of self-control or something? Who knows.

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.

You think the paper being used actually accounts for that much of the cost?

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"It is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science."

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

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

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"I'll shut your mouth~~~~~ with mine~~~"

二息歩行

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

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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.

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Follow fashion, act normal;
Walk on the pavement, watch T.V.;
Save for retirement, obey the law.
Repeat after me: I am free.

This. I second this. Ever since I discovered the loveliness of ordering directly from Japan, Taiwan, China, Korea, etc, I started buying more than usual and stopped buying licensed series. Not only is it cheaper, you support the mangaka more. If you buy the licensed version, the mangaka gets less royalties, or so I'm told. After all, the main reason readers buy their favorite series is because they want to support the mangaka. The only problem is shipping costs, though if you join with some friends and buy large quantities there's little to no shipping costs. I usually order series I like with a ton a friends and family's orders and have them all ship together.

And the quality of manga from Japan is shockingly higher than most, if not all, of the licensed ones. The lines are so crisp and clean and the tones are so vibrant...

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.

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Even after dead, we raise from the ashes for the sake of manga.

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.

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