Bargain Hunting at the Local Comic Shop

March 15, 2008

We went out shopping today. My oldest’s birthday is coming up this week, and we were getting the last gifts we needed. One of our stops though, wasn’t for presents, but for supplies. Both my girls like to collect Pokemon cards (actually my oldest is totally hooked on Pokemon right now) and the box we bought for their cards has filled up. So, we went to our local comic shop (LCS) to get another box.

Our LCS is small. Every wall is stacked with books, comics, games and toys. There isn’t an inch of wall that isn’t displaying something. The middle holds shelfs for back issues and trades. And then there’s the table, directly opposite the register that is for clearance items. Every couple of months, or until the table is cleared, the shop would put out stuff that hadn’t sold and was taking up space needed for new inventory. Sometimes it’s comics, or toys or trading cards, or manga. This week happened to have manga. Three rows length wide across the table stacked about 8 volumes high and a sign over it saying $2.50 each. So, guess where I was for the next 10 minutes.

The only problem with this kind of clear out, is that you won’t always get a clear run of titles. It tends to skip around. For example, they had volumes of Tramps Like Us, a title that the way Kate at PCS keeps going on about makes me consider getting. But they only had volumes 4, 5, 8, and 10. Not exactly a good start to a series I’d like to read the first before diving in. And while that’s only $10 for the 4, it’s too spread out for me to want to hunt down the rest when I don’t have the cash to do so. Manga always suffers in my house when the economy takes a downturn.

But, I always look anyway, searching for that gem in the rough, like a good bargin hunter. And almost right off the bat, I did find a good one. Phoenix Volume 3 by Osuma Tezuka was in the second row. I snapped that up! $2.50 for a book that’s regularly $15.95 is too good to pass up! I’ve been wanting to read this series, and each volume is self contained. Woo Hoo! I scanned through the rest of the stack, hoping for another gem (another Phoenix really), but nothing so grand showed up. I did decided to get the Volume 2 of CLAMP School Paranormal Investigators. This is another series I’ve wanted to check out, and at only 3 volumes, getting the second wasn’t a big deal.

So, I walked out of the bookstore with $25.00 worth of manga for only $5.00. I love finding deals like this! Part of me wants to go back and get some of those volumes and just hold them somewhere until I can get the rest of the series, but I will be strong! I hope…

6 Comments

  • Katherine Dacey March 17, 2008 at 5:09 pm

    Well, I can’t argue with your decision to buy the second volume of Phoenix–that’s one of my all-time favorite series!

  • Lori Henderson March 18, 2008 at 5:36 pm

    I was pleased with the find too. Everyone keeps going on about it, so I decided to see what the buzz was all about, a decision made easier by the 2.50 price tag.

  • Brian Henderson March 18, 2008 at 5:37 pm

    Come on, you have manga coming out the wazoo. Our last comics order, you got 99% of the order, both in manga and in comics, and you got another 7 issues today. Of our usually $160 comic order per month, I usually spend under $20. The kids usually spend about $10. The rest is yours.

    I don’t really mind much, but come on, you act like you’re not spending almost $1500 a year on manga.

  • Lori Henderson March 18, 2008 at 9:41 pm

    Try reading my blog before going off. The last three orders of mine have been $60 or less. That’s 10 books or less a month. If you’d been paying attention you would see that our last order was also done. Look before you leap.

  • Brian Henderson March 19, 2008 at 6:55 am

    I did, that’s why I specifically mentioned recent orders. Looking at the last one we got, you got 6 manga in 1 2-week order, plus an additional 7 for review, plus the 2 you bought at the LCS, that’s 15 manga in less than a week, not to mention having Shonen Jump and Shojo Beat to read as well.

    Don’t go making people think that poor you, you have nothing to read when you spend more on manga than everyone else in the house spends on comics combined.

  • Lori Henderson March 19, 2008 at 8:53 am

    You just don’t get it. It’s not about getting more manga. It’s about finding a phenomenonal deal that just can’t be passed up. Getting a 15.95 book for 2.50 is just that. That was the whole point, not that I don’t have enough manga.

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