Where to Buy Manga – Everything You Need To Know

I buy and read a lot of series, so I am always looking for the best manga deals. Not only that, but I’m also always on the lookout for new sites to buy from. I’ve learned a lot about collecting manga over the years and I’ve bought from many sites and stores that sell manga, but the following are the best.

I’ve placed many orders over the years on the following sites and beyond to find the best places to buy manga. I will note any pros and cons that come with buying from each, their shipping policies and free shipping thresholds if applicable, notable sales they run as well as anything you need to know about buying from them, like member programs or perks, cancellation policies, and more.

Before I get into all of that, though, I first want to talk about the difference between in-stock manga and out-of-print manga, because they are quite different and you’ll have to shop at specific places if you are looking to buy out-of-print manga series.

Out of Print Manga vs Out of Stock Manga

I also want to talk about the difference between out-of-stock and out-of-print manga, because I often find the two are confused. Out-of-print manga are books that are no longer going to be printed by a publisher, such as the Initial D individual volumes released by Tokyopop. I wrote a post that lists all of the out-of-print manga that I’m currently aware of if you’d like to check that out. That post also includes tips when buying out-of-print manga and things to look out for.

I also want to mention that just because a manga is out of print doesn’t mean that it will never receive a new format release. For instance, the individual volumes of No Longer Human by Usamaru Furuya are out of print but Kodansha announced that they’ll be releasing a Complete Edition of No Longer Human in the Fall of 2022.

On the other hand, out-of-stock manga are series that are usually just temporarily out of stock, meaning that the publisher needs to print more volumes. More recently serialized series, as mentioned above, are not of concern.

Even though some product listings say out of stock, expecting more, or temporarily out of stock, this doesn’t always mean that manga bookstores and sites will be able to get more stock. Books-A-Million states on their website that they’ll reach out to a publisher and see if they can get more stock and depending on what they say, they could cancel your order.

Manga sites and stores, much like us, are often left in the dark as to when or if a series is going out of print and they won’t know that something is no longer available until they are told so by the publisher or distributor. This is something that has usually only happened to me with longer-running series. If you want to learn more, here are some signs that a manga may be at risk of going out of print.

Most times, though, if it’s a newer series and it says out of stock you have no reason to be concerned!

Best Manga Retailers

Crunchyroll

The latest addition to our list is likely a familiar name, Crunchyroll, following their recent acquisition of Right Stuf. I am happy to report that many of the things that made buying manga from Right Stuf so appealing were kept by Crunchyroll, most notably their sales and high-quality shipping.

Since they are a recent addition, before including them in this post, I placed and received around ten orders from Crunchyroll to ensure there weren’t any issues or concerns to report. Fortunately, my experiences with Crunchyroll have been nothing but positive so far. They have kept the high-quality shipping standards previously set by Right Stuf, and I have yet to receive a damaged item. But, I will note that since I haven’t had any damaged orders, I cannot comment on Crunchyroll’s customer service and their response to said issues. Once and if I do, I will note my experiences.

Update as of September 2024: Crunchyroll has started to change the way they ship manga. They no longer use those cardboard inserts in their packages like Right Stuf used to. I received a large box of manga with heavy volumes, including Homunculus and The Drifting Classroom Perfect Editions, and all volumes came heavily damaged. They left enough room for them to move around in the box and were thrown in the box with no packing material to protect them, and as a result, they arrived damaged.

I also received another shipment of damaged items. However, it appears the items may have already been damaged before they were sent because the shipping box was unscathed. In that shipment, were an anime Blu-ray that was completely broken on the back and two manga. Luckily, Crunchyroll support handled the situation well by offering me an exchange; even sending me a prepaid shipping label to return the damaged items. While their support handled it well, I wanted to note that their shipping quality has unfortunately declined in the past few months, resulting in more damaged items and packages in the mail.

Also, there is a bug on their site, where you can’t view any of your order history. I’ve personally reached out about this to their support and they said they are working on a solution, but this is something that has been ongoing since October 2023 and persists nearly a year later. As a result, there is no way to see what preorders you have unless you still have your order confirmations in your email inbox. An order history page is fundamental when you have a shop, so the fact they don’t have a working one is critical. It’s easy to forget what orders you’ve placed throughout the year, and it’s also hard to track what you have on the way as a result, so here’s hoping they fix this on their site soon.

They also used to provide free shipping in the US on orders over $50, but recently increased their free shipping threshold to $75+. As someone who places a lot of orders on Crunchyroll, I used to have a difficult time reaching the $50, but I would navigate this by placing bulk preorders. I can say that $75 is going to be even more difficult to reach unless you are shopping for higher-priced items, like Aniplex anime box sets or large orders of manga.

Recently, though, they added new perks to being a subscriber to their streaming platform, which is nice especially if you are already a user. Their Fan tier gets 5% off select products on the Crunchyroll Store, while the Megan Fan tier gets 10% off select products, members-only offers and early access to sales, and free US Shipping at $50, and the Ultimate Fan Tier, which is $15.99 a month, gets 15% off select products, members-only offers and early access to sales, and free US Shipping. That said, if you shop the Crunchyroll Store a lot like I do, signing up for one of their streaming subscriptions may be beneficial as it adds additional savings. Some, the Ultimate Fan, has a lower shipping threshold on top of discounts, while the Ultimate Fan has no free shipping threshold at all, which is a benefit.

If you’d like to try out one of their Premium plans, you can sign up for Crunchyroll’s 7-day free trial.

All in all, Crunchyroll has an impressive selection of manga, offering lower everyday prices and exclusive releases. Additionally, they have continued to have the fantastic sales that Right Stuf was known for. Their sales are particularly great during the holiday season, but year-round Crunchyroll is one of the best places to find manga deals. They do have some room for improvement, though. Their order history page needs to be fixed, so customers can view their orders, and their shipping quality has room for improvement as well.

Amazon

Amazon is a great place to buy manga, especially if you already have a membership with them. They are just super convenient, I’ve found their shipping to be the fastest, and they have easy returns if something comes damaged.

Since other sites usually exclude heavier items, like box sets, from their free shipping discount, Amazon usually has the best deals on manga box sets when they go on discount or sale. They also run discounts on manga editions, like the Berserk Deluxe Editions, as well as individual volumes from time to time.

One benefit to buying from Amazon is that when you preorder a manga they usually have a preorder price guarantee. Amazon had the following to say about their preorder price guarantee policy on their site: “Whenever you pre-order a physical item displaying the “Pre-order Price Guarantee” message on the product detail page, the price we charge when we ship it to you will be the lowest price offered by Amazon between the time you placed your order and the end of the day of the release date.”

Another benefit is that unlike other sites, which charge you for preorders immediately, Amazon won’t charge you until release day. So if you don’t want to be out the money immediately for manga preorders, Amazon is a good way to go.

The one negative of Amazon is its shipping. They seem to just throw manga into a box or ship a lot of manga together in a bubble mailer, which can damage the covers and spine. I’ve had to return most manga to Amazon because of their poor shipping. But they have easy returns and they send you replacements for free, so the return process is much easier than if you were to buy from other sites.

One final thing I want to mention is that Amazon has third-party sellers, so if you want to buy from Amazon directly, make sure they are listed as both the shipper and the seller in the description. Not all third-party sellers are great, but some are reputable. To see how good a seller is, you can check their seller page for customer reviews and ratings. I’ve also seen some ridiculous listings by third-party sellers, who massively overprice out-of-stock or out-of-print manga volumes, so double-check the price before buying.

Manga Book Stores Like Barnes and Noble and Books-A-Million

When they aren’t running sales or coupons, Barnes and Noble and Books-A-Million are typically the most expensive places to buy manga from, because they commonly price their manga at full cover price.

Both stores don’t run nearly as many sales as sites like Amazon or Crunchyroll but they do run some, including Buy 2, Get 1 Free manga sales as well as discounted coupons, that you can keep an eye out for as well.

Another great thing about buying from BAM and B&N is that you can choose the quality of the manga volumes you buy when you shop in-store, whereas you can’t when you buy online. So if quality is something you care about, this is something you may want to consider.

Barnes & Noble has a membership that gives you 10% off in-store and online (certain exclusions on online purchases may apply) with free shipping with no minimum purchase for USD 39.99 a year. It used to be around $25 a year, but they have since increased the price. The 10% discount used to not apply to online purchases, but it does now, which is nice.

Barnes & Noble also added a new feature to their rewards program called stamps. You can collect 1 stamp for every $10 spent on a purchase, so 10 stamps = a $5 reward. This gives Barnes & Noble’s membership a slight edge over Books-A-Million’s, which has a membership that gives you 10% off in-store and free shipping on all orders for USD 25 a year.

Both Barnes and Noble and Books-A-Million get exclusive manga releases also. For instance, Barnes and Noble released the Toyko Ghoul Monster Editions.

Manga Buying Hack for Barnes and Noble: When buying manga box sets or large orders of manga from Barnes and Noble, I wait for sales or promo codes (they tend to run 10%-20% coupon codes from time to time).

I then buy discounted e-gift cards through a site called CardBear. They’ll direct you to the gift card re-sale site with the biggest savings. If you are buying online, make sure the gift card you are buying is an e-gift card. Also, keep in mind that it can take up to 24 hours for your e-gift card to be emailed to you, so make sure you have enough time to make your purchase if there’s a limited-time sale or coupon code.

These discounted e-gift cards when paired with coupon codes and sales add even more to my savings when buying manga on Barnes and Noble’s website.

Update: Since the time of this post, Barnes and Noble have started shipping some volumes in unpadded bubble mailers. I have been receiving more damaged volumes from them as of late. They also tend to package multiple volumes in too large of a box without any package fillers to prevent them from sliding around, so many come damaged as a result of this as well. That all being said, they could package their items with more care.

Used Bookstores Like Half Price Books and 2nd & Charles

Used bookstores are awesome places to find manga often for half-off cover price for newer releases. But, they are also good places to find rare or out-of-print manga as well. If you’d like to learn more about out-of-print manga and where to purchase it, check out our Out-of-Print Manga Guide. I also talk about the things you should look out for when buying from used bookstores in that post as well, like quality, prices, etc.

I always find shopping at used manga bookstores, like Half Price Books and 2nd & Charles, to be rewarding, because oftentimes, you will find something you didn’t expect to find.

InStockTrades

InStockTrades has everyday prices that are comparable to Crunchyroll, so they are a good place to find manga for cheap, but they don’t have nearly as much manga to shop for as other retailers on this list do. Another benefit to buying from them is that their free shipping threshold is only USD 50.

I’ve also found that they have some of the best prices for Dark Horse manga, especially the Deluxe Editions, which are often listed at a 42% discount. You can often find these on discount as much, if not more, on Amazon though, and since shipping isn’t free until you reach InStockTrades’ shipping threshold, this can cut into your savings.

One thing about buying from them is that they tend to sell out of volumes decently fast, so you’ll want to get your order in as soon as possible if you are looking to preorder an item. Another thing is that shipping tends to be much longer than other sites, even when you place a fully in-stock order, so this is something to keep in mind as well.

They also sell graphic novels, so if you are someone who collects these in addition to manga, you may want to give InStockTrades a shot.

Your Local Comic Book Shops

I’ve often found that a lot of people don’t know that some comic book shops carry manga, but they are great places to check. I’ve found that a lot of them in particular sell manga from Dark Horse, but some sell manga from other publishers as well.

The only thing I’ll say about comic book stores is that you have to make sure their prices are fair, especially for out-of-print manga. There have been many occasions where I saw them selling a volume for way more than it’s worth, so that’s something to keep in mind.

What about digital manga?

You can also purchase manga digitally directly from the publisher or on sites like Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Sometimes publishers will release digital versions of manga series first. For instance, Kodansha released digital copies of Blue Lock and Tokyo Revengers before their print releases were announced. If you are looking for the best places to read manga online legally, you’ll want to check out the best manga readers, sites, and apps!

Viz also has the Shonen Jump app, which costs around $2.99 a month, and has a digital vault of 15,000+ manga chapters. It used to be $1.99 a month, but Viz recently increased the price of its monthly membership. You can also read chapters of select manga as they are released in Japan, so you can catch up on the series quicker than you would with physical copies. They also have English-translated versions of manga that don’t have physical copies yet on the Shonen Jump app. Special one-shots, such as Tatsuki Fujimoto’s Look Back, are also available on the app.

You can also read series digitally on Manga Plus, my favorite site to read on. You can read more recently released series that have yet to be printed with English translation as well as completed manga on their site!

Final Thoughts: Where’s the best place to buy manga?

This depends on what you are looking for.

As to who I recommend buying manga from most in the US, I would say Crunchyroll because they have the best prices and sales, particularly on single volumes. Plus, they run bundle deals, weekly specials, and more.

If you are looking for ease of returns or the most convenient site to buy manga from and the lowest prices on heavier items like manga box sets, Amazon is the best choice.

If you like to pick the quality of your manga and prefer shopping in-store, Barnes and Noble and Books-A-Million are great choices. Also, they tend to get items back in stock quicker than online-only stores, so this may be something you want to consider as well.

If you are looking to buy used or out-of-print manga, used bookstores like Half Price Books are great places to shop. If you love supporting local businesses, check out your local comic book stores and specialty shops.

And finally, if you are located outside of the US, definitely check out Amazon or Blackwell’s if you are located in the UK!

Where to Buy Manga

Looking for some new manga to get into? Check out all of my manga recommendations!