Keeping a Manga Collection

I have many hobbies, some more expensive than others. One of these hobbies are collecting manga.

Short story: I started collecting manga in middle school when I friend introduced to me.


Long Story: There was a girl at my school getting picked on for reading manga. At the time I didn't know it was manga, but I sneaked a glance at one of the books she was reading to see what people were giving her trouble for. All I remember seeing was beautiful drawings. It caught my interest, and I decided to approach my classmate that everyone was bullying. When I asked what she was reading she told me it was a comic from Japan. She let me take a look at it, and as I filled through the pages she suggested I take it with me and read it. I did what she suggested and got hooked on manga after that. We became really good friends after she let me read more from her manga collection. That's when I decided to start my own.

I've been told many times to "stop wasting my money" or asked "why do you read those things" by many people. At first I would just say because I liked them. It was true; manga has great art and amazing stories. As I got into high school and read more manga, my reading skills improved immensely (I couldn't read well at all in elementary school and had trouble with pronunciation. I usually made a friend read my summer reading books to me). This fact made me appreciate manga more than ever, and I even wanted to purse a bachelors in English in college (that was the last degree anyone would ever think I'd get).

My collection!

So point being, having a collection isn't something as simple as just wanting to collect a lot of something just because you can. It's about having a passion for something that means a lot to you. Manga has a special place in my heart, and my home.  I literally have a closet filled with manga now. It gets hard to keep collecting manga when you run out of room. For manga fans out there that don't collect you might be asking why I don't just read it for free online? Well, as a developing writer myself, I'd hate for someone to read my books without giving me or the industry support. (Pretty much you're stealing). The next comment would be "but I can't afford to buy manga." That may be true, but it's not too hard to keep a manga collection as you may think. I'm going to share my secret on how I keep a manga collection.

Don't Buy Just to Buy

When you go into the bookstore, be conscious of what you're buying. Make sure it's a series you really want. Don't buy a series just because it's in front of you, or maybe because it's a short series so it'll be less money lost. If a series you want or a buy you want is not at the bookstore at that very moment you need to step away from the manga and either go another day or go to another bookstore. A lot of people just buy because they have the money available at the time. Don't do that!

Use Holidays to Your Advantage

When your relatives or friends ask you what you want for Christmas or your birthday don't give the usual "it doesn't matter" or "whatever you get me will be fine." Be truthful with them! Like I stated before, I have a ton of hobbies, and it can be very hard to keep up with all of them at times with the limited amount of money I come across. If they are willing to give me gift cards as part of the gift I definitely ask. It's better than just giving money because they know you are using it on a specific thing and they know it'll mean a lot to you.

Search for Used Books

This may not be ideal, but it sometimes comes to purchasing used manga. It'll be cheaper for you to buy used than new. Just because it's a used book doesn't mean it's going to be in bad condition. Most used books I've bought are in great condition, like brand new. I buy a lot of used manga for series that are no longer publishing and are old series, such as Vampire Game or Ceres: Celestial Legend. You can find used manga at local comic book shops and local bookstores that specialize in used books.

Used manga from Tubby & Coo's Mid-City Bookshop in New Orleans. Manga: Mars

Sell Manga that You Don't Reread Often

In order to buy more manga, you have to sell more manga. It can be a sad thing to do but I have a method I use. I reread a lot of my manga, especially ones that are my favorites or just really fun to read. So my rule is if I don't remember the story or I don't reread the manga series often it's getting sold. Now, you won't get the full amount you paid for it back, but at least you're getting something back. Some bookstores will offer you a store credit that'll be a bigger amount that just taking the cash. Take the store credit because you're going to be buying more manga anyway.

Some of these just gotta go!

I hope this has helped many of you who are either trying to grow their manga collection or hesitating to start one. It's not hard, so just follow my guide and you'll have a great collection in no time. I'm very proud of my collection. It makes me prouder when I have friends come over to gush over it. My collection has been called a manga library before. A friend that gushed over my manga collection actually told me to write about it, so I did!

Next I'll talk about my favorite manga series which differs from my favorite anime series. I hope you will come back to my blog to read it, just click that blue follow button to do so. Thank you as always for reading. I really appreciate it. For more geek and Japan related content follow me on Facebook and Instagram.