The economy isn’t looking too great nowadays, which means cutbacks on a few of our favorite shopping items like comics and manga. But if you really need your manga fix, even if it’s just one volume, here are a few dollar saving tips.

Buy Online

There is a simple reason for this other than laziness. Products offered online at retail websites are cheaper than at the store. Take a testimony from me.

Windy, Leenah, and I drove to Borders over the weekend to look for some “How To Draw Manga” books. Windy found one by Hikaru Hayashi priced at $25 (retail price). Leenah found another one by Christopher Hart priced at $22 (retail price). Since Leenah didn’t have money to pay for hers, I had to. I knew it was cheaper online, but she didn’t want to wait for it in the mail. She wanted it now.

Guess what happened when I checked for price comparison on the items bought? The books were priced under $20 at Amazon.

I could go into the detail as to why it’s cheaper online and whatnot, but I don’t think people care about that. The point is buy online. Now if the retail price is the same as the online price, time to move to the next tip.

Buy Used

If you are the type of person that keeps your old books in mint condition, then skip this option. You don’t have to buy manga from the users themselves. Powell’s Books is a great site that sells new and used books from one warehouse. Though they may not have the biggest manga collection, it’s reassuring to know the exact condition my books are in (and that they are coming in the mail).

Get a Book, Pretend You Don’t Have Money, and Get Someone Else To Pay For It

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It worked for Leenah.

Trade

Mangatude has a community of people wanting to trade manga and other related products. I haven’t tried this options. I have a thing about trusting users for getting my order. You can decide on the option by checking out this article by Deb Aoki.

Okay, if there are other tips you want to share (other than One Manga and sites like that) leave a comment.