Tokyopop shop's Print On Demand for OOP Mangas

[2old4yaoi]

I wonder if anyone else has seen this. Tokyopop apparently launched an online store last month (they are doing 30% off by the way). What intrigued me most is that they have some out of print mangas you can order as "Print On Demand" (POD) Since I insist on collecting my favourite mangas in paper print - I thought this is a wonderful idea. The caveat is that they don't seem to offer it on all mangas i.e. not on Love Pistol 4 or their really older ones such as "Man's Best Friend" etc... I am not sure why the inconsistency.
However, I would love for June / 801 Media to look into the viability of this POD as well - as you know, many fans had been asking for OOP copies of "My Paranoid Next Door Neighbor" & many others etc. I would offer these on the more popular OOP titles. It will be interesting to see if the customers out there would prefer OOP titles in digital formt or op for POD.

[Prettykitty20034]

Yep. I saw this a couple of months ago and I took advantage and placed an order when I saw they had a manga I'd been looking for for a long time. I received my copy a couple of weeks later and it was just like any other Tokyopop book so I was very happy. It does cost a little more just to print one copy at a time, but it sure beats those Amazon used prices. I'd love if more companies got on board with this as sometimes tracking down those out of print volumes can be a royal pain.

[Senyoru-Chan]

Oh yes I have been trying to find My Paranoid Next Door Neighbor for ages! I'm a big Minami Haruka collector. xp I wish the other two of her titles licensed by some dead company would come back too. And where is Drunken love?! D: Come on 801 media!

[lore]

This is just a guess, but I think some licenses are so old, they've expired. Or, in the case of Print on Demand and digital download, the license never carried distribution rights beyond print. Licenses usually have expiration dates, and to extend the license period or add new forms of distribution would mean a company would have to pay for it again. Which is unlikely in this economy.

[Senyoru-Chan]

Sucks. Dx But I know what you mean. Sweden used to broadcast Sailor moon ifor like over 10 years and then the licence expired and they couldn't show it anymore. :q

I guess we'll have to buy them in another language. Or download them. I bet the companies will love that. Oh yeah.

[2old4yaoi]

Darn! I was just informed that my POD orders can not be fulfilled because they are having issues with their POD publisher. I can't believe they actually charged my credit card without shipping any item 1st. Does anyone who understand the accounting principle of revenue recognition or GAAP working there?

[Shroud]

They don't do international either, so a good chunk of the English language manga market is closed off. They could handle this a LOT better.

[Ruby_Alexandrine]

I am not fond of print-on-demand because from my understanding, there is a quota that must be reached. If the quota doesn't reach a certain amount, then the manga will not be printed. To prevent procrastinating on manga purchases, I purchase the manga when its hot of the press. There is always the Ebay auctions which I had great luck in purchasing out of print manga.

[2old4yaoi]

Actually TokyoPop only cancelled my POD order for "Drown in Love 1" due to issue w/ printer but they did manage to ship me "Love Pistols 3" which was also POD. After receiving it yesterday, I feel compelled to write here on my experience. As you can see, they up all the POD manga prices to $14.99 though they are running 30% off grand opening offer now (Love Pistols 3 was originally $9.99 when first issued years ago) and they did take away the color inset from the POD copy too. However, I am more than pleasantly surprised at the quality of the paper they used. Unlike all their
Blu publication that are mostly on those grainy, grayish paper type, these are on the smooth, crisp, white papers - the same as what was used in June's "Ka Shin Fu"! So yes, I am more than happy to spend the current $12 for such book (especially compared to the $30+ currently listing 2nd hand for the original copies elsewhere) I also told them I can't wait until they get the POD printer issues resolved so I can put in order for other OOP titles as well. I fervently hope this POD initiative of them will take off successfully.

[azureus]

POD's no use for me, since they don't ship overseas...