In last month’s “How Do You Purchase Manga Today?” post, I discussed a little bit about the methods I use to purchase manga post-Borders — in short, mostly Amazon. The price and quick shipping (specifically the Amazon Prime program) are what’s kept me coming back to Amazon. On a whim last month I decided to compare my Amazon cart to the same cart at RightStuf and was surprised to find significant savings. Hit the jump to see my thoughts about doing my manga purchasing with Rightstuf.
For those that don’t know, Rightstuf, Inc (TRSI) is both anime online retailer as well as publisher and distributor. They sell everything from wall scrolls, to manga, to DVDs, to Japanese language books while at the same time releasing and distributing anime classics like Rose of Versailles, Revolutionary Girl Utena, and Emma. They’ve helped bring back fan favorites like the Hetalia manga thru print-on-demand, and most recently were the distributor for Anime Sols crowd-funded Dear Brother boxsets. I sort of think of them as an anime superstore.
Now this isn’t my first time shopping with Rightstuf. My first order was years and years ago, but since then I could count my Rightstuf orders one hand. Some of that can be attributed to the fact that I’ve only really picked up online shopping with the last 4-6 years, and any sporadic purchases went to, you guessed it, Amazon. Most of my orders from Rightstuf were from the Daily Deals, Weekly Specials, or during their 12 Days of Savings Christmas specials, but not much else. Still, I’ve never had any problems with Rightstuf in all those years; the one time I did have to contact customer service for something minimal they responded super quickly and personally.
So with that in mind I loaded up my cart with what would have been June Amazon manga pre-orders. I just barely made the 49 USD free shipping cut-off, but that was definitely an added perk. (Unfortunately the international free shipping is a lot higher, at 250 USD.) Another Rightstuf perk, at least for me, is the lack of sales tax versus Amazon.
One of my “concerns” switching from Amazon Prime to Rightstuf was the speed of shipping. It wasn’t entirely clear to me whether Rightstuf would hold an order until all items were available or if they would ship piece by piece, similar to Amazon. Based on the website, it looked like you could request split shipping (at an additional cost) if shipped via UPS, or Rightstuf would opt to split ship if there was a significant delay. I’m assuming that since my order was shipped via the regular United States Postal Service, my order was “held up” until everything was in stock — some were back-ordered, some were preorders released mid-month — so from the date of order at the beginning of June to shipping out to me it took about two weeks.
To my surprise, shipping from Rightstuf to me took only three days!
I’m always impressed my Rightstuf’s packaging. The boxes are always appropriately sized and they normally come with a squarish insert that goes right around the manga to hold them in place — no banged up books here. I also received a cute little promotional card for upcoming anime.
So, how does Rightstuf stack up with Amazon in my book? A few things:
- Pricing: On larger orders over the free shipping threshold, pricing can actually be pretty competitive with, if not better, than Amazon. Below the shipping threshold is where things can go one way or the other: the basic economy shipping is 3.49 USD for the first item and one dollar per item after that. Amazon Prime shipping is always “free” but has a significant yearly cost associated with it though (but can easily be split among friends or discounted if you’re a student), but in essence you’re still paying for shipping (and various other, arguably lesser used, benefits).
- Also noteworthy pricing-wise, though it didn’t apply to my particular order this time: Rightstuf has regular sales with discounts up to 33% off certain publishers at different times of the year. Most recently manga-wise was the Kodansha sale, and many books that retailed for almost 11 USD went for a little over 7 USD. Combined with the really cool “Got Anime?” membership — 12 bucks a year gets you 10% off most items, and costs are potentially even lower.
- Ultimately if I were nabbing one or two books — not anywhere close to Rightstuf’s free shipping cut off — I would still go with Amazon, because of the shipping. Unfortunately I’ve had Amazon Prime in one form or another for a number of years now, so I can’t compare “regular” Amazon versus Rightstuf.
- Shipping: This was far less of a big deal than I thought it would be, which just goes to show how badly Amazon Prime can skew the whole “instant gratification” thing. Sure I was a smidge disappointed when things were held up for a couple of weeks or back-ordered, but honestly you just… wait. While I’m used to Amazon’s quick turn-around and split-shipments, I surprisingly found Rightstuf’s waiting to ship a bit of a personal/budgeting plus, as you’re only charged once and it’s done. Amazon can become easy to lose track of with one charge here for one shipment and another a few weeks later all from the same order. Once everything was in house and shipped, it arrived way before the expected receipt date. Obviously Rightstuf can’t have the reach that Amazon does — I have two major fulfillment centers within driving distance — but economy shipping in 3 days? Hats off to Rightstuf.
So, I think I might be sold on Rightstuf. I wouldn’t shift from Amazon entirely, but a lot of the cons I thought I had going in with Rightstuf proved not to be big deal. I actually placed another order at Rightstuf more recently and that too arrived in about three days. That’s not to say Rightstuf is perfect — that international shipping looks to be killer and I really (really) wish they took PayPal — but shopping with them is definitely a worthwhile option. When most of my Amazon shopping is manga, it’s nice to support a company dedicated to that specifically.
Have you shopped at Rightstuf? What are you thoughts? Do you have another great anime/manga retailer to share? Let me know in the comments!
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manjiorin
Manjiorin is 26 years old and not nearly as cool as the characters she reads about in manga, unless they hold desk jobs and try to discreetly read manga at work. She prefers seinen manga of the bloody variety (yay Berserk and Blade of the Immortal) but d'aww's and baww's at Kimi ni Todoke. Her boringly sporadic thoughts are on Twitter.
Latest posts by manjiorin (see all)
- Thoughts About Buying Manga With Rightstuf - July 11, 2014
- Summer Anime 2014: Tokyo Ghoul Impressions - July 7, 2014
- Urasawa’s Monster: The Perfect Edition Is Out July 15 - June 25, 2014
- How Do You Purchase Your Manga Today? - June 2, 2014
- Kids Like Manga, Too! - May 30, 2014
