Maddies Manga

While I do typically prefer reading my manga in Japanese (and thus, buying Japanese manga), I do still like to read in English from time to time. Be it because a certain series proves to be difficult to find in Japanese, or because I really want to go buy something from my local bookstore right now, I do still find myself venturing out into the retail world from time to time.

Where to buy my manga…

In my small Canadian city, there aren’t too many options when it comes to buying manga. I try to avoid Amazon when I can (support local!), so my only options really are Indigo along with their subsequent small branches, and Imaginaire. Every once in a while i’ll luck out at a thrift store, but if I have a certain series that I’m hoping to pick up, I really only have two options.

Or so I thought! Did you know that Game Stop (or what I still refer to as EB Games) now sells manga?!

Buying manga from Game Stop

Before I get into my story, I’ll spoil the mood here: I will never again buy manga from Game Stop 😦

While I was out doing my boxing week shopping, I popped into Game Stop to see if there was anything interesting on sale. To my suprise, they were selling manga! Both used, and new! I chatted with an employee for a little while, and it turns out they they had recently extended their game buy-back policy to manga. As they seem to buy very random manga (think volume 5 of “The time I was reincarnated as a slime spin off number 4”), I made my way to the new manga section.

There were maybe 10 different series in the manga section, but they were all a part of the boxing week sale! 20% off + the tax rebate gave me a rather good reason to browse their small collection. Volume 1 of Blue Lock caught my eye, and I picked the nicest looking of the 3 sitting on the shelf, and added it to my shopping basket. On the front of the cover was the notorious Game Stop price sticker with its sale price, but I thought nothing of it. I bought my manga, and returned to my car.

While I had some more shopping to do, I wanted to share with my friends that I picked up a new book. So, I drove to my next destination (Indigo, ironically), and peeled off the front cover sticker….. Only to reveal intense cover damage. The sticker itself wasn’t suited for books, and the sticky substance completely seeped into the cover. On top of that, the sticker itself was placed on top of already existing damage. I was maaaaaad.

When I got home, I called up the game store to let them know about the damage, and was told that “those stickers always damage manga covers haha.” !!!! The rage I felt! Why put the stickers on!? Why are you laughing about this!!? My book!!! My brand new damaged book!!!

I asked if I could do a refund, and was told that they only did exchanges, and only for the exact same manga (remember, I picked the least beat-up of the Blue Lock manga). Nowhere on the receipt, or the website, or from the employee when I was buying the manga was I told that refunds were not possible. I had him check to see if the other two manga had any sticker damage, and while one did, thankfully one did not. So, the next day I returned to the store and made an exchange.

Lesson Learnt

Going forward, I am probably only going to be buying my English manga from Indigo at this point. Never again, Game Stop 😦