[Posted @ 3:00PM]Because I have nothing to do and felt like doing so, I've decided to list, explain and disclose discuss where all my anime/manga you see floating in my blog come from. Even though I've not patronized half of the sites listed, I might be a potential customer in the near future if anything catches my eye =). Be warn, lots of harmeless bitching of shopping experience! [I'm only stating stuff and conditions applicable to me or an Anime & Manga Fan]1. Amazon.com - Categories are Anime/Manga, Online Shopping- Payment Modes accepted are American Express, Diners Club, Discover, MasterCard, Visa, Amazon.com gift certificates, etc. - Unfortunately, amazon doesn't accept Paypal and International Wire Transfers.My shopping experience;I was rather skeptical of purchasing from amazon at first because I heard around that the prices were on the 'premium' side but then I just had to start somewhere, so I ordered two manga, Sister Red #1 [By the way it was out-of-stock in Takashimaya's Kinokuniya when I purchased #2.] and Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~ #3 and Kannazuki no Miko DVD Box Set for the time being. After calculating the costs, shipping costs via vPOST and comparing to my local Kinokuniya's pricing, I realized it was darn expensive LOL. The total order rang in at US$72.73, free shipping charges cos shipping address's at vPOST USA address, so the goods were about S$108 [Taking US$1 = S$1.48]. vPOST charged me S$26.98 for the shipping fees, so it's like S$108+S$27 = $135. That means the Kannazuki no Miko DVD Box Set was S$90 and Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~ #3, Sister Red #1 were S$22.50 each!!! Anyways, I forgotten EVERYTHING about the price when I got the parcel in 3 weeks ... so it doesn't matter now, I'm happy with my KnM DVDs XD. Recently, if you've been following my ramblings, I've purchased Bakuretsu Tenshi [Burst Angel] DVD Box Set, Loveless DVD Box Set and Medal of Honor Airborne PC Game. I was like totally excited when I saw that Bakuretsu Tenshi DVD Box Set was at half price and so I grabbed the chance and clicked the buy button. The total was US$115.97 which means it's about S$172 [Taking US$1 = S$1.48]. My shipping cost was about $$36.14 but I was given an 8% discount so it's around S$33. S$172+S$33=S$205, so the average costs between the three items were S$69. Which I thought to be quite a catch, not bad la, considering ODEX's price and quality for Bakuretsu Tenshi Volume Sets. 2. Play-asia.com- Categories are Anime/Manga/Games/Figurines/Jpop Music, Online Shopping- Payment Modes accepted are Visa, Mastercard, Paypal, Western Union, Moneybookers, Bank Transfers. - Unfortunately, Play-asia doesn't accept check payments, money orders, cash or cash on delivery. My shopping experience;Play-asia.com is my first shopping experience online, likewise, I heard around that Play-asia.com's pricings were on the 'premium' side and even though they had stated that delivery to Singapore was free, I believe the shipping costs were included in the item itself. Hey, nothing is free in this world you know lol. At that time, I didn't have a credit card yet, so I used Moneybookers, first I had to transfer funds via eNETs with a small fee to the account before I can start using it. It was pretty fast, the transaction was done in 15 minutes. The goodies I got were Strawberry Panic! OP1/OP2/ED1/ED2/OST singles and 3 Drama CDs, Kannazuki no Miko OP1/ED1/Drama CD singles and Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru OP1+DVD single. All I can say that the total was around S$380 for the loot mentioned above with the shipping charges included, so it's like around S$380/12=S$32. Considering some of the stuff I ordered where really backdated, it's a wonder that I could still get my paws on them lol even though I had to wait for some time [3 weeks] for some of the items to arrive it was okay cos I wasn't charged for shipping [Which ironically was included in the first place lol]. However, after I got my credit card, I pretty much 'closed' the Moneybookers account lol and ordered Meilin's 'Candy☆Boy' + DVD single with the credit card XD. 3. Comics Connection - Categories are Anime/Manga/Games/Figurines/Magazines/Trading Cards/VCDs/DVDs etc, Brick and Mortar- Payment Modes accepted are NETS, Cash, Credit Cards [Probably for Payments above S$30? Not sure but there's a cap.] at distributing outlets.My shopping experience;Before Comics Connection, I used to buy my manga at Popular Bookstore, but then Popular used to be REALLY REALLY slow in their arrival of the latest manga issues that I had to turn to Comics Connection. I think Popular ain't so bad in their releases now, but it's too late, they lost me lol. Basically I'm a regular customer at Comics Connection, usually Northpoint, purchasing the latest English manga by ChuangYi Publishing every twice a month or more. It'll depend how many volumes I'm getting for the week, if it's only 1 for that particular week, I'll wait till the next week and get the 'old' and 'new' at the same time. Anyways, I heard or dreamt? that ChuangYi Publishing's opening a retail outlet of their own, so ... I guess probably I'll jump to them in the future? Lol. 4. The Celestial Zone Studio - Categories are TCZ Volumes/Merchandises, Online Shopping, Brick and Mortar- Payment Modes accepted are Credit Cards for Online Shopping and Cheque on Subscription Basis. Cash and NETS for distributing outlets. My shopping experience;I started collecting TCZ when I was around 14 and was pretty active in the forums back then lol, but now I'm quite busy with my life. I used to pop over Popular Bookstore to get my fix, now I'm only contented to receive latest issues monthly via post. However, I'm religiously collecting the TCZ merchandises during the Singapore Book Fair every year. I was so crazy once that I almost wanted to purchase the Chi Xue's Blood Red Sword sword for S$200 LOL and there's only 3 in this world. I'm still supporting TCZ because it's a Singapore-based Manga series and will continue to do so =). 5. Kinokuniya Singapore - Categories are Anime/Manga/Magazines/VCDs/DVDs etc, Online Shopping, Brick and Mortar- Payment Modes accepted are Cash on Delivery, Cheque for Online Shopping. Credit Cards, Kinokuniya Vouchers, Cash, NETS for distributing outlets. My shopping experience;Well I haven't tried the online shopping yet, maybe when I want more than S$50 worth of manga just to get that S$5 delivery charge waived lol. I think the payment modes are pretty good, good old cash and cheque =). Even though many people think/said that Kinokuniya's pricing were expensive, you'll have to see what you're purchasing I reckon. Unless you're purchasing alot alot of books online, just to save that little on the shipping charges, I recommend you just get it from Kinokuniya to save the troubles and time wasted. Ultimately the decision lies in you. 6. ADV Films - Categories are Anime/Manga/Merchandises/DVDs/Legal Video Downloads, Online Shopping, Brick and Mortar- Payment Modes accepted are MasterCard, Visa for Online Shopping. ?? for distributing outlets. [Never been to their store/HQ] My shopping experience;I'm always on the look out for their sales and got my chance on September 2007, I purchased 'Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu - Complete Collection', 'Azumanga Daioh - Class Album', 'Chrono Crusade - Complete Collection' and 'Full Metal Panic! - Complete Collection'. The total cost for the four box sets was S$283 + shipping charges of $33 [13% discount] = S$316. So it's like barely S$80 on average for each box set. Taking into consideration that 'Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu' is a 13 episodes box set, let's take it as S$50, so S$30 will be averaged out to the other three 20+ episodes box sets to make it S$90 each. Besides, I got a free OVA which is usually worth like S$19.90 so ... it's like S$85 each, which I personally think is quite reasonable. On the down side, not that I mind, I found out that ADV Films had poked a hole through the barcode [Probably for some sales/security reasons or something] in the Box Sets. If you're a person who can't take this kind of 'suffering', I suggest you don't buy stuff during sales period lol. As for the rest - Online Shopping;7. CDJapan 8. Anime Nation 9. Deep Discount 10. Yes Asia 11. Anime Castle 12. Right Stuf15. vPOSTAs I mentioned, these are the sites whereby I've not purchased anything from, so I can't really comment anything but I believe from the comments of other anime fans, that these are quite reliable sites to do your online shopping. As of the moment, I think I'll try shopping via CDJapan soon heh.As for the rest - Online Shopping, Outlets in Singapore;14. Andomacha by M.A.G.E15. Kareshi Kanojyo no Mise16. ChuangYi PublishingI've not bought any anime/manga merchandises yet from these outlets but I guess I'm interested. Ok, I think that rounds up the this long post, I'm tired lol. Any comments, suggestions and tips on where/how to shop online, purchase any related to anime/manga and where you get your anime/manga fix, please post it in the blogger comment instead of the tagboard. Thanks!!![Signing off @ 5:51 PM]
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