I wasn’t planning to write anything. But I realized that I, too, heavily rely on other people’s feedback before making an online purchase.And just in case you’d like to order from yesasia.com (an online store based in Hong Kong), here’s my very first experience with the online store.

I do have normal manga volumes, you know, published by Viz Media and Del Rey (and a couple by Tokyo Pop, which sadly closed down). But I have yet to own an authentic Japanese tankoubon. I was browsing sites like Honto, Amazon.jp, and CD Japan, but the expensive shipping fee makes me weep like there’s no tomorrow. It is more expensive than the actual prices, which made me reluctant to even try.

But I wanted Haikyuu! tanks. Like so bad. I learned that there’s no chance for it to get licensed (sports manga doesn’t have high demand in the US), which made me incredibly sad because it’s my favorite series to date (side by side with Tokyo Ghoul). So when I discovered yesasia’s free shipping for orders $39 and up, I decided to give it a shot.I asked my sister (who loves KuroBasu) to buy stuff too so we could meet the target price for free shipping (luckily for her, two volumes were on sale). They cost around $7 a piece (much more expensive than other stores, but for bulk orders, it’s much cheaper). The dispatch took one week (since they needed to get it from the warehouse), but the shipping was fast. It only took 5 days (including weekends). I even thought I needed to claim my package at the post office, but it turned out they have a courier, so they just delivered it to my house. No extra fees! Yay!

The packaging was nice. The books were covered with bubble wrap, so there are no dents or creases on my tanks. They are quite smaller, but they have pretty jackets (did I just compliment the book jacket, the same thing that covered hardback books)? (Yes, I did!). Of course, it’s hard to read since it’s in Japanese, but since I’m so eager to learn the language, this will motivate me even more! 頑張ります!

Knowing that there’s a store like this opens a lot of doors for me! It also offers Asian entertainment merchandise, so if you’re also into kpop, jpop, or anime DVDs, they have it there. Though the selection is limited (in fact, some volumes I want are not there), this is still helpful! I’ll definitely order from them again! (will complete the available volumes of Haikyuu!)

PS: A tankoubon (単行本?) most often used in reference to individual volumes of a single manga, as opposed to magazines. (wiki)