I’ve been a collector since 2008, and for half the time I’ve been collecting, I haven’t had my whole collection with me all at once. That changed this month since I’ve moved into a new place. Going through all my manga allowed me to remember the journey I’ve taken to get here, so for my sake, I’m documenting my full 15 year journey collecting manga. Please indulge me.

2008: As a high schooler, I didn’t have much in terms of disposable income, so I mostly bought volume 1’s. My first volume was The Melancholy if Haruhi Suzumiya, which I had attempted to print and bind myself.

2009: I attended an anime convention, and won a full set of Death Note from anime trivia. I was so proud of owning a full set, lol.

2010: Borders went out of business, and I went on the last week to the gift of 90% off manga. I bought nearly 100 volumes that day, but didn’t get LoveCom at the wish of my mom, which I still regret. I still dig at her playfully once in a while over this, and I refuse to buy LoveCom for over $17.

2011-2015: I discovered GoHastings, which had many $2 manga volumes, coupons, and free shipping. My meager college student weekend minimum wage job money was fed nearly completely into the site for roughly 500 volumes. The day GoHastings went bankrupt, I felt numb; partially due to having stayed up till 3 AM so long to snipe new releases and because I knew deep down that I had contributed to their downfall due to getting so many amazing deals, lol.

2016: I spent a year in Japan, and pick up a myriad of manga that I thought would never release in English (I was wrong, lol). Also got into art books, which I still peruse frequently.

2017-2023: Rightstuf was the place to be; the most expensive manga I had ever bought, but 40% off during holiday sales wasn’t bad. RIP those days now. Still looking for a place to buy manga from, but a break is kinda nice for the wallet.

Some random tidbits from my adventure:

Favorite manga: Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou, I instantly fell in love with it when I read it back in 2006, so much so that I own it four times: 1 volume self bound (poorly), the Japanese set, one gifted custom set from a friend to shut me up about it never releasing, and the official release, lol. Alpha best waifu!

Hardest Volume to Find: I only ever actively searched for one volume, being Mushishi vol 6; even a decade and a half ago, it was rare. Ending up finding it at a Half Price for $6! I shrieked, lol. Got the whole series for $27, thanks to the manga being in low demand. It’s also my proudest own.

Most Unusual Series: the FLCL light novels; for some reason they just aren’t that common to see around, despite the series popularity.

White Whale: Eden It’s An Endless World; I remember when volume 14 released and thinking I still had time…

Total volumes owned: 2,407; I’ve slowed down in recent years.

Average cost per volume: $4.22; thanks in large part to Borders and Gohastings, trying to cut it down my 2 cents.

If you’d like to know anything else, please ask! I log most of my series, along with prices, how it was obtained, date obtained, opinion on the series, etc.