More Viz manga boxsets

Hey all!

I posted this on another forum after spotting it last night. It's quite a bargain for Naruto fans who haven't yet purchased any of the volumes (I already have Vol. 1-3, sadly).

Here's the post I made:

There I was, sitting thinking about the reason for existence naked and searching on eBay at 4 AM, when I remembered I hadn't checked if The Book Depository had got any of the 3 box sets mentioned earlier available for order. I opened up up my bookmarks, scrolling slowly past the 100 or so untidy bookmarks I've built up over the years, finally reaching the bottom after a test of my endurance. When I clicked the link you can imagine my surprise to see they had both a price and the Naruto set in-stock (in-stock on site but, going on the order confirmation email, they're waiting for stock), the price being a very pleasing £60. I ordered.

I did enter into eBay mathematics mode before ordering. Ignoring the fact you get a wondrous box/bag thing, it works at around £2.23 per volume for £60...and it obviously works out to be an even greater deal if you're a fan of the wondrous box/bag thing. The value will also be improved further for me by the delivery firm TBP use, who will most likely have a lot of employees who enjoy the odd rugby game with heavy objects. But whichever way you look at it, it's stunning value for money - It's $110 on Amazon.com, so...

Here be thy link: Naruto Vol. 1-27 for £60, with free blow up Sakura doll!!!!
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And, since TBP will likely also be selling the Bleach and Death Note sets cheaper than Amazon when we're closer to the release date of both, here's the links to those sets on TBP:


Bleach
Death Note
 
I have all of the Deathnote mangas already, and the box looks pretty =/

I might get the Bleach one. Love the anime and heard the manga was also good ^_^
 
I ******* well knew it - My set arrived damaged. I didn't realize when I sent TBP the email but the box that the set was packaged in is damaged. So, even when I don't have Royal Mail deliver (it was Interlink?) I still get ******* damaged ****.

Just fired off this happy email in their direction:

Hi...

The Naruto Vol. 1-27 set I ordered on the 22nd arrived just now. I'm fairly annoyed that one of the corners has took a series knock, causing the box art to distort and making what is a collectors piece look poorly cared for. I haven't got a digital camera but I have got a scanner that I'm going to use to show you what I'm talking about. I've attached two images of the damage that should clearly show you what my problem is very clearly. (just spotted that I said clearly twice. ******* ****.)

This was my first order with you and I took a leap of faith by making that order a £60 one. I was even good enough to link to the deal on four forums to support you. How was that repaid? By sending me a damaged collectors item that's going to be difficult to replace due to the weight/size. If you were going to send a damaged set, why did you have to send the damaged one to one of the first to order it from you?

I was prepared to order the Death Note Vol. 1-13 set you'll by selling in October but I'm now going to have to think twice if you think it's fine to send £60 items in poor condition. It's too bad because I had read loads of positive reviews about your store.
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Here are the images I sent them:

Image 1
Image 2

Why does everything in my life have to have to come with ******* problems?[/img]
 
Aion said:
I ******* well knew it - My set arrived damaged. I didn't realize when I sent TBP the email but the box that the set was packaged in is damaged. So, even when I don't have Royal Mail deliver (it was Interlink?) I still get ******* damaged ****.

Just fired off this happy email in their direction:

Hi...

The Naruto Vol. 1-27 set I ordered on the 22nd arrived just now. I'm fairly annoyed that one of the corners has took a series knock, causing the box art to distort and making what is a collectors piece look poorly cared for. I haven't got a digital camera but I have got a scanner that I'm going to use to show you what I'm talking about. I've attached two images of the damage that should clearly show you what my problem is very clearly. (just spotted that I said clearly twice. ******* ****.)

This was my first order with you and I took a leap of faith by making that order a £60 one. I was even good enough to link to the deal on four forums to support you. How was that repaid? By sending me a damaged collectors item that's going to be difficult to replace due to the weight/size. If you were going to send a damaged set, why did you have to send the damaged one to one of the first to order it from you?

I was prepared to order the Death Note Vol. 1-13 set you'll by selling in October but I'm now going to have to think twice if you think it's fine to send £60 items in poor condition. It's too bad because I had read loads of positive reviews about your store.
Click to expand...

Here are the images I sent them:

Image 1
Image 2

Why does everything in my life have to have to come with ******* problems?[/img]
Click to expand...

That sucks that your box arrived in poor condition. I was thinking of ordering these also, but after the damage to the first Naruto sets, and now your experience with this one I'm really hesitant. Hopefully they'll replace it for you? only problem is that if they do, someone else will probably get shipped the damaged copy..
 
First Naruto sets... Do you mean the sets Amazon had listed last year for Vol. 1-27 in a mini-wooden unit? If so, what happened there?

I'm pretty sure the same was done prior to TBP - On the America > TBP journey. I say that because there are spots for 2 tiny cardboard pieces that, for reasons unknown to man, are removable. The one near the damage on the back isn't there, which leads me to believe it fell out when TBP people examined the damage...

Anyway... They've offered me a 30% refund - £18. Although I do want a mint set, getting near 1/3 of the cost refunded when the books are fine and the front is undamaged is tempting. What would you guys do in this situation: Try to haggle for more, demand a replacement or go for the sympathy vote?
 
Yeah the wooden naruto sets. Alot of people who bought them had them arrived with the box all splintered and broken, the panel in the front smashed - just generally really bad condition. I think that was more of a UK problem than a US one, but I could be wrong.

The discount seems decent, but it depends on how much you want it to be mint condition? You could ask them if they have any in stock which aren't damaged at all that could be used to replace your copy. If not, its a good price off. If we're being semi unethical you could always sell it off on ebay afterwards, make a profit and buy the box again? All depends on what you want.

If you really want it mint, then demand a replacement. If not then the discount seems fair. I doubt they'd give you much more
 
How much did people pay for those? I only looked at the Amazon price back when people were talking about it. I thought it look dull for a set, with just the volumes on a unit with no artwork, so I never looked into it.

The new set is much better looking, the art work looking lovely. It's well worth the money if you can get one in mint condition - A tough task when these heavy sets have to be transported from America and then to buyers in England.
 
This was my first order with you and I took a leap of faith by making that order a £60 one. I was even good enough to link to the deal on four forums to support you. How was that repaid? By sending me a damaged collectors item that's going to be difficult to replace due to the weight/size. If you were going to send a damaged set, why did you have to send the damaged one to one of the first to order it from you?

I was prepared to order the Death Note Vol. 1-13 set you'll by selling in October but I'm now going to have to think twice if you think it's fine to send £60 items in poor condition. It's too bad because I had read loads of positive reviews about your store.
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Did you attach a music file with poignant violin music too?

Honestly, I'm disappointed that you got a bad set, but that level of overt whining and playing the role of some hideously tortured victim is really ridiculous. The damage isn't even that serious.
 
My friend, the art of getting money refunded is a tricky one for most minds to comprehend. If you act overly friendly and happy then you aren't going to get anywhere with stores who want to receive as much money as possible; not give money back to people who ask nicely. I don't know if they would've been so generous if I came across as a stupid/easy to please person who cares more about hugs and kisses than the condition of what I paid for.

And, although you might be happy with whatever God gives you, I don't like paying £60 for new goods and discovering serious damage to one of the corners.
 
Although I have no digi cam, I decided to do as many scans of my set as possible since I'm one of the first to order. I'm hoping these will help people who are curious to see what everything looks like. :)

The booklet scans turned out excellently, the poster scans also came out well and the box scans were as good as expected when the box is much bigger than my scanner.

Poster (Side 1)
Poster (Side 2)
Booklet Cover
Booklet 1
Booklet 2
Booklet 3
Booklet 4
Booklet 5
Box Front 1
Box Front 2
Box Back 1 (you can see the "2 pointlessly removable bits" I mentioned earlier)
Box Back 2
Box Side (Sasuke) 1
Box Side (Sasuke) 2
Box Side (Sakura) 1
Box Side (Sakura) 2
Box Top
Box Bottom
 
Aion said:
How much did people pay for those? I only looked at the Amazon price back when people were talking about it. I thought it look dull for a set, with just the volumes on a unit with no artwork, so I never looked into it.

The new set is much better looking, the art work looking lovely. It's well worth the money if you can get one in mint condition - A tough task when these heavy sets have to be transported from America and then to buyers in England.
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£40, the box came damaged so I got a replacement (and got to keep the original!), it came damaged as well so I took off the wooden cabinet and sold the contents for a profit, so around -£10 really!
 
RetroRainbow said:
Only slightly skimming through the topic, but Viz Media left the cross in Gintama, too. I'm pretty sure that part of the topic is over with by now, but just wanted to mention it.
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They left a cross in One Piece too, it just shows Viz have lack of continuity in their editing department. Even in the same manga series you can have something edited in one volume and left as-is in another. It's pathetic really. If Viz were open about their policies, then fine, I'd know where I am, but they don't seem to have any policy what-so-ever in terms of censorship.
 
I'm back again, this time here to report about another of the Vix box sets: The Death Note set. I paid TBD £39 on the 27th, they sent yesterday and it arrived this morning. I'm happy to report that my set has no damage this time around and I don't need to send another angry message in the direction of the good people answering emails for TBD.

Here are some scans I just did:

Box Front
Box Back
Box Side (A)
Box Side (B)
Box Top
Box Bottom
Booklet Cover
Booklet Pages

This set was much more scanner friendly than the last was. Yay for small manga box sets. :)

The booklet (which I didn't expect to be included) is surprisingly large, the total amount of pages being 80 or so. Each page has Death Note rules of use on black pages (the same sort as in the real Death Note). It's a very cool extra.

If I have the motivation after reading everything, I'll type up a review of the box set and manga (like I did for Naruto). But, until then, I hope the scans are good enough. :)
 
You're going to pay £54 (£15 more than TBD and £5 more than Amazon) simply out of loyalty to a store with a poor website? You must have more money than you do sense!

I've used TBD three times:

The first time was for the Naruto set -- it arrived with a nasty knock on one of the back corners that distorted the artwork. Within 30 minutes of me emailing them (with images of the damage) they offered a partial refund of £18; near enough 1/3 of the £60 I paid. I was quick to accept when the books themselves were undamaged and the damage to the box was on the back, meaning it wasn't very visible.

My second order was for the Wild Arms 5 guide. It arrived in mint condition, with the seal intact.

As for last order, you can read how that went in my previous messages. There was no nasty dent on the set this time and, after taking 3 days to be sent, the set arrived the day after they sent it.
 
Mine turned up this morning, a very nice addition to the collection. The only trouble being it wasn't until it was delivered that I realised that I had absolutely nowhere to store it... It was my own fault, I should have remembered my shelving unit reached critical mass when I bought Bleach last month. Just glad I didn't decided to go for the hat-trick and get Naruto as well.

@melonpan : I've bought most of my manga collection from TBD, including my Bleach and Death Note box sets and everything has turned up in mint condition - well except for one volume of Love Hina but that was the Postman's fault for trying to fit three individual packaged volume from the mail box at one time - and I can back up Aion on this.
But I understand where your coming from, there are only certain companies I will deal with when importing and will pay a premium to use them.

I did have both my orders with Amazon - they'd both been pre-ordered since May - but after they started messing me around with the Bleach set I swapped over to TBD and saved myself a good £30 in the process.
 
Belphegor said:
The only trouble being it wasn't until it was delivered that I realised that I had absolutely nowhere to store it... It was my own fault, I should have remembered my shelving unit reached critical mass when I bought Bleach last month. Just glad I didn't decided to go for the hat-trick and get Naruto as well.
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Heh, I have the same problem. With eBay bargain hunting, Secondspin and now manga box sets I have nowhere left to store my stuff. Both my £80 350-400 DVD Argos units are completely full with DVDs, games and manga (including the tops) and everything else is full. I'm just glad the DN set is smaller than I expected it to be.

The Naruto set is an awkward bugger; it's the vertical version of the Bleach set. The only place I could put it safe in the knowledge it wouldn't get knocked about is on top of the small 2-shelf unit I got with my desk. I could do with something as easily accessible for my Death Note set...

I don't want the Bleach set for two reasons: The first is that I already have mint copies of Vol. 1-6 and the second is that, at £55 for 21 volumes in comparison to £60 for 27 Naruto volumes, it isn't what I consider to be bargaintastic. There's also the small matter of me not liking Bleach as much as I like Naruto.

It's too bad these manga box sets are so rare; it's kind of depressing that we won't be seeing many more any time soon. I'd love to see other series released like this: Berserk and Kare Kano would be almost certain buys if they were released in £3 per volume box sets, but that's highly unlikely in the case of Berserk since Dark Horse charge quite a lot for their releases.
 
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