What’s the deal with Seven Seas and Amazon EU/U.K.?

William278

William278

Completely Average High School Student
Seven Seas posted this somewhat ominous tweet yesterday that raised more questions than it answered

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1604938421289373696

It sounds like Amazon in Europe are no longer stocking or buying manga printed in the U.S--at least not from the Los Angeles region where Seven Seas are based. The replies to the tweet have been loads of EU/UK customers reporting unfulfilled orders and last minute cancellations.

Anyone have any idea what’s up with this and if it affects other publishers? I noticed Yen Press’ new K-On omnibus I ordered a couple weeks ago has seemingly failed to dispatch despite ordering directly through Amazon UK.

Obviously there’s other places to buy manga than Amazon/BookDepository, but the alternatives (Waterstones, Bookshop.org) always seem to have very inconsistent stock levels and have been fairly unreliable :/. Even Viz, who seem to have a U.K. presence take several months to ship stock over in my experience. Any other suggestions (aside from a costly import) for buying the new prints from the US publishers?
 
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I have noticed this with various Shuzo Oshimi manga titles I have been trying to buy the latest volumes of, was wondering if there was something going on to explain it :(
 
William278 said:
Seven Seas posted this somewhat ominous tweet that raises more questions than it answers the other day

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1604938421289373696

It sounds like Amazon in Europe are no longer stocking or buying manga printed in the U.S, or at least not from the LA region Seven Seas are based in. The replies have been loads of customers reporting unfulfilled orders and last minute cancellations.

Anyone have any idea what’s up with this and if it affects other publishers? I noticed Yen Press’ new K-On omnibus I ordered a couple weeks ago has failed to dispatch to me despite ordering through Amazon awhile ago for me.

Obviously there’s other places to buy manga than Amazon/BookDepository, but the alternatives (Waterstones, Bookshop.org) always seem to have very inconsistent stock levels and seem fairly unreliable :/. Even Viz, who seem to have a U.K. presence seem to take several months to ship stock over. Any other suggestions (aside from a costly import) for buying the new prints from the US publishers?
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I often use Wordery. If you preorder or they say it's available you will get it. It often takes a week or so to dispatch as I think they bring orders in from a warehouse abroad but they are reliable. I ordered the K-on omnibus my self on the 13th and it despatched yesterday.

Their stock can be somewhat limited especially for older titles but they seem good at keeping the website up to date with what they have.
 
You could always try ordering from your local comic shop, if one is available. Their orders would normally come from Diamond. My LCS has no issue getting in 7S books, just got Spriggan Deluxe 2 off them on Friday.
 
Yeah I buy a lot of my Yen/Kodansha series locally, but they really struggle to get in Viz and SS titles. Diamond only supplies Yen and Kodansha to the UK as far as I'm aware, the other two are under different distributors who have way worse stock issues. :/
 
Not at home at the moment. I don't think any of my physical manga are Seven Seas though. Plenty of volumes for various series on Bookwalker though.
 
Demelza said:
It's related to this, so yes it will affect other publishers as well: EU agrees law preventing import of goods linked to deforestation
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That law is interesting. I suppose it'd make sense timings-wise, though apparently Amazon haven't said anything according to people who replied to the tweet and contacted their support. I guess it doesn't really affect continental Europe too much, since manga is popular enough to be handled by various regional publishers there.

I don't use Wordery since I had a couple of orders arrive with the wrong content, but definitely worth checking out the Travelling Man website as they're excellent for Yen and Kodansha series. Blackwells is also good fwiw.
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Interesting, I've never used Wordery. Might have to give that one a try, even if it didn't work for you. I didn't realize Travelling Man did postal orders online, thought that was just a shop.
 
I use the forbidden planet website (and shops but not always in stock) and find them often cheaper.
Just bought Plus-Sized Elf 8, £7.09 + £2 post while Amazon have it listed as £12.
Down side is they're not very quick at posting.
 
I typically use their store as I can get stuff on 3 for 2. And I buy a lot of manga... Still, this is worrying if they start doing this with other groups too like Yen Press. They'll basically make a lot of manga almost impossible to buy.
 
Grr, this would happen a week before the final volume of Gigant is released.

How are United Publications for manga orders? I'm surprised no one mentioned them since they seem to be a popular choice for anime.
 
Dai said:
How are United Publications for manga orders? I'm surprised no one mentioned them since they seem to be a popular choice for anime.
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I used to buy almost all my manga from UP and always found them very helpful but I haven't used them in the last year. (Similarly Wordery who were rarely stocking the Seven Seas titles I was looking for.) Maybe someone else has more recent relative experience? I'm tempted to go back to them if the Amazon EU/Seven Seas problem materializes but I've just heard that one of my Seven Seas pre-orders (via Amazon) has been dispatched so I don't know what to believe (it's not danmei, though, as that's where they seem to have underestimated the demand).

I am depressed, however, about Seven Seas constantly encouraging reader feedback and asking readers to pre-order so they can work out how many copies to print etc. etc. Is it significant, I wonder, that they recently opened their own online store GoMangaStore in the US? They don't seem to be shipping to Europe so...
 
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