I’ve purchased most of mine from either CD Japan or Suruga-Ya (sometimes split across both 
) though sometimes as sets and sometimes split into separate volumes, it just depends what they have available.
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Amazon Japan used to be so broken to buy used novels in packs. Sadly they fixed that loophole. I bought up to sets of 50 volumes, and only paid shipping as if they only sent 1 volume international.
Now you can still get good deals from time to time, but it’s nothing compared to 50 volumes for 30EUR including shipping and taxes.
I use a proxy and buy it from local Japan marketplaces (such as Mercari), but it can get expensive depending on what you are looking for.
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Suruga-ya, Cdjapan (can also use their proxy service to get from Mercari, Rakuten, or Yahoo), Mandrake occasionally. Suruga-ya often does free shipping. If it’s hard to find, Mercari is probably a solid bet, in my experience
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Oh, it’s so pretty! I actually got my own copy in the mail earlier this week. ^o^ I should be posting my own pictures this weekend!
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nice, that’s so fun to see as physical!
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So earlier this month I got several shipments of books; it’s been a while since I’ve really splurged on them, so I was super excited to these in! I decided to wait until everyone had arrived before I posted my pics, but I’m all clear now!
First up, my new novels.
- 穏やか貴族の休暇のすすめ。4 | L32 - number 4 in the series. I actually already own this digitally, but I’ve been enjoying reading along physically as I listen to the audiobook, so I decided to go ahead and pick this up.
- 穏やか貴族の休暇のすすめ。短編集3 | L32 - volume 3 of the 穏やか貴族 short story collections.
- 伯爵と妖精 あまい罠には気をつけて | L31 - volume 2 of 伯爵と妖精.
Super excited to start this one! - ラスト | L30?? - more of a blind pick for me; pretty much all I know is that it’s BL and the love interest is a yandere, and that’s all I need. (No digital edition, unfortunately, hence me deciding to pick it up physical.)
- ブレイブ・ストーリー 上 | L30?? - Ah, this is one I’ve wanted to try forever, mostly because of the Akihiko Yoshida art of the cover.
I love Final Fantasy Tactics, so just seeing the same style of art on the cover brings me joy, haha. - バチカン奇跡調査官 黒の学院 | L30?? - One more “wow this cover is really cool!” pickup, haha. There is an audiobook for this one, so I’ll likely read+listen to it down the line. Features two “miracle investigators” who work for the Vatican and run around seeing if something’s a real miracle or not, which sounded pretty interesting.
Here’s my small miscellaneous pile. Like @sadgremlin I decided to pick up a physical copy of https://learnnatively.com/book/48bd81c50f/ to pick up and pick at every so often. The quality on this is quite nice, I must say; I’ll probably post some interior pictures in the GOAT reading club thread later. The mook on the right is ダ・ヴィンチ ダ・ヴィンチが見つめたBLの20年 2006～2026, a reprint of interviews the magazine ダ・ヴィンチ ran between 2006 and 2026 with BL authors.
And finally the manga! These days I’ve been preferring reading manga physically vs digitally, so most of the ongoing series I’ve been following I’ll try to get my hands on a copy of.
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The first three volumes of 彼に依頼してはいけません | L27. I’ve read the first volume already and enjoyed it, so looking forward to more.
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女装してめんどくさい事になってるネクラとヤンキーの両片想い | L24, volumes 4-5. I read through volumes 1-3 last year and had to stop myself from immediately ordering more, they’re so good. I’m probably going to re-read volume 3 before reading these, really take my time and re-enjoy all the humor.
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MOON・TRICK 13 | L25 - So this one is an interesting one. This series has been ongoing for…a while now (since 2011, apparently), each new volume coming out every few years at this point, and this is the first print-on-demand manga volume I’ve ever bought. I was really surprised there was no usual mass-printed edition and did some digging, and apparently the publisher shifted to just about digital-only back in 2024. They still offer POD versions of their new releases, but I’m hoping this isn’t indicative of the publisher not doing well… (I’ll need to see if I can post some pics comparing the POD volume with a regular volume later.)
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憂国のモリアーティ-The Remains- 1 | L24?? and 憂国のモリアーティ 21 | L30 - Some more Moriarty the Patriot. The first book is the 漫画化’d version of short novelized side-stories that were written before arc 2 of the manga (which starts with volume 20 of the main series), and I’ve been wanting to check them out for a while.
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光が死んだ夏 8 | L27 - I still haven’t read volume 7 yet, actually, but that’s on purpose. I don’t really like reading these as singletons, so I’m going to let a few volumes accumulate before catching back up
just in time to have to refresh my 関西弁.
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贋 まがいもの | L26, vols. 2-3: A Harta series I really enjoyed volume 1 of, of a horror artist in 1930’s era Japan who, upon facing homelessness with two young girls he lives with, decides to forge artwork and sell it as “undiscovered pieces” from his late art teacher.
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幻惑の鼓動 31 | L28 - Another “one volume comes out every 2-3 years” series.
I’m slowly re-reading from the start of the series in Japanese, and hopefully by the time I reach this one I’ll either have another volume ready or be close to one. -
ホテル・メッツァペウラへようこそ | L23, vols. 3-4: Another Harta series, following the life of a young Japanese man with a mysterious past working at a hotel in Finland. It’s quite slice of life, which can be hit-or-miss for me, but the emotional beats are great, and I love the setting.
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魔法少女ダンデライオン | L24, vols. 2-3: My newest “let’s try it out” shoujo series. Volume 1 was pretty fun, so I’m looking forward to how the author develops things in these next ones.
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It’s been a while since I posted, so I’ll share the loot I got on my last trip in Japan at the end of last year. I’m trying to limit myself to ongoing physical books I have due to space constrains, unless I find something I like very much.
It’s somewhat a weird feeling hearing of a new season of a series by the OBI of a novel. Usually when I get the book, I heard about the upcoming season by other methods. This time I was double hit surprised by Isekai Nonbiri Nouka Season 2, and YuruCamp Season 4.
I also played against a mahjong Japanese vtuber (didn’t notice until I saw in the logs the icon next to her name), and found she has published books on how to play. So hopefully I’m able to read them and get better at some point:
And finally a bit of a misc, and a reason why I stopped reading English, due to western publisher fatigue:
This book was pre-ordered in 2022. It arrived in January. It’s the last volume of the series, and has been published in Japanese for ages now. It’s also has been years since they published the Volume 5. At some point I forgot I had the order in and I had given up on having the complete series.
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Pun intended, I assume 
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These are from suruga-ya:
- 新装増補版 自動車絶望工場 (講談社文庫 か 20-21) | L30?? is by an investigative journalist; it’s one of his early pieces of reporting, about poor working conditions in a Japanese car factory in the 1970s. This has been on my wishlist for ages because it was out of print in paper version.
- 後鳥羽伝説殺人事件 「浅見光彦」シリーズ | L30?? is for a wanikani book club, and is the main reason for the order.
- 勝つための現代麻雀技術論 | L30?? is a mahjong strategy book which I threw in to fill out the order, because I play a bit online.
Incidentally I’m not sure how surugaya stay in business, because the shipping note paperwork says they paid Japan Post 5000 yen to ship an order which I paid them 2850 yen for…
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Their main market is domestic, and everything international is already marked up 25%. Probably enough ppl buy larger orders during the free shipping campaigns that it balances out the small ones?
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Speaking of small orders from Surugaya:
https://learnnatively.com/book/7e04af5ebc/ got this for the next Children’s Book Club pick over on WK. This was the reason I made the order, but since I can’t possibly just order one book, I got a couple of books from my wishlist that don’t have digital editions:
旅ドロップ | L27 this has been sold out at Surugaya for ages so I was happy to snag this one.
ハイ☆スピード! | L28 (book #2) I’ve had #1 for a while (and could probably finally read it pretty soon without a ton of lookups 
)
(I don’t know why they don’t have free shipping minimums, but I hope that doesn’t change)
btw @brandon if you have a chance, I have a series request on book #1 on ハイ☆スピード 
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I guess people that order there for the first time, would want to start with a small order to check quality, reliability, etc. of the shop.
Suruga-ya might see it as investment into the future.
E.g. I started with two orders of two books before it got bigger.
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Speaking of small orders from Suruga-ya:
- 百合姫2026年3月号 | L24??
- はなものがたり 3 - old lady yuri
- キミが吠えるための歌を、 | L24?? 3 - singing yuri with MC who’s insecure about her deep voice
- マユノウタ 1 | L24?? - horror yuri
- 鉛筆一本ではじめる人物の描き方 ロジカルデッサンの技法 | L30?? - drawing book I’ve been very slowly going through. So nice to finally own the physical, cuz the text is tiny on digital
I wish I was getting bigger orders still, but I’ve been using the money on lessons instead, and have plenty to catch up with still
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BookOffとKinokuniyaに行ってもうた 
- 自転車屋さんの高橋くん | L24 4-8
- 花ざかりの君たちへ | L25 tribute
- #ギャルとギャルの百合 1 サンデーうぇぶり | L24??
- セトウツミ | L23 7-8
- https://learnnatively.com/book/d205a8934d/
- https://learnnatively.com/book/48bd81c50f/ - maybe I’ll join the club after all
- Some random manga, I can’t read the title font
- Some random LNs
- ベルサイユのばら | L32 anime book - really pretty and lots to read
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Oh what’s inside? I probably don’t quite care enough to get a copy for myself, but I might buy it, read it, and then send it to my friend
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It seems just like a typical anthology of one shot things from various mangaka. I only read the first few pages so far
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Apologies if this is against the forum rules, but I was wondering: do any of you guys ever sell books you have already read? For those of you who live in the EU more specifically
I periodically check Vinted to see if any second hand book in Japanese gets uploaded, but it’s rare to find something that isn’t old enough to be on Aozora
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The only part of sites rules possibly related to your question is a provision against advertising to sell goods here. Though frankly it’s probably a provision against spammers, I genuinely don’t know if Brandon would care of you tried to sell a book here.
The last entry is the “Prohibited section” is
Use the Site to advertise or offer to sell goods and services.
Either way merely talking about whether you sell books is 100% fine.
But to answer the actual question
I haven’t sold any books yet. I’ve bought my first book less than a year ago and still have plenty of place on my bookshelves. (though they’re 60% full already). I might consider selling some at some point in the future but only if space becomes a problem.
I do have a duplicate of the 9th and 11th volume of the konosuba manga but honestly I’d give those away for free in anyone wants them on this forum.
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I’m in the UK and as of yet haven’t sold any books but I already know of a few I will eventually sell or donate. There are some local bookstores/ charity shops that take them and someone previously mentioned a site that accepts books being sold and bought in the EU.
I’ve also seen a lot on Japanese books on E-bay.
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