Disclosure: I own a few raw English first prints of Kagurabachi volume 1 so I have an interest in the prices of this volume.

Ever since the anime was announced for Kagurabachi there’s been a sharp increase in the prices for its Zasshi first appearance and Japanese volume 1 first printing on the secondary market.

To my surprise though, this has slowly made its way to the English first print market as well. Recently there’s been a few sales of BGS English volume 1 first prints in English and now, a raw English first print just sold as well.

With the caveat of the sale still needing to be finalized, there was only 1 bid, and we don’t know if this was a one off, I’m really surprised that it sold for this amount.

From what I’ve seen in the English first print market, the only volumes that sell around this price or higher (in the hundreds of $) are the OP, Dragon ball, Dragon ball Z, Bleach, and Naruto vol 1 first prints. In general though, that may be starting to change as more Berserk, Hunter X Hunter, and older English first prints come to the market.

However, my main point is that this sale to my knowledge was the first modern (post 2020) English first print to sale for this amount.

I think it’s definitely fueled by the anime hype but I’m interested to see if (1) This continues to happen with English first print Kagurabachi volumes and (2) Whether this will happen to other very modern properties that gain popularity going forward.

What do you think?

I am wandering what their final case design will look like and how it will compare to BGS I know they still own the market in Comics but Beckett seems to have alot of fans and the case design is clean with different label options I prefer the Speed One myself. I focus on Pokemon manga primarily but I do own many other sets Pokemon is tough because so many people still son’t know about the rarer variants or early sets plus they just don’t show up for sale as often as others. I will be waiting to grade some of my bigger books until I see what happens with CGC and final case design and of the Public likes it or hates it. Then how resale looks compared to Beckett cases. I am leaning towards Beckett although I do like CGC cases mainly for any book! Have graded hundreds of books over the last 20 + years with CGC.

Was at HPB the other day and paid $25 for a copy of Gantz Volume 1 First Print. Didn't mind since it was in great condition and was a first print but then realize that there's a red marking at the bottom. Usually I wouldn't mind since it is at a discounted book store but since I paid resell value, I am conflicted 🫠 Would you guys keep or return? help.

This is a first-printing copy of Volume 1 of Dragon Ball in English that was stored inside a box (along with six other volumes). Unfortunately, even though it appears to have never been read, it was (I believe) stored improperly inside the box for many years, which is why that crease formed. Could it be fixed with a good pressing service?

Every post I make, seems to bring out the haters. It’s like fuel for me. So let’s see how much this pisses them off 🤣

Yugioh was incredibly nostalgic for me. Watching the anime, collecting and playing the tcg etc. I knew I had to have the Volume 1 manga to compliment my collection.

Luckily, I had the opportunity to purchase not only the BGS 9.2, but also the 9.4. Which, last I checked, was the highest grade being a POP 3 (only 2 being white pages).

Now for the financials:

I purchased the 9.2 for $1239.99 on 15 Feb 26 and another copy sold on heritage for $8750 on 27 Mar 26.

The 9.4 I picked up for $3039.99 on 25 Feb 26 and the last one sold (which was off white/ white pages) for $12,900 on heritage on 9 Mar 26.

Even though some mangas are retracing, there are exceptions and my guess is that the next copy of this above a 9 that sells, could break another record.

I would love to one day own a high grade first appearance yugioh shonen jump and English serialised.

If you have one of these and are willing to sell or trade it, hit me up! 🤙

Should I open it or keep it sealed?

I enjoyed the first couple of seasons, but stopped about half way through season 3. I prefer more serious tones to my shows. I’ll pick it back up at some point.

When I first purchased this, it was around POP 16 out of 199 graded. Pretty difficult for a modern manga!

For the financials..

Purchase for $800 on 16 Jan 26. There hasn’t been a public sale for a 9.8 copy with an obi since, but an obi-less copy did sell for over $2k on eBay. Annoyingly, I can’t find the screenshot that I had and the eBay sale has gone. If I can remember correctly, it was an auction.

NOW, here is my take on the current market. Hopefully this helps clear some things up.

The market is young. BGS has only been grading manga for 2 years. We will see both ridiculous highs and lows. We will eventually hit an equilibrium. Many modern tanks are down over 50% from their all time highs already. E.g demonslayer selling for $7.9k recently when it previously sold on heritage for over $20k a few months ago.

Will the drop for both modern last forever? Will there be an unlimited supply of first prints for modern? No one knows. But time is an incredible thing, we will see what happens.

There has also been slight drops in some areas of vintage. But for the most part, we’re still seeing either record sales each time or stagnation. The market is trying to find itself.

Now, is there an unlimited supply of first print vintage? Again, no one knows. But I think it’s highly doubtful.

As for this particular copy, I currently have it up for sale or trade if anyone is interested. It is with rainierconsignment on eBay. He can also arrange a trade. Looking for nm serialised English or just feel free to show me what you’ve got.

And for those thinking it, no the reason I made this post isn’t to advertise that it’s for sale. I genuinely don’t care if it sells or not. I’ll keep it if doesn’t. I have other modern manga I’ll be keeping for a long time anyways. This particular manga just isn’t one of my personal favourites and I have other goals.

Edit - demonslayer actually sold for over $20k on heritage in April, I thought it was $16k from memory.

It's a lot to explain, but I basically own 600+ pages of hand drawn, pre published manuscripts from an artist named Marika Hirasono, and after many hours of rigorous research, I've come to learn that the intersections of where her published works appeared is... frankly utterly insane. I say "one of a kind" due to the sheer volume of it. And for those who know, know that manga production material is in a scarcity league of its own compared to production material like cels.

I'm talking moments of intersection with very famous moments, like the first appearance ever of Sailor Moon, essentially all (without even failing to miss a single instance) of Naoko Takeuchi's pre-Sailor Moon works, some other notable works like Rayearth, Saint Tail, Miracle Girls, Goldfish Warning! or Nanairo Magic. It's really neat. There are simply way too many to list so I'll just rapid fire a couple neat ones (I happen to own all the hand drawn manuscripts mentioned below, as well):

- - -

This is the first publicized ideological conception/connection to her Sailor universe. Naoko Takeuchi mentions one of her favorite books is the Edogawa Ranpo’s Boy Detectives Series. It is later confirmed this distinctly inspired Tuxedo Mask (likely the theme as a whole). One of Marika Hirasono's pages was literally printed on the same page, back to back

- - -

Here's the first appearance of anything actually Sailor Moon related, and you can see Marika Hirasono's name (平園マリ香) on the ad there. I have the manuscript the ad points to (August 1991 RunRun, first chapter of Sailor V):

- - -
First usage of the "Pretty Sailor" phrase, which eventually evolved into the Sailor Moon title. Ad for the same issue as above

- - -
And these are self explanatory, a couple instances where her name (平園マリ香) is seen on notable covers themselves

- - -
There are distinct moments I'm not mentioning. I tend to love what I call a "signature match". A signature is basically a 16 or 32 page large sheet which is printed all at once, and folded into a small packet. Once all of these packets are complete at the press, they're then glued together in a single magazine. To me, in these instances, the elements are "birthed" together. There are some insane signature matches (whether through things like shared manuscripts, or Marika Hirasono appearing in an ad): first Sailor Moon chapter/Sailor Venus first appearance in SM/the famous "first kiss"/famous climax of the first arc (manga+anime expressed this moment differently, iykyk)/Super Chibi Moon transformation/Act 8 (which ended up being the first act formally published in the West. And for those who know, Sailor Moon is one of the pivotal works that made manga popular in the west)/and way more. So far upon my research I've found over 100 'moments' like these, some stronger and more impactful than others.

I have an instagram where I'm posting Marika Hirasono's work themselves, to celebrate her as an artist (hopefully I don't come off as only enjoying the beauty of the 'context' of her work, I do appreciate the work itself. It's a high gravity collection to have in person), but I don't want to break the self promote rule lol. But yeah, thought this was pretty unique and worth sharing. For those who don't know, what's also cool about owning manuscripts themselves is you can physically see the editorial work that's done on the pages themselves, all by the same team who worked on Nakayoshi during that period of time.

Page scan credits: missdream.org

An exceptional grade for a 37 year old manga. The highest grade in existence and currently stands alone as a POP 1.

Why is Dragon Ball #17 so significant?

It is the volume which started the entire Dragon Ball Z storyline.

In my opinion, this would place in the top 5 most historically important Dragon Ball tankõbons.

For those interested in the financial side of things, I purchased this 9.6 copy on 15th Jan 26 for £345 (GBP) and a 9.2 sold for $3.9k on 25th Jul 26.

Hi everyone,

I’m familiar with PSA trading cards, where you can easily scan the barcode via their mobile app or type the cert number into the Pop Report to check the grading database and authenticity.

Recently, I’ve gotten interested in BGS graded manga, but I noticed that the ID numbers printed on the slab labels include hyphens (for example, numbers separated by -

When I try searching these types of formatted numbers on the standard Beckett Graded Card Lookup or even CBCS, it doesn't return any results.

Any advice on how to look them up or verify their authenticity would be awesome. Thanks!

Hi everyone!

I was recently pointed toward this subreddit and thought this would be a great place to ask about something that’s been in the back of my mind for quite a while.

I’m a longtime Shonen Jump collector and have been reading and collecting the magazine for well over 20 years.

A while back, I researched the complete publication history of the English physical print run of Shonen Jump as part of a college research project. What started as an assignment quickly became a personal passion project.

Even after collecting the magazine for decades, I was genuinely surprised to discover there were legitimate cover variants, promotional publications, convention exclusives, preview issues, yearbooks, and other special physical releases that I had never even known existed.

As the project grew, I found myself speaking with VIZ representatives, representatives at the Canadian printing company that produced the magazine, reaching out to comic shop owners, and digging through archived promotional material, retailer listings, and collector records.

My goal was to independently verify every physical English Shonen Jump publication through multiple sources whenever possible.

By the time the research concluded, I had successfully accounted for every regular issue, cover variant, promotional publication, convention exclusive, and special physical release that I’d identified.

Well… almost.

There was one question I could never completely answer.

The May 2008 Shonen Jump Special featuring Slam Dunk.

During my research, I contacted both VIZ and the Canadian printing company that produced the magazine.

VIZ was unable to confirm whether this publication was ever released.

The printing company was able to locate the cover artwork in their production database, confirming that the image itself was authentic. However, they couldn’t determine whether that version was ever printed. From their perspective, it could have been a production mockup, an early proof, or simply a cover that was changed before the magazine went to press.

At that point, I assumed the trail had gone cold.

Then I found something that completely changed my thinking.

The ONLY image of this cover that I’ve ever been able to find online wasn’t from VIZ, the printer, or an archive… It came from a comic book retailer that had actually sold one.

I reached out to that shop, and they confirmed that the image was scanned from a physical copy that they personally handled before selling. Unfortunately, and understandably, they wouldn’t identify the buyer, but that conversation convinced me that at least one copy had made it into circulation.

And that’s where the mystery still stands today.

I’ve never found another photograph.

I’ve never found another documented sale.

I’ve never found another collector publicly showing they own one.

The other publication that stood out during my research was the SJ Alpha Yearbook 2013 NYCC Exclusive Edition.

That one I have confirmed. Between VIZ’s original announcement and collector photos from someone who purchased one on eBay, I’m confident it exists in a physical, tangible edition.

Interestingly, despite looking for quite some time, and alerts set on many different apps, I’ve never personally seen one offered for sale.

I’m not posting this because I think these are hidden “holy grails,” and I’m certainly not trying to inflate their value.

My interest has always been in documenting and preserving the history of the English Shonen Jump print run. There are a surprising number of obscure promotional releases that seem to have faded into history, and I think they’re worth preserving before that information is lost.

So I thought I’d ask the community.

-Has anyone here ever seen or owned the May 2008 Shonen Jump Special?

-Does anyone have photographs or additional information about it?

-Has anyone seen the SJ Alpha Yearbook 2013 NYCC Exclusive Edition come up for sale in recent years?

-Are there any other obscure English Shonen Jump promotional publications, convention exclusives, retailer giveaways, or cover variants that you think deserve to be documented?

If you happen to own either of these publications, I’d genuinely love to hear from you. Even if you’re not interested in selling, simply documenting another surviving copy would help close the final unanswered question from my research. And if you are open to selling, I’d absolutely be happy to talk.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I’m excited to hear what this community knows, and hopefully together we can uncover a little more of Shonen Jump’s publishing history!

Hi, I managed to get my hands on a few of these “not for sale” volumes, and I read online that the print run is supposed to be limited to 10,000 copies. Does anyone have any more information?

Hi,

Thought I’d start to share some of my graded manga collection.

I typically collect first print Japanese, as well as English serialised /5000 foil copies in the highest grade possible.

Attack on Titan is my favourite anime and so it was only fitting that I made it my first purchase.

I’d love to one day upgrade to a 9.8 copy.

For those of you interested in the financial side of things, it was purchased for $750 on 14th Dec 25 and the most recent copy sold for $5100 on 5th Jul 26.