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Current mood:	rushed
Entry tags:	bl, blu, graphic novels

Blu's price hike
When Amazon notified me that the fifth volume of Junjo Romantica had been shipped, I was eagerly waiting for the bell to ring, so I could tear open the box and see what great extras they were going to have now that the price was raised three dollars.  Dust Jacket?  (If I had read the forum post, I would have seen that there would have been no dust jacket.)  Please not oversized volumes.  (Last thing I need is stuff that takes up more room.)  Color pages galore?  (Although if the original had only one color page, I don't know how they would get more just for the Blu publishing.)  Bookmark?  Postcard?  Nope, none of those.  Just one color page the same as they do occasionally and what appears to be the same exact quality paper and cover they have always given us for $10.  (I say "appears to be" because I noticed that the book is actually thicker than previous volumes; whether this is because of higher quality paper or because of more pages, I do not know yet.  Either way, a three dollar price hike is still a lot.)

I remember reading a few months ago on Boys on Boys on Film that the increased cost was to get more shelf space at brick and mortar retail stores.  I also remember reading on the ML about when Blu first posed this question on their forums; they made it sound as if they were raising the prices to match the other BL publishers (it's what "other companies" charge after all).  Sure, other publishers charge more, but they also provide more.  For June's $12.95, you get an oversized book with a dust jacket and occasionally a postcard (and very rarely, a color page).  I could do without the oversizedness, but the dust jacket is nice.  For 801media's $15.99, you get a dust jacket that actually fits (June's dust jackets are frequently too large for their own books) and color pages.  For DramaQueen's $12.99, you get a dust jacket (also frequently too large for their own books) and a color page.  It seems that I'm really fixated on the dust jackets, but that's because I lack creativity and can't think of anything else and it's what "other companies" do anyway, if that's what Blu is going for.

Not that the higher price is going to stop me from buying Blu's books; they've got a lot of good series and I want to keep reading them.  It is going to stop me from buying them at retail stores, though, since they will now ultimately be cheaper on Amazon (especially when they show up in my Gold Box), which is ironic, considering their reason for charging the higher price in the first place.  I say screw B&M retail bookstores; it's hard to find what I want there anyway, and when I do, it's usually in bad condition.