MangaMartReviews of mangamart.com

I heard about this place on Reddit and wanted to find another online vendor for manga to replace the Crunchyroll Store. I pre-ordered sets of mangas in 3 separate orders. My for my first order, I didn't fully understand how shipping worked regarding packages only being sent out in a batch as soon as the last book in the batch was released. I had ordered a package that was a few months further out and the owner of the store helped change one of the book orders to a closer release date even if it was a $0.01 that they lost in the switch. At the beginning at had a good feeling in regards to customer support. When my first order arrived, out of the 8 books 2 of the books that were collectors edition (one was a hard cover) came crushed with damage I believe was not acceptable on the corners and edges of the books. The books were just in a box with brown paper wrapped around books. No padding, wadding, bubble wrap or anything else to protect the inside corners of the package. Seel insurance was able to cover one of the books and the store offered a store credit refund on the other. The store owner also apologized and said they were going to offer better packaging for additional cost but would apply it for free for my next two orders. I was very happy to hear that they would address packaging for my next orders and would do so gratis. The other 6 books came in varying degrees of excellent to good condition. Some minor bents and small tears on edges that are acceptable manufacturing defects, but nothing that bothered me. Recently on 9/18 when the second package came it was not packed differently from my first package. Box with books wrapped in brown paper with no other padding. 2 books (one of them a hard cover collectors edition) out of the 7 came damaged in that order. (The others in similar excellent to good condition as the first order) I fortunately had package coverage and returned/refunded them both through Seel. While it was good that Seel was able to have my back, it's still inconvenient to have to process returns and ideally I don't want to return items. My third package that would have come in November, I had forgotten to apply Seel coverage. When asked if I could apply it after the fact I was told according to how Seel worked it could not according to how Seel worked. (Not a fault of the store and I don't fault them for this) But considering how they package books to be protected during transit by default or that their word wasn't kept promising to address packaging for my subsequent orders, I decided cancel my third order and get my books elsewhere. The store was willing and able to process the cancellation to my original payment method for 5% the cost of the order. (Which I understood and accepted. I don't hold the refund processing fees against the store) The owner apologized and did admit the mistake of not addressing my concerns with the second order and gave a personal reason that I don't want to disclose to maintain their privacy. If you want to gamble buying from here or don't care about the condition of cheaper new manga, this might be a good store. While so far they are better with shipping than Amazon or Barnes and Noble, the guarantees around your order are dependent on third-party insurance (Seel), unlike the other stores. You should definitely get package insurance if you care about the books you get for your collection because otherwise you are out of luck regarding replacements/refunds. I would also pay for the better packing precautions for extra security if that is actually going to happen. I realize that I am more decerning regarding my collection, but I also think that if I was more sensitive to damage than they claimed, I would have taken issue with some of the other books sent. Furthermore even at a discount, books are still pricey and are being sold as "new". I think for those reasons I am justified to have a certain expectations of how books are delivered to me. Having two poor experiences with my very first two orders was enough to make me feel uncertain about future orders. I will probably not shop here or online for manga again in the future. So why 4-stars? Why not 3, 2 or 1 even if I don't want to do business with the store anymore? Well... I have mixed feelings. I do wish it would have worked out. I really like the idea of the store. There are some nice deals here and I would have loved to order bundles of manga I want that get delivered monthly. Also I think the owner is a nice person and is trying. They do try to offer good customer support which is why I am very disappointed this happened. Also for the most part, my books came in acceptable condition. Maybe these were just bad coincidences and the can grow from it. That said, while I hope others give the shop a chance, I personally will be staying away.