Too many choices? At ICv2.com, vocal retailer Ilan Strasser seconds Joe Krolik's concerns about a coming manga glut:

"Comic retailers who have been around long enough have seen previous product gluts (Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon, comics) lead quite quickly to declining sales. Sometimes, product over saturation leads to total fallout and near total loss of sales as well. The reason? Purchasers are overwhelmed both by choice and the amount of dollars they need to spend to keep up.

"Of course, customers can and should choose to buy only those products that interest them and that they can afford, but we have all seen repeated instances, at least in the comics market, where this kind of common sense doesn't always prevail. Faced with the choice of getting everything or nothing, many comics customers over the last 15 years have opted to get nothing. While this is not going to affect the manga market in exactly the same way, I can still see the repercussions of a glut being quite significant for independent retailers without return privileges."