“
We waited an hour and a half in the cold but we got it!
», Emma launches happily, with, in hand, her new collector's volume from the manga
One Piece
.
To get it, the 21-year-old young woman has just walked up a line of a few hundred meters at Fnac de la Gare Saint-Lazare, braving 4 ° in mercury.
Read also
One Piece
, the manga of all records
In Paris, Lille or even Angers, thousands of young French people rushed to bookstores on Wednesday, December 8.
Everyone hoped to get their hands on the limited edition of the 100th volume of Eiichiro Oda's cult series.
This collector, printed in tens of thousands of copies by the publisher Glénat, is surrounded by a faux leather cover.
For these fans, this is the last chance to get their hands on this edition: all the stocks of e-commerce sites have already been reserved for several weeks.
The coveted collector's edition of volume 100 of One Piece Glénat
To make sure to get their hands on their Grail, some were already present in front of the gates of the stores from 7 am.
One too much precaution?
Not really.
Across the entire Fnac network, the 20,000 copies of the limited edition on the shelves disappeared in a short morning.
The standard versions are still in stock and will be re-stocked according to demand.
Word of mouth
The collector's edition of the manga, sold for 11 euros each, was the source of some stir. In the queues small altercations took place. "
I've been waiting for two hours so I won't let myself go in front of it!"
», Launches a future buyer to a freeloader. Some fans who arrived too late were forced to return home without their object of lust, or fell back on the classic edition.
The "
first bookseller in France
" had been discreet about the shelving of collectors' copies on Wednesday. If the Fnac publicized the release of the hundredth copy, no mention was made of stocks of limited editions. "
We did not want to create frustration by communicating excessively
", explains Stéphanie Laurent, director of editorial products for Fnac.
The majority of those present were notified "
by word of mouth
", as evidenced by those in the queue.
“
I came on Tuesday and we overheard a discussion between the sellers,
” says Hugo, who waited for nearly two hours.
On social networks, readers were also speculating.
The two previous copies had the right to a collector's version sold in large quantities at Fnac, Internet users concluded that this release would be no exception.
Gold price resale
The massive craze and small draw have attracted the lusts of speculators.
On sites like Vinted, the resale classifieds of the collector's edition of volume 100 bloomed on Wednesday.
The price oscillates between 60 and 80 euros, eight times more than the original price.
To limit this phenomenon, Fnac had limited in-store purchases to one copy per person.
Consumers have alerted Glénat, the manga publisher, to deplore this phenomenon.
“
We can't stop [people] from reselling their tome,
” the company said on Twitter.
Nor to set a high price.