>>22
Actually, I've seen Viz generally sell manga at $9.95. It's their Shonen Jump mangas that are $7.95, and I'm not sure about Shojo Beat but I think it may be the same.

I've never seen any hardcover mangas in my local bookstore - heck, I didn't even know they did such a thing - so I wouldn't know, but one would think that hardcovers would be a lot more than regular paperback mangas because they're much more expensive to make... eh, it just doesn't make any sense. O__o

I'm not sure about Dark Horse since I've never read DH mangas, but I've noticed that Del Rey mangas are generally of better quality than the Viz mangas. Del Rey usually prints on nicer paper and has really good translation notes and a lot of author notes and extras. I don't think Viz even does translation notes or a whole lot of the extras you find in Del Rey and Tokyopop manga, so not as much to translate = lower cost for translation = lower price on the manga. I dunno... that's just my thought on it all.