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Old 10-24-2010, 03:03 AM   #1
ebioman
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Huge price difference US vs. Europe

Hi

I just received my Kindel last week, after my Sony got unfortunately bricked.
Living in Switzerland I had to order it from US what worked very well and was incredible fast.

Now first time shopping I was first surprised about all the books lacking in the European shop.

BUT the prices ??

Amazon must be fu***** kidding! I wanted to buy the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (German newspaper)

European store: 27.99 $

American store: 14.99 $

They must be nuts, double price for Europeans for a European newspaper ?
I just started to wonder now, is this usual principal for all books and so whatever ?

Last edited by ebioman; 10-24-2010 at 03:07 AM.
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Old 10-24-2010, 03:42 AM   #2
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Hmm becomes even better - no games available at all.
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Old 10-24-2010, 04:41 AM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ebioman View Post
They must be nuts, double price for Europeans for a European newspaper ?
I just started to wonder now, is this usual principal for all books and so whatever?
It gets better. People outside of the US get no images in their subscriptions, but they pay more than people in the US. That's because of 3G roaming charges. Yes, it makes no sense with WiFi-only models, but there you go. In the case of the FAZ, you pay a lot more. Publisher's greed? Some people are complaining about this in the FAZ's Amazon product page.

Books, when available, are usually around $2.50 higher in Europe. That's supposed to cover the European VAT and the roaming. Yes, even with WiFi, USB download or download from Kindle apps rather than Kindle devices.
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Old 10-24-2010, 04:55 AM   #4
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Yeah as you just mentioned it is complete nonsense if you got an Wifi-only model like me.
But beyond the slightly higher book prices I wonder how the justify a doubled price like for this Newspaper....
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Old 10-24-2010, 06:14 AM   #5
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While I understand you are irked, at the same time, does it really make sense to buy an American e-reader from an American website if you want to read a German newspaper in Switzerland?

I mean, sure, thanks to the internet it's easy to think there are no more borders. But in reality, there are, both legal, cultural, and lingual.
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Old 10-24-2010, 07:22 AM   #6
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It seems to go both ways though.
Here on the forum, there is a huge debate and annoyance about the Ken Follett book "Fall of Giants", which cost $19.99 for the US consumers, whereas I bought it (legally, off Amazon.com) and had it delivered to my (Norwegian account) Kindle for $10.78.
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Old 10-24-2010, 09:32 AM   #7
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Originally Posted by JeremyR View Post
While I understand you are irked, at the same time, does it really make sense to buy an American e-reader from an American website if you want to read a German newspaper in Switzerland?

I mean, sure, thanks to the internet it's easy to think there are no more borders. But in reality, there are, both legal, cultural, and lingual.
Hmm no offense but is there a Swiss E-Reader with Swiss newspapers ?
I read most books actually in English since I am in the French speaking part of Switzerland and get only very few German books.
So importing the Kindle made indeed some sense. Please dont forget that Amazon is as well advertising the Kindle in Europe. So, wouldnt you expect a fair system then.
I just wonder why they sabotage themselves that way.
It is always the same, companys like to advertise their products with a big tamtam and finally when you look on your local market you just receive bits of the promis.

BTW same story with XBlive but that defintely doesnt belong here
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Old 10-24-2010, 10:16 AM   #8
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The situation is the same here in India too. At the end, all eBooks from the Amazon Kindle costs more than paperbooks. But strangely, the same problem is there with the Indian eBook readers and eBooks too like the Wink and Infibeam Pi.
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Old 10-24-2010, 10:24 AM   #9
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interesting, can you download it from a US estore?
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Old 10-24-2010, 10:41 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ebioman View Post

Amazon must be fu***** kidding! I wanted to buy the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (German newspaper)
If you haven't tried yet you may want to look at the German newspaper recipe subscriptions built into Calibre (there are 28). If the particular paper you're interested in is not available, someone can help you build your own recipe for that paper (if they provide RSS feeds which is the foundation of the subscription). You'll get images as well and the subscriptions are mostly free.
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Old 10-24-2010, 12:30 PM   #11
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interesting, can you download it from a US estore?
Yes I can buy from the US E-store but everything is about $2-2.5 more expensive. I have got a few eBooks after changing to a US address but after just the first eBook download I got a notice from Amazon about being in the wrong Country.
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Old 10-24-2010, 02:58 PM   #12
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I echo DAFFY4U suggestion. Create your own recipe in Calbre. Yes it stinks that there is such a difference in content prices, but going the Recipe route is easy and free.
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Old 10-24-2010, 03:36 PM   #13
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FAZ net is already available in Calibre if you're interested. Plus, you can set it up to automatically sent via wifi to your Kindle. It's free to send via wif here in the US and you should double check to sure it's free for your location.
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Old 10-24-2010, 04:42 PM   #14
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Might have something to do with laws that allow the publisher to block price discounting to protect small book sellers. I think France still does that, possibly it is true elsewhere in the EU?
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Old 10-25-2010, 02:28 AM   #15
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Thanks a lot Calibre really got already a good feed-reader for the FAZ.
I completely forgot Calibre with the Kindle3 so far, after using it constantly with the old Sony.completely

I nevertheless tried as well quickly whether wrong address works as well to compare some book prices.
Suprisingly then I got immediately a new update for the device (rebooting and installing it automatically) which did not seem to be present yet for the European market.
Afterwards I was finally even able to download the few free games (I like the Word-game a lot ) which were not present in my market before.
Since I like Ken Follet and was curious about the previous post, Bikeridr claiming that he got in Norway the "Fall of giants" for 11$, I wanted to compare this one as well.
Transforming the account again in a Swiss one, I was able as well to get it for 11$.

Strange world of publishing and national interests
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