How much have you saved by buying an ereader?

[jbcohen]

I am curious has anyone computed how much they have saved by buying an ereader then: followed this formula

take the cost of the ereader/number of months you have had it-amount you have saved on the ebooks = TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) or how much does it cost you to own this device. If your number is negitive it means that you have saved more than the value of the reader itself and I believe that would be called your ROI (Return on Investment). I am far into the negitive numbers.

[Belfaborac]

Saved? I've probably doubled my spending, not counting the cost of the readers. Which is fine, since saving money was never a factor in getting them in the first place.

[Yapyap]

I've no idea about the numbers, but I'd say I've saved enormously, compared to if I'd had to buy every single book I've read as a physical copy (complete with postage, new shelves and an even bigger flat/house).

[DrNefario]

I very much doubt if I've saved anything. I have bought many more books than I otherwise would have. The average price might be way down, but the total might well be higher, without even taking the cost of the two readers into account.

[DiapDealer]

$3.47

[Asawi]

I doubt I have saved anything at all. Rather the opposite...
However, I have read 200+ book in the time (just under 2 years) I have had my eReader. Almost all of them borrowed from libaries. Had I not had my device I would have read maybe 20 books (if that) because of difficulties with font size and portablility.
The money I have "lost" ($400?) is a small price to pay for the pleasure I've had being able to read again!

[Rob Lister]

Originally Posted by Belfaborac

Saved? I've probably doubled my spending, not counting the cost of the readers. Which is fine, since saving money was never a factor in getting them in the first place.

Ditto this for me. Of course I rarely bought books retail before so any single retail expenditure represents a huge multiple.

[Synamon]

I've drastically increased my book spending since getting my eReader. Before that all my books came from the library or library/garage/flea market used book sales ($0.25-0.50 each) or were passed on to me by friends. I've been spending around $50 a month on ebooks, they add up even with an average price this year in the $2-3 range. Of course that doesn't include my two Kindles and the ones I bought my husband and father so they could read my ebooks as well.

As others mentioned, I got the eReader for convenience, not to save money. As a bonus, the quality and suitability of books I'm reading now is a huge improvement over what I could get my hands on cheaply before.

[kumaryu]

Saved a lot on pulp and classics consumption. Whatever I've saved has now been poured into hardback folios and (near) fist editions so the total balance appears to have been a massive loss.

[jbcohen]

I can appreciate the fact that members are probably buying a lot more now that we all have readers, however I have found that while I am reading more I have found as a general rule I am paying less for the books that I have bought. As a general rule I have yet to pay cover price for anything, which is something that I would have done if I was reading printed books. Thus the electronic reader is saving me the difference between the cover price and the price I paid.

[RHWright]

It depends on how you calculate savings, I guess.

If I just counted books I would have bought in DTB anyway and the difference in price between a print edition and the ebook, the savings probably won't be very much.

If I factor in all the free books (that are always free, but only as ebooks; e.g. public domain), promotional free books, sales on ebooks, etc and compare it to the cost of the same or comparable titles at list price in DTB, then my ereaders have paid for themselves in content multiple times over.

So, per title savings not so much. Overall value of content I've been able to legally obtain, a rather nice ROI.

[pdurrant]

I've saved lots and lots of shelf space!

However, if we look at cash, the calculations would be far too time consuming for the 9+ years I've been buying ebooks.

I can look at the past two and a half years of reading. In that time I've read 418 paid-for ebooks, at an average price of $3.11.

Now, some of those were ebooks of new-release hardbacks and some were ebooks of new-release trade paperbacks. Many were just ebooks of mass-market paperbacks.

But let's say $6 per book if I'd bought in paper. That comes to savings of $1200 or so. My previous ebook reader, a Kindle 2, cost me $367.85, and my current one cost approx $80.

And then there's the 38 free books - another $228 saved.

That makes total savings over the past two and a half years of very roughly $1000.

Of course, whether I would have bought that many paper books, rather than ebooks, is an interesting question.

[haydnfan]

I bought an ereader so I can save on shelf space and stop having to lug heavy boxes to the library (for donation). My last trip I had probably 100 lbs of books.

I also saved shelf space by switching from cds to mp3s.

My college textbooks are the only things I have to keep.

[Pomtroll]

I don't think I've saved anything. I find many cheaper books to buy but I buy a whole lot more than I used too too. What I have saved is space in my house.

[HarryT]

I've saved an enormous amount of money. I would certainly have needed to buy a bigger house were it not for eBooks.