10-19-2012, 05:14 AM | #1 |
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Why are Amazon books now more expensive?
Hi all,
When the Paperwhite came out it seemed that the gap between Amazon and the others was growing. I (Kobo user) wanted to try their ecosystem with a couple of books on their iOS app thinking that maybe I could switch when I was ready to replace my Kobo. What I found out was that every book I could find that had publisher controlled pricing was more expensive than on competing stores like the iBooks store and Kobo itself. I'm shopping from Australia and I don't know what the situation is like elsewhere but can anybody explain this? I was under the impression that publisher set pricing would keep all of them level. |
10-19-2012, 06:04 AM | #2 | |
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Wholesale pricing is where it's at, sell the product to a reseller, and the reseller can charge whatever they please to complete with other resellers selling the same product. This forces the companies to sell books cheaper to the resellers so as they can all compete with each other. That's a pretty basic explanation/reasoning behind it, but wholesale overall is much better. |
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10-19-2012, 06:20 AM | #3 | |
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10-19-2012, 07:45 AM | #4 | |
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10-19-2012, 01:24 PM | #5 |
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Note that Kobo store have one price listed on site and another(higher) when you log in and try to buy book. They explain it as software issue but to me it looks more like fishing for more customers.
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10-19-2012, 01:49 PM | #6 | |
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I also don't find Amazon all that cheap. Usually for what I want Amazon is a couple of Canadian dollars more than Kobo although with tax it ends up being about the same. Maybe there is a bigger difference with certain genres of books. |
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10-19-2012, 01:51 PM | #7 | |
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In Europe, or at least in Spain/Germany/France, the coutries I can check easily, Amazon is at the same price or cheaper than Kobo, Weltbild, or Numilog. |
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10-19-2012, 06:32 PM | #8 | |
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Gunmetal Magic by Ilona Andrews: Amazon: $11,03 Kobo: $6,59 (List price $7,99) I used a coupon and bought it for $3.62. Amazon has a bigger selection though. |
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10-20-2012, 01:10 AM | #9 | ||
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Their problem is that, even if you sideload or download over WiFi at the time you purchase an ebook, once it's in your Kindle library, you're still free to download again later using their 3G, and it would be messy to have to charge the 3g premium at that later time. Now that more devices are WiFi, seems they could look into just disabling future 3g transfers for those who opt out, but I expect that could get messy too, if the person ever buys a 3g kindle... |
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10-20-2012, 01:20 AM | #10 | ||
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Yea I read about that on The Digital Reader. That is unacceptable but I haven't actually experienced this problem with any book, and I have checked. Their prices are in line with the Sony store and Apple's iBooks which leads me to believe that they are following the publisher set pricing and Amazon is the odd one out. |
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10-20-2012, 03:04 AM | #11 | |
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geenp, could you give us some examples so that we could see what might be going on? |
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10-20-2012, 03:06 AM | #12 |
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Specifically, you say that prices have increased since the release of the PW. Can you give us some "before and after" prices as illustrations?
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10-20-2012, 08:08 AM | #13 |
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andreabc,
Thanks for the explanation of the 3G surcharge. I've taken screen shots of two reasonably popular books. HarryT, That's not really what I meant, it just so happens that I was having a look at Amazon's prices again recently because of the new Paperwhite. I only know that prices are higher now than I remember them to be in general, can't say how long they've been like this. I don't remember any exact prices but it used to be that Amazon was quite consistently better on pricing. I should say that not all books on Amazon are more expensive, but it seems that most of the more popular ones are. Of the few I've seen that are cheaper, I've noticed that none have the 'This price was set by the publisher' message. |
10-20-2012, 12:49 PM | #14 |
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OK, in the 2 books that you mention part of the difference is because Amazon is quoting prices in USD and Kobo prices are in AUD...
I think with conversion Amazon is still a bit more expensive though... Last edited by andreabc; 10-20-2012 at 12:52 PM. |
10-20-2012, 03:13 PM | #15 |
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Based on the pics, it appears that the Kindle books are about 50¢ more, but I noted the line that said "applicable taxes are included." Curious as to whether Kobo includes the taxes (if there are indeed taxes on the purchase) in the purchase price, or if they are added later in the purchase process.
I've never seen the "applicable taxes" line on the US Kindle store. |
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amazon, ibooks, kindle, kobo, pricing |
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