If you get gift cards to Amazon/B&N, do you pay as much attention to ebook cost?

[NickyWithNook]

Today is my birthday (yay!) and I'm getting tons of gift cards to Amazon and B&N. There's a book I want, but it's still $12.99 and it's been out for well over a year so I'm guessing it'll come down in cost before too long. I could read other stuff and wait it out, or I could say, "Heck, it's a gift card! I'll just get it!"

How much of a difference does price make to you when you have a gift card? Are you still looking for deals and using the gift card money instead of your own money, or do you just go crazy and get the pricey stuff?

[Katie1]

NOPE! I Wait! Bet you its $6.99 some time in the next 6 months LOL

[AnemicOak]

I guess if it's a GC or 'real money' doesn't make much difference to me. If it's a book I want to read right now I buy it.


If the book you want has been $12.99 for well over a year it's hard to say if/when the price will drop (look to see if a mass market release has been announced). There are quite a few books being published in print now as Trade Paperbacks that don't get mass market releases (or don't get them for many years). Most trade releases have a print list price of $15-$17 and get an ebook price of $10-$13 and I've seen several (especially if published by Penguin or one of it's imprints) that have kept their price for years.

[DianNC]

It depends on how badly I want it. I'd been waiting a long time for Hugh Howey's Wool Omnibus in audio form, so the day it was available I used the iTunes GC's I was saving to buy it.

(Had I not had the GC's, I'd have bought it anyway

[dandelioncottage]

I would say that receiving gift cards and celebrating your birthday are both good excuses to splurge on what you want!

[elemenoP]

I got gift cards from the Sony store when I first bought my Reader, it was a promotion at the time. I bought a couple of full-price ebooks (around $12.99, I think), just for the fun and newness of it. Now I still have money left over in my Sony account, a few years later, because I refuse to pay those prices and Sony never seems to have any books (that I want) on sale. In the meantime, I've bought books for cheap on Amazon and B&N. Also, when I first got the reader, I needed books for it. Now I have too many books. I don't know when I will spend the rest of the Sony money. If I wanted to pay full price, I would buy the pbook.

For you, if it's going to be fun for you to buy full-price books for your birthday, go for it! I don't regret the ones I did buy.

eP

[sakura-panda]

I imagine that if the person that gave you the gift cards knew the exact book you wanted, they would have bought it for you at the current price so that you would have it now.

I always treat my gift cards like my own money -- figuring if I'm frugal I can make them go farther -- but I also don't hesitate to splurge on something with them if I know I will use (or read) it Right Now.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by dandelioncottage

I would say that receiving gift cards and celebrating your birthday are both good excuses to splurge on what you want!

This one.
Apache

[auntykatkat]

Originally Posted by sakura-panda

I imagine that if the person that gave you the gift cards knew the exact book you wanted, they would have bought it for you at the current price so that you would have it now.

I always treat my gift cards like my own money -- figuring if I'm frugal I can make them go farther -- but I also don't hesitate to splurge on something with them if I know I will use (or read) it Right Now.

That's how it is with me. Want to get the most for my money. Just recently recieved a $25 card and had to go through my wishlist a few times to get the best bargin.

Auntykatkat

[HomeInMyShoes]

Yes and no. I might treat myself to part of the gift card total to some guilty pleasure, but I usually try to get as much as I can.

[NickyWithNook]

I have to take my kid to the dentist this afternoon (like in a minute) so I just got it to read while I'm sitting in the waiting room. Yay!

[DrNefario]

I do use gift cards to buy books I've been putting off because they were too much, but I still want to be reasonably confident that the price won't go down any time soon. I'm not all that likely to pay the hardback premium, but I might pay the regular agency rate or buy a more expensive omnibus.

The most expensive ebook I own - The Complete Lyonesse by Jack Vance, at £12.99 - was bought with a gift card. (Expensive as a single purchase but still really only £4.33 per book - less than the agency norm - given that it's an omnibus.)

[carld]

Like others, I might treat myself to something I wouldn't normally buy because of the cost, but mostly, yes, I still pay attention to the prices.

[odiakkoh]

When it comes to ebooks, I go to the library for the ones that are $9.99 and up.

When it comes to other things I tend to splurge when given gift cards.

[dkperez]

For me, it makes absolutely no difference. I treat gift cards exactly the way I treat my credit card... I set my limit LOWER than the paperback price because no matter WHAT spin gets put on it, e-books are STILL more limited than paper. IMO, they simply don't rate the same prices because the incremental cost to the publisher is so minimal and they can't be shared, or resold. When I can walk into the half-price books store and have a selection of e-books to buy for $2.00, like I currently can with paperbacks, THEN they'll warrant being the same price new as a paperback.