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Originally Posted by calvin-c
If I did online shopping only I'd probably see things differently-but then I don't understand why I would do online shopping only.
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It's not something I think most on the trade side do "only". It's just cheaper at times, and easier to find something that's not available close by.
For me, I used it to find missing books in a series that weren't available in the three UBS's around me. And for a book to get to the FOL, or even Goodwill, or my other favorite book store, someone would have had to buy it and then donate it. If you're not in an area where your favorite genre is well liked, pickings can be slim to none. On-line, the catalogs offerings tend to have a wider selection of pbooks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by calvin-c
I do buy some books from Amazon but I dislike their trickery. Their 1-cent books actually cost $4 after you include shipping. (I'm pretty sure they're making their profit on the shipping because nobody makes a profit selling single items for a penny. IMO that's dishonest.)
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I don't see it as dishonest, and anyone posting a book at 1-cent is hoping to make money from the postage costs. But it's not going to be all that much.
I don't think many people are fooled, if any, with the 1cent sales, and it's the total price that should be what you look for anyway. Since the third-party sellers can't lower the price of the postage at Amazon (IIRC), then they don't have much choice if they want to be competitive. Especially if their postage costs make the transaction worthwhile for them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by calvin-c
Regardless the average price of an ebook seems to be about $10 so I still say used pbooks are cheaper, on average. Yes, you can find ebooks cheaper-you can even find them for free. But is that average?
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It all depends on if you include the free reads or not and average them in. The Amazon Freebies average anywhere from 200 to 2,000 a day, with some books re-offered every three months or so. You can borrow as many as you can read in 14 days from some sites, and then there's the library shelves.
Thinking about it, I buy very few books at $10. I'll stock up when there's a good sale. (I loaded up mostly at Fictionwise before the ebook wars hit) Some genre's tend to run about 99 cents, some $2.99 and most that I actually buy at $6-7.99.
Really, I think only the newer ones run $10 or over, and some authors who are offering their backlist in ebook format for the first time. So it depends on if you can wait until the price drop or a coupon becomes available. There's only a few I buy at full price, but I'm paying to read it NOW and do so knowingly.
Mostly I'm glad to wait for the new books not to be so new any more. So I'm thinking my average costs are well below MMBP prices when averaged out.