Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike L
Many - but not all - books are subject to geographic restrictions imposed by the publisher. This means that Amazon will offer them for sale in countries where the publisher allows them to do so, but not in others.
It's usually assumed that Amazon use an IP address check to determine the purchaser's country. But that doesn't seem to be the case - at least, in my experience. I have accounts with Amazon both in the UK and the US. If I visit the page you linked to while logged into my UK account, I see the same message you see, stating that the book is not available to purchase. But if I go to the same page when logged into my US account, I can see - and purchase - the book without any problem. This is despite the fact that I am using computers on the same network - and therefore from the same IP address - in both cases.
I've always assumed that I can do this because I have a US credit card that is registered to a US address. But I'm not sure. Presumably Dr Drib is in a similar position.
Mike
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That's interesting, Mike (thanks also to Jersysman and Josieb1 for your comments, too!) - I'm aware of possible geographic restrictions on certain titles, as in the past I circumvented these by buying a Booksonboard gift voucher on a UK card, then changing my location to the US and using the gift card to pay for the book, before changing my location back to the UK.
There are a couple of things I need to test, I think - even when not signed into any account, a search for "The Lion's Gate" in the Kindle store of Amazon.com does not produce the page for the Kindle version of the book in the search results. Similarly, if I search for "Steven Pressfield" on Amazon.com's Kindle store - whilst not signed into any account - "The Lion's Gate" does not appear as a result, but many of his other Kindle books do. The hardcover version of the book does appear as a result in the "All Departments" section of the results, however. This, to me at least, is suggestive that some sort of IP address check is in play.
Incidentally, this issue would seem to be unique to Amazon.com - when going to the Amazon.ca site from a UK computer (but not signed into any Amazon account), "The Lion's Gate" appears as on sale for CDN$15.99. It only refuses to sell the book once I sign into my account (which is based in the UK), telling me that the book isn't available in my region.
On the Amazon.co.uk site, there's a direct link to change your Kindle library and shopping to Amazon.com. That's the link I used when I tried earlier today, and that wouldn't let me buy "The Lion's Gate" either. One thing I haven't done is enter a US address (even a bogus one) before trying to buy it, though.
So, I guess I need to try:
- a US proxy to see if the book shows up in search results that way
- switching my Kindle library to Amazon.com, connect to Amazon.com through a US proxy (but
without adding a US address), and see if I can buy the book with one of my existing UK payment cards
- and finally, switch my Kindle library to Amazon.com, go to Amazon.com without using a US proxy, but add a US address to my account, and try to buy the book with one of my existing UK payment cards.
This should establish a little more about what we're dealing with. If it transpires that I need a US registered payment card, then, alas, I'll have to admit defeat.
I'll let you all know how I get on!