Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
That's their assertion, but I don't see any data. How do you measure that? The book either sales for $14.99 or it sales for $9.99. This assumption of book elasticity might be true for generic books, but may not be true when it comes to the big name authors.
But hey, nice attempt at trying to cut off any discussion. Anyone who disagrees with you is sputtering. The standard "No Real Scotsman" fallacy argument in action.
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If you are asserting that price elasticity cannot be measured, I strongly disagree. Such measurement could not of its nature be entirely accurate, but business decisions are based on similar measurements all the time. Perhaps the crudest methodology is the old trusted sample group who are asked a series of relevant questions. I'm sure Amazon's analysis is far more sophisticated that this and relies no doubt on its own extensive data collection. Amazon is in a very good position to quantify price elasticity. Are they misleading us? How can we know? But it is certainly in line with my own behaviour. I am happy to pay $9.99 for a new release by, say, Stephen King or John Sandford or some other really prominent authors. I will not buy such books at $14.99, nor apparently will many others. And it is also in line with Amazon's behaviour. It is imho fairly safe to presume they did not choose that $9.99 price point by accident. For what it is worth, I think Amazon is telling the truth on this. There is no example of the "no true Scotsman fallacy" here.