Quote:
Originally Posted by DuckieTigger
Devalues ebooks? Ebooks devalue themselves automatically once the mmpb enters. How come the exact same ebook is now worth less money? If it isn't dirty price fixing. The mistake enters when you actually believe that an ebook is the exact same thing as a hardcover book. It is the same, but only until the paperback comes out. Then it is the same as a paperback. The true value is the exact same as a hardcover, but then after a while the true value changes to the paperback? That does not make any sense. The true value of an ebook is somewhere inbetween. It is durable like a hardcover, but it is portable like a paperback. Most ereaders or phones take up less space and weight than a paperback. When you buy a hardcover you pay for two things - the better quality of the book itself compared to paperback and early access. With an ebook you only get the early access, thus it is only one benefit over the paperback. If all is fair, than the ebook should be exactly cheaper by the amount of the per unit price of the hardcover book (printing and storing). More than likely the ebook still won't be quite $9.99 suggested retail price if the hardcover suggested retail is $14.99. But then it should be at the retailers discretion to discount.
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Devalues as in setting a price point in the public's mind that is less than the publishers want to sell it at. You confuse the manufacturer's cost of an item with the value of an item. The two are not the same. Value is how much someone is willing to pay for an item. At the moment, ebook price is tied to the price point of whatever the price of the current dead tree book at a particular point in time.
It might help if you think of it this way. X number of people are willing to pay $17 for a book, for whatever reason. Y number of people aren't willing to pay that much, but they are willing to pay $8 for the book. Rather than come out at $8 and get 8* (X+Y), book publishers publish the paper back a year after the hard back, which gets them (17*X) + (8*Y). The actual price point has little to do with the manufacturing cost of a specific book.