|
I have just paid a visit to Kobo's US site with a view to comparing some prices with Discount Coupons against Amazon. My first observation is that it is extraordinarily difficult to determine what books are eligible for the application of coupons. The Kobo discount thread on these forums makes a valiant attempt to assist by first excluding all of the agency titles, meaning of course all of the BWM publishers (or BPH if you prefer).
Fortunately, I found a convenient method to conduct a quick sample. The front page of the Kobo US site is mostly taken up with agency titles. However, there is a link to “The Indie Next List” which leads to some 20 titles. There is an option on the left of the page to show only those titles eligible for promo codes. This results in a regrettably low 5 titles. Of these 5 titles, and assuming a 35% discount, Amazon is still cheaper on 2 of them, Kobo is cheaper on 2 and the price is equal on 1. Buying these 5 books from Kobo with a 35% discount on each (which would require 5 35% promo codes) would result in a saving of $1.42. Without any promo codes, Amazon is much cheaper in every case. You would pay a ridiculous $33.00 more for these 5 books at Kobo.
Of the remaining 15 books, Amazon is cheaper on 8 of them by a total of $16.46. On the remaining 7, the prices are equal. Kobo is not cheaper on a single title. If you were to purchase the whole 20 books from Kobo without any discount you would pay $289.20 at Kobo as opposed to $239.74 at Amazon, a difference of $49.46. Taking a 35% discount from Kobo on the 5 books for which it is available (if you are able to use 5 promo codes), the Kobo price would drop to $254.78, in which case you would be only $15.04 better off with Amazon. Even with the 35% discount, Kobo is cheaper than Amazon on only 2 titles out of 20. Amazon is cheaper on 10 of them and the price is the same on the remaining 8.
It is also interesting to observe that the price difference (without discount) between Kobo and Amazon seems to be much larger in the case of books eligible for the use of a promo code. Kobo is dearer on every title between $4.80 and $7.00. The difference on the non-eligible books is between $0 and $3. I will refrain from speculating as to the reasons for this, except to say that I can't think of any which reflect credit on Kobo.
Based on this sample, it is difficult to describe these promo codes as much more than a marketing trick. It is not safe to assume you are getting an ebook cheaper than at Amazon even with a 35% discount. What sounds like a very sizeable and worthwhile discount is doing no more than bringing the price down near Amazon's normal price, sometimes a litle more, sometimes a little less. If you buy books that are eligible for promo codes without using such a code, you are almost certainly paying significantly too much. You are probably still paying more at any discount level less than 35%, and even at this level you are still paying more in 50% of cases based on this small sample.
It is still possible to save some small amounts of money using these codes in some cases, but this requires effort and care.
I've attached a pdf of a spreadsheet with the data I used to this post.
|