Quote:
Originally Posted by Timboli
One cannot fail to consider the money sometimes spent on the promotions that occur ... essentially a gamble and loss until recuperated. I wonder how they pay for that? Might it be a better promotion to sell ebooks for cheaper? Just saying.  |
Airlines sometimes sell flights for $1 or $5 as a promotion, that doesn't necessarily mean they are making huge profits on the normal price of the flight, but promotion like that can get them a lot of free advertising as long as they don't do it too often. The loss they make on the occasional promotion might be less that the cost of an equivalent advertising campaign with the tickets at full price.
It is normal practice in many industries to have different prices for the same product, e.g. travel where you might pay full price if you want to travel tomorrow, but get various discounts if you book in advance. The price is not based just on how much the travel costs, but more on what the travellers are prepared to pay.
This can actually work out to be a better deal for those without lots of money than if they charged one fixed price based on the cost of the travel, because the people who can afford to pay full price are to some extent subsidising the ones who pay the lowest price.
I personally couldn't afford to buy every ebook I read at full list price, but that is not a problem because I don't have to. I do buy many at full price, but I keep a big list of books I want to read and pick many of them up at discount prices to bring the average price down.
If I had more money I might not bother with that and just buy everything at full price. If I had less to spend I would put more time and effort into planning, bargain-hunting and buying in advance to manage my limited budget.
I don't choose
what to read based on price though, I think it is important to make the list of
what to read without considering the price. But I do choose when to buy and so
when to read based on price to some extent.
I think a higher list price with discounts is actually fairer than having one single price based on cost of production.