Quote:
Originally Posted by Barbara1955
FrustratedReader This may explain whats going on.... Amazon has no control over BUT IF you contact them & explain the problem I betting they Get with the Current market.... https://www.bbc.com/news/business-36611512 |
That's got nothing to do with book availability in any particular market place.
However ever since the Irish Punt separated from Sterling (not many years before the Euro as from 1922 the Irish Pound was based on Sterling), Irish consumers have been parasitised by currency hedging of UK Import/Export and Irish Importers. UK wholesale imports and hedges Euro to Sterling, inflating cost. Then they export in Euro or Dollars, hedging again! Then Irish retailers (dominated by UK wholesale) often have to buy in Sterling and Hedge. Over the last 11 years the Sterling <-> Euro market rate has varied from 1.46 Euro per Pound (terrible for import, good for export to UK) to 1.05 Euro per Pound. (great for imports, terrible for exports, wiped out most of Irish Mushroom Production).
Amazon books can be priced by Publisher as often as they like, daily, in local marketplace currencies, or based on Amazon's idea of Dollar exchange rates. I spend my Royalties in Euro and Dollar - Euro rate is reasonably stable. A huge amount of Sterling speculation at the minute.
Publishers, not Amazon decide, on DRM (or not), pricing and
availability per marketplace.
There is nothing unethical about buying an ebook with real money no matter where you are. Amazon only needs a physical address for physical purchases. Real accommodation addresses to take advantage of bulk shipping are ancient and legal. eBay Global Shipping Program. Also China Post and Irish An Post operate accomodation addresses to reduce shipping costs. You still have to pay Irish VAT and Customs duty (if applicable) and may end up paying an extra local sales tax too. No-one is losing out, except maybe shipping companies on physical orders, but I doubt it as they can do groupage more profitably than small individual parcels.