Are most of your purchases planned, or impulse?

[ownedbycats]

Poll coming.

[DNSB]

For the most part, I tend to plan my purchases but about 25% are impulse purchases. Very often when an author whom I like mentions another author's book, I'll give the book a try. Found some treasures that way but sadly, Sturgeon's Law still applies.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Found some treasures that way but sadly, Sturgeon's Law still applies.

Sadly, I think his law is wildly optimistic these days

[issybird]

Not exactly planned, per se; most of my purchases these days (and I'm not buying much) are when wishlist books go on sale. Sometimes I'll see a book for cheap that seems exactly my sort of thing, but not only is that a lot less frequent than it used to be, I've got much better at resisting the impulse. Finally, finally, the books I own and have yet to read seem more appealing to me than the books in the wild.

[theducks]

Oh! That looks interesting.
A Boxed set for less the $4
Finally, a sequel
<pick one >

[MegDreamsofBooks]

Definitely a mix.

I have some authors that I track for new releases and usually pre-order their books.

I also follow some social media that drops authors into my feed based on algorithm, and "ooh, they are funny! Their book looks good!" is definitely a common comment. I try to add those to either a wish list or Kindle Unlimited most of the time, but sometimes I just go ahead and buy the book (preferably not from Amazon.)

And since I've been buying ebooks from Amazon for many, MANY years, and reading in Kindle Unlimited, the "recommended for you" is fairly well tuned (aka, I'm actually interested in about 50% of it) which leads again to a fair number of "ooh, interesting!" purchases (although I'm doing my best to move away from Amazon entirely for ebooks, but some of the authors I like are exclusive there.)

[Aleron Ives]

I think I'm around 1/3 impulse and 2/3 planned now, where "planned" means I was tracking it and waiting for a sale before buying. When I first got my e-reader, almost everything was an impulse buy, since I had nothing to read, but now the books I own are often more appealing than what's on sale.

[Sirtel]

Both.

Some books are planned (either waiting for the release or the price to drop), some are impulse purchases - I see a book, it looks interesting and I'll buy it, if the price is acceptable. I never resist my impulses - when I want something and I can afford it, I'll get it. That goes for most everything in my life, actually. I don't practice any self-discipline. Fortunately I'm not a particularly impulsive person overall and my wants are pretty modest.

[pdurrant]

My buys are rarely planned. But they're also rarely impulse.

Mostly they're when one of the books on my watch list goes on special offer.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

My buys are rarely planned. But they're also rarely impulse.

Mostly they're when one of the books on my watch list goes on special offer.

That's a planned purchase imo.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

That's a planned purchase imo.

OK. Still a mix, as I occasionally get caught by something not on my watch list.

[Cactus Chef]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

That's a planned purchase imo.

Seems like maybe we needed a "planned with qualifications" category, because I get the sense that most of the people on this forum (and all of its deal-hunting subforums) are probably in that category of, "I have a bunch of books on my wishlist that I want to buy, but won't buy them until they go on sale for some threshold price."

[ZodWallop]

I used to be a big impulse but. But now I have so many books, I just check BookBub and eReaderIQ to see if anything I'm watching is on sale. The MobileRead deals forum is my most likely source for impulse buys nowadays.