How many free or deeply discounted vs. $10 or higher ebooks have you bought?

I have bought very few ebooks that cost over $10 and haven't bought an ebook in well over a year.

The thing is, I discovered that there are quite a few timeless classics (i.e. public domain) that are much more engaging than the classics that I was exposed to in school. Once that stereotype was blown, whole worlds of reading opened up. When I want something more modern, I just hit the library up for an ebook. If there is a particular contemorary title that I want to read and I don't want to wait out the holds list, I am more than willing to borrow a printed book from the library or friends. On a rare occassion I'll pay close to full price for a genuine printed book.

The whole world of high priced and DRM laden ebooks has turned me off so thorougly that the cost of buying an ebook at any price doesn't even slither through my mind these days.

[ATDrake]

My Kindle archives say I've accumulated at least 2000 official publisher-promo freebies via Amazon alone. I estimate that I've read maybe 1% of my variously-acquired freebies at most, although I did go on to buy several more works by new-to-me authors as a result of reading the offered freebies.

I have yet to pay so much as $10 for a single e-book.

I have also spent upwards of $700 on e-books in the past year alone, and I'd estimate that e-books I bought and paid for myself made up at least 1/3rd of my total books read last year, and this year thus far they've been well over 3/4ths.

But that's kind of due to seasonal rain making the Kindle-in-a-baggie the only practical way to read while I wait for the bus, rather than any innate preference or switchover to primary e-reading.

There are plenty of good and interesting e-books regularly available at or below my preferred non-free price point. While it would be nice if some the higher priced ones I'd like to have became so (either via special discount or re-pricing), I don't feel much in the way of urgency or compulsion to buy higher-priced e-books to own.

Of course, I have a readily-accessible generally well-stocked library system to draw upon and have no disabling difficulties handling paper formats, which may make a difference in what other people are willing to pay for books they want to read.

As for gift cards, I have some small gift card amounts padding my account because most places charge in USD, so an accidental purchase would mean I lose out on the currency conversion if I end up getting a refund. I've hit the wrong button for sampling at Amazon more than once and I'm determined that if it happens again, at least I won't be out extra money due to their annoying no-confirmation 1-click.

[Blue Tyson]

Actually just looked that up yesterday - Last year, bought one 9.99 ebook, because had rest of a series when they were only 7-8 or slightly less thanks to Fictionwise club.

A handful at around 8.50 or so.

Major publisher books, around 18 or so out of 300, with one of them free and some 99c. All the others were in the 4-5 mark and one at 6.39.

The large majority of the more expensive books were DRM free titles.

[sabredog]

Around 50 last year, ranging from free to $9.99. Another 20 ebooks cost me on average $15.99, the most expensive being $29.99

Vast majority of the ebooks under $9.99 were indie author ebooks.

[Blue Tyson]

29.99? Non-fiction?

[sabredog]

Yeah it was.

The most expensive fiction ebook I purchased was the last Starfist novel. That set me back US$32.99

[GA Russell]

I still buy print books.

I've never paid for an eBook.

My jetBook Lite (which came with 100 public domain books) paid for itself in three months.

[Kumabjorn]

I guess I must be the proverbial "sucker", because I have quite a few books that cost more than $10. I have some reference works that were more than $24, I have a lot of novels going for between $12 and $17 (I pay a $1.50 premium for being outside US). somewhere around 60 % based on fingerspitzgefühl. I have about 15 % "bargain books" (under $5 but with the added distribution of a $1.50) and the rest a free or converted books. I would estimat that during 2011 I spent $700 at Amazon and $699 of that was worth it.

[tubemonkey]

I rely on library books, public domain, and other free sources. Occasionally, I'll buy the $1 Special Offer books for my Kindle; but that's all I'm willing to spend at the moment.

[rhadin]

I have "bought" nearly 1300 ebooks in the 4 years I have been using ebooks. Of that number about 200 cost more than $2.99, and about 50 cost more than $10. Of the 50, 40 are nonfiction.

Of the books that cost $2.99 or less, about 200 cost 99 cents to $2.99; the rest were free.

I currently have 546 ebooks on my Sony 950 of which 58 cost 99 cents or more and the rest were free. I have 172 ebooks waiting to be loaded onto the Sony of which 5 cost between 99 cents and $2.99 and none cost more.

[JoeD]

I've a couple of hundred books now, with the exception of a couple of books, one by a fighter pilot that was £9.99 (now just over £7 probably due to the VAT change ) and the LOTR and the Hobbit who's prices I forget, all the books I have are either free from baen, amazon or priced under £3.

The book I'm currently reading, WIRED was £0.72, price has increased to £1.52 (or I bought it during a sale?) either way it's good value. It's by no means a perfect book, there are a few places where either the descriptions or dialogue come across a little unusual but those are isolated, the majority that I've read so far has been fine, a nice easy read

£5 is my usual limit for an eBook but only if the print edition is higher priced, if the two are £5 then I'll pass. Where as if the ebook is £3 or under (regardless of print price) I'll buy if I think it'll be a good read. That's not to say I refuse to ever pay more for a book, whilst it's very rare I will, there are a couple that are worth it, see first paragraph.

Speaking of which, the Assassins Creed books were finally reduced in price to £2.99, had they been that cheap when I went to buy them last year I'd have already owned them, but as it was I kept putting it off and now I have so many books on my to be read list that I decided not to buy them after all. Hopefully the next time I'm looking for new books the price will be discounted again, or if they drop to a absolute bargain price before then I'll pick them up anyway.

Edit: just reading an above post about reference books, I've excluded them from any form of price limit, I can and do pay a lot more for reference books but as they're usually related to my business I see them as an investment that will pay for themselves eventually. Often spent anywhere from £10-70 on these, with the majority probably in the £25-35 range. I would never ever consider buying a fictional book for a similar price.

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by sabredog

Yeah it was.

The most expensive fiction ebook I purchased was the last Starfist novel. That set me back US$32.99

Geez, crazy!

[HarryT]

£5 is my "buy it without giving it a second thought" price; most eBooks I buy are in the £4-6 range.

[sakura-panda]

My Kindle is full of freebies. I bought one book (on sale for $2.99 and has since been offered for free) to see if my son would be interested in reading on a device (he's never looked at it) and I bought one book by accident for $9.99 and decided to keep it. The rest of my Kindle books are freebies; if I want to buy a book, I get it from the Sony store or elsewhere.

As I don't consider Kindle books part of my collection -- I don't back them up and I "repurchase" (in epub) the ones that I do want to save. Of those that I backup and maintain, I would say that I have purchased at least 75% of them, and 75% of *that* set are from the store that sold me my Reader (Sony). I spend about $8 - $15 per book, although I do watch for sales and promotions and try to get them for less.

If I'm going to read a book Right Now, then I'm less picky about price -- there is not much that is worse than paying for a book and having it go cheap or free before you even open it but it is worth the enjoyment to me to have paid the extra if I actually read it! However, my backlog is high enough that I nearly always wait for the reduced price.

I spend more on books now than I did before I got my Reader. Space and storage has always been an issue in our house and the main reason I held back from buying more. With my ebook Reader, I'm spending less money per book but making up for it in quantity.

[avantman42]

Calibre says I've got 220 .mobi books, most of which have been bought. Some were bought at a discount, some at full price, but it's very rare for me to spend more than £5 on a book. I think I've only got one that cost more than £10 (£14.27).

I've spent more on books since I got my Kindle about 15 months ago than I did before I got it - most of my paper books were bought second-hand, often for less than £1.

As for vouchers, I've never bought one, and I've never had one bought for me. I have an Amazon credit card, though, and get vouchers from that periodically.