That $4 cup of coffee...

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

This is what I think of all coffee

Me too. I really tried to like the stuff but never could tolerate the taste. I drank Soda mostly and Sweet tea. Now I can't have any of it due to my health so I'll take the book please.

I'll probably pay full price for next Plum novel out on November 20. It's the only Fiction book I think I would be willing to pay over $8 for.

[Solicitous]

Ok just want to put forward my initial thought on the article (that and try and detract from throwing random vegetables and spice and somehow calling it coffee).

So for $4 at Starbucks you get a cup of coffee, and if you don't like it it will be remade until you do, but an ebook the person is taking a chance. What about the first time someone goes into Starbucks? Are they not taking a $4 chance with their initial purchase? Similar to someone buying an ebook from an author they have not read before, but buying an ebook from an author they have read and enjoyed.....well there is far less chance of it being bad so spending the $13 might be ok.

Then there are two things...reviews and samples. Reviews one can read on what people thought of the book, and samples one can for free see for themselves if they might like it. Only review someone can give on a cup of coffee is exactly what it was like on a particular day at a particular time by a particular coffee pourer.

Ok, so now back to talking about banana spliced coffee with a hint of raspberry cashews sprinkled with ground nutmeg (might sound silly but pumpkin latte??)

[JoeD]

Price is always relative.

I'll happily spend £10-15 on a new bluray, spend £5 on munchies, and then hesitate at spending 69p on a mobile game or app that looks interesting. Yet much more time/effort went into creating those apps and games than the £5 worth of munchies that I'd get a few minutes of enjoyment out of vs hours from the app/game. It's not rational, it's not logical, it just is

Some people will have a similar feeling about ebooks.

As for the coffee, I consider most coffee places over priced and won't use them. Only time i'll buy tea/coffee when I'm out if it's as part of a lunch, at which point the cost doesn't seem to be as big an issue then.

[spindlegirl]

To me, DRM'ed e-books feel less tangible to me as a "thing that is mine". That is why I prefer to pay coffee prices for them.

On the amazon buying agreement it states that I'm not buying a book, but a license to read on my amazon reading devices. (cloud, desktop, kindle). If I am paying "you own a book" prices for something that lacks the stability of a physical book, then yes, I do find it to be "too expensive.".

Even in a Starbucks, I can hand them my travel mug and they can put the coffee in that. I can drink it at the establishment itself, or take it to go. It wouldn't be illegal for me to dump my Starbucks coffee into a Tim Horton's Travel mug (in fact they've served it to me in one). Yet, it goes against the license agreement for me to 'free' the e-book to stick on a Kobo or other reader.

E-books sold with that much restriction attached to them need to be much lower to entice the buyer. It's why I will snap up the Kindle freebies in a heartbeat, but will happily pay $10 or more for the same titles in physical format.

[caleb72]

We have an espresso machine at work and I have my strong coffee each day. But I'm not a huge fan of the coffee it makes.

However, all week I wait until Saturday when I make my coffee at home in my stove top espresso. It's my little piece of heaven on a Saturday and Sunday morning, when I drink my coffee while reading my latest book maybe with a piece or two of sugar-free dark chocolate. Mmmmm!

Anyway - as for books. Don't usually spend over $10 unless it's one of my must-haves.

[tubemonkey]

Even though I don't like coffee, I love the bikini espresso stands scattered all over

[BeccaPrice]

(@#7)I put out less money for things I don't know..

exactly. I'll happily pay out $15 to read the latest Bujold NOW rather than wait til November - but I also know that I'll enjoy re-reading Bujold, so the price per read will go down, if that makes sense. I don't know Brent Weeks, I gather he writes fantasy, and I doubt I'll like his work, so I wouldn't spend $13 for it. I'd maybe spend $6 or so to try it, but not $13. It doesn't matter to me whether he took two years or two weeks to write it - the value to me isn't in his time, but in his talent.

I'll pay less for "read once" books than I will for a "read many" book.

[spindlegirl]

Thank you for the pointer to Bujold. I went to Baen and downloaded the two Library books of hers and The Mountains of Mourning looks good so far.

I'm not normally a sci/fi fantasy buff but some of the free reads may just hook me in.

[BeccaPrice]

Oh, Spindlegirl, have you a treat ahead of you!

The Vorkosigan books really need to be read in order, or at least the sequence Brothers In Arms/Mirror Dance /Memory does, and Komarr/A Civil Campaign should.

I think Curse of Chalion is absolutely brilliant - it's fantasy with a twist: not a dragon, wizard, or elf to be seen, but I love the Five Gods universe. And the sequel, Paladin of Souls is a perennial re-read for me too.

Bujold is one of two authors where I'll buy in hardback (for the collection), eformat (to read) and audio.

[Catlady]

I won't pay $4 for a cup of coffee. I would not enjoy it; I would be thinking the whole time that I could make a cup of coffee at home for a fraction of that cost.

If I want a book, I will pretty much pay what I have to pay.

P.S. Re this paragraph in the article:

Fact: Starbucks Has No Free Alternative
We cannot get a free cup of coffee, and even the cheap alternatives to Starbucks aren’t as good. But I can find alternatives to paid ebooks virtually everywhere – legal ones, too, and sometimes even from the same publisher as the one you want us to buy.

It's totally backwards. Coffee is coffee is coffee. But each book is unique. If I want to read the latest Anne Perry, a Sherlock Holmes story from PG is not gonna float my boat. Books are not fungible, coffee pretty much is.

[spindlegirl]

Sounds good. I'm so glad the first was in the library, gives me a chance to get to know it.

[b0ned0me]

Originally Posted by Original Article

Fact: Starbucks Coffee is a Trustable Experience

Not in my experience, it isn't. Can be anything from very good to absolutely repellent - I certainly wouldn't pay $4 for a drink from Starbucks unless they started selling bottles of beer.

[taustin]

Originally Posted by afv011

The stuff Tim sells can hardly be called coffee. Anything that's done via dripping is not coffee, but dirty water. For true coffee, Italy or Spain are the right places, a tiny cup with way more stuff in it than the largest of cups at Tim's.

You can put me in the category of people who refer to all coffee as "toxic bean waste." Unfit for human consumption. Nearly as bad a beer.

If the moose is wearing a chef's hat, it may be gourmet moose pee, but it still comes out of the same end of the moose.

[taustin]

Originally Posted by spindlegirl

Thank you for the pointer to Bujold. I went to Baen and downloaded the two Library books of hers and The Mountains of Mourning looks good so far.

I'm not normally a sci/fi fantasy buff but some of the free reads may just hook me in.

Note that Mountains of Mourning is a lot more somber than most of the Miles books (especially the earlier ones). It's also some of her very best writing, but that's saying quite a lot because she's always good.

(One of a very few authors I'll reliably buy in hardcover, too.)

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by afv011

I have yet to find it. Every single bar, restaurant or coffee shop I tried sells the real thing. Italians and Spanish don't want a half litter cup of dirty water, they want a tiny cup that is really strong. The way it should be. And it only costs about 1 euro.

The thing that I loved most about my visit to Spain. Ever since I've been looking, in vain, for a good cup of coffee...