Kindle as gift for world traveller

[obs20]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Is the actual number of books in the store a real problem? As long as it has a sufficient number of the type of books that she wants to read, that's all that really matters, isn't it? The Amazon UK store theoretically has few books than the Amazon US store, but, given that it has far more books than I could conceivably read in any lifetime, I've never considered it to be of the slightest important.

If the cousin lives in Canada, my honest advice would be to just register the Kindle to the Canadian account and have done with it. I'm sure there's no shortage of books available to people in Canada. Trying to "beat the system" is probably not a very good idea.

The problem occurs when you want to buy a book that isn't available in your home country. It's not a matter of trying to beat the system. I have ordered books from the UK because they did not have a US distributor. These have been print books as digital books come with regional restrictions.

[menevets]

She doesn't live in Canada now. She lived in the last 5 years in Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Denmark and who knows where in the future. I want her to not run into a catalog limitation from wherever she could be.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by menevets

She doesn't live in Canada now. She lived in the last 5 years in Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Denmark and who knows where in the future. I want her to not run into a catalog limitation from wherever she could be.

You're going to run into geographical restrictions no matter WHERE you live. It's a fact of life, I'm afraid. There are books available in the UK that aren't available to buyers in the US, and there are books available in the US that aren't available to people in the UK. There is nowhere that all books are available.

[ProfCrash]

That is true but the US catalog tends to be the largest.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

That is true but the US catalog tends to be the largest.

The number of books is so large, that the "numbers game" doesn't really matter. As long as the store sells sufficient books to allow you to buy books that interest you, the absolute number is pretty immaterial. And I would have thought that all the Amazon stores sold enough books in any genre to satisfy even the most avid reader's needs.

[Tarana]

I think it would be sensible to set up an Amazon account with your cousin's name and your home address. Fund it with gift certificates. That way, your credit card is protected, but you cousin can buy whatever they want and control their own account. To add gift certificates, s/he would need an amazon account in whatever country s/he has credit cards. Then contact Amazon and find out best method to send gift certificate to someone with US account. The fact that s/he is sending it to her/himself doesn't need to come up.

HarryT, clearly, this person wants books that are available in the AMERICAN catalog. Telling them to just suck it up doesn't really answer the question. They may not be able solve the problem, but certainly some tips and handy, helpful relatives, perhaps can overcome it.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Tarana

I think it would be sensible to set up an Amazon account with your cousin's name and your home address. Fund it with gift certificates. That way, your credit card is protected, but you cousin can buy whatever they want and control their own account.

What course of action do you recommend when the email arrives from Amazon asking for proof that they are resident in the US? If Amazon notice that your IP is consistently not in the country you claim to be in, they can and do send such an email.

HarryT, clearly, this person wants books that are available in the AMERICAN catalog. Telling them to just suck it up doesn't really answer the question.

All I'm asking is whether or not they've actually checked to see what books are available to them.