Kobo Discounts: Coupon Codes + Discussion

[murg]

Originally Posted by peachiekene

Just wanted to chime in that I do not have to enter in payment information from the US site.

----Also, if you are using a US account, remember to put your correct state in. It automatically set me to Alabama and I didn't realize it until after I made a couple of transactions.
Turns out Alabama has sales tax on ebooks while Virginia doesn't. Even though my address was obviously not an Alabama one (Virginia Zip) the system doesn't seem to recognize it.

Delaware has no sales tax at all.

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by zelda.owns.link

BookRiot50 has stopped working for me on the US & Canada sides. 50dec is still working.

bookriot50 not working on Aus site.

50dec is working - and appears to be the only code working if one has already used up all the single use codes.

[Billingsgate]

Originally Posted by murg

Generally, the US version of the book is the cheapest, regardless of where in the world it is being purchased.

When purchasing from a country that has both US and UK centric books, be sure to check the entire book list, as there will usually be two versions of the book, one cheap and the other expensive.

In fact, I'm finding the opposite to be true, to my huge surprise. Shopping from the Hong Kong site (since I do legitimately live there), I regularly get to choose between US, UK and sometimes AUS editions, and usually find as much as a US$3 difference in prices, with the UK edition being the least expensive 60 percent of the time (AUS is always the highest). Often new books will show up at exorbitant prices for the US edition when first released, but close to half the price for the UK edition.

Here's an example: Olivia Laing's THE TRIP TO ECHO SPRING (great book, by the way) is HK$102.39 for UK edition, HK$129.79 for US edition. A HK$27.40 (US$3.52) difference. And the author is British, so you get a double bonus by getting the original spelling at a lower price.

I like reading books from the country/region where the author resides, so I get the spelling and word choices the author intended (how I loathe US editions of British authors, in which characters put things in the "trunk" of the car or ride the "elevator". And vice versa. A cowboy waxing eloquent about the "colour" of the sunset just doesn't sit well with me.). Thus, when I recently got Philipp Meyer's THE SON, a novel about Texas, I actually paid US$2.50 MORE for the US edition, just to be sure I could read it with US spelling (though after using a 50% code, the difference was more like US$1.25).

[Lynx-lynx]

Laing's book costs 409.19 Indian rupees and is discountable (50dec).

That's approx usd 6.56.

Indian rupee to Hong Kong dollar - 50.90

(Hong Kong dollar 50.9 to AUD7.37)

Edit
Had I bought the book directly from the Hong Kong site at 102.39 then I would have paid AUD14.83

Edit 2
Norfolk Island price usd13.19 and discountable (50dec)

(Of course all conversions are approximate)

[Billingsgate]

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

Laing's book costs 409.19 Indian rupees and is discountable (50dec).

That's approx usd 6.56.

Indian rupee to Hong Kong dollar - 50.90

(Hong Kong dollar 50.9 to AUD7.37)

Edit
Had I bought the book directly from the Hong Kong site at 102.39 then I would have paid AUD14.83

That's interesting to note. It pays to globetrot. I wonder which version you found. Easy to tell: US (ashtray and typewriter on cover) or UK (red and yellow blurred picture of a bar sign on the cover). I'm guessing India is a UK publication region.

I note that when you self-publish on Kindle (as I have), and set pricing for different countries, Amazon India has a much lower minimum set price (if you choose the higher author royalty setting). So it seems India would generally be the cheapest place to buy ebooks.

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by Billingsgate

That's interesting to note. It pays to globetrot. I wonder which version you found. Easy to tell: US (ashtray and typewriter on cover) or UK (red and yellow blurred picture of a bar sign on the cover). I'm guessing India is a UK publication region.

I note that when you self-publish on Kindle (as I have), and set pricing for different countries, Amazon India has a much lower minimum set price (if you choose the higher author royalty setting). So it seems India would generally be the cheapest place to buy ebooks.

I've attached a pic - it's the UK one from your description.

I've found the Indian site to be an excellent alternative

[zelda.owns.link]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Do Kobo gift cards work across all countries and currencies?

Yes, they deduct the amount you pay, at their own conversion rate, from your balance.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by zelda.owns.link

Yes, they deduct the amount you pay, at their own conversion rate, from your balance.

Thank you. It seems that Canada, Australia and New Zealand based accounts are able to purchase gift cards.

[septentrion]

I couldn't use bookriot50 and dec50 in the French store this morning. I used a 35 % coupon and it worked on the book so I guess those nice 50 % coupons are now obsolote.

[Lynx-lynx]

It's 50dec ....

[jaj]

50dec stopped working for me in the US store.

[Geralt]

New 50% coupon for January is jny50. In Japanese store.
Try the other stores please, and let us know.

[Terisa de morgan]

It works at the USA store.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Geralt

New 50% coupon for January is jny50. In Japanese store.
Try the other stores please, and let us know.

Just worked in the UK store.

[Lynx-lynx]

Can someone who has used this code once please try again on another book to see if it's a multi use code.

You don't have to buy a second book - just go through to the stage where you enter the code to see if it's accepted and then back out.