Ebook Buying Addicts' Support Thread

[pdurrant]

Now we're into May, I'm only $13.27 over budget. But by the end of May, that will probably increase to around $28 over budget. But come 1st June I might be back under budget for the first time since the middle of January!

I've also now read 85 books, over half the number that I've bought this year. If I can keep in budget for the rest of the year, I might end up having bought fewer books than I've read!

[Yapyap]

I'm still suffering from the Kobo spree in March, but on the other hand, I managed to stick to my intended "no more than ten bought ebooks" in April (with, well, ten books), at a $2.19 average, and only three of them were "impulse buys" in the sense of not being books already on my wishlist. Two of them were books I'd considered before, though, and had just not remembered to put on there, so...

I think I did pretty well, all in all.

Now if I could reduce the number of purchases in May, that'd be even better. At the very least, I'll make a real effort to only buy books I've had my eye on for a while / wishlist sales, since as far as I can tell, there's no "must buy immediately on release" books coming out for me in May.

[Quake1028]

Pretty happy so far this year. I have only bought 10 books through the first 4 months, and have only spent $19.91 total on those 10.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Quake1028

Pretty happy so far this year. I have only bought 10 books through the first 4 months, and have only spent $19.91 total on those 10.

Wow. You certainly have your buying under control!

[pdurrant]

This month's Phoenix Pick special offer is tempting me! I will resist this much: I will get the free book, and read that immediately. Only then will I decide whether I really want the next two in the series as well.

[Tarana]

This month's Phoenix Pick special offer is tempting me! I will resist this much

The Gramarye series? I caved within about a minute. It was an easy minute. A favorite series and some of the last HC books I gave up (couldn't read them any more...sniff). I even had a couple of the books in this series OCR'd mys elf because nothing was appearing on the ebook horizon.

That said, I agree with your plan. Get the first book. If you don't love it, don't feel you need to get the next. With all the new fantasy out in the last 10 or so years, you may find the storyline kindof humdrum.

[Shane R]

A book budget?!?

What a novel concept. I can see how that would help me, but it would seem so very constricting.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Shane R

A book budget?!?

What a novel concept. I can see how that would help me, but it would seem so very constricting.

I have found a book budget to be an excellent tool, although I haven't kept to it too well this year so far.

It does mean that, faced with lots of good books I'd like, I concentrate on the ones I want most.

[Shane R]

Care to share any details with us?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Shane R

Care to share any details with us?

Just follow the links in my signature if you want the gory details. The highlights are that I'm trying to keep to $480 on ebooks this calendar year. That's $40 per month.

Unfortunately, I'm currently at $213.27, so I'm $13.27 over budget at the moment.

And that means I'm going to resist this month's Phoenix Pick offer. I've just finished the freebie, and it's OK, but showing its age a little. And also, in this kind of series, most of the world-building happens in the first book. The rest are soap-opera. Which is fine in itself - I read Grantville Gazette, after all - but I don't need to buy them, since I have read them before, if some years ago.

[cadele]

Well I have been pretty good but a book came up that is the next in the series for an autobuy author and one which I want to read now.

I was 4 books away from a buy 10 get one free at ARe/Omnilit, so I purchased one with a 50% rebate and three other very inexpensive books off my wishlist there. I used the 'get one free' on the expensive new release.

It was a saving...kind of...

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by cadele

Well I have been pretty good but a book came up that is the next in the series for an autobuy author and one which I want to read now.

I was 4 books away from a buy 10 get one free at ARe/Omnilit, so I purchased one with a 50% rebate and three other very inexpensive books off my wishlist there. I used the 'get one free' on the expensive new release.

It was a saving...kind of...

The question is, was the cost of the four less than the cost of the one? And less than the cost of the one with a 50% rebate?

Perhaps you should have just got the new release with the 50% rebate, and waited for more offers to get the remaining three books to get the free book. Then you'd have (eventually) ended up with five book you really wanted, instead of one that you really wanted, and four that were OK.

However, if the total cost was less than the new release even with 50% rebate, then it was the right thing to do.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Tarana

That said, I agree with your plan. Get the first book. If you don't love it, don't feel you need to get the next. With all the new fantasy out in the last 10 or so years, you may find the storyline kindof humdrum.

I enjoyed re-reading the freebie, but not enough to get the other two.

[cadele]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

The question is, was the cost of the four less than the cost of the one? And less than the cost of the one with a 50% rebate?

Perhaps you should have just got the new release with the 50% rebate, and waited for more offers to get the remaining three books to get the free book. Then you'd have (eventually) ended up with five book you really wanted, instead of one that you really wanted, and four that were OK.

However, if the total cost was less than the new release even with 50% rebate, then it was the right thing to do.

Unfortunately, it was only that specific book that the 50% rebate applied to. It was one I was definitely going to buy regardless, but as the rebate only applied for a limited period I bought it straight away. (Otherwise I would have held off as I am still well over budget due to that 90% Kobo code.)

I could have then just paid the full amount for the book I wanted to buy and read next, but I thought it better to buy 2 very inexpensive books from my wishlist that are also part of a series I am reading and that I would have bought anway (again, it wouldn't have been so soon, I concede) and that way I got the expensive book for free.

I think in the end, I got the four books for less than what it would have cost for two at the full price (which otherwise I would have paid as I want to read them very soon).

... am tapdancing as fast as I can here...

[pdurrant]

I have succumbed to the temptation of holidaying in India. Half a dozen cookbooks, and five assorted fiction titles, inclusing a couple of Wodehouse omnibuses. They cost $0.30 (for all 11, not each!) at most.