Ebook Buying Addicts' Support Thread

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by 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.

Alas, bank charges have made my bargains much less so. I now need to add bank charges of $16.50 to the cost of the books!

[peachiekene]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Alas, bank charges have made my bargains much less so. I now need to add bank charges of $16.50 to the cost of the books!

O_O
Ouch!

[issybird]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Alas, bank charges have made my bargains much less so. I now need to add bank charges of $16.50 to the cost of the books!

Hmm. Over how many books were the bank charges amortized? And by what percentage did they raise the price of each book? And, most important, how many books would have been unbought had you anticipated the charges? Critical info is missing.

Not trying to give you a hard time. This is just rueful recognition that even as we think we've got it figured out, the ebook gods throw us a curve.

I was lucky with India. During the 90% off madness, I was charged only a few pennies per transaction. So it certainly can't be worse for books that were essentially free.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by issybird

Hmm. Over how many books were the bank charges amortized? And by what percentage did they raise the price of each book? And, most important, how many books would have been unbought had you anticipated the charges? Critical info is missing.

Not trying to give you a hard time. This is just rueful recognition that even as we think we've got it figured out, the ebook gods throw us a curve.

I was lucky with India. During the 90% off madness, I was charged only a few pennies per transaction. So it certainly can't be worse for books that were essentially free.

I bought the books individually. they cost £0.01 or £0.02 each. The bank charge for each transaction was £1.00, 50 to 100 times the cost of the book.

Some of them I would not have bought if I'd expected such a fee, or I might have tried to purchase them with a browser that gave me access to the basket option (which would have reduced the fees to £1.00 for all the books).

Certainly a lesson learned.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Certainly a lesson learned.

My sympathies. It won't take groceries off the table, but it stings, especially when the price created the want.

My own jape from the gods in this sale was that I was thrilled to see a wishlist book not yet released available for pre-order for about 2¢. It's now shown up and of course it's a kepub and unreadable on my eink devices. I've decided the easiest way to cope is just to suck it up and read on a tablet. I don't like tablet reading, but it won't kill me. So not quite the gift from the gods I expected, but I can't kick at the price.

[Katsunami]

I've not bought anything in India.

I only have three books on my wishlist, and they're not yet released. My wish list was emptied during the last few sprees...

[Tarana]

I spent a lot today, and none were couponable. Kindof painful, but now my Mom has all the Caroline Graham books available. Only one book is not an ebook, so I sourced that through paperbackswap. Mom will read it and then I'll send it in to be OCR'd so that I can read it. I have to thank all you KoboDiscount list folks though. I needed to be able to switch countries to get the books I obtained today and it WORKED!! yay!!! I have one book at KoboUK to still buy (not couponable), but I'm holding off on that until Summer. It's not a absolute need. Ok.. I want it, but I can wait.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by 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.

I also purchased the Wodehouse omnibuses. Kobo deducted 5 cents from my gift card. I'm going to consider that a free purchase in my spreadsheet.

Harry, you may want to consider purchasing a Kobo gift card in the future to avoid those bank fees.

[spersephone]

Our bank charges are usually a percentage of the cost - I think it's 2.5% of the AUD cost. So if I were to go "holidaying", I'm not sure how they'd go about working it out on purchases of just a few cents!

I have been restrained. I think it's been at least three weeks since I bought a book. My Kindle is loaded up with over 500 books, I've only managed to read about 70 or so of those, so I think I can cope for a while. Unless something comes out that I really want. And then I usually can't wait for it to become discountable, because often the really good ones just don't. I'm still waiting on one by an Aussie author to let me use a coupon on it. It's only $9.99, but since I don't actually need it, I'm holding off. But I'd like to support the author. I'm very conflicted.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Fbone

I also purchased the Wodehouse omnibuses. Kobo deducted 5 cents from my gift card. I'm going to consider that a free purchase in my spreadsheet.

Harry, you may want to consider purchasing a Kobo gift card in the future to avoid those bank fees.

Yes, I think that's a good idea. I shall do so.

[Gazella]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Harry, you may want to consider purchasing a Kobo gift card in the future to avoid those bank fees.

You mean Paul

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by Gazella

You mean Paul

Yes, of course. My apologies.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Yes, of course. My apologies.

That's OK, I don't mind being mistaken for Harry.

And although I frequently call my sons by each other's name, I know who I mean!

[Apache]

It is always funny watching friends, who have lots of kids, go down the list of their names until they get to the correct name.
Apache

[mlewis78]

Originally Posted by Apache

It is always funny watching friends, who have lots of kids, go down the list of their names until they get to the correct name.
Apache

I thought only my mother did that. Now my mother knows none of our names, but it was fun when she ran through our names (4 of us).