Kobo Discounts: Coupon Codes + Discussion

[Chapter One]

The lure of a new book and saving money was too much and so I have just bought my first ebook from the Japanese Kobo store, but wow, what a mission it was! Its taken me the past hour to buy it.
I had to use Tunnelbear to access the site, that was no problem. I found the book I wanted and thanks to Geralt was easily able to find where to enter the code, which was obviously accepted.
Then the hard part came. Its the old checkout so there was no PayPay option I could see, or at least no familiar PayPal icon, so it wanted my credit card details and billing address. My card details were easy enough to put in but man, the address was hard, hard work. Using Google Translate (which sometimes spits out odd translations) it still took me a good hour to enter the address (I just Googled 'National Library Japan and used that address).
Japanese addresses dont seem to follow the same layout I am used to. Plus there was a drop down box to chose a 'State' from, although I think that was one of Google's odd translations. But the options couldnt be copied so I couldnt paste them into the translator and it was tedious trial and error picking one that matched the other details I had.
When I finally got all the red error messages sorted, I did at least think to take screen shots of the page before I finalised the purchase, so if I ever want to buy from Japan again it should be much easier.

Maybe it all would have been easier if I hadnt tried to work it out on a Friday night after a 60 hour working week, but I am now very happy to have a book I have wanted for ages for only 83c instead of the $13.20 it would have cost without the code.

I have just had a run of 30% codes, maybe someone can use them:


2V88XW
2V9SDV
2VB2ZK
2VB4EE
3UJPRE
3UJV62

[tempest@de]

bot related to the contest but I just received an email with this offer
Up to 50% OFF bestsellers
Check out new low prices on John Grisham’s Sycamore Row, J.D. Robb’s Concealed in Death and more

since with most of them the codes won't work I think have 50% off is realy good, I'm browsing and I found some that I think I will buy.

[DuskyRose]

Originally Posted by tempest@de

bot related to the contest but I just received an email with this offer
Up to 50% OFF bestsellers
Check out new low prices on John Grisham’s Sycamore Row, J.D. Robb’s Concealed in Death and more

since with most of them the codes won't work I think have 50% off is realy good, I'm browsing and I found some that I think I will buy.

I gave it a check, and both of the books I looked at in the US store are $2 MORE at Kobo than at Amazon. Same price at B&N for one, and B&N is about $3 cheaper on another.

I don't know what price Kobo is supposed to be taking %50 off, but looks to me the US site is the same, if not more expensive, than others. I never see any real deals there unless it's with a coupon.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by DuskyRose

I gave it a check, and both of the books I looked at in the US store are $2 MORE at Kobo than at Amazon. Same price at B&N for one, and B&N is about $3 cheaper on another.

I don't know what price Kobo is supposed to be taking %50 off, but looks to me the US site is the same, if not more expensive, than others. I never see any real deals there unless it's with a coupon.

There is usually a coupon to go with these offers--and you have to enter that at checkout . But since there is no link I have no idea if there is a coupon or not. I don't see the offer. My ad at the top is for refurb'd units. In the newsletter I got yesterday it was for Kobo Next books.

[Loosheesh]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

There is usually a coupon to go with these offers--and you have to enter that at checkout . But since there is no link I have no idea if there is a coupon or not. I don't see the offer. My ad at the top is for refurb'd units. In the newsletter I got yesterday it was for Kobo Next books.

I think the books are supposed to be discounted already; at least, there's no code that I can see:

Link

See attached image also.

(Sorry for the mess; using my iPad to do this.)

[tempest@de]

it's what Loosheesh said the books are already discounted, I didn't check previously in amazon to see the prices but after reading what DuskyRose said I checked the ones I’m interested and they are the same price as announced as the discounted price by Kobo, so I think maybe it's just marketing to get to people that don't check, if you see books at 5.99 that previously where 11.99 it will look like a great deal, when in fact the is no deal at all. I’ve seen this done before in physical stores in the sales season, but not in online stores, where it is so much easy to compare prices.

Sorry to have leaded you wrong, I really thought it was a good deal, next time I will check first before posting.

[jimars]

25%
337FPG
3XVH2P
3XVPT5

[BearMountainBooks]

okay, yes I see what you mean about the sale flyer. B&N does that a lot too.

[apesmom]

Originally Posted by Geralt

1stkobo, works in Japanese store, 1000 yen off! That's around 10$.

Do you happen to know the expiration on this? I think I got it set up correctly via tunnelbear but there's a 10/7 release I'd like to use it on. Otherwise I have other choices I can use now. Thanks for posting this!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

Close; you have to sacrifice a goat to get a good promo code these days.

Do we have to also sacrifice his new kid in order to maybe win a Reader?

[Geralt]

Originally Posted by apesmom

Do you happen to know the expiration on this? I think I got it set up correctly via tunnelbear but there's a 10/7 release I'd like to use it on. Otherwise I have other choices I can use now. Thanks for posting this!

Sorry I have no idea. I grabbed it from twitter.

[NixLapi]

35%
4798BU
479F7W

(my highest codes so far )

[Lynx-lynx]

Well I'm not missing getting any books from Kobo. Just in the last week I've gotten more than 10 free books from Amazon from various publishers, eg Endeavour Press and different non-fiction publishers.

Kobo will miss those of us who don't buy from them because the Contest codes are restricted to US UK CA more than we will miss them.

[Melon Soda]

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

Kobo will miss those of us who don't buy from them because the Contest codes are restricted to US UK CA more than we will miss them.

How very true! "Sorely disappointed" didn't even begin to describe how I feel. I didn't buy any books from them this and last month and is currently sticking to just downloading free ebooks on Kobo and getting acquainted with the ebook selections on Amazon. Although I missed not getting the ebooks I want, there's still the library so I am not in a big rush to buy from them if this is the way they want things to be.

For those I want in ebook versions, I'll just adopt a wait and see approach or do more research/comparison and buy from whichever is cheaper, since I am such a cheapo.

[Billingsgate]

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

Kobo will miss those of us who don't buy from them because the Contest codes are restricted to US UK CA more than we will miss them.

Hear hear. I also get the feeling their prices are creeping up at the same time. I'm already starting to revert to buying paper books more often. If a newly-released e-book is US$13 on Kobo (and elsewhere), and even a measly 20% coupon won't work for me, and the same book can be had, often for up to a dollar less in hard copy, with free international delivery, from Book Depository, why not go for the old fashioned sensory experience?