Opus price

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by lovelyloey

Arh I see.
Then my theory about $4 and 4€ coffee fails.
So why the discrepancy in pricing of the Opus??

It is not unique to the Opus; in fact is more the rule than the exception that, when it comes to consumer electronics, one Euro has long had about the same purchasing power as a US Dollar regardless of what currency fluctuations may say. (CF, gaming cconsoles, PCs, HDTVs, etc) Doesn't mean anybody is getting ripped off, though.

VAT is an explicit TAX but european retailers and manufacturers have to deal with a lot of hidden/implicit charges/taxes that their NorthAm counterparts don't have to deal with. (Recycling fees, mandatory warranties, corporate taxes, etc)

Entirely different cultures, business environments, social contracts; the numbers don't come even close to describing the reality on the ground.

[mlewis78]

I'm in the US and paid $198 at Books-on-Board (online) for my Cybook Opus. There was no tax added, because I'm in NY and it was shipped from Texas. They charge Texas residents state sales tax. This was the lowest price I found. Other stores were charging as much as the list price ($250) and I'd also seen $220 and $230. J&R just brought it down to $213, but I would have had to pay sales tax (about 8.865%) on it there, whether shipped to me or in their store in NYC.

The Euro and the Dollar used to be almost the same value, but since the 2008 crash, the dollar lost value. I'm not sure how the recent situation (in the past week or two) has affected the Euro, though.

[bwaldron]

Originally Posted by mlewis78

I'm in the US and paid $198 at Books-on-Board (online) for my Cybook Opus.

BoB raised their price to $229 on the Opus, at the same time that HSN started offering it at $200 (and recommending BoB as a source for books). Could be coincidence, I suppose.

EDIT 2/22/2010 - Now the Opus is back to $198 at BoB.

[davidspitzer]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

Just compare: iRex 800S = € 499 in Europe. iRex 800SG (more features) = $ 399 in US. You could order the more feature prone unit in US and it still would be cheaper!
But you can try to see it positively: The US economy is still loosing ground. Not long ago, $ and € had been of about equal worth. Since then, $ has lost 20% of its value. This is reflected in lower prices. But of course in lower incomes and other side-effects in the US as well.
Probably no one of us (maybe with the exception of chapter 11 experts) would be happy, if prices in Europe would drop the same. Most likely this would demonstrate, that we'd be in a "real" recession.

i just purchased an opus at Fry's Electronics for $179 (damn you fry's! I Could not resist) They had a bunch in stock. The Opus is great I can slip it in my pocket and read anytime I want!

[blak4dr]

Originally Posted by mlewis78

The Euro and the Dollar used to be almost the same value, but since the 2008 crash, the dollar lost value. I'm not sure how the recent situation (in the past week or two) has affected the Euro, though.

Pretty stable from what I could see. The dollar/euro was at almost 1.50 and went down a bit to 1.34. But for the past couple years, it has been oscillating between 1.30 and 1.50.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

I have a RSS suscription to Bookeen blog and the notice about this price is the only one which has arrived in a lot of time.

I've had nothing from them in a loooongggg time, not even the news about the new firmware ....

[mlewis78]

The price on Cybook Opus is dropping a lot since I bought mine in January. I see that Fry's now has it for $149 + shipping. I know that J&R's price went down right after I bought mine at BOB, but it was $217 and now it's back up to $229 (still $250 list price).

[ET3D]

$149, $117, these are tempting prices. I swore off e-books when I lost my Cybook and discovered that almost nobody supports Mobipocket any longer (and I have quite a few books in that format), but if I can buy an Opus for cheap and flash it with firmware 1.5, it might make Mobipocket viable again and life worth living.

My wife's parents are going to the US next month, so if any of you see such good prices again, I'd love to hear about them. $200 is okay, but not tempting enough. At $117 I'd have certainly bought it.

[Terisa de morgan]

My Opus has, of course, FW 1.5 , so no problem with that.

[davidspitzer]

Originally Posted by mlewis78

The price on Cybook Opus is dropping a lot since I bought mine in January. I see that Fry's now has it for $149 + shipping. I know that J&R's price went down right after I bought mine at BOB, but it was $117 and now it's back up to $229 (still $250 list price).

the list the resolution wrong on the frys site though - it is 800x600 not 640x480

[davidspitzer]

Originally Posted by davidspitzer

the list the resolution wrong on the frys site though - it is 800x600 not 640x480

ps what store is BOB?

[Terisa de morgan]

Books On Board (eBook store).

[bwaldron]

Originally Posted by davidspitzer

ps what store is BOB?

Books On Board

[brudigia]

I've seen it. The price is verrrrrrry interesting.
BoB is 198$ ! Also in the UK shop. I wonder why.

Originally Posted by mlewis78

The price on Cybook Opus is dropping a lot since I bought mine in January. I see that Fry's now has it for $149 + shipping. I know that J&R's price went down right after I bought mine at BOB, but it was $117 and now it's back up to $229 (still $250 list price).

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by ET3D

$149, $117, these are tempting prices. I swore off e-books when I lost my Cybook and discovered that almost nobody supports Mobipocket any longer (and I have quite a few books in that format), but if I can buy an Opus for cheap and flash it with firmware 1.5, it might make Mobipocket viable again and life worth living.

My wife's parents are going to the US next month, so if any of you see such good prices again, I'd love to hear about them. $200 is okay, but not tempting enough. At $117 I'd have certainly bought it.

HUH !