Aura HD Ouch! Kobo ebook prices!

[darryl]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

And you could have not given Apple any money for an eBook and bought it from Google Play for the same $12.99 and gotten a real ePub that you could strip the DRM and read on any of your ePub capable Readers.

Or better yet, waited for the price to come down to something reasonable or borrowed it from the library. Would have saved encouraging greedy publishers to overprice ebooks. Not intended as criticism. We all have our favourites that we just can't wait for. But the book is the same price on Amazon. Likely it would have been $9.99 at Amazon before the Agency fiasco and the current agency-type agreements. Whilst Amazon apparently gives incentives to price lower, it seems that the cartel is, at least for the moment, clinging to higher prices. It would be better if we did not validate this behaviour.

Out of simple curiosity, I decided to see if I could locate a pirate copy of this book. It took less than 30 seconds to find a number of sources and formats. I did not of course download them so I can't be 100% certain that they are actually what they claim to be, though I have little doubt that they are. Personally I think there will be many more people who give in to temptation at $12.99 than at, say, $5.99 or $6.99 or even $9.99.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by darryl

Or better yet, waited for the price to come down to something reasonable or borrowed it from the library. Would have saved encouraging greedy publishers to overprice ebooks. Not intended as criticism. We all have our favourites that we just can't wait for. But the book is the same price on Amazon. Likely it would have been $9.99 at Amazon before the Agency fiasco and the current agency-type agreements. Whilst Amazon apparently gives incentives to price lower, it seems that the cartel is, at least for the moment, clinging to higher prices. It would be better if we did not validate this behaviour.

The reason I am against anyone buying eBooks from Apple is because of Apple, prices have gone up. Apple doesn't deserve to make any money from selling eBooks. (IMHO), Apple should have been banned from selling eBooks for at least a year.

[khalleron]

Originally Posted by MikeOwen

What is happening is that I will start avoiding recommending Kobo to any of my friends, since these price levels will only result in irritation or resentment - and the feeling that they have been given a white elephant.

Last year I gave a number of my friends Kobo e-readers as presents, and while they were happy to buy e-books when they were priced less at $9.99 or less, the moment the prices started approaching or even surpassing the cost of the paperback equivalent, they stopped using or buying e-books!

You and your friends seem to be laboring under the misapprehension that because you own a Kobo device, you must buy your books from Kobo.

You do not! Epub is an open standard and epub books are available from a number of retailers. (My favorite right now is Google Books).

Has Amazon gotten everyone trained to believe that all ereaders are locked in to the retailer you bought the device from?

[PeterT]

You are overlooking the entire convenience factor of purchasing content from the device vendor. Not everyone wants to install ADE and download content to a PC, and then plugin the device to the PC, and after ensuring that is correctly registered to ADE transfer the material.

Some people just want to purchase (often from the device itself) and then download via WiFi.

[darryl]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The reason I am against anyone buying eBooks from Apple is because of Apple, prices have gone up. Apple doesn't deserve to make any money from selling eBooks. (IMHO), Apple should have been banned from selling eBooks for at least a year.

And I agree with you on that. Apple's entry into the ebook market has benefited no one except Apple. And we are still stuck with the consequences. My objections extend to publishers who are trying to preserve the worst practices of the old publishing world. I won't elaborate any further here because we are getting off-topic.

[Ling_Ling]

Originally Posted by PeterT

You are overlooking the entire convenience factor of purchasing content from the device vendor. Not everyone wants to install ADE and download content to a PC, and then plugin the device to the PC, and after ensuring that is correctly registered to ADE transfer the material.

Some people just want to purchase (often from the device itself) and then download via WiFi.

Especially if in spite of being registered it still doesn't display DRMed books.

I used to use ebooks.com and sometimes get books from Sainsbury's ebook store (for my Nectar points), and most of the books I buy are of the same price down to the last penny in all three places. Amazon UK always sends me to Amazon US for ebooks, so I can't really compare anything there.

[PeterT]

There have been some bug fixes related to ADE registration issues....

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by khalleron

You and your friends seem to be laboring under the misapprehension that because you own a Kobo device, you must buy your books from Kobo.

You do not! Epub is an open standard and epub books are available from a number of retailers. (My favorite right now is Google Books).

Has Amazon gotten everyone trained to believe that all ereaders are locked in to the retailer you bought the device from?

Have you considered that regardless of whether or not you can buy from elsewhere, (and there are valid reasons to not want to do that, as mentioned above,) it is still perfectly reasonable to desire other vendors (e.g. Kobo) to have decent prices, because... apparently people like options, and encouraging competition?
(That would be the main reason to buy a Kobo in the first place. )

[bartveld]

And then I stumble upon this:

Hitler's Piano Player
The Rise and Fall of Ernst Hanfstaengl: Confidant of Hitler, Ally of FDR
by Peter Conradi

Amazon.com: $ 24,75
Kobo: $ 9,48 (RS 590 from Indian store)

It's really worth you while to shop around...

[Lynx-lynx]

Price confusion .... Kobo Aus:

Daily Deal
Whirlwind, Rick Moffina

only: $3.99
was: $9.99
buy now: $8.69

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by Lynx-lynx

Price difference: Kobo Aus and Amazon Aus

Peter May
Enzo Files series

Kobo: $11.99

Amazon: 2 x $8.77, 1 x $8.99. 2 x $11.39

Price drop Amazon Aus Enzo Files:
$5.49 x 4
$4.97 x 1

Kobo Aus:
$11.99

[Lynx-lynx]

Strange stuff .... I viewed the Aus Daily Deal ebook:
Ben Aaronovitch
Rivers of London
Only $4.99
was $11.99
buy now $4.99

I did not buy the book, I only viewed the info page - and now on the home page that book shows as 'View in library'. Of course when I view in my library it's not there, because I didn't buy it. That is, it's not in my kobobooks.com web site library, nor Kobo Desktop for PC (so no kepub version) either.

Photo hereunder.

[davidfor]

I didn't see that problem here. And I did buy the book (first time the daily special worked on me). When I went back to the home page afterwards, it still had the "Buy now" button.

The only think I can think of is if you already had looked at this and saved the preview before. It still shouldn't have happened, but it might be a case they missed.

[Lynx-lynx]

Mmmm .... We've got the opposite problem - I looked at the book but didn't buy it or download a preview and the front page version told me it was in my Library.

You did buy the book and the front page told you to Buy Now.

I had logged out and closed the site down and then came back in later when I noticed the My Library bit.

After you've closed the site and gone back in does it still show the Buy Now?

[davidfor]

I hadn't logged out of my Kobo account or closed the browser. I have done both now, and the home page still shows "buy now" button. And logging back in didn't change it.