Paying Full Price for a Book

[ps67]

When I want to read a book I buy it. Price is not too important.

[Graham44]

Pretty much always, although I tend not to buy books one at a time.

Throughout the month I peruse the sites I buy my books from and if something takes my fancy I add it to a list with the price, at the end of the month I add them all up and decide if I want to buy them all or if it totals too much to justify all in one go I will choose the ones I most want to read buy them, remove them from the list leaving the others for another month.

I have four places I buy books from, Kobo, Hive, Angry Robot and Rebellion Publishing, if I'm buying it from Kobo I may look to see if there are any discount codes but if it's from the other three I would rather pay full price , particularly Angry Robot and Rebellion as I want to support smaller publishers as much as I can. Part of this support for me is paying what they have deemed to be a suitable price (which would be their full price) that pays the author, covers their costs and allows them to make a fair profit.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Blasphemy.

Ha! Okay fair, more like too many to be read.

[issybird]

I rarely pay "full price" for a book, since I've got plenty to read and I generally don't feel as if I need to read something now. At a minimum, I can wait on developments.

So if/when I do pay full price or what I consider to be a lot, say roughly $15 or more, it's most likely a combination of I've waited and the price is never going to get any lower and I do want to read it, if not now, soonish. It helps if I've got "funny money" I can use, promotional credit of one stripe or another.

The flip side of this is that I purge my wishlist at times of just those books that are never going to get any cheaper and that since I've not wanted to read them enough to convert to purchase by now, the odds are I never will. I like to keep my wishlists lean, in the sense of who am I kidding? I've already got hundreds (and hundreds) of unread books and wishlists of similar length serve no purpose. I'm not going to live forever and there will always be new and compelling books.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

If a book is $6 or lower and I want to read it now, I don't bother to wait for a sale.

If a book is $15 or lower and I am eager to read it "soon" or if I think it is unlikely to ever go on sale, then I might buy it right away.

Originally Posted by Dazrin

That seems backwards to me. Why only 6 if you want to read it now vs 15 if you only want it soon?

want vs eager, which is also modified by "might" and the unlikely to go on sale is a big factor.

$6 would be low enough to not consider when I get around to reading it, but lately that has been tempered by the realization that I've been buying books at multiples of my reading rate and "more time spent reading books" has not been materializing.

The usual trigger for springing for $15 is a new release that is topical for both me and culture.

Mainly, under $6 requires almost no consideration, $6 - $15 requires some agonizing, and over $15 requires confidence in an extraordinary reading experience.

[cfrizz]

These are the only two reasons I will pay full price for books.

If you've had it wish listed a long time with no sign of a sale.

If it's part of a series.

[library addict]

I'll pay full price if it is a book I want to read on release day.

Or if part of a series and the later books never seem to go on sale.

[CAFlanny]

I don't think I have ever paid full price on a book. I only buy a book if it's $2.99 or less. I have so much to read that I can afford to wait for a sale.

[pdurrant]

I have 4460 paid-for books in my calibre library. Some of those will be omnibus volumes.

I have only paid £5.00 or more for 82 of them. And £4.00-£4.99 for another 94.

My median price is just £1.35.

I almost never pay "full price" for a book. There seems no need, when I already have lots of books I'm keen to read.

[DrNefario]

I feel I'd probably have spent less in total if I just bought the next book I wanted to read at full price, instead of building up a huge library of bargains, but that ship has sailed.

Although it would be harder to choose my next book if was choosing from all books instead of just my collection.

If there's something I particularly want to read, I might just pay full price, but it's pretty rare.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

I feel I'd probably have spent less in total if I just bought the next book I wanted to read at full price, instead of building up a huge library of bargains, but that ship has sailed.

Right there with you on the SS Not a Bargain in the Long Run.

Although it would be harder to choose my next book if was choosing from all books instead of just my collection.

Another frequent thought I've had. And at least, finally, the appeal of what I've got serves as a brake on new acquisitions.

[Scoob]

I usually wait for a sale because I am not going to pay $10-25+ for an e book. I don't see why it's that expensive either but that's another rant. If it's on Kindle I sometimes wait until I have a few digital credits in my account then I'll buy it even if its not on sale. B&N is the other place I get books but it's usually with gift cards not purchased by me so I'm less inclined to be frugal.

[Tarana]

1. Non fiction (rarely on sale)
2. By accident
3. When Amazon was cutting off downloading
4. Next in series if it wasn't on sale in a long time (ereaderiq.com).

For #2, I bought a full priced Simon Scarrow book using credits and they weren't applied. However, I didn't notice the price difference until after the return option had passed. I already know Amazon doesn't fix lost rewards credits.

[Scoob]

Originally Posted by Tarana

2. By accident.

I once accidentally bought a Warhammer 40k omnibus. The sticker shock when I saw the charge Suffice to say that was an immediate return.

[ownedbycats]

I once forgot to apply a coupon code. Thankfully I noticed right away and was able to refund and repurchase.