Amazon, B&N and Sony Ebook Pricing

[Connallmac]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

Quote:
Originally Posted by brecklundin
You and me BOTH!! I dislike the way Chase does business...Wamu was very pleasant to deal with and always seemed to want to be helpful.


Let's start our own bank!
__________________offtopic:

Let's start our own bank!

They already have those, they are called Credit Unions, and chances are pretty good that if you live in the United States you're qualified to join one!

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by Connallmac

They already have those, they are called Credit Unions, and chances are pretty good that if you live in the United States you're qualified to join one!

Actually, credit unions are not a panacea to the banking problem either. My local CU, of which I was a member, had absolutely unreal loan officers. My wife and I wanted to borrow some money to do a kitchen fixup. Went to the CU. We had planned to borrow X dollars and offered 125% of the loan value in IBM stock as collateral. CU (which formerly had been called the IBM Federal Credit Union) said that was unacceptable; after all, the stock might decline in value. So I pointed out that the promissory note terms said that in such a case the CU could call the loan (BTW, we weren't talking big bucks here; we could have taken the amount we wanted out of savings).

Then the CU compounded the agony. I am self-employed and my wife works for me (gets a regular paycheck and is given a W-2 at the end of the year). So I had to produce tax returns. No problem. But the brilliant loan officers (there were 3 we spoke with) said (1) they can't count my wife's income because I pay it and (2) even though they won't count it as her income, they won't add it back in to my income because my tax return says I paid it out. So I asked what they think happened to all that money? They had no idea but it clearly -- to them -- wasn't part of my income or my wife's income.

I walked out, went to another local bank with the same documents and had the loan approved within 35 minutes. Subsequently, I closed my CU accounts and moved them to the local bank, where I have gotten great service for many years now.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by rhadin

.....
Then the CU compounded the agony. I am self-employed and my wife works for me (gets a regular paycheck and is given a W-2 at the end of the year). So I had to produce tax returns. No problem. But the brilliant loan officers (there were 3 we spoke with) said (1) they can't count my wife's income because I pay it and (2) even though they won't count it as her income, they won't add it back in to my income because my tax return says I paid it out. So I asked what they think happened to all that money? They had no idea but it clearly -- to them -- wasn't part of my income or my wife's income.
....

Brilliant, I think I just figured out what caused the housing crisis..

[=X=]

Originally Posted by anurag

Adding the roaming charge of $1.99 would be interesting, but do BN.com and Sony's eBook Store sell to non-US customers? Perhaps it would be fairer to compare Waterstones, WHSmith and Borders UK to Amazon's roaming prices, but we don't have that data yet.

My thoughts exactly. I'd be real interested in seeing the price differences of bookstores for European countries,

BTW thanks I like to see these studies especially when they are fair and clean, with no hidden agenda.

[=X=]

double post

[anurag]

Originally Posted by DawnFalcon

It tends to be the independent stores which are best value for UK buyers ime.

Does Inkmesh index any of these stores (our ebook store list) ? If not, can you point me to some of them? We will try to add them to our index.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by =X=

Not this year you didn't, unless FW had a 100% rebate sale I did not hear about or you exclusively buy their 100% books.

This year I've averaged 60% discount on retail price at fictionwise.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...1&postcount=15

This is 47 separate purchases over the year, a couple of $100 buys, but mostly in the $6-$20 range, a total of 147 books.

My average (mean) micropay rebate on the price I paid was 42%.

The current retail price of those 147 books on Amazon (substituting the net price I paid for those I couldn't find on Amazon - not many) was $827.02. (The fictionwise retail is $1090)

I paid fictionwise $431.85 for them, a saving of $395.17 over the Amazon prices.

I'll happily buy from Amazon when they have a special price, or a freebie offers. But at the moment, buying from Fictionwise (during sales, naturally) is a much better deal for me.

[fugazied]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

This year I've averaged 60% discount on retail price at fictionwise.

I paid fictionwise $431.85 for them, a saving of $395.17 over the Amazon prices.

I'll happily buy from Amazon when they have a special price, or a freebie offers. But at the moment, buying from Fictionwise (during sales, naturally) is a much better deal for me.

wow that's a nice saving. I am very lazy in my purchasing habits but when there is this much to be saved... I better look around more.

[=X=]

@ pdurrant This is true, I must have missed the 100% rebate special FW had this year, when was it?

Last year I did save a lot at FW.

Like you the trick was to wait for the 100% rebate along with the Membership to get an additional 15%, then wait for the 25% or less sales where one could use Micropay rebates for a further discount. That's about a 70% discount. But that takes paitence and discipline. Which is sometimes not possible because you need to read a book for whatever reason.

I did find having to drop $200+ cash just to get a good rebate to be a strain on my budget but the real reason was FW just doesn't have the books I wanted.

I suspect that is why I'm so interested in Amazon, they do have most of the books I'm looking for.


=X=

[CleverClothe]

Originally Posted by =X=

I'm not following you they own the eReader DRM. And they do use it to drive sales by discounting 5% when you chose that format.

I agree with you last year FW was excellent, and I saved lots of money back when they had their 50%,100% rebates. But they don't hold those specials anymore


Not this year you didn't, unless FW had a 100% rebate sale I did not hear about or you exclusively buy their 100% books.

While most of my books where purchased using FW and using their BW club plus their sales last year, it was a hassle. In the end the savings are close to what you would save at Amazon, BUT unlike FW you wouldn't have to binge spend $100-200 dollars over a weekend just to get the savings with Amazon the books are always discounted and one can moderate their spending.

=X=

Better watch out who you call a liar. These are the sales that I can remember from this year:

100, 50, 50, 45, 35, 30, 30, 30, 30... And the smaller ones we won't bother with. Now most of those smaller ones were on specific genres. There have been a ton of 10-25s. Not even counting individual books (weeks with 8 100% rebate books, plus 35% rebate on author's titles). Then there were at least 2 wishlist specials.

I just ran my spreadsheet that I keep. I think I had emptied my micropay account at the end of last year. Here are the numbers for this year:

(BTW, I noticed this does include two books from Cyberread that I had a discount for)

Items: 115 (and 1 year membership purchase)
List Price: $1,065.42
CC Cost: $445.33
Savings $: $620.09
Savings %: 58.2%

Wow, it was even better than I thought. My overall savings for all books purchased over the 1 1/2 years I have bought from Fictionwise is 53.9%.

Now, we must also include the $83.88 micropay dollars in my account right now, and 1 free book coupon that I haven't used (there was a 100% rebate on membership a few weeks ago).

Looking at my records, the last member's 100% rebate sale was around June 20th, 2009.

Also, keep in mind that I am pretty lazy. Many of my purchases are on Sunday night before a sale ends (). All I do is check my email, and the new books list each Monday. Then I jump on any decent sale. That is all you have to do. It can be done even without bying $1,000 dollars in books. Just trust in the Micropay.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by =X=

But that takes paitence and discipline. Which is sometimes not possible because you need to read a book for whatever reason.

I suspect that is why I'm so interested in Amazon, they do have most of the books I'm looking for.

Well, I have a two year reading list now, so I can take the long view. And yes, if the books you want aren't sold by fictionwise, then you don't have a lot of choice but to go elsewhere.

But it is possible to get a much better discount at Fictionwise than at Amazon, with patience.

[=X=]

Originally Posted by CleverClothe

Better watch out who you call a liar. These are the sales that I can remember from this year:

100, 50, 50, 45, 35, 30, 30, 30, 30... And the smaller ones we won't bother with. Now most of those smaller ones were on specific genres. There have been a ton of 10-25s. Not even counting individual books (weeks with 8 100% rebate books, plus 35% rebate on author's titles). Then there were at least 2 wishlist specials.

I just ran my spreadsheet that I keep. I think I had emptied my micropay account at the end of last year. Here are the numbers for this year:

(BTW, I noticed this does include two books from Cyberread that I had a discount for)

Items: 115 (and 1 year membership purchase)
List Price: $1,065.42
CC Cost: $445.33
Savings $: $620.09
Savings %: 58.2%

Wow, it was even better than I thought. My overall savings for all books purchased over the 1 1/2 years I have bought from Fictionwise is 53.9%.

Now, we must also include the $83.88 micropay dollars in my account right now, and 1 free book coupon that I haven't used (there was a 100% rebate on membership a few weeks ago).

Looking at my records, the last member's 100% rebate sale was around June 20th, 2009.

Also, keep in mind that I am pretty lazy. Many of my purchases are on Sunday night before a sale ends (). All I do is check my email, and the new books list each Monday. Then I jump on any decent sale. That is all you have to do. It can be done even without bying $1,000 dollars in books. Just trust in the Micropay.

Well I really wasn't trying to call anybody a liar, I was more thinking the person was not calculating the discount correctly. FW rebates are tricky most people belive a 100% rebate gives them a book for free. It isn't it's more like a 50% discount. Essentially you need to cut all rebates in 1/2 and that is the true discount.
So in order to get a 60% discount you had to have bought a book at 100% rebate then used the rebate money on a 20% sale to get a 60% discount.

@pdurrant I didn't mean you per say it was more of a generic "you", I should have said "me" as that is who I was really thinking of. I find I do have a long reading list as well, but since I mainly read academic/non-fiction there are books that get preempted from the list and resorted based on recommendations or current need. I definitely have all the patience required to get a good deal when purchasing leisure books.


BTW great topic!
=X=

[zacheryjensen]

Just wanted to chime in here. I agree with the general result of the original diagnosis for the broad sample set.

However, in my personal experience things are quite different.

In general I find better prices on amazon than anywhere just like the OP set. But *MY* second place is always FW, not B&N or Sony.

The reason it's in second is more about actually having books I happen to be looking for, and having a better price than Amazon or Books on Board. I do not buy from Sony because I don't have a Sony reader.

I buy enough from FW that the rebates really pay off, I get "free" books regularly. And while I dropped out of my club sub there during my stint with my Kindle 2, I will probably get back into it soon as they have another 100% rebate sale.

My main point here is that the particular set of books a person buys can dramatically change the perspective of where the best value is. I prefer FW often even if it's a little higher price than Amazon just because of having less of that mobi soapscum to wash off my conscience

And lastly, I don't understand why so many books *I* look at on BN are terribly priced compared to all other sources, but especially wrt FW. I have seen examples of books on BN and FW that have different LIST PRICES listed. W-T-F is up with that? Seems like an error to me. It's the sort of thing that makes no sense.

Luckily in these cases, eReader DRM was available in either side of that fence so it didn't matter to me, I just paid the lower price and used my normal reader (Stanza).

eBook pricing is insane. But, after time with Kindle I'm pretty sure I won't intentionally limit my purchasing choices again.