E-book sales down

[FacebookVirus]

Not getting into this.

[Calenorn]

Originally Posted by ApK

That is neither precise nor accurate. It is a completely wrong, biased, mischaracterization of the realities of licensing intellectual property.

For supporting evidence and arguments, see every thread here on the topic for the last several years (like this one or this one for example) or consult a dictionary and a lawyer.

Whatever. Use the word 'licensing' instead of 'renting' if you wish. But you make my point. 'Licensing' is a very different thing than 'buying'.

As you say, better discussed in other threads. So I'm done.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Side note: Did you know that if someone works for say Budweiser they cannot buy a Coors product especially if they are in their uniform.

Pricing is always interesting.

My uncle used to sell a particular brand of rum for decades.
Never bought or drank anything else.
Once he stopped working for them he's never touched that brand again.

Companies call it "eating your own dog food"; if your products aren't good enough for you, why expect others to buy it?

And yes, pricing is interesting economics.
Barely understood in many businesses, totally misunderstood in publishing, with its special snowflake mentality.
Leads to some amusing conversations, though.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

My uncle used to sell a particular brand of rum for decades.
Never bought or drank anything else.
Once he stopped working for them he's never touched that brand again.

Companies call it "eating your own dog food"; if your products aren't good enough for you, why expect others to buy it?

And yes, pricing is interesting economics.
Barely understood in many businesses, totally misunderstood in publishing, with its special snowflake mentality.
Leads to some amusing conversations, though.

Yes but that leads to the problem of you want to buy a girl a drink but what she drinks is distributed by the competition.

Don't even get me started on the special snowflakes.
I don't want Diap or Dr Drib or issybird to have to work.

[disconnected]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Side note: Did you know that if someone works for say Budweiser they cannot buy a Coors product especially if they are in their uniform.

Like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnXArm-NViI

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Yes but that leads to the problem of you want to buy a girl a drink but what she drinks is distributed by the competition.

Not an issue for my uncle.
Buying a girl a drink would land him in the hospital unless the girl was my aunt.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Not an issue for my uncle.
Buying a girl a drink would land him in the hospital unless the girl was my aunt.

It was an issue for the girl wanting the drink lol.

[Katsunami]

Maybe, as many have already said, the ebook sales of the Big 5 are down and all others are up. I for one own >300 ebooks that are not from the Big 5, and then I haven't even factored in my thousands of public domain books. (I once had a chance to dump the entire public domain part of the Feedbooks server because their file naming was VERY predictable at that time... )

I have bought some very large and heavy illustrated Tolkien works, but to be honest, I don't like to read them anymore. After reading on a Kindle for about 4 years now, reading a book that weighs over 2,5 pounds and is 4 inches thick is really hard. I never thought I would say that, but it's true. I'm not even talking about talking such a book on public transport. It's a pity e-readers can't yet compete when pictures and illustrations are involved; for any other 'normal' novel though, I won't touch paper again if I can help it.

So over here, ebook buying won't go down. (But I do have more books than I need, for at least the next 10-15 years...)

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

(I once had a chance to dump the entire public domain part of the Feedbooks server because their file naming was VERY predictable at that time... )
[...]
So over here, ebook buying won't go down. (But I do have more books than I need, for at least the next 10-15 years...)

Katsunami, keeper of the Dutch Strategic Ebook Reserve.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

That was why I specified exactly which ones do set prices.
Though on beer and cokes, it actually depends on whether the customer is buying singles or cases. I know on beer if I see it for $18.95 a case, I can pretty much guarantee I can go anywhere that sells it and get that price. Note in the case of beer, the supplier especially Budweiser and Coors provide all the display materials.
Now if I am buying singles either in a bar or convenience store, the price is set by the retailer or on occasion the waitress. Side note: Did you know that if someone works for say Budweiser they cannot buy a Coors product especially if they are in their uniform.

Pricing is always interesting.

I'm not sure where you live, but where I am this isn't true at all. I can go to 4 different grocery stores in this area and pay 4 different prices for Coke. It's the same with beer--different prices depending on which store you go to.

Shari

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by shalym

I'm not sure where you live, but where I am this isn't true at all. I can go to 4 different grocery stores in this area and pay 4 different prices for Coke. It's the same with beer--different prices depending on which store you go to.

Shari

I live in Texas.
Now for regular price, you may be right. All I know is if any of the big beverages are on sale at one store, they are on sale at all stores here.
Now sometimes Bud and Coors will both be on sale. (Labor Day, Memorial day and Super Bowl). I have never seen coke and Pepsi on sale at the same time.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by ApK

Katsunami, keeper of the Dutch Strategic Ebook Reserve.

LOL... when you name your books something like "book1.epub", "book2.epub", you're just asking me to write a little script instead of clicking all those buttons

But no worries Firstly, I buy a lot of stuff at Feedbooks (often they're cheaper than both Kobo or Amazon for me), and I refer a lot of people to them too, because I like their PD books so well

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

I live in Texas.
Now for regular price, you may be right. All I know is if any of the big beverages are on sale at one store, they are on sale at all stores here.
Now sometimes Bud and Coors will both be on sale. (Labor Day, Memorial day and Super Bowl). I have never seen coke and Pepsi on sale at the same time.

It must be a much different market here in the Northeast US, because I just checked, and both Coke and Pepsi are on sale at one grocery store this week.

ANYWAY...the whole point of this side discussion was to point out that, unlike e-books, prices on other products are NOT controlled by manufacturers, but by the retailer. This is even true of paper books.

Other products may have *suggested* retail prices, but they are just that...suggestions. Retailers are free to sell for whatever price they want. Yes...there are exceptions to that rule, and it seems as if Apple is one of the exceptions, but even with Apple products I can buy an iPod Nano for $129 from Walmart even though it's $149 from the Apple Store, so it seems that stores are *allowed* to discount, it's just that most don't.

Shari

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by shalym

It must be a much different market here in the Northeast US, because I just checked, and both Coke and Pepsi are on sale at one grocery store this week.

ANYWAY...the whole point of this side discussion was to point out that, unlike e-books, prices on other products are NOT controlled by manufacturers, but by the retailer. This is even true of paper books.

Other products may have *suggested* retail prices, but they are just that...suggestions. Retailers are free to sell for whatever price they want. Yes...there are exceptions to that rule, and it seems as if Apple is one of the exceptions, but even with Apple products I can buy an iPod Nano for $129 from Walmart even though it's $149 from the Apple Store, so it seems that stores are *allowed* to discount, it's just that most don't.

Shari

Now as per products, I know Amazon sets the price on their products.
Now as to Walmart, you might want to check the version of that Nano. I know sometimes Walmart gets a slightly different products than say Best Buy.

Now back to the original topic,
Have we figured out if all ebook sales are down or just the ones saying their sales are down.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by shalym

Other products may have *suggested* retail prices, but they are just that...suggestions. Retailers are free to sell for whatever price they want. Yes...there are exceptions to that rule, and it seems as if Apple is one of the exceptions, but even with Apple products I can buy an iPod Nano for $129 from Walmart even though it's $149 from the Apple Store, so it seems that stores are *allowed* to discount, it's just that most don't.

Shari

Also, price variation isn't just for discounting; sometimes it is a response to market conditions (inner city groceries at risk for regular robberies, for example). Sometimes, when products are in high demand or there is a shortage, the retailer will go well above MSRP even over manufacturer objections.

A classic example being the introduction of the MAZDA MIATA. Mazda priced it at $16k and dealer cost was well below that--typical for the time--but demand so seriously outstripped supply that practically all dealers sold them well above list. Some merely added ridiculously priced add-ons like paint preservatives and undercoating to diguise the profiteering but the more honest ones simply added "scarcity charge" or even "dealer profit" on the sticker. The options were either pay or wait a year for Mazda to ramp up production.

Even those that paid the premium got a good deal; it was really a great car and Mazda really mispriced it compared to the competition.

You see similar things with gaming consoles when they get very hot: suddenly they're only available in bundles with accessories and less than hot games. No outright gouging because retailers could find their supply cut off if they are too obvious about it but bundling in profit boosters is tolerated; it prevents write-downs on the unpopular games.

For several years in a row asian HDTV manufacturers (Sony, Samsung, LG, notably) tried forbidding discounting of new models beyond a small nominal amount (like 5%) and the retailers dutifully followed orders for six months, quietly watching Vizio and the chinese brands happily eat up market share and their stocks of non-discounted sets pile up until the manufacturers, whose warehouses were by then overflowing, relented. And then smart shoppers got their deals; 25-30% instead of 15-20%.

Price maintenance rarely works in open competitive markets; too many consumers are smart enough to wait out the market or just get a competing product. Which is why price fixers need conspiracies: all it takes is one player willing to let prices float to sink the fixers.