Ebook Buying Addicts' Support Thread

[ReadingManiac]

I just spent .77 on a first in series book. That's my first one for over a month.

[Tarana]

Originally Posted by ReadingManiac

I just spent .77 on a first in series book. That's my first one for over a month.

It's insidious. They get you with .77 and then .99 and from there....

[iBeth]

Originally Posted by ReadingManiac

I just spent .77 on a first in series book. That's my first one for over a month.

Excellent! I hope you enjoy that book!

I am spending somewhat more . . . but my strategy to track purchases in a spreadsheet is helping. My goal is to spend no more than previous months, and my "stretch" goal is to spend less.

[ownedbycats]

I went through my Kobo wishlist and weeded it out. Either books I'd lost interest in (a few of them were "wait, why did I wishlist this?) and also using Library Extension to see what was available for borrowing.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I went through my Kobo wishlist and weeded it out. Either books I'd lost interest in (a few of them were "wait, why did I wishlist this?) and also using Library Extension to see what was available for borrowing.

Yep. It’s always worth revisiting a wishlist item once that first rush of enthusiasm has abated. More than anything, that’s the value of wishlists.

I check for library availability as soon as I identify a wishlist item and in addition to OverDrive, that can include paper/ILL if I’m desperate. The third qualifier that will get me to expunge a title from my wishlist is when the price hasn’t budged for years; the acknowledgment that if I haven’t been motivated to paying the going price yet, I never will.

[ownedbycats]

Is there a way to see the pricing history of a book?

[issybird]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Is there a way to see the pricing history of a book?

Ereaderiq, which I believe also works in Canada.

But for me, the quick and dirty method is that Amazon will show when a wishlist item has gone down in price since being added (although not when it’s gone up, heh). So when a book has languished on my list, and we can be talking for years, with no downward price movement, eventually I’ll purge it. Obviously I didn’t want it enough - even using funny money options like the monthly Spend $XX, Get $YY promotions - or it would have happened. It’ll never meet my price parameters for that title.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by issybird

So when a book has languished on my list, and we can be talking for years, with no downward price movement, eventually I’ll purge it.

I use ereaderiq, and it's true that items have stayed there since I first started using it. But I'm happy to wait.

Very occasionally, I'll decide I want to read something more than I want to wait for a special offer, and then I'll look around and see if Kobo has a big discount. But it's rarely cheaper at Kobo, even with a big discount.

[ownedbycats]

With my latest survey payout, I'm running into a weird issue: after cleaning out my wishlis, I know that all the books on it I'm somewhat interested in and aren't available on my Overdrive libraries.

But then should I just buy whatever appeals to me most at this moment, even if it' more expensive? Or should I get the cheaper ones to maximize how much reading I get?

I've heard of Parkinson's patients developing compulsive shopping after some time on medication. I wonder if I'm doing the opposite of that. I went for the more expensive book in any case.

[pdurrant]

I've been doing pretty well so far this year. This month I did take advantage of Amazon's "Spend £10, get £5" ebook offer, but instead of using it to buy (say) 15 discounted books, I bought three books that had been on my watch list for (literally) years - from 2014 in one case! (And three other books on my wish list that happened to get discounted this month.)

By a bit of convoluted arithmetic, I'm now counting those three books as costing just £2.49 each. Definitely a good buy.

Buying books I really want that haven't otherwise been discounted is a really good way to take advantage of such offers, IMO.

While the only books I regret this year were a set of 12 James Bond novels, where the offer prompted the want.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

By a bit of convoluted arithmetic, I'm now counting those three books as costing just £2.49 each. Definitely a good buy.

"creative accounting", surely?

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

"creative accounting", surely?

I've spent £10.95 on ebooks this month (so far). £2.97 was on three £0.99 offers from my watchlist. So £7.98 was spent on the other three books. But I still have £0.51 credit left, which will get spent on the next discounted book, so "really" I've only spent £7.47 on the three 'expensive' books, so that's £2.49 each....

[Tarana]

June was a wash out again, but mostly due to the StoryBundle. Can't not get humorous scifi - there is so little of it. Only one book purchased outside of my usual authors otherwise. July, so far, the same. This is for BOTH ebook and audio!

Addressing my other addiction of ereaders, Mom has decided she likes the PW3 over the Voyage, so that takes one out of my 15 ereader collection. I bought a Signature that I didn't need (delivery August 8), so I have to sell off two ereaders or Fires (We are downsizing, so for each thing in, two things out).

[ReadingManiac]

Originally Posted by Tarana

It's insidious. They get you with .77 and then .99 and from there....

But I'm a hard sell on a series. Most of them the first book is the best one and it's downhill from there. With a few exceptions of course.

[spacepope]

Coming back here since my backlist of unread e-books has shot up a lot and I need the willpower to stop before it become a big problem!

I have 33 books marked as unread. I did purge about 10~15 books over the past month or so just because I had no interest in reading them anymore and/or tried out the first chapter and DNF'd. I have kept my bar for DNF'ing extremely low during this which helps a lot.

I just feel like I have a lot of clutter in my backlog so I'm gonna clamp down over the next two months and not buy anything and just blitz through the books. I feel like they're weighing me down - so many starts to book series. I am scared to try them just in case I get sucked into a new series, but I really need to actually try them.

I will say, focusing on this paid e-book backlock has introduced me to some books I never expected to like as much as I did. So it's already paying dividends!