Classic B&N ebooks still more expensive than Kindle. Will they lower prices?

[Kolenka]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

we don't pay a yearly state tax here, I have no idea how this works/would work

No, we don't (I'm pretty close to downtown Seattle *wave*).

However, we also have a use tax. So if I go down to Portland, OR, where there isn't sales tax, buy an item, and bring it back home to Seattle. I'm expected to pay the use tax on that item. The use tax pretty much amounts to sales tax on the value of the item (using your residence as the location to figure out local/county sales taxes), minus any sales taxes you already paid to another state. WA's DOR has a page here: http://dor.wa.gov/content/FindTaxesAndRates/UseTax/

The expectation is that there is no specific schedule for the use tax unless you are a business, AFAIK.

As I said, because the expectation is that the buyer files and pays the use tax, enforcement is a hair-pulling affair, with the possible exception of big ticket items like vehicles which need to be licensed in the state.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

Here in CT we are required to pay a Use Tax equal to our Sales Tax on internet purchases if not charged by the seller. We must add it on our annual income tax return.

Originally Posted by Kolenka

Well, it gets stickier than that. If you 'operate' in a state with sales tax, your online sales to that residents of that state have to include tax. B&N having a store in every state pretty much guarantees that they collect sales tax for all the states that collect revenue this way. States may also require that online retailers who want to ship to a state to collect sales tax, as if they were operating in the state even if they don't have a physical location in the state.

Amazon has warehouses littered across the country, and so every state they have a warehouse in, that requires collection of sales tax, will require that Amazon collects sales tax for that state.

But yeup, you are right, nonetheless.

EDIT: And sirmaru catches the other side of the coin that I totally forgot about. Many states require residents file use tax on purchases made out of state and brought in (including online purchases). Very few people actually do it, and enforcement would be hair-pulling at best. WA state also does this, but most people don't even know you are supposed to, let alone actually do it.

Originally Posted by Kolenka

No, we don't (I'm pretty close to downtown Seattle *wave*), we pay straight sales tax.

However, we also have a use tax. So if I go down to Portland, OR, where there isn't sales tax, buy an item, and bring it back home to Seattle. I'm expected to pay the use tax on that item. The use tax pretty much amounts to sales tax on the value of the item (using your residence as the location to figure out local/county sales taxes), minus any sales taxes you already paid to another state. WA's DOR has a page here: http://dor.wa.gov/content/FindTaxesAndRates/UseTax/

The expectation is that there is no specific schedule for the use tax unless you are a business, AFAIK.

As I said, because the expectation is that the buyer files and pays the use tax, enforcement is a hair-pulling affair, with the possible exception of big ticket items like vehicles which need to be licensed in the state.

I am so glad I don't live in the States - seems like you all have to be certified accountants just to know what tax you should or shouldn't be paying on anything.

I couldn't handle that myself

[Kolenka]

It's a weird interaction between giving the states the power to determine what and how they tax, and the federal government being able to say that states don't have any real border between each other (unlike say, the UK and France, or France and Spain). You can't enforce tariffs or the like for goods coming in, and so you get things like use taxes to make up for lost revenue, but then if they aren't collected on a schedule, there is no real publicity about them.

Taxes could be more straight-forward in the US, I agree... but in the case of the use tax, it is more a failure of the local state to make the tax easy to comply with, and putting the notice you actually owe tax in the basement behind a door marked with a sign that reads "Beware of the Leopard."

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by Kolenka

No, we don't (I'm pretty close to downtown Seattle *wave*).

However, we also have a use tax. So if I go down to Portland, OR, where there isn't sales tax, buy an item, and bring it back home to Seattle. I'm expected to pay the use tax on that item. The use tax pretty much amounts to sales tax on the value of the item (using your residence as the location to figure out local/county sales taxes), minus any sales taxes you already paid to another state. WA's DOR has a page here: http://dor.wa.gov/content/FindTaxesAndRates/UseTax/

The expectation is that there is no specific schedule for the use tax unless you are a business, AFAIK.

As I said, because the expectation is that the buyer files and pays the use tax, enforcement is a hair-pulling affair, with the possible exception of big ticket items like vehicles which need to be licensed in the state.

*waves back* boy I found out about the "import tax" in spades! when I first came out here as a single Mom of two before the cat tag fees were repealed, I had to license my car, and pay that tax, get two kids who had September birthdays ready for school all in September. I wasn't very financially set. boy was that a jolt!

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

I am so glad I don't live in the States - seems like you all have to be certified accountants just to know what tax you should or shouldn't be paying on anything.

I couldn't handle that myself

well obviously a lot of us haven't a clue!

[Nitrousoxide]

Originally Posted by juj1n

So the Nook definitely takes the cake over the Kindle as far as the device goes but I think I may have been caught up in the hype... After doing a random sampling of books I've found that amazon almost always has significantly lower prices on books that aren't on the New York Times Bestseller List.

For example

Gates of Fire
Kindle: $6.39
Nook: $7.99

The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier's Education
Kindle: $9.99
Nook: $14.99

Sookie Stackhouse Set
Kindle: $29.90
Nook: $51.13

Joker One: A Marine Platoon's Story of Courage, Leadership, and Brotherhood
Kindle: $9.99
Nook: $20.80

Kite Runner
Kindle: $9.51
Nook: $11.20

The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters
Kindle: $9.99
Nook: $9.99

The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives
Kindle: $9.99
Nook: $12.00

Do you think that B&N will lower their prices to match or is this the price of their ebooks because they able to be read on multiple devices (pc, mac, bb, iphone, etc)

I looked up every book here again today and every single one, with the exception of Kite Runner which was 25 cents more, was price matched to the kindle store.

I also did some searches for other books that had previously been more expensive on the BN ebook store like the Lord of the Rings pack and it's actually priced lower than Amazon. In fact, Kite Runner is the only book that I've found that isn't either price matched or lower on the BN store now.

[juj1n]

Yep!!! I'm so happy BN addressed the pricing on books!! =D

[cubeball]

Hm ..... but there are still some books tat cost alot more by B&N, under author stephen king

salem's lot -$26 (B&N), $7.19 (Amazon)
The Stand - $16.25 (B&N) $8.09 (Amazon)
The Shinning - $26 (B&N) $7.19 (Amazon)

these are hust a few of them. i dun mind if it's a dollar or 2 but not such a big gap

[bgalbrecht]

Originally Posted by cubeball

Hm ..... but there are still some books tat cost alot more by B&N, under author stephen king

salem's lot -$26 (B&N), $7.19 (Amazon)
The Stand - $16.25 (B&N) $8.09 (Amazon)
The Shinning - $26 (B&N) $7.19 (Amazon)

these are hust a few of them. i dun mind if it's a dollar or 2 but not such a big gap

I think the problem with these Stephen King novels is that Random House has the hardcover and ebook rights, and is pricing the ebooks at hardcover prices, and Pocket Books (Simon & Schuster) has the paperback rights. I'm guessing that Amazon is losing a lot of money on these books, because Fictionwise was selling them at the hardcover prices also. I was going to boycott them, but Fictionwise had them in a 100% micropay rebate sale, and I succumbed, even though I think it sends the wrong message to Random House.

[Bic]

For the best comparisons of e-book prices, just go to Inkmesh.com - they'll show you the prices for the books you want at each of the major sites (Amazon, B&N, Sony, etc.)

[cubeball]

Originally Posted by bgalbrecht

I think the problem with these Stephen King novels is that Random House has the hardcover and ebook rights, and is pricing the ebooks at hardcover prices, and Pocket Books (Simon & Schuster) has the paperback rights. I'm guessing that Amazon is losing a lot of money on these books, because Fictionwise was selling them at the hardcover prices also. I was going to boycott them, but Fictionwise had them in a 100% micropay rebate sale, and I succumbed, even though I think it sends the wrong message to Random House.

the prices for the books actually came down to match Amazon xcept for salem's lot, am thinking tat someone out there is reading tis forum n he/she is from B&N

thank you, thank you who ever you are

[cubeball]

some e-book prices at B&N just went up by 10% i've notice tat the prices of certain popular fiction just changes from day to day, sometimes up, sometimes down. Hm....

[FatDog]

Is there any ebook price aggregation/comparison site like www.dvdpricesearch.com ?

It would be a site where you would type in your favorite books and it would go out to Amazon, B&N and Sony and return you a grid of the current price for each and show you a total who has it cheaper.

While we love the hardware - chances are the price of the software we buy over the years will eclipse the price of the reader.

[bookwerm]

Originally Posted by FatDog

Is there any ebook price aggregation/comparison site like www.dvdpricesearch.com ?

It would be a site where you would type in your favorite books and it would go out to Amazon, B&N and Sony and return you a grid of the current price for each and show you a total who has it cheaper.

While we love the hardware - chances are the price of the software we buy over the years will eclipse the price of the reader.

inkmesh.com and addall.com and ebookprice.info are all websites that let you search for a specific title and it returns the current selling price for all ebook retailers (amazon, b&n, sony, kobo, etc.).

[ajamudc]

Originally Posted by FatDog

Is there any ebook price aggregation/comparison site like www.dvdpricesearch.com ?

It would be a site where you would type in your favorite books and it would go out to Amazon, B&N and Sony and return you a grid of the current price for each and show you a total who has it cheaper.

While we love the hardware - chances are the price of the software we buy over the years will eclipse the price of the reader.

Try Inkmesh.com. They provide comparison pricing between ebook stores.

[dugong]

I would like to know if anyone has any insight into why some B&N ebook prices do not come down when a book comes out in the paperback edition. They remain at the level set when the hardbound edition was release. This seems to be a frequent case among Sci Fi titles. For example for two books, Weaver by Stephen Baxter and Maelstrom by Taylor Anderson, the paperbacks are in B&N stores for $7.99, but the ebook prices are still $18.99. I've watched the prices on these books for three weeks now.

I wrote an email inquiry to Ebooks.com about this and they said they couldn't make changes because the prices are set by the publisher. Could it also be the case that they Ebooks.com does not have a mechanism to flag titles when they come out in paperback to bring it to the attention of the publisher.

Amazon generally brings down the prices sooner than B&N. Are they taking a loss, or are they negotiating better prices from the publisher?

In cases like this, I won't buy an ebook if there is a cheaper paperback price. If necessary, I will abandon the Nook and buy a Kindle.