Alan Posted February 18, 2012 Report Share Posted February 18, 2012 I am puzzled by the pricing strategy for Brandon's e-books. Right now on Amazon you can buy the Mistborn trilogy boxed set for $14.61. If you buy the identical Kindle edition, however, you have to pay $22.99. E-books should always be cheaper than paper. They have no printing costs, no shipping costs, and can't be loaned or given away. Can anyone explain how this makes sense? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vivenna Posted February 18, 2012 Report Share Posted February 18, 2012 (edited) Well, I don't work for amazon, so I can't say for sure, but the box set on amazon is probably on sale. For online bookstores, the prices are often really cheap (not necessarily compared to the ebook price, but definitely compared to an in-store price). Part of that is because they don't have to pay to ship out like bookstores do, but it's also because online, they have a lot of sale prices all the time. EDIT - Just checked, and it likely is on sale - if you see the crossed out price, it's usually $23.97. Another thing to keep in mind is that mass markets paperbacks are already pretty cheap, so their ebook counterpart is often the same price, or only a dollar cheaper. Compared to, say, hardcover books, whose ebook counterparts are usually much cheaper. Edited February 18, 2012 by Vivenna Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eerongal Posted February 18, 2012 Report Share Posted February 18, 2012 Yeah, the paperbacks appear to be on sale (probably because of overstock, thats usually why things are on sale on amazon, they want to get rid of them). That being said, i personally don't agree with e-book pricing schemes because they are usually so close in price point to the paper backs that it's more value for you to get a physical copy. Though, i personally only get hardback books anyways when possible.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aethling Posted February 20, 2012 Report Share Posted February 20, 2012 The Mistborn trilogy box set has been in the $15 range on Amazon for probably a year or more. Amazon's normal answer is that they do not set the prices for ebooks, those are set by the publishing company. I do not know if that is the truth of the matter or not, but I have seen hardcovers of books list for less than the ebook version. Stuff like that is just crazy (I would normally say a word that has a nickname for a donkey in it.) But then, you have to like the hardheadedness of companies that continue to stand by a broken business model like ebooks selling for more than printed books. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eerongal Posted February 21, 2012 Report Share Posted February 21, 2012 The Mistborn trilogy box set has been in the $15 range on Amazon for probably a year or more. Amazon's normal answer is that they do not set the prices for ebooks, those are set by the publishing company. I do not know if that is the truth of the matter or not, but I have seen hardcovers of books list for less than the ebook version. Stuff like that is just crazy (I would normally say a word that has a nickname for a donkey in it.) But then, you have to like the hardheadedness of companies that continue to stand by a broken business model like ebooks selling for more than printed books. Right, but the thing is, e-books and physical books are essentially selling on two different business models. E-books sell on like a 70/30 split (i think) on a price set by the publishers. This didn't used to be the case (back when amazon sold all e-books at like 9.99), but it is what it is now However, physical books are sold on a wholesale method that standard physical items are sold on. Amazon bought X copies of books at Y price, and they have their own discretion on HOW to sell those books, and they have a pretty clear operating cost of "go below this and we lose money". So if they have a huge overstock of some particular book, it does them no good to have these books sitting around cluttering up space in a warehouse somewhere. Those books are taking up space that something that's moving faster could be occupying. As a result, they're willing to lower the price in order to encourage movement in a particular product. Then there's also the fact that amazon may be using physical books as a loss leader in some instances, something they can't do (and likely wouldn't want to) with an e-book Because of this fixed price for digital vs standard sales model of physical goods, it ends up resulting in things like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterAhlstrom Posted February 21, 2012 Report Share Posted February 21, 2012 Amazon's business model on all physical books is to sell them at a discount and make only a small profit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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