by | January 15, 2015 · 1:37 am
↓ Jump to Comments

Sticker Shock.

Price_Tag_99+TX_99_cents_+_taxI want to enjoy reading books, but I have difficulty reading from screens, so I buy paper books. Not counting university textbooks, the most I’ve paid for a hardcover is $64.99, but that wasn’t SRP. Otherwise, I’ve paid up to the low $30s, also for hardcover. I have no objection to paying into the mid-$20s for a paperback, but most of what I’ve bought new has been in the $8 to $15 range. (Used books are another story.)

When is the price right for you?

How much would you pay for a new paper book?(required)

450px-Price_tag_with_punched_coding.agr

 

4 Comments

Filed under books, shopping, survey, Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , ,

4 responses to “Sticker Shock.”

  1. Thomas Weaver
    January 15, 2015 at 2:01 am

    There was once a book of poetry I wanted very badly. USED copies of it were being sold for upwards of $130, and if I could have afforded to pay so much, I’d have bought one. That was a rather extreme situation, though.

    I really haven’t bought many new print books in recent years, but most of those were hardcovers because I didn’t want to for the paperback to come out (latest book in a series). I never expect any discount off cover price, although I do like it when there is one.

    I don’t want to pay more for an e-book than I’d pay for a paperback of the same novel; $14 for the digital version is ridiculous when the paperback is only $9. I don’t know why some publishers do that — once the paperback is out, it isn’t as if a lower-priced e-book is going to take sales away from the hardcover.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • christineplouvier
      January 15, 2015 at 12:43 pm

      That was a shame, to have to take a pass on that poetry you wanted.

      Even if I can get a statistically significant sample size, my “survey” will be unavoidably affected by self-selection bias, but my hypothesis is that we who write (whether or not we’ve published anything between covers) have a different kind of relationship with words, which may be manifested by how we make a word-purchasing decision. Your insight on e-book vs paperback pricing and hardcover sales is interesting.

      Thanks for visiting, and taking the time to respond.

      Like

      Reply
  2. rachelcarrera
    April 25, 2015 at 9:44 pm

    I feel stupid…. I have no idea what an SRP even is! 😦

    Like

    Reply

Light A Fire Here:

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.