Comments on: Books to remain expensive

By: Francis Xavier Holden

Francis Xavier Holden — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:39:03 +0000

I’m sad for my local bookshop and Australian (ignorant) authors.

And yes I’ve had a good experience with amazon when I sent about $200 worth of books to my daughter in Taiwan.

They never arrived – I suspect because they were knocked off somewhere in Taiwan but Amazon refunded me the lot – no hassle – I naturally re-ordered all of them and they arrived – so I’m assuming they think I’m honest for next
time.

By: hc

hc — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:57:40 +0000

FXH, I’ll certainly give it a go though, as I say, I have a lot of time for Amazon. Whenever anything has gone wrong they refund or replace.

What a disaster though for Australian book consumers that we have to buy from overseas!

By: fxh

fxh — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:06:22 +0000

If you click through – its misleading because even though they are dearer Readings and Collins don’t have it in stock – and Collins adds this helpful reminder to order direct from overseas:

“This title is ordered from an overseas publisher and may take up to 45 days to ship. It is also subject to publisher availability. Allow a few extra days for delivery.”

By: fxh

fxh — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:02:57 +0000

all prices INCLUDE postage

By: fxh

fxh — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:02:07 +0000

Superfreakonomics: A Tale of Altruism, Terrorism and Poorly Paid Prostitution
Steven D. Levitt EAN: 978-0713999907 Format: Hardcover Publisher: Allen Lane
Published: October 2009

In au$ – all plus postage

Book Depository UK $25.78
Amazon UK $32.24

Local:
Readings $66.45
Collins Booksellers$66.90

By: fxh

fxh — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:55:53 +0000

harry use http://www.booko.com.au/ to compare prices

By: fxh

fxh — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:54:51 +0000

harry – book depository is extremely reliable – in most cases books arrive on my doorstep within 7 days.

It is free postage. And they send books as available so you don’t have to put a package together. So often I can get a book delivered each day ..

They leave it on doorstep or post box so you don’t have to go to Post Office if you are not home.

The good thing is that they also show you the Amazon price on the Book Depository page so you can compare.

I’ve been told by others that Amazon UK is cheaper to buy from + postage than amazon USA.

By: derrida derider

derrida derider — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:39:35 +0000

As you wish, Harry, but I find BookDepository mostly a bit cheaper than Amazon once you factor in shipping. And their service is first-rate. If you’re happy with secondhand or if the book is out of print then you really can’t go past Abebooks – especially as its network does include a lot of Australian secondhand bookshops.

I buy lots of books but I very rarely buy at bookshops – it’s just too expensive and you’re limited by what they’re choosing to promote and stock. FXH is dead right about the authors though – they’re quite clueless as to their own interests. And Uncle Milton is right about Emerson – you can see he got rolled in Cabinet and now has to publicly grin and bear it while eating the shit sandwich in public, just as we are used to seeing Garrett do.

By: hc

hc — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:05:05 +0000

FXH, I spent a few minutes checking out ‘bookdepository’ in my field of economics. They have a good range of books – including reprints of out-of-prints and the claimed free postage would help. On the recent Freakonomics they quoted $20-77US compared to Amazon’s $16-47US which would be about the same given Amazon’s postage charges. I spend a lot at Amazon so I’ll keep this in mind but I like Amazon. Very good service and now a vast range now available for kindle.

By: Francis Xavier Holden

Francis Xavier Holden — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:03:47 +0000

Harry – I’ve joined the fray over at LP.

“Local authors don’t like this because their dependence on goverrnment handouts becomes explicit ”

I don’t agree – I think (actually I know) the authors are just dopey about how business works and they have been intimidated and brainwashed by their publishers.

and Uncle Milton -if you are buying from Amazon you are being ripped off – bookdepository.co.u kor look up booko to compare prices.