A bit dull, this post - and also selfishly targetted at readers, rather than poor, struggling authors (who I honestly do try to support while they're new and struggling, but by the time their publishers have names like Penguin and Avon I begin to notice the coins slipping from my pockets...) ;-)
Right, back to topic.
I've been an ebay-sceptic since 2002, when my sister bought a laptop that never materialised. I've got customers who have ebay shops, but from a personal point of view I've always found the idea of dropping a box of tat at oxfam far simpler than having to box it, seal it and take it to the postoffice (which has quite random opening hours, where I live).
Anyhoo... I was tempted and I've fallen, and now I can tease myself into a frenzy of indecision even more complex than ever before...
If I buy a typical US 'paperback ebook' (don't ask, its just in the price tag), the cost comes in at about $6.99 USD which
translates to about £3.75
Per-book Postage on ebay is typically £1.50 GBP. So if you can bid under £2.25 for a book, it's a
bargain - assuming you have storage space.
Which, by and large, I don't.
SO, next tip is to look out for the stonking great big rebates that
fictionwise occasionally has...
And the next tip, which is a recent discovery for me, is that
if you can read mobipocket files (which is what my phone can read, so I'm happy), then it's worth taking a look at
http://www.paperbackdigital.com/ which typically is about 60% retail price - yikes! bargains!
They don't have the range that fictionwise does, but if you're penny-pinching like me, who cares?
OKAAYYY a real life example type thing.... (I'm increasingly depressed by how anal I'm becoming in old age....)
The Vampire Who Loved Me by Teresa Medeiros (which is okay, by the way :-))
Fictionwise: $6.99... with rebate = $6.64 USD, =
£3.57Paperbackdigital: $4.68... with rebate = $4.61 USD =
£2.47Amazon: £3.76 GBP (plus postage, if you order less than £15 total)
(but then again, if you're the kind that likes to post things, you could potentially get a £2.25 rebate by re-selling it on ebay ... speaking of which... )
...currently on
ebay for 99p + $1.40 postage (although there's a day to go, so I dare say the price will go up)
okay... back to work...
