Price of books

I was going to buy the very same book, 1234567, but didn't because of the price differential. It was released when the dollar was actually worth MORE than the U.S. dollar.

Someone else, however, gave it to me as a Christmas gift. Which of course you'd know, if you hung upon my every word here, as any reasoned person of good taste does.

I wrote a review on it. I attempted to find reasons to not like it, you know. But all the same, I couldn't put the darn thing down.

Get it on sale, and enjoy.

[img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]

Oh, as far as why it's more, it's because of wanton gougery. The only defense is not to buy it. Or, if you don't like the pricing policy at "Chapters", go to their nearest competitor, "Indigo books" and see what their policy is.

Competition is what keeps these things from happening, thank goodness we don't stand for monopolies that add no value, but just increase prices here in Canada.

[ 26 January 2008: Message edited by: Tommy_Paine ]

I've been buying from Amazon for years. Even figuring in exchange, shipping, and so forth it has been a much better deal than any Canadian store/site. Orders of magnitude.

The only things I've bought from a "real bookstore" tend to be shlock fiction that I need for my next flight.

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Tommy P: Or, if you don't like the pricing policy at "Chapters", go to their nearest competitor, "Indigo books" and see what their policy is.

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Um, they are the same store.

And also to amazon.ca supporters abnormal and Boom Boom:

Please. If you can afford to pay a few dollars extra, support independent booksellers, bricks and mortar or online. Thank you.

Bragging about shopping on amazon is the equivalent of saying what a nice meal you had at McDonald's the other night.

Boom Boom's village has something fewer than 200 souls, and is located many hundreds of kilometers away from the nearest independent bookstore.

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Originally posted by Boom Boom:
[b]
ETA: A lot of folks are selling used CDs on Amazon as "collector's items" and these tend to be grossly overpriced. Before buying anything used on Amazon, check other sites first[/b]

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I bought a book recently, "Gardens of Imagination", a retro game programming book from 1994 for 12 cents. In the title of the ad, it said "book and disk." The book came in excellent shape except for the disk which was missing from the back of the book. I can't really complain about the price, and the missing source code [i]is[/i] printed there in the pages of the book.

What you can do, I've noticed, is try to confirm with the seller that a CD or disk, whatever, is included and will be shipped to you before you go through with the transaction. Some sellers declare in the ad that disks and CD's may or may not be included with used books. Amazon usually has a "New" and "Used" category, and you're more likely to receive the original CD with a newer book ie. out of print books still in the original shrink wrap. But good idea to compare the same book price on other sites, or even a local used book store.

Another suggestion: Buy USED books. It's way cheaper than buying a new book. I buy a lot of used hardcover books that are in beautiful shape and are cheaper than current paperbacks of the same book (I just bought a book--in near-new condition--today for $5 + $3.95 S/H and a new copy of that book in paperback is about $15). Again (and, believe me, I'm not getting a commission!!), I use abebooks.com (an association of about 13,000 independent booksellers from around the globe) to find most used books. I still like to browse used book stores but that's really hit-n-miss (you might happen across something that's interesting--and that's fun). But, if you're looking for a specific used book in a particular condition, online is the way to go.

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Originally posted by bigcitygal:
[b]

Um, they are the same store.

And also to amazon.ca supporters abnormal and Boom Boom:

Please. If you can afford to pay a few dollars extra, support independent booksellers, bricks and mortar or online. Thank you.

Bragging about shopping on amazon is the equivalent of saying what a nice meal you had at McDonald's the other night.[/b]

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*snicker* I know. I was being sardonically sarcastic.

The problem with supporting independent book sellers is that they are getting hard to find, and they are sometimes even frozen out of the market by the Chapters/Indigo monopoly, on certain books.

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Originally posted by Sven:
[b]Another suggestion: Buy USED books. It's way cheaper than buying a new book.[/b]

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And it guarantees that no writer in the world will ever make a living.

Actually, if it's a new release, you won't find that great a price break at used book stores. Good prices, sure, but not that great.

I buy new and used. I tend to buy new if it's something current, for just the reason you site, Lard. If I enjoy something, I want the artist to profit, whether it's books or music or movies.

However, the issue gets a little cloudy sometimes with music and movies, and being gouged by Chapters.

But my personal library's used books are usually out of print stuff, or rare hard cover versions of paper backs I bought and read before. (Anthony Burgess'"Kingdom of the Wicked" filling both catagories at once) And, I'm not sure Catalus, Julius Ceaser, de Sade, Voltaire, Cicero, or even Marcus Aurelius are in any position to claim royalties, or even complain at the moment.

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Oh. Just remembered something. The underlying issue on the pricing of books is fair exchange between the U.S. and Canadian dollars. While I haven't checked the business news today, I suspect the Looney is near par with the greenback.

The toll for the tunnel between Windsor and the Motor City Madhouse is a dollar more in Canadian funds.

[ 28 January 2008: Message edited by: Tommy_Paine ]

Unfortunately, I won't have much time for books, as I will be using right wing ideology to solve my toll issues by making my own tunnel under the Detroit river for the next couple of years.

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Originally posted by Lard Tunderin' Jeezus:
[b]Somehow, I don't see literacy as a major environmental challenge. Perhaps its a weakness on my part.[/b]

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So, as a general proposition, you must believe that libraries and used bookstores (at least in so far as they carry anything more than the works of dead writers) are a bad thing?

I've already said this in the other thread, but your personal attacks are out of line, LTJ. Sven has done nothing wrong in this thread. There is certainly no consensus on the left about whether buying things new or used is acceptable, and that includes books.

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Originally posted by Boom Boom:
[b]I wonder, in a socialist economy, would authors be paid by the state, and then their books distributed free to libraries? I wonder how this would work, given that some authors command a premium for their output, while some might receive considerably less. As it is, it seems a tremendous waste to have in some cases hundreds of thousands of books unsold and remainered for a considerable discount.[/b]

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I think that (authors paid by the state) would be true in a communist society but a socialist society, at least as I understand it, still has a significant free market component.

In any event, having the state decide who gets paid to be an author (and, hence, decide what gets written) is Orwellian.

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Originally posted by Sven:
I think that (authors paid by the state) would be true in a communist society but a socialist society, at least as I understand it, still has a significant free market component.

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That's actually what I thought, but I wasn't sure. That would still allow for tremendous waste of resources in unsold print materials. Perhaps all that unsold stuff is simply shredded and recycled.

I used to publish books. The reason the US sourced bookos are cheaper is the same reason I had to shut down my company. Canada Post's insanity when it comes to shipping rates and the neglect of the Canadian government, the public or the press to give a damn.

We are the only country in the Western world without a book or printed paper category for shipping. (We are also the only post office to use deep discounts to volume shippers below cost offest by smaller volume shippers - a sort of made-in-Canada reverse-Robin Hood policy.)

Shipping to Canada from outside is still fairly cheap - so things coming straight from US moving at US postal rates. I stopped publishing when it became so much cheaper to ship a book to Hawai from Ottawa than Winnipeg from Ottawa (one of many examples).

Our booksellers are forced to buy their US published books from Canadian distributors which is not a bad policy in one respect but when Canada Post takes its 20 pounds of flesh, the book cost landed in the bookstore is hugely different.

If you want to be able to go to a Canadian bookstore and buy a book for the price an American goes into a store there for, then you need to press the Canadian government to demand that Canada Post give us a book rate equivalent to that in the US. If the private US post office can do it, the public Canadian one should be able to.

I went to a meeting with Canada Post officials at the defunct postal council back in 1999 and was told that according to canada Post "We don't care if we are shipping books or screw drivers" The US postal service does care and it costs a lot less to send a book there than it does a screwdriver.

There is your reason. Call your MP. I tried to get press on this story back in 1993 when our shipping rates went up over 1000% (no typo - this was the ending of the Canadian Book rate that was better than the current US one- so we went from way better than the US to way worse almost overnight) with less than 4 weeks notice but was told it was not an important story.

Essentially this put the entire Canadian book industry on welfare by taking the market away. Good for established publishers as it is almost impossible for new ones to enter the industry-- how do you survive the floor performance when you sell every book at a loss? You can only make money with grants or crap best-seller material that ships in such high volume that you can get a break on the shipping. Gives the government an opportunity to have some control over what sorts of things you publish (and you thought this was a free country???). You may have noticed after that that there are fewer non-fiction books being published- this is because the granting agencies want literature only -- not stuff that gives people pause for thought on social policy (that might be uncanadian).

Of course since the publishers make their money per book via grants- even if they do not sell, where does this leave authors who need to make their money on royalties based on how many sell? -- yep screwed. It is the Canadian way. As for national unity and the idea that we should read Canadian culture- yep screwed. But if you know the right people that helps in the granting process.

Our book policy in this country is sick bullshit.

Anyway, now you know why we pay more in a Canadian bookstore: it is so that the government of Canada can have more countrol over what kinds of books are published here and so that Canada Post can make a buck so that they can deeply discount the admail they deliver to the door.

Feel Better? Well after 7 years out of the business I am still pissed. (You got me started...)

[ 30 January 2008: Message edited by: Sean in Ottawa ]

[ 30 January 2008: Message edited by: Sean in Ottawa ]

RE: Canada Post. I never dealt with ruder, stupider, slower, "couldn't-care-less" people in my life, especially at the branch in 1st Canadian Place (Toronto). Boy would they shit their pants if they were privatized.

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Originally posted by RosaL:
[b]Yeah, then you could pay them low wages and threaten them with job loss! No union, either![/b]

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The USPS employees remain unionized. You can privatize an organization without getting rid of unions.

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Originally posted by Sven:
[b]

Wait a sec...are you saying they "go postal" in Canada, too?? I thought that was strictly a US phenomenon.[/b]

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It is. But we're so colonized people lose sight of these things.

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Originally posted by 1234567:
[b]Yes, let the colonizers be colonized![/b]

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The colonizers in Canada always were colonized, first by Britain, and now by the U.S. I find myself unable to rejoice in it since it affects all of us who live here.

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Originally posted by 1234567:
[b]Aboriginals were affected by colonizers over 100 years ago. Now you know how we feel. [img]tongue.gif" border="0[/img] [/b]

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This isn't my country in any real sense of the word. I just live here. (And I come from a colonized country.)

[ 30 January 2008: Message edited by: RosaL ]

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Originally posted by 1234567:
[b]Well, not all of it is ours, meaning my people but we are trying to save land up here. But it's difficult. There is a law that says we can't stop prospector's so up here we have to really fight because they are going steamroll over some of the most beautiful land you have ever seen in your life. Anyway, I am drifting. Sorry.[/b]

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To pursue the drift :-) that's happening here too. The oil companies want the oil that's in first nations land.

interstingt - can you start a whole new thread on that concept, I'm not well versed in the governing distinctions and would love to learn more

Why not devolve if this measn transfers and the use of resources for the region? Vast as the area is would there not be enough resources to cover the costs?