Especially since his "cheap" alternative is still way overpriced for Book One. Seriously, anyone who doesn't have that book yet in some format, better goes for a used pBook copy, which you can get on the (German) Amazon Marketplace for less than a Euro plus shipping.
When it comes to the price for E-books, I really don't mind spending the full paperback price for them since chances are if I was getting a paperback version from a bookstore or one of the websites I'd probably be paying that much anyways. I'm even willing to pay a little since I'm saving the gas and time of having to go to the book store or pay for shipping. Now there is a certain point where I draw the line. The first Kahn book is a great example of that, I refuse to pay $24.03 for something that was $7.99 a couple months ago. But if it's like $9 or $10, I'm more than willing to pay that.
I think the biggest problem with eBook prices is that they can't compete with used books. I've gotten at least 3 (at the time) brand new books at ~$1.50 by lurking around thrift stores. Even if you can't find some at local places, you can probably find them online for significantly less than MSRP, even with inflated shipping costs. eBooks (and most digital media) need to adopt a more Steam like sales model to really get people to go all in with eBooks legally.
You mean where there's an occasional firesale, but generally they're the same price or more expensive than their retail counterparts?