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Weird two tier pricing for some Kindle books?

bfollowell

bfollowell

Captain
Captain
I've been looking to pickup some new books for my Kindle and noticed some weird price differences on some titles. Most of these seem to be on Star Trek novels but that may just be because that was mostly what I was looking at at the time.

Anyway, I noticed quite a few titles available for two different prices. One would be $7.99 and the other would be $6.39. Most of them were released on the same day and listed the same number of pages, though some of the examples I found may have been released a few weeks to a couple of months apart. The main difference I can see is that, invariably, the lower priced version will be much larger, in the 1500 kb to 1900 kb range. The higher priced versions will typically be much smaller, in the 200 kb to 500 kb range.

Oh, one other thing, though both versions are sold through Amazon, I just noticed that the smaller, more expensive versions say they're sold by Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc, while the larger, less expensive versions say they're sold by Amazon Digital Services.

It really seems strange that Amazon would be selling the same title at different sizes and prices. Have any of you ever noticed this before? Does anyone know anything about this? I've listed some examples below.

Just curious.

Thanks.

- Byron Followell

http://www.amazon.com/Crucible-Kirk...WVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1285626711&sr=1-1
219 KB
294 pages
February 27, 2007
B000NY121O
http://www.amazon.com/Crucible-Kirk...ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1285626711&sr=1-1
1077 KB
294 pages
February 27, 2007
B003YCQ5FU
http://www.amazon.com/Crucible-McCo...WVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1285626875&sr=1-2
959 KB
640 pages
August 29, 2006
B000JMKRG6
http://www.amazon.com/Crucible-McCo...ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1285626875&sr=1-2
1785 KB
640 pages
August 29, 2006
B003YCQ05A
http://www.amazon.com/Crucible-Spoc...8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1285626966&sr=1-1-fkmr1
503 KB
400 pages
November 28, 2006
B000MGATYE
http://www.amazon.com/Crucible-Spoc...8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1285627025&sr=1-3-fkmr1
1060 KB
400 pages
November 28, 2006
B003Z6QAEG
http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Aca...8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1285627063&sr=1-2-fkmr0
549 KB
464 pages
October 16, 2007
B000UZJRT0
http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-Aca...8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&qid=1285627063&sr=1-2-fkmr0
1026 KB
464 pages
October 16, 2007
B003YCQ11S
 
That's really strange. I haven't actually seen that before.

I wonder if Amazon is trying to pull some legal trickery to get around the agency-driven pricing model, and offer their own versions somehow.

Anyone feel like experimenting, and buying both to see if they're any different?
 
That really was happening for a while. I got A Singular Destiny last week for $6.39 because there were two listed Kindle versions. Guess that's gone now.
 
Yes, they were there when I originally posted this a few weeks ago. If you'll look at the links and compare, you'll see one listed for $7.99 and the other, the used to say $6.99 or $6.39, no says "Pricing information not available."

Someone from Amazon must've been lurking in here and realized something was going on and closed that loophole!

- Byron
 
You're probably right. Amazon wouldn't have done it.

I probably ruined it for everyone by posting in the first place. Sorry 'bout that guys. It looks like I cost all the Kindle Star Trek lovers out there a buck or two per book.

My sincere apologies.

- Byron
 
Why is S&S charging $5.99 for SCE/CoE when $5.99 should be the price for a full novel.
 
JWolf said:
Why is S&S charging $5.99 for SCE/CoE when $5.99 should be the price for a full novel.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure. From what I've seen, the SCE/CoE books have always cost $5.99, when they had just come out anyway, but maybe not as they got a little older. Other, non-ebook only novels seem to go for $6.99 and $7.99 (mostly $7.99). It seems like Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other retailers have a little discretion to offer better pricing on their paper novels but from what I've seen S&S pretty much demands full price for their ebooks.

I agree with you though. I think the prices should be a little lower. Of course, isn't that the way it's always been? Those providing goods feel like they're practically giving them away and those of us wanting to purchase those same goods feel like we're getting gouged! I'm sure the truth is somewhere in between those two views.

- Byron
 
I have a Kindle, but the thing that cheeses me off no end is the fact that I'm paying REAL book price for something that doesn't involve postage, shipping, storage, handling, or actual consumption of pulp and ink. That's just not right. It makes the publisher (or seller -- not sure how the profit breakdown goes in Kindlestuff) get an INCREDIBLE markup for a book that the writer is still getting the same paltry royalty for.

In addition to being just wrong (e-books should not cost the same as REAL books), that's also patently financially unfair to the writers.
 
eBooks are real books. Just in a different format. But I do agree that they should cost less then their paper counterpart.
 
What none of you seem to understand is that the printing and shipping of books is actually 10-15% of the total cost of producing the book.

We should be lucky they're charging us more - the agency model is a bad model.
 
BrotherBenny said:
What none of you seem to understand is that the printing and shipping of books is actually 10-15% of the total cost of producing the book.

We should be lucky they're charging us more - the agency model is a bad model.
Click to expand...

I understand. There's just not a lot we can do about it other then not buy anything from the Agency 5. But when you don't buy something from them, it's best to send them a messages somehow telling them why you aren't buying something you otherwise would have. Otherwise, they just think it's due to lack of interest.
 
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