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I’m always on the hunt for new information. Often, that information is in the form of books, especially business books.
I’m a huge fan of real, physical books, but lately I’ve had need for more portable books for various reasons. This is where eBooks come to save the day.
I love the portability of eBooks and as long as I have a computer, I can usually access them. Additionally, there are a ton of great resources available, that only come in eBook form such as many or ProBlogger’s eBooks.
Three days ago, I purchased and read ProBlogger’s latest offering “BlogWise“, and it was fantastic. I’m a big fan of Brian Clark (featured in the book), so it was awesome to get tips from him (Read the BlogWise eBook Review).
eBook Price Comparison
I began looking at eBooks, but being the frugal person I am, I wanted to get the lowest price possible, which lead me to wondering: which store has the lowest eBook prices?
I chose a list of 10 eBooks that I’ve looked at over the past few weeks and compared the prices across the 4 most popular services for purchasing eBooks: Amazon, Nook, Google Books, and iTunes. I have to say, I’m a bit surprised that the prices were nearly identical across all stores!
eBook Price Collusion?
I’ve written previously about companies getting in trouble with the law for eBook price collusion, but I’m wondering if it is a bit more rampant than we might have thought.
Looking at the prices below on 10 ebooks that were basically selected randomly, only one book had any price variation whatsoever: I Moved Your Cheese.
eBook Price Comparison Chart
| eBook Title | Amazon | Nook | iTunes | Avg. | ||
| The Lean Startup | $12.99 | $12.99 | $12.99 | $12.99 | $12.99 | Tie |
| Change by Design | $14.99 | $14.99 | $14.99 | $14.99 | $14.99 | Tie |
| Rework | $11.99 | $11.99 | $11.99 | $11.99 | $11.99 | Tie |
| The Strategist: Be the… | $14.99 | $14.99 | $14.99 | $14.99 | $14.99 | Tie |
| Purple Cow | $17.99 | $17.99 | $17.99 | $17.99 | $17.99 | Tie |
| Tribes | $16.99 | $16.99 | $16.99 | $16.99 | $16.99 | Tie |
| Linchpin | $12.99 | $12.99 | $12.99 | $12.99 | $12.99 | Tie |
| I Moved Your Cheese | $9.99 | $11.37 | $9.18 | $9.99 | $10.13 | |
| The $100 Startup | $11.99 | $11.99 | $11.99 | $11.99 | $11.99 | Tie |
| Delivering Happiness | $10.99 | $10.99 | $10.99 | $10.99 | $10.99 | Tie |
| Average | $13.59 | $13.73 | $13.51 | $13.59 |
The odds of each of these books having the same price across multiple stores seems unlikely unless prices have been somewhat “arranged.” Maybe I’m making something out of nothing, but this definitely makes me question the competitive practices in the eBook market.
Who Has the Lowest eBook Prices?
I guess if we want to be technical, then Google is the winner, but this is really on a technicality. When only 1 out of my 10 books has a different price, I think there are more important questions that need to be explored. I might continue doing this experiment just to see if it is as pervasive as it appears.
What do you think of my findings on this? I’ve heard historically the book publishing industry has been questionable with its pricing practices, is this just business as usual? Could the same argument be made for music downloads? Where does activity like this cross into immoral or anti-capitalistic?
About Wealth Artisan
I have a kindle and have really never price compared. Which is good to see this, because it doesn’t make that much of a difference, apparently!
Hey Daisy!
Yeah, in one way it’s kind of nice to know that you can just pick the eReader that you prefer and not have to worry that you will need to pay more for eBooks just because you like their device better, but at the same time, I’m a bargain hunter with a tablet.
I have the Kindle app, Nook app, Google Play app, and so forth. So, price differences would have only been beneficial for me. I must say, based on my findings, I went with Kindle because I really like the way their app works (being that price doesn’t apparently matter).
Thanks,
TImothy
Very interesting survey mate! I’m surprised to see price differences among platforms.
Is there a price that is TOO HIGH in your mind where you wouldn’t buy an eBook eg. over $20 etc? Or, if the book is sufficiently interesting enough, and could potentially make you tons of money, you are more flexible on price?
Cheers
Hey Sam,
Great question! I don’t set price limitations on eBooks or Physical books. I look solely at the value I believe they will provide. I do place a higher value on physical books, but I think that’s just my old-schoolness. I think people in general place a higher value on physical products over digital ones.
Recently, I purchased an eBook/Physical book package for over $70.00. The eBook itself would have been only $25ish dollars, but I really wanted the physical version as well because I knew I would be using it as a constant reference.
The books I chose on the list I only selected because they are well known, and very popular business and marketing books. They just happen to be inexpensive as well. I consume a lot of business and marketing leadership content on a daily basis and these were some of the books I’ve had in my crosshairs.
I actually ended up picking up Reword and the $100 Start Up eBooks on Monday and have been reading through them. I bought them from Amazon. Thanks for stopping in!
Thanks,
Timothy
Interesting that there weren’t any sales or anything going on. I think that unfortunately it is just how it is an we’ll have to get used to it. There are costs in making e-books, just not physical material costs.
Hey Lance!
I think you’re right. What eBooks do, do for us is allow independent authors to publish their books. Because of this, we’ll probably see an unrealizable drop in the price of eBooks because we won’t have the giant publishing houses tacking their fees onto the price of the eBook.
I love the idea of purchasing a book and knowing the author will get the majority of the royalties. Finally, the publishing playing field has been leveled.
Thanks,
TImothy
Somehow it’s not that surprising as all the online stores have access to each other’s pricing via their websites, so no one wants to price their ebooks any higher or lower than the others. It is almost price collusion, but not really.
Personally I prefer to just get all my ebooks from my local library’s ebook collection. There are a ton of new release books, as well as classics like the Harry Potter series in their collection. I have only bought one or two books since getting my kindle, the rest have been library loans.
Hey Peter,
I can’t say I’ve explored that option at all. I’ll have to do a bit of research and see how that works out. I sure hope there aren’t any late fees with that! LOL.
Thanks,
Timothy