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Post by BlueAndGold on Aug 24, 2020 12:18:38 GMT
Two of our promotional books are currently on sale at Amazon:
14 Fourteeners is currently on sale for less than Lulu's printing cost,
and...
I might have to stock up through Amazon instead of Lulu this time around!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 24, 2020 15:42:55 GMT
Those are incredible prices for your 2 books as compared to Lulu's prices. I hope the postage is equally good.
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Post by And Kevin 2024 on Aug 25, 2020 1:02:55 GMT
Amazon often do that. It's their loss because you still get the usual percentage.
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Post by BlueAndGold on Aug 25, 2020 1:06:54 GMT
It just struck me that if I bought a large lot of them I would make a profit on the buy!
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Post by And Kevin 2024 on Aug 25, 2020 1:13:22 GMT
Indeed, if you have a use for them!
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sirram
Senior Printer
No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money
Posts: 269
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Post by sirram on Aug 25, 2020 9:47:53 GMT
My family history book, published in 2019, has a sales price of £7.50 (UKP) and, before Lulu's botched migration it was available at Lulu, Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc., as one would expect. But a quick check just now shows some strange results.
Lulu has it at £7.50 (UKP), which is correct.
It's also on Amazon but they only have one copy left, selling at £5.02 with free UK shipping. But why only one copy left when it's a PoD book?
Barnes & Noble has it at $10.80 (USD) with free US shipping and no limit on number of copies (i.e. as one would expect with PoD).
Curiously, the book is also available on ebay. A seller in the USA claims to have five copies available ($14.13 with free US shipping). A UK seller is asking £9.61, with free UK shipping. Strangely, this UK seller describes book's condition as "brand new"!
Any thoughts?
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Post by BlueAndGold on Aug 25, 2020 12:06:53 GMT
sirram: It is very common to see multiple advertisers on Amazon selling "used" copies of any book long before such copies exist. I have personally seen "used, like new" copies for sale on Amazon when the only copy in existence is the proof copy sitting on my desk.
The world is full of scammers.
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Post by BlueAndGold on Aug 25, 2020 12:39:47 GMT
I tried to make a killing on Amazon's sale but they have a limit of 4 copies per customer. Ah, well. 4 copies at below my printing cost is still something, anyway. I wish they would do that with my other books.
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sirram
Senior Printer
No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money
Posts: 269
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Post by sirram on Aug 25, 2020 13:39:34 GMT
But why would Amazon say they only have cone copy left when it's a PoD book?
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Post by BlueAndGold on Aug 26, 2020 1:19:10 GMT
I'm sure it's just a simple ploy to entice an impulse buy. Sort of like twitching your fly in front of the nose of a trout.
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Post by BlueAndGold on Aug 26, 2020 1:21:51 GMT
Within a few short hours of placing that order on Amazon this morning, the price snapped back to the normal retail price. From a marketing exposure viewpoint, perhaps I made an error. But at least now we know how that works.
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Post by And Kevin 2024 on Aug 26, 2020 1:38:15 GMT
My family history book, published in 2019, has a sales price of £7.50 (UKP) and, before Lulu's botched migration it was available at Lulu, Amazon, Barnes & Noble etc., as one would expect. But a quick check just now shows some strange results. Lulu has it at £7.50 (UKP), which is correct. It's also on Amazon but they only have one copy left, selling at £5.02 with free UK shipping. But why only one copy left when it's a PoD book? Barnes & Noble has it at $10.80 (USD) with free US shipping and no limit on number of copies (i.e. as one would expect with PoD). Curiously, the book is also available on ebay. A seller in the USA claims to have five copies available ($14.13 with free US shipping). A UK seller is asking £9.61, with free UK shipping. Strangely, this UK seller describes book's condition as "brand new"! Any thoughts? Amazon have always used the excuse that books that we, the creators, have removed from circulation, deleted, or whatever, at Lulu, is because someone else on Amazon may have a copy for sale, new or used, and there will be links to them on every page the book is on. And often you can find people claiming to have a stock. Of POD books! Now I don't sell enough not to know if anyone has a stock of 20 of my books! So obviously they have not. If they get an order they simply order one to be PODed. One unusual thing that happened on Amazon, I don't know if it still does, but some peoples or software would scan Amazon for new publications, and slap it on to their Amazon page for $150! A book normally $8. Good luck with that!
Some say that Amazon do print a stock of POD books, so they can be delivered fast. But I would assume they only do that with books they know are selling well and go fast. The idea behind POD is there's no stock taking up valuable shelf space in warehouses.
As to B&N having no limit, there can be no limit on even POD books. It's from one book to infinity. But one would hope that if you order a few 1000s they don't use POD! But they will still charge you for POD.
With the use of ISBNs it's easy for any one who wants to retail a book to advertise it. They don't have to physically have the book.
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Post by And Kevin 2024 on Aug 26, 2020 1:43:55 GMT
It's an annoyance with many products. I often look for something I want, see something at a decent discounted price, and while I cogitate for a day or even an hour, it goes back up! There's some sites that tracks all these price changes, and the history of them. Such as items in 'sales' that were actually cheaper last month with no sale on, for example! One is called camelcamelcamel I think. A subscription is needed.
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sirram
Senior Printer
No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money
Posts: 269
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Post by sirram on Aug 26, 2020 13:46:31 GMT
Thanks. All interesting points. But I still don't understand why my family history book, with ISBN and "Global Distribution" is no longer showing at Amazon. It was OK prior to Lulu's botched migration and is still available at both Lulu and Barnes & Noble. I'll have to raise a ticket with Lulu. Unfortunately, my past tickets elicit no response other than an automated reply.
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Post by And Kevin 2024 on Aug 27, 2020 0:15:29 GMT
You could always ask Amazon. And it's a lot easier to do so if you sign up with this >> authorcentral.amazon.com/ you don't have to use CreateSpace/KDP to do so.
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