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Show HN: I built a site that finds the cheapest place to buy a book

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Re: Show HN: I built a site that finds the cheapest place to buy a book

#171

Post by reaperducer »

sokoloff wrote: post #137
socialismisok wrote: post #64

Is "cheapest" the right objective? Because if that's the case, book piracy seems like the clear winner. But maybe we should consider "cheapest with some boundaries". For instance, we probably agree that bookstores are nice for a myriad of reasons, even if we don't frequent them. They employ people in the area, they offer curation and recommendations, they invite speakers and host events, and they help local authors g…

If I want to discover a book I don’t know about, curation provides value. If I want to attend an event, some place holding an event provides value. If, on the other hand, I know what book I want, the curation is done and I’m not looking for an event, so cheapest seems a reasonable thing to optimize for.

cheapest seems a reasonable thing to optimize for

Until you find out that the cheapest source also waits two weeks to send your book. And sends it by a method that takes another four weeks. And doesn't package it properly so it arrives with the spine broken and water damage. And sends you a used book with pages missing. Or might just accidentally send you the wrong book but doesn't have a customer service contact.

The internet used to be a great place for bargains. Now "cheapest" is almost always the wrong choice.

Re: Show HN: I built a site that finds the cheapest place to buy a book

#172

Post by shnksi »

reaperducer wrote: post #171
sokoloff wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I want to discover a book I don’t know about, curation provides value. If I want to attend an event, some place holding an event provides value. If, on the other hand, I know what book I want, the curation is done and I’m not looking for an event, so cheapest seems a reasonable thing to optimize for.

cheapest seems a reasonable thing to optimize for Until you find out that the cheapest source also waits two weeks to send your book. And sends it by a method that takes another four weeks. And doesn't package it properly so it arrives with the spine broken and water damage. And sends you a used book with pages missing. Or might just accidentally send you the wrong book but doesn't have a customer service contact. Th…

The site also posts delivery times for vendors. It's usually fairly accurate even if it is a little longer than Amazon's 1-2 days, so at least you know what you're getting into beforehand.

Re: Show HN: I built a site that finds the cheapest place to buy a book

#173

Post by unhammer »

Pretty nice as a way of finding non-Amazon places to buy books. I don't care so much about cheapest, but I do prefer to support independent shops and authors.

Any plans to add e-books, preferably with a filter to exclude those with DRM? (watermarking is fine, but adobe drm requires opening in windows and extracting things with dedrm, such a hassle / business opportunity)

Re: Show HN: I built a site that finds the cheapest place to buy a book

#174

Post by MrGilbert »

Alex_X-PressOne wrote: post #144
niklasmerz wrote: post #142

As a German I don't have to worry too much about the prices of books. We have Buchpreisbindung https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buchpreisbindung

It's funny how this comment seems to have most upvotes. Good morning fellow germans ;) It adds no real feedback to the original post but shows how much we germans love our Buchpreisbindung.

Another German here. I don’t know… Buchpreisbindung sucks when it comes to eBooks. It would be awesome if you could get the eBook at a reduced price if you have the physical copy.

Re: Show HN: I built a site that finds the cheapest place to buy a book

#175

Post by shnksi »

unhammer wrote: post #173

Pretty nice as a way of finding non-Amazon places to buy books. I don't care so much about cheapest, but I do prefer to support independent shops and authors. Any plans to add e-books, preferably with a filter to exclude those with DRM? (watermarking is fine, but adobe drm requires opening in windows and extracting things with dedrm, such a hassle / business opportunity)

I'm going to add a "No Amazon" filter in the next couple of days which excludes Amazon and it's subsidiaries from all searches. I also plan to add ebook and audiobook support but that will likely take until the end of next week until it's operational. If there's anything else you want to see please let me know, I'd be happy to build it for you.

Re: Show HN: I built a site that finds the cheapest place to buy a book

#176

Post by 867-5309 »

shnksi wrote: post #175
unhammer wrote: post #173

Pretty nice as a way of finding non-Amazon places to buy books. I don't care so much about cheapest, but I do prefer to support independent shops and authors. Any plans to add e-books, preferably with a filter to exclude those with DRM? (watermarking is fine, but adobe drm requires opening in windows and extracting things with dedrm, such a hassle / business opportunity)

I'm going to add a "No Amazon" filter in the next couple of days which excludes Amazon and it's subsidiaries from all searches. I also plan to add ebook and audiobook support but that will likely take until the end of next week until it's operational. If there's anything else you want to see please let me know, I'd be happy to build it for you.

audiobooks would be a great addition too!

Re: Show HN: I built a site that finds the cheapest place to buy a book

#177

Post by benevol »

unhammer wrote: post #173

Pretty nice as a way of finding non-Amazon places to buy books. I don't care so much about cheapest, but I do prefer to support independent shops and authors. Any plans to add e-books, preferably with a filter to exclude those with DRM? (watermarking is fine, but adobe drm requires opening in windows and extracting things with dedrm, such a hassle / business opportunity)

I second the non-Amazon approach. We should make it a point to put our money where our mouth is.

Re: Show HN: I built a site that finds the cheapest place to buy a book

#178

Post by 867-5309 »

mejutoco wrote: post #163
quickthrower2 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly this is the cheapest online and legal options. It would be odd and short-lived to include illegally shared books at $0, and a site that shows physical stores would also be odd, since if you are going to a local bookshop you are probably not price sensitive. So for someone shopping online it a good objective, and may take away business from Amazon which is probably a good thing for competition. It is also usef…

You can think of it as analogous to booking a flight. Do you want the cheapest flight with a 16 hour flight and 2 transfers with Ryanair? A lot of people don't mind paying a bit more for a direct flight and a complimentary chocolate (lot, swiss air), even if all are legal. Some websites even included an option to check as "worry-free" or similar to filter out these cheap options. Book equivalents could be quality of…

>quality of paper

you are extremely unlikely to find this as book metadata

Re: Show HN: I built a site that finds the cheapest place to buy a book

#179

Post by hobofan »

chrisseaton wrote: post #168
PinguTS wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Thankfully" is an interesting view from the reader side. Would be interesting to know what was the impact on the authors side. Got it cheaper because the authors got now less money or got it cheaper because the publisher got now less money? Because I know, that (at least for technical books) the pay for the authors is not really great. It's more like a reputation than making money out of it.

Poor people should be able to buy books without having to subsidise your bookshop aesthetic.

Libraries allow (not only) poor people to read as much books as they want for free or ~the price of a cheap book. That seems to be a much better mechanism to allow for literacy independent of income than trying to make books cheaper.

Re: Show HN: I built a site that finds the cheapest place to buy a book

#180

Post by shnksi »

867-5309 wrote: post #178
mejutoco wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can think of it as analogous to booking a flight. Do you want the cheapest flight with a 16 hour flight and 2 transfers with Ryanair? A lot of people don't mind paying a bit more for a direct flight and a complimentary chocolate (lot, swiss air), even if all are legal. Some websites even included an option to check as "worry-free" or similar to filter out these cheap options. Book equivalents could be quality of…

>quality of paper you are extremely unlikely to find this as book metadata

You do get "Condition of book" which isn't quite the same thing but helpful along the same thread
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