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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

#201

Post by wpietri »

SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #199
wpietri wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's one way to think about it. But that may not be enough to sustain the places that provide curation, events, browsing, etc, etc. I've mostly stopped buying books from Amazon. I generally buy them from my local bookstore via their website. Because it turns out I like having a local bookstore, and I think Amazon has quite enough money and power already.

Ive been a huge fan of betterworldbooks since discovering it for university textbooks over a decade ago. They have a pretty massive selection and the money goes to some respectable causes.

Oh, neat! I would love to see plenty more not-for-profits competing with for-profit businesses. Especially when it's a stable, commodity business or something off the beaten path, it makes a ton of sense to me.

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

#203

Post by moooo99 »

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

I really don‘t like Buchpreisbindung. It frequently makes books significantly more expensive than their English originals (I‘ve seen prices 10€ higher than the English version). That’s the primary reason why I choose to buy the original English versions instead (Buchpreisbindung does not affect non-German books as long as they are not specifically targeting the German markets like educational materials). A nice side effect is the noticeable improvement tin my comprehension skills for English texts.

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

#204

Post by ghusto »

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

Can't be bothered to translate this page to English, but from the comments I'm guessing it's the decision by the government to not tax books the same way they do leisure items?

I moved to the Netherlands a while ago, and was shocked at how much books cost. I learned that they're taxed the same as everything else, which seems short-sighted.

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

#206

Post by criddell »

cinntaile wrote: post #191
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…

But surely this website is comparing the same book. There should be no difference in quality of paper or condition of the book?

There shouldn't be, but sometimes there is and this is where a vendor's customer service comes into play.

I buy 10-15 books every year and almost all of them I order from the same place because they are reliable and provide great customer service when something does go wrong. Books are cheap enough and I don't buy that many so I'm not really very price sensitive.

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

#207

Post by Qwertious »

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…

For buying an ebook, cheapest is almost always the best option - perhaps a better term might be "least overhead".

There's very little actually needed, for ebooks - it could literally just be a plugin for e.g. goodreads, with a "buy this book" button and then it triggers another plugin to send the ISBN to calibre or to download a torrent or do whatever you normally do with your ebook. The point is, the only part the shop really needs to handle is payment. And by "handle" I mean "delegate to paypal etc".

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

#208

Post by aleku »

This is a good project; please keep at it. I think it might benefit more people in NA compared to the rest of the world. I did a quick search for "Flask Web Development", which I purchased one week ago on Amazon for AU$56($35). But it looks like I could get a used copy from AbeBooks (a result of a search on your site) for $8, the catch, I would need to pay $35 for shipping to Australia. If I had been in the US, I could have gotten free shipping or under $10 shipping which would make it all worth it.

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

#209

Post by criddell »

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.

Is that the main impact of the German law? I was thinking it might improve an author's chances of earning a reasonable amount of money from writing which I think could be a good thing.

Do you know if there's any correlation between the number of bookstores in a city and the amount people in those cities read? Is it possible that more expensive but also more ubiquitous books leads to more books being read, or are price and readership always inversely correlated?

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

#210

Post by lupire »

cinntaile wrote: post #191
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…

But surely this website is comparing the same book. There should be no difference in quality of paper or condition of the book?

Not for expensive books (like textbooks) where it is economical to print pirate copies, and where there are cheap international-market prints.
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