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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

#191

Post by cinntaile »

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…

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

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

#192

Post by paulcole »

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…

Cheapest restaurant isn’t The French Laundry w/ the caveat that you skip out on the bill.

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

#193

Post by giancarlostoro »

Its sad I've looked up old books on Amazon and come to discover via the reviews that there are counterfeit e-books on their platform. I would of thought that if I wanted an e-book of all places to look Amazon would be a pretty safe bet. I never did find the book I wanted on there. This is why I've sort of sought other alternatives. I enjoy my Kindle for reading when my iPad is just too much (laying in bed at night for example, I don't need all of my iPad if a Kindle suffices).

So I applaud any efforts towards improving online book purchases since, Amazon which is a tech behemoth built on top of online book sales cannot do its original task very well.

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

#194

Post by nerdponx »

gverrilla wrote: post #185
NelsonMinar wrote: post #106

Shout out to https://isbn.nu/ which has been online doing book price comparison for 20+ years. It's by Glenn Fleishman, better known as an Internet journalist, and is one of the best examples I know of a simple commerce microsite.

it seems this site breaks when you search for non-English books :/ try "charles fourier", and you will get something like this: "Product Description: "Théorie des quatre mouvements et des destinées générales - Tome I" de Charles Fourier. Philosophe français, fondateur de l'École sociétaire (1772-1837)."

Yikes, I thought we were past this.

Even if the original text was in some weird encoding... storing the data in Latin-1? Really? In 2022?

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

#195

Post by KMnO4 »

shnksi wrote: post #149
_tom_ wrote: post #147

so, doesn't look like it's finding the cheapest. You should probably check against amazon as a sanity check. (I was ignoring shipping, here) Do you take shipping into account?

Yes it takes shipping into account but it's only optimized for USA users at the moment, if you're anywhere else your results might not be entirely accurate. I'm planning on adding support for more regions over the next couple of weeks.

Yes, I searched a book, saw $14 as the price (“Ouh, that is cheap”), then clicked through to see $14+$26 shipping to Canada :/

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

#196

Post by sithlord »

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…

the title states cheapest place to buy a book, not the cheapesst way to acquire a book...

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

#197

Post by wpietri »

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.

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.

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

#199

Post by SOLAR_FIELDS »

wpietri wrote: post #197
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.

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.

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

#200

Post by dingaling »

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…

> Curation costs money

In my experience curation beyond the mass-market mainstream is the province of fora and clubs, rather than bookshops and public libraries.

The long-tail is so overwhelmingly long and thin that no general-interest vendor can hope to have any insight.

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