Just bought a programming related book on-line. It was released in Q2 2006 so I did not consider the second hand book market. I went straight to the oracle asking where can I find it in on-line bookshops in Australia.
Only a handful of shops returned, and LSL Australia is around $10 cheaper than the big guys, although both are cheaper than the RRP. Who buy things at RRP these days anyway. Except, if you are a student and shopped in Co-op Bookshop, which happened to be the most expensive of them all.
Sounds like LSL is the one to go? However, there’s a Dymocks 50 metres from the building where I work, and it costs $11 for LSL to post the book to my office. D’oh.
I ended up buying the book from the big A, and it will be shipped from the States in 2 weeks. The listed price is less than half of Dymock’s “special price”, and even if you factor in the postage (about half the cost of the book) and plus 10% GST (just for the sake of comparison), it is still a good 7 bucks cheaper than LSL’s listed price without the delivery. Not to mention Amazon’s shopping cart is probably one of the best out there for your Wow experience.
I guess no one can really compete against Amazon for their volumes. Or is that so? Where do you buy your technical books in Australia?
I bought my textbooks (and other books) from Amazon since 2 years ago, they have 2nd hand books too, I usually save about 30-40% (including delivery, in fact the delivery sometimes costs more than the books themselves).
Scott,
Unfortunately this applies for Christian books as well.
The only exception is when you can order direct from the publisher or source overseas.
The only reason to buy books retail in your local shop is for convenience and to support local business.
Wayne,
Yup I have noticed that as well. However a big chunk of Christian books I read are Australians so it is not too bad buying them when Koorong is on its regular store-wide sales.
I had a similar experience when buying Smartbomb, about the video game history. Dymocks’ price was $51 and they didn’t have it in-stock because it’s US book. I ended up buying from Amazon for US$22 in bulk with few friends and shared the postage cost.
Buying a bulk seems to be a good idea to share the postage cost. Maybe we want to set something up?