« A simple economic model of today's NBA | Main | The best paragraph I read today »
Voice (and loyalty)
After several of you complained, the Kindle price, for Create Your Own Economy, has been lowered to $14.27, from $20 something. Maybe someone at Amazon reads the comments at MR (really, I had nothing to do with it).
What other prices would you like changed? Health insurance -- how much should that cost? A barrel of oil? Just let them know.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on July 3, 2009 at 08:02 AM in Books, Web/Tech | Permalink
Comments
Let's see...
LOWERED: college education, vocational training, house prices (they still have a long way to go IMHO), taxi fares, high speed Internet access, monthly cell/data plans, "pro" sports events especially soccer, grass fed beef, blueberries, solar energy collectors, natural gas, and sleeping rooms on trains.
RAISED A LOT: blasting your music and talking loudly on cell phones in public spaces, aggressive driving especially tailgating, tween girls dressing like prostitutes and boys who wear low rider pants, cheese, sugar and flour, wheat, soda, high fructose corn syrup, and oil.
Posted by: anon at Jul 3, 2009 8:26:43 AM
i would like them to charge for prices but lower the prices
Posted by: babar at Jul 3, 2009 8:27:09 AM
Raise the price post hoc!
Posted by: Andrew at Jul 3, 2009 8:36:04 AM
RAISED A LOT: price of commenting on MR by a certain prof from a university in the Shenandoah Valley and spammers (especially the one in Deutsch and the shoes/jewelry) and that guy whose antonym is Sears.
Posted by: anon at Jul 3, 2009 8:39:16 AM
How about the US price of sugar match the world price, so manufacturers don't need to substitute high-fructose corn syrup in everything?
Posted by: Nick at Jul 3, 2009 9:08:53 AM
Do you mock us for wanting a lower Kindle price?
The Kindle price (the pure price of the words, since that's all that the product is) is only $2.86 cheaper than the hardback. Is that all the physical printing of the book costs?
And the mp3 audiobook, another digital good, costs $0.68 less than the Kindle book. Given that the audiobook ($13.59) combines the words ($14.27) with someone reading them, does that imply the reader removed value ($0.68) from the book, or that the Kindle price is too high?
Posted by: Matt at Jul 3, 2009 9:34:46 AM
Everything should be lowered so recently graduated economics students can afford them. Especially trips to foreign countries and nice food joints.
Exceptions, which have prices that need to be raised:
Carbon, Facebook, fishing, IPods, and speedos
Posted by: Robert Olson at Jul 3, 2009 9:55:28 AM
It probably means that when someone asks "Hey, what'cha listening to?"
"Economics book" is (A) not cool and (B) not impressive.
Posted by: Andrew at Jul 3, 2009 9:57:32 AM
Again with the required mind reading...
Posted by: Pat at Jul 3, 2009 10:06:26 AM
How about changing the Kindle's price? Currently too high in the US and "unavailable at any price" in many other countries.
Posted by: anonymous at Jul 3, 2009 10:11:13 AM
I am an American voter. I shouldn't be charged anything.
Posted by: Yancey Ward at Jul 3, 2009 10:16:04 AM
Maybe they're charging per comma.
Posted by: Brian at Jul 3, 2009 10:26:22 AM
Tyler, do you really think that amazon's pricing model is significantly affected by a few complaints (rhetorical)?
You do a very good pitch job for your books.
Posted by: notkevinnealon at Jul 3, 2009 10:39:13 AM
The Kindle price (the pure price of the words, since that's all that the product is) is only $2.86 cheaper than the hardback. Is that all the physical printing of the book costs?
Less.
Posted by: anon publisher at Jul 3, 2009 10:40:28 AM
How about the US price of sugar match the world price, so manufacturers don't need to substitute high-fructose corn syrup in everything?
Raise the cost of all carbs, especially refined carbs, including sugar and HFCS. This will also lower health care costs.
Currently ... "unavailable at any price" in many other countries.
Check this out: http://www.melvinneo.com/do-life/self-help-book-reader-3/
Posted by: anon at Jul 3, 2009 10:44:45 AM
There's more than a whiff of fascism in the comments. Good to know! :makes a note of it:
Posted by: Vernunft at Jul 3, 2009 11:25:24 AM
Babies. Please lower the cost of babies. Introductory costs are minimal, but service and parts are a killer.
Posted by: Aaron at Jul 3, 2009 11:32:56 AM
Obviously cost differences between hardbacks and Kindle books are not the only factor that publishers take into account when pricing these things. We should all know that it is the interaction between supply AND demand that affect the price. Sounds like the publisher is betting that Kindle buyers will stay out of book stores for good as well.
Posted by: Nick L. at Jul 3, 2009 12:28:28 PM
"The Kindle price (the pure price of the words, since that's all that the product is) is only $2.86 cheaper than the hardback. Is that all the physical printing of the book costs?"
"Less."
The marginal printing cost may be less, but what about distribution? You can't tell me the cost of managing the inventory of physical books, packing the book once it is ordered and delivering it isn't at least a few bucks, whereas the marginal cost of distributing the Kindle edition can't be more than a few cents (including the cut for Sprint' data service).
Given that it seems that Amazon rather than Tyler is setting the price, it would be interesting to understand what their reasoning is; presumably they have some sort of price discrimination strategy at work - the must see the audience for this book as willing to pay more than the typical target for their benchmark 9.99 for "NY Times Best Sellers." As one of those who commented that I wouldn't be buying the book at even the reduced price (14.27) I think they're wrong.
Posted by: Dan Hill at Jul 3, 2009 12:33:25 PM
Maybe they could lower the price of The Mythical Man-Month, first published 34 years ago, to something less than 33 frakkin' dollars.
Posted by: Noah Yetter at Jul 3, 2009 12:50:24 PM
hmmm...I see an economics book in the making. What if this blog really had the power to lower the price on things. What would the optimal number of items to lower the price of? Would it lower nominal wages? It seems you are only capable of getting the price lowered and not how much it gets lowered. What kind of equilibrium would result?
Posted by: libfree at Jul 3, 2009 1:24:47 PM
Beer. Good grief, I'm really the first?
As to the price and the input costs: Is someone forgetting about subjective value? There's no reason why the kindle version couldn't cost more despite cheaper production costs, if there was greater demand for it. The book is, after all, a mini-monopoly.
Good grief, and I'm really the first on that, too? /snarkiness. all
Posted by: James Hanley at Jul 3, 2009 3:14:09 PM
Oops, not sure where that extraneous "all" came from. Please ignore.
Posted by: James Hanley at Jul 3, 2009 3:15:07 PM
The marginal printing cost may be less, but what about distribution? You can't tell me the cost of managing the inventory of physical books, packing the book once it is ordered and delivering it isn't at least a few bucks, whereas the marginal cost of distributing the Kindle edition can't be more than a few cents (including the cut for Sprint' data service).
The commenter didn't ask about distribution - asked about printing. And the answer is "Less."
Posted by: anon publisher at Jul 3, 2009 3:23:07 PM
It's not a price, Tyler, it's a licensing fee. When I buy your e-book from Amazon I don't get any rights other than to read it wherever I want. I can't give it away or sell it to a used bookstore when I'm done with it. As far as I'm concerned, the similarity in price to previous offered licenses or to a hardback book with the same content is not actually that meaningful.
Posted by: John at Jul 3, 2009 3:43:07 PM
