Kindle ebooks a rip off for Europeans living outside of the UK!

[ALI_101]

I am a UK national, but have been living in Poland for several years now. I'm an avid book reader and recently heard about the Amazon Kindle. After checking it out and liking what i saw, i set about checking out ebook prices. I discovered this:

1) I cannot purchase a Kindle through the UK kindle store as i am in Poland. Therefor i must purchase through the US kindle store.
2) I cannot purcahse kindle ebooks through the UK store, only through the US store (i cannot even view prices of UK kindle ebooks!)
3) For me, Kindle ebooks are considerably more expensive to purchase than the original paperback versions (thats insane IMO!)

Here are a few quick examples of prices from the Amazon kindle US store (logging on from Poland):

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - kindle $10.42 vs paperback $7.14
The Malacca Conspiracy - kindle $13.79 vs paperback $10.19
With the Old Breed - kindle $13.79 vs paperback $10.88
Birdsong - kindle $12.86 vs paperback $10.85
Artemis Fowl - kindle $9.65 vs paperback $7.99

During my search i did not find one single kindle book that was cheaper than the paperback version. I really do not understand this. I'd love to have a kindle but there's no way i'm going to accept paying more for an electronic version of a book than the real thing itself. I could go into any shop here and buy, or order the paperback version of any book far cheaper than Amazons kindle ebook version. I have heard so much about how kindle ebooks are much cheaper than the paperback versions, yet for me living in Poland they are far more expensive! I cannot actually verify this 100%, as Amazon.com detects i am logging on from Poland and displays prices accordingly, therefor i am unsure of what US users will pay for these same books.... though from what i can gather far less than the price of the paperback versions!

Can anyone confirm if the books listed above are cheaper for US citizens logging onto the US kindle store, or for UK citizens logging onto the UK store?

Also, i have many family and friends in the UK. If one of them was to purchase a kindle from Amazon and have it delivered to their address in the UK, then they were to ship it over to me here in Poland, would i then be able to use this kindle to view and buy books from the UK store?

Regards
Ali   

[stargazer0725]

All Kindle prices from here in the US:

Girl with the Dragon Tatoo:  $7.14
The Malacca Conspiracy - $9.99
With the Old Breed - kindle $6.29
Birdsong - kindle $7.99
Artemis Fowl - kindle $5.99

[masquedbunny]

Hmm. In Poland are you eligible for free shipping after you buy a certain amount?

I'm just curious if Kindle books are still more expensive than paperbacks when shipping and handling is applied. Maybe it just breaks even...

Oops, also meant to address the second point about a friend in the UK buying the Kindle and sending it to you. I think that would only work if it stays on their Amazon account. When you register it for your Amazon account (to add books and so on), it will probably recognise that your current billing address is not in the UK.

[Linjeakel]

Kindle prices on the US site when ordering from the UK:

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - $4.17
The Malacca Conspiracy - $12.00
With The Old Breed - $9.61
Birdsong - $5.91
Artemis Fowl - $6.47

Kindle prices on the UK site when ordering from the UK:

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - £2.68
The Malacca Conspiracy - £7.72
With The Old Breed - £6.18
Birdsong - £3.80
Artemis Fowl - £4.16

[Tom Diego]

Also, i have many family and friends in the UK. If one of them was to purchase a kindle from Amazon and have it delivered to their address in the UK, then they were to ship it over to me here in Poland, would i then be able to use this kindle to view and buy books from the UK store?

It maybe be possible that if someone in the UK were to maintain an Amazon UK account for you and the Kindle was purchased on that account it would appear that you are a U.K. citizen traveling in Poland.  They would have to order the books for you using your Amazon UK account and you could fund it using Amazon gift certificates that you gift to your Amazon UK account.

[ALI_101]

Hmm. In Poland are you eligible for free shipping after you buy a certain amount?

I'm just curious if Kindle books are still more expensive than paperbacks when shipping and handling is applied. Maybe it just breaks even...

I have never and will never buy any paperback book from the Amazon US store, why would i ever need to? If i wanted to buy any book on Amazon i would buy them through the Amazon UK store, here's an example of the prices i'd pay for the paperback versions listed above:

UK paperback store prices (in brackets converted to US dollars using XE.com), then the prices Amazon want to charge me for their ebooks.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo: £3.99 ($6.36) - kindle $10.42
The Malacca Conspiracy: £9.99 ($15.94) kindle $13.79
With the Old Breed: £6.50 ($10.37) - kindle $13.79
Birdsong: £4.00 ($6.38) - kindle $12.86
Artemis Fowl: £4.38 ($6.99) - kindle $9.65

Of those 5 books, only the Malacca Conspiracy works out cheaper than the UK paperback price.

If i buy through Amazon it is always through the UK store, other than that there are a million other online bookstores in Poland, the UK and the rest of Europe for me to order from. There are also a hundred or more bookshops in the city where i live. There is no reason for me to ever buy a book from Amazons US store. Its a rediculous scenario to be honest.

Re buying in the UK but sneaking it over to Poland, i am sure you are correct in that my billing address would give away my location, thanks for pointing that out.  

Thanks to those who posted the equivilent US/UK prices, they are exactly what i suspected. I am gutted to be honest, i'd really like a kindle but i really feel like i'm being cheated with those prices. Kindle books are supposed to be cheaper than paperbacks, but they are certainly not that for people living in Poland, and i suspect for all people living in Europe outside of the UK.

Why do European citizens living outside of the UK have to pay such rediculous prices? Anyone? 

[dimples]

With all due respect, I am also from Europe but I still save money buying ebooks from Amazon's US store AND buying them from the publishers directly. I don't have my Kindle yet but I have purchased 8 books so far. If I had bought these (paperback version) from stores in my country or from other online stores outside my country, I would have paid over 70 Euros more than I did now. Yes, I went out and checked the prices wherever I could. Sometimes I would only be able to get them with extra shipping charges, sometimes they would cost more because they would have to be imported... but in the end I came to the conclusion that for me, Kindle IS the cheaper option.

[ALI_101]

It maybe be possible that if someone in the UK were to maintain an Amazon UK account for you and the Kindle was purchased on that account it would appear that you are a U.K. citizen traveling in Poland.  They would have to order the books for you using your Amazon UK account and you could fund it using Amazon gift certificates that you gift to your Amazon UK account.

Thanks, but thats too much hassle for me, i liked the idea of 3G and instantly downloading a book from anywhere, anytime.

I move around a lot so a kindle would be perfect for me, but i'm not going to pay a ransome just because i live outside of the UK.  

[ALI_101]

With all due respect, I am also from Europe but I still save money buying ebooks from Amazon's US store AND buying them from the publishers directly. I don't have my Kindle yet but I have purchased 8 books so far. If I had bought these (paperback version) from stores in my country or from other online stores outside my country, I would have paid over 70 Euros more than I did now. Yes, I went out and checked the prices wherever I could. Sometimes I would only be able to get them with extra shipping charges, sometimes they would cost more because they would have to be imported... but in the end I came to the conclusion that for me, Kindle IS the cheaper option.

Could you give the titles of the 8 books you purchased.

I'm true'ly amazed that you saved 70 Euro's on purchasing 8 kindle ebooks through Amazons US kindkle store than from sourcing paperback versions elsewhere. Where in Europe do you live?

[ZsuZsu]

I am here in the US, so I can't really speak to price differences in other countries...
However, I do not have the expectation that it will always be cheaper to buy Kindle versions of books than paper versions...  although there are many that are priced lower than the paper versions, that is not always the case- personally, it is the convenience of buying books whenever I want to, NOT adding to the overflowing bookshelves (and boxes of books in my garage), and carrying around HUNDREDS of books at one time that make the Kindle valuable to me-

I could walk to work instead of driving into the city and paying to park- but the convenience and time saving make the cost of parking worth it to me.
I could cook dinner at home, but sometimes the convenience of having someone else prepare (and clean up!) and serve the meal to me is worth the additional cost.

I guess it just depends on your motivation for wanting to have an e-reader... if your only motivation is to purchase everything at the lowest price point, it may not make sense for you.  However, if the convenience of an e-reader is worth some "convenience cost", it may still be worth contemplating....

[Prazzie]

Kindle books are supposed to be cheaper than paperbacks...

I think this is where you're making a mistake. Ebooks are not supposed to be anything. It's quite a new market and everything is still being worked out. Kindle only hit the global market 10 months ago. The publishers don't know what to make of the whole ebook thing, they need to make money out of this new trend, but not price themselves out of the market. It's going to be rocky for a while yet.

The Kindle device makes my reading experience so much better that I am willing to pay a premium to enjoy ebooks. As an international customer using Amazon.com, I only pay $2 more per book than US customers do. I have no problem with that.  You're paying for the convenience.

There are thousands of free ebooks available online, you don't have to buy ebooks from Amazon.com to read on the Kindle.  That said, the Kindle is not for everyone. Perhaps it would be best for you to wait a couple of years and see how the ereading market develops in Poland.

[dimples]

ALI_101, I sure can. Like I said I haven't purchased all through Amazon, but sometimes through publishers so I'll try to be as complete as possible. The total after conversion is taken from my credit card statement.
I also did some research on some other titles I plan to buy so I've added them as well, based on today's exchange rate. Oh, and I live in the Netherlands.

Gerri Hill - The Scorpion, No Strings and Love Waits. Purchased through publisher. Total after conversion: €28.02. Total if purchased here: €46.92
Susan X Meagher - Arbor Vitae. Purchased through Amazon. Total after conversion: €10.89. Total if purchased here: €21.62
J.R.R. Tolkien - Lord of the Rings (full trilogy). Purchased through Amazon. Total after conversion: €14.91. Total if purchased here: €27.94
Katherine V. Forrest - An Emergence Of Green, K.E. Lane - And Playing The Role Of Herself, Lori L. Lake - Gun Shy. All purchased at the same time from publisher, so it was a single charge. Total after conversion: €26.79. Total if purchased here: €54.92

These are still on my wishlist.
Gregory M. Cooper - Predators; Who They Are And How To Stop Them. If purchased through Amazon, after conversion: €10.12. If purchased here: €26.03
Mara Leveritt - Devil's Knot. If purchased through Amazon, after conversion: €10.47. If purchased here: €16.96
Iolanthe Woulff - She's My Dad. If purchased through Amazon, after conversion: €9.59. If purchased here: €19.96

[ALI_101]

My disatisfactions stems from:

1) i believe the electronic version of a book should be cheaper than the paperback version
2) i see no reason why i should pay more than UK users. European citizens can purchase any product from Amazons UK store, why not kindle ebooks?
3) as these ebooks are simple electronic files, why the big difference in pricing?

Its not the fact that its just a few dollars difference, its the principle of it that gets to me.  

[Tom Diego]

I understand that things are not as you would like, but that's the way it is with lots of things in life.  As with other things in life, you usually have choices.  Here's the choices that I think you have:

1. Purchase a Kindle and live with the perceived inequity.  Things may change for the better.
2. Purchase a Kindle and try a workaround to the perceived inequity.  I suggested one way.
3. Decide it's not for you and walk away, at least for now.

No one's forcing you to buy a Kindle.  If you don't like the way the system is currently, don't buy one.

[Geoffrey]

Just to play devil's advocate for a moment, the prices you are annoyed over - are you able to buy these paperbacks at the listed price while you're in Poland?   I'm asking because I've bought English and American paperbacks in Sweden and The Netherlands while living there and paid quite a bit more than I would had I bought the same books in London or Chicago. 

I'm not familiar with the pricing of ebooks in Europe as my account is listed as a US address with a US credit card so I pay US prices when abroad.  That is one option for you.  Set up your Amazon UK account with a UK address and card and function as a UK customer.  It works that way for Americans, so I would think it could work that same way for the British site.

[squeak]

Ali, I understand what you mean. My father still tries to discourage me from buying a Kindle, because

1) there's no way I can buy Kindle books from Amazon.DE
2) there are hardly German Kindle books (doesn't bother me)

But if "we" (Europeans living outside of the UK) don't start to show them that we're THAT interested in Ebooks as well, those facts won't change.

Moreover, I think the Kindle is a possibility to save money. Maybe not with all books, but here's an example:

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Kindle Edition): $10.52
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Paperback, German): $13.11