Kindle Pays for Itself After 64 Books
“This is the future of book reading. It will be everywhere.” Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and Liar’s Poker. ->Taken from Amazon’s Kindle page.
Yesterday I wrote a post about whether or not I thought the Kindle would kill traditional books. But I totally forgot to mention the financial angle. When is the Kindle 2 worth its $349 price tag?
I decided to crunch some numbers to see if and when the Kindle was “worth it” versus simply buying books the traditional way. It may sound weird to some that “the traditional way” is to buy them off the Internet—but hey, welcome to the new world order.
The Experiment
First of all, we need to find out how much the “average” book costs if you buy it new from Amazon. So I ran through the top 25 books on their bestsellers page and got an average price.
Traditional Book Average Price: $12.09
But let’s not forget shipping, which comes up to around $3.99.
Kindle Edition Average Price: $9.47
And let’s not forget that you can also sell your book off once you’re done with it—something that won’t happen with the Kindle. Let’s say you can at least get one dollar back for each book.
So, hypothetically, every time you buy a Kindle title instead of the actual book, you’re “saving” around $5.61.
“But WC,” you might be thinking, “the Kindle costs $359!” And therein lies the rub.
That means you have to buy around 64 books to “make up” for the money you spent on the device. Since I rarely buy books anymore (thanks public library!), it wouldn’t make sense for me.
Granted, you can fit way more than 64 books onto the device, so I’m sure it will eventually pay off (at least until the Kindle 3 comes out and you have to have that one too). As a bunch of other articles out there have already said, right now this device is for the tech-minded people that love to get things first, costs be damned.
How long would it take you to buy 64 books? From a strictly financial POV, is the Kindle worth it to you?
On a sidenote, there were Kindle versions of the top-25 bestselling titles on Amazon for 15 of the top 25, so for some titles you simple don’t have access to certain titles. And for a book like Watchmen, a Kindle version wouldn’t even make sense.
February 12th, 2009 at 9:19 am
No, I don’t believe that the Kindle is worth it unless you’re a big traveler and you like to read on the plane. Then you’d have to take into account the “cost” of packing books into your luggage and the space you save by packing three books onto one Kindle instead of three books in your suitcase.
For the casual traveler like me, I think I’ll wait until the Kindle price comes down (way down). Until then, I’ll just pack my books and fewer t-shirts.
February 12th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Some of the new releases I see are selling back for more than a dollar on Amazon – closer to $10. (See the book you are currently reading… Outliers).
Also can you lend a Kindle Book to a friend?
February 12th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Lazy: you’re right, but lots of people keep their books or giv’em away so I wanted to minimize that part of the equation.
February 12th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
There’s no way. I haven’t bought 20 books in the last 2 years. Like you, I’m all about the public library. I buy used books or books off half.com if I really want them and the rest of the time I may buy two or three random, $15 books in a year.
February 12th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
I probably buy that many books in about 2 years, so if I could keep my Kindle running for 2 years by your math it would be worth it. And it IS tempting! But I don’t buy that many NEW books in 2 years, and like you I get a fair amount of books from the library (and other places). Plus, I’m such a klutz I’d be afraid I would destroy it sooner rather than later… ask the book I spilled Sierra Mist all over on a recent plane flight.
February 12th, 2009 at 6:09 pm
I don’t know, it’s still shocking to me how close the Kindle and book versions are too each other. Unless I could get the Kindle version for $3–$4, I would never consider it.
Think about it: all that printing on paper and distribution—you don’t have to do that anymore! So why is it still so expensive?
April 18th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
First, I’ll admit that I have a Kindle. I generally buy anywhere from 3-5 books a week – some bestsellers, some that are not. I was constantly paying overdue fines at the library, and it just got to the point that it wasn’t worth the hassle of trying to get to the library on my weekends that were already too full with work, college homework, family, etc. I am not a techno person – I can’t figure out my husband’s blackberry for the life of me. However, I love my Kindle. I’ve bought and read a lot of books – probably around $600 in value since November. That isn’t counting the FREE books that I’ve downloadedd from Amazon. I like classics, and I got nearly 30 books for free – not even a delivery charge. So… is it worth the purchase price? For me – it is. I love books and purchase a ton of them each year. Is it worth it to someone that doesn’t read much? No – I would agree with you on that point.
April 18th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
I’ve seen more and more Kindles out in the wild Jenny and I agree that if it works for you, go for it. And if it’s getting you to read more and more, that’s great!