I found The Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide on Amazon on a Tuesday night, on Wednesday I decided I wanted to buy the book during lunch hour. I was on a full impulse need to buy and read the book ASAP.
After searching borders.com and finding the local stores did not have the book I searched barnesandnoble.com who had the book online for about $18 and a local store had it in stock. Wahoo!
So I hopped into the car and ran of to the store where I found the book along with two other Lego themed books. Sweet! After perusing through the other two books I headed to the cashier with a copy of The Unofficial LEGO Builder’s Guide in hand with a big smile on my face.
At the cash register I was told the book was going to cost me $27! What the Frak! I was ready to pay $5 or $6 dollars more due to taxes and such but how could I be expected to pay $10 more than the online price for the same book from the same store.
I said “no thank you” and left the book on the counter in front of the sales clerk and walked out of the store.
In the car on the way back to work I ordered the book from Amazon via my iPhone and the Amazon app for $17 and it arrived at my house on Thursday two days later.
I am afraid that retail brick-and-mortar book stores are now dead to me. I expect I will continue visiting thrift stores and use book stores from time to time, but Barnes & Noble and Borders are dead to me.
With an Amazon Prime subscriptions, an iPad with eReader, Stanza, Kindle, and the iBook app I have no reason to put up with the prices that retail book stores are asking. At some point I will rant more about the ridiculous prices that are being asked for eBooks and the childish games that the publishers and eBook vendors are playing with each other.
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