Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Price Differences for Kindle Titles on Amazon

Browsing through Amazon's list of best selling titles for the Kindle, I noted an intriguing and non-trivial fact. A number of classics including Adam Smith's and John M. Keynes' popular publications are available in different editions suitable for the Kindle. However, one finds that the prices for the same text such as Adam Smith's, "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" are different. As stated on this page, separate versions of the same text are ranked at 317th and 318th respectively and yet the edition of the December 2008 costs US$ 2.95 while the August 2008 edition available for a 50% premium of US$ 5.79.

I wonder whether this substantial price differential has any effect of how many copies of each are purchased by browsers. I note that they may be different editions but they are probably similar in virtually all other respects. What am I missing about pricing Kindle editions of books on Amazon?

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