So, I know how it is. You’re in NZ, hardcover books cost $50 upwards. Yuck. Want to get some of that cheap book lovin’ available overseas? Sure you do. But Amazon wants to charge much $ for postage, and it’s going to take 18-32 days to ship unless you pay for more expensive methods.
Hint: go to amazon.co.uk. I’ve found book prices are generally cheaper there, and they’ll ship to NZ in less than two weeks for roughly the same shipping price as the US store. I think it’d pay to check both stores, especially that global currencies are going haywire at the moment (in a generally not good for importing stuff to NZ kind of way. I really do not understand how the US$ can be so strong given the complete mess their economy is in. Guess it’s all about faith.)
In any case, the new Malcolm Gladwell book that spurred this post, Outliers, is an excellent read of the same calibre as his first book, The Tipping Point.
Watch out for the fact that some kinds of NZD credit cards (Mastercards?) will convert currencies twice if you buy in GBP (once to USD, second to NZD). I heard it from someone who once worked in banking, so it must be true.
Also, watch out for the fact that they charge a “because we can” currency conversion charge on top of the usual crappy rates.
Still, GTK, thanks…
Will
December 3rd, 2008
The other bonus of buying from .co.uk is that they tend to have the same or similar editions / versions of books as AU/NZ as opposed to .COM which sometimes has US versions.
This is especially noticeable in Sci-Fi / Fantasy books from the US. It appears that their artists are stuck in the 1970s and 80s everything looks like the cover of a Shanara novel.
Luther
December 4th, 2008