That's still 10% of NET, right?
Okay, let's say that you've talked PA into giving you 10% of net.
Your book is retailing for $19.95 (for a 228 page book ... ouch!).
1. Book sells through Amazon and you get standard royalties. Let’s say 10%. – $2
That $19.95 book went to Amazon with a (let's say) 40% discount, so Amazon only paid $11.97. Your royalty: $1.20.
2. You buy the book and save 30%, therefore you earn $6.
I'm presuming you mean you buy the book direct from PA. According to my copy of the PA contract, that's for 21 books or more. So let's say you ordered 21 books. 30% discounted off $19.95 is $13.97, plus S&H of $1.50 for the first book plus $0.50 for every copy thereafter. $293.27 + $11.50 = $304.77. At that point you have a box of books in your basement to peddle out of the trunk of your car. How's that different from paying to get published? (Especially when you consider that if you'd just taken your manuscript down to a local printer you'd have gotten the same box of books for around $190.)
You haven't earned $6, you've spent over $300. That's before you've done any publicity or marketing. All of which cost. Don't forget to add up everything you spend, including the cost of your time, and subtract that amount from your income. It isn't profit until sales exceed expenses.
3. You put the book in stores on consignment at 50% and you get 15%, still better than the basic royalty, an earning of $3.
Let's say that you convince a bunch of bookstores to stock your book at its full cover price of $19.95. That's still five dollars more than the average trade paperback -- and the average trade paperback is thicker. Let's say that, by magic, you get a 60% sell-through. That is, 60% of the copies that are stocked are sold (60% sell-through is the national average for trade paperbacks, by the way -- from authors that the reading public has heard of, that are advertised and promoted and reviewed, and that are priced $5 lower than yours). You put those 21 copies that you just bought for $304.77 in some friendly local bookstores, offering 50% discounts to those bookstores. 60% of them sell at $19.95, for $259.35. The bookstore takes 50%, or $129.69, leaving you with $129.66. You just lost $175.11.
Remember to subtract the price of the gas you'll burn driving back to those bookstores to pick up the books that didn't sell.
4. You convince a store to purchase books on your behalf and you pay them a 5% fee for being the buyer.
I'm utterly baffled by what you mean by this. Walk up to the nice lady at the special order desk and say, "Hey, order my book (normally a $19.95 value) using your 40% bookstore discount! I'll pay you a buck each if you'll let me have 'em for $11.97 a piece"? Why in the world would a bookstore go for that?
But let's say they did.
Let's say that you bought twenty of your own books that way. For some weird reason the bookstore only charges you $259.35 instead of the full $399 that they'll probably ask for.
Great! You've paid to get published again! You have those 20 books, and you put 'em on consignment for $19.95. And, magically, you sell 12 of them on consignment. You split the take 50/50 with the guy who sold them. You get $119.70.
Add in the royalties, (10%, you say?) on the discounted price -- $23.94. Total in hand, $143.64. Your loss (not counting time, gas, and anything else you may have done to promote these books), is $115.71.
There's only one person who's making money on any of these deals, and that's Willem Meiners. He doesn't care if you buy the books or someone else buys 'em. (In fact, he's counting on you to buy 'em yourself. He knows there's a very strong psychological need among authors to distribute their books. Since every other avenue is closed off (by the high cover prices and ridiculous discount), he's relies on you to do the buying. It doesn't matter to him if you only buy fifty -- he knows that the guy standing next to you will buy a hundred copies of his own book. The average holds.)
In the very best, most optimistic, situation you've self-published using a very expensive printer who's taken your publishing rights for seven years. At worst ... worse.