Guess How Much the New Harry Potter Costs?

No discussion necessary -- I pre-ordered through Amazon and the price is $18.89. They don't bill you until the item is shipped, so why not pre-order?

(counts out the US to Aussie conversion on his fingers)

Wow, that's a lot.

As if I needed another reason to pre-order. Yikes! They know we'll pay it. It's like feminine "anti-itch cream." They could charge fifty and you'd pay it. You know you would. Anything to make it stop.

i can't believe any of you would begrudge that poor woman making some money.

I was astounded when I saw that price. Wow. No doubt it's partially because it will be really long, but that is just so expensive.

Even if it's the biggest one yet, that's quite a price.

the woman has toiled in squalor and obscurity, building a franchise, brick by brick, eating ramen noodles while you feasted on big macs and burning her toenails and hair for warmth.

why should she not, at long last, cash in?

commies...

Who cares how much it costs- it's Harry Potter! I've KILLED over Harry Potter

Man! And I thought Diana Gabaldon's publisher was greedy!

I'm purging myself off the internet when it comes out.

There's no way I'm again letting someone tell me the ending and watch as I squirm and read hoping, hoping, that he wasn't telling the truth, that it was all a cruel hoax, and then reading the very ending I was told and punching a hole in a wall and in my own face.

...but that's just how I'm handling the situation.

I take it that price is for the hard cover edition?

Actually that's a point. It is, and a large hardcover can easily be over $30. I'm betting it'll be a 300 pager at least.

Gee it better be hardcover edition for that price. 18 isn't nearly as bad as 34.99. I haven't read the Harry Potter books but I know a lot of people have. I think its great she's making money with it, but I wonder how long it will take for the movies to catch up to the last book.

The last book ran for $40 CDN, and when we strolled over to Zellers, we got it for $25.
This one is listed at $45.99, but if I pre-order at Chapters I can get it for 21.something with the discount. But... I think I'll take my chances at Zellers. I don't like to use my credit card online.

William Haskins said:

the woman has toiled in squalor and obscurity, building a franchise, brick by brick, eating ramen noodles while you feasted on big macs and burning her toenails and hair for warmth.

why should she not, at long last, cash in?

commies...

Click to expand...

I totally agree. She's not nearly as wealthy as Oprah either. According to something I watched on TV the other day, Oprah had her beat by half a billion dollars! (1.5 billion vs 1.0 billion (net worth)). This last book had better really sell if she's ever going to catch up with Oprah....

Because, hey, that first billion is nice, but you're nothing without the second billion, right?

The last book was either $25 or $30 bucks. I got mine for $16 at Wal-Mart. It's only a couple dollars more, at that price, than a trade paperback.

beezle said:

Because, hey, that first billion is nice, but you're nothing without the second billion, right?

Click to expand...

Well, if you're sitting right at 1 billion, and you go out and buy a candy bar, you drop below that 1 billion mark and you're no longer a 'billionaire'. You almost need a second billion as a buffer so you aren't bouncing between multi-millionaire and billionaire all the time....you know what I mean?

[chain_yank]
Sooooo, it's a *bad* thing for an author to make money?

(heads to the liberry)
[/chain_yank]

It's a business. They'll charge what the market will bear. Why wouldn't they? It's the last of an incredibly popular series, isn't it?

It's not Bibles, first-aid manuals, or schoolbooks they're talking about. It's entertainment, not a necessity item.

Besides, that price will surely drop a few months down the road.

-------

This notion reminds me of the music industry complaint about Napster -- that illegal downloads take money away from the musicians (true), and that they reduce the money the record companies have to invest in new artists. I don't know how true that is, but it would be equally true for publishers, I'd guess. (There are some VERY good people here who would know.)

So, then your thirty-five clams might help create a publishing opportunity for one of us unknown shmoes. Does that help?

I just pre-ordered my copy at Amazon. Good thing pre-orders seem to be unlimited. I'm certainly not looking forward to a launch fiasco similar to the PS3/Wii madness last year (the Wii madness still hasn't stopped yet!)

I feel a little bad that I didn't request two-day or one-day shipping, now my copy won't arrive until 3-4 days after the release date.

The ridiculously high price prompted me to do some calculations. Anyone think that this book can sell around 29 million copies? If it does, it may be of the few (perhaps only) books in history to generate a billion dollars in sales.