# Changes to BL ebook prices.



## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

I just did my daily check on the BL website, and for the first time ever the prices are shown in euros. Obviously the website now recognises that my IP adress is in a eurozone country. That's fine. 

However, I was disgusted to note that all the prices have been jacked up as well. The average BL ebook is £6.50, which at todays exchange rate is €7.65, but the website is now charging €8.99, the same price I can buy BL novels from my FLGS. 

It's one thing having the price of a hard copy slightly higher and using the excuse of shipping costs blahblahblah, but jacking up the prices on digital products with no extra overheads just because I'm in a different currency zone? GW have sunk to new lows. So far I've bought 12 ebooks and all the Hammer and Bolter issues, but I will not be buying from the website anymore. All they will do with this blatant thievery is turn current customers off. Fucking disgraceful.


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## Doelago (Nov 29, 2009)

Interesting... "The Armageddon Omnibus" costs 0.00€. 

Othervise all the prices are the same as when I buy them from my (not so) local gaming store. So I cant see any changes there. Other than the Omnibus I mentioned.


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## Mantel (Mar 1, 2011)

I don't really have much of a problem with the main book prices, the price they've converted to are okay for what they have to deal with in currency fluctuations over a few months. It means they don't have to put their prices up if the euro gets a little stronger, if a book is €7.65 in todays exchange rate it could be €8 in tomorrows exchange rate. I have a problem with the cheaper books though, hammer and bolter (alright not really a book) has gone from £2.50 to €5, I think they'll loose a good few readers at this new price point. Also .99 thing is damn annoying, the old even pricing looked better.

They should have dollar prices on their site now, anyone know how that compares to the euro and pound?


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

Mantel said:


> I don't really have much of a problem with the main book prices, the price they've converted to are okay for what they have to deal with in currency fluctuations over a few months. It means they don't have to put their prices up if the euro gets a little stronger,


Sorry, I know you're new to the site(welcome), but that's crap. If I buy an ebook for £6.50, GW gets the £6.50, and then my credit card company works out the rate at which to charge me in euros. They wouldn't have to worry about the exchange rate if they just left the site in sterling. By charging a different price in euros they are just trying to squeeze extra revenue from overseas customers.



Mantel said:


> They should have dollar prices on their site now, anyone know how that compares to the euro and pound?


£1=$1.63. Yanks will probably get wallet raped worse than us poor euro spenders.


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## increaso (Jun 5, 2010)

I would ask, by e-mail -

a) the logic behind the difference in price

b) whether you can opt to pay in £ from outside UK

I would be surprised if they were doing it to 'stiff' the overseas readers.


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

increaso said:


> I would ask, by e-mail -
> 
> a) the logic behind the difference in price
> 
> ...


There's no option to change the currency as there is on the GW site, it goes to € automatically when I go to the home page. There is no other possible reason than stiffing the overseas readers for the change.

I have emailed them this evening, it'll be interesting to see the reply, if any.


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

Change your site preference.... bottom of the website on the normal GW site.

edit: Or not

I sent them an email!


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## Hachiko (Jan 26, 2011)

I was just on the site and at the top in the middle is a 'select your currency' option for Euro, Pound or the good ol' U.S. Dollar.


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

Hachiko said:


> I was just on the site and at the top in the middle is a 'select your currency' option for Euro, Pound or the good ol' U.S. Dollar.


I swear to Christ that wasn't there last night when I started bitching. I even went into my account settings to see if I could change it in there.


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

GREAT, now I can look like a moron in my email, or maybe mt email did it! sigh.


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## Mantel (Mar 1, 2011)

That option wasn't there this morning or last night, a fairly recent addition. Looks like it's cheaper to buy in dollars now! Works out a euro cheaper for me to buy them in dollars compared with Sterling and 3 euro cheaper than the euro price! Hopefully they don't have region specific stuff in place for credit cards.

[edit] anddd they have :/ 


> Sorry, you are not permitted to checkout in this currency with your current billing address.


[/edit]


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

> Is there anyway to select another country when buying books? If I wanted to for whatever reason pay in pounds, would I have that option. I know on the main GW website I do, but not here.
> 
> Thanks





> Hi,
> 
> We have just launched Euro and US Dollar pricing on our website. If your billing address is in Europe then you will be able to pay in € Euros, similarly if your billing address is in the Americas (USA, Canada, Southern America) you will be able to check out in US Dollars $. A help page to explain this further will be posted on our website soon.
> 
> ...





> Is there an option if you live in the US and want to pay in Sterling?


Will keep you updated.


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## jasonbob (Sep 6, 2010)

From what I've seen the dollar price is lower than the sterling one why would you want to change back?


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

I am writting in regards to our Euro users who said something in this post.



> Hi,
> 
> I am afraid that USD is the only option to customers with a billing address in the US, however the price of products in USD is a little lower for many products so this should work in your favour!
> 
> ...





> Ragnar,
> 
> This is a question in regard to the pricing of ebooks and several users of this service on the forum I go to are quite upset. They are in the EU and now have to pay more since they no longer have the option to pay in Sterling. Several of which are saying they are now going to boycott the service as its costing them quite a bit more to buy exactly what they were before. I know being a multinational corporation can be a pain since you have to deal in so many different currencies but just a heads up as to what the general feelings are right now.
> 
> Larry B. K.


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## Mantel (Mar 1, 2011)

Nicely worded, my email has just been ignored so far after asking about the differences in euro prices. It's much cheaper to buy a physical book from a third party site now than it is to buy an ebook from the blacklibrary site. Just under €6 for Blood Gorgons from bookdepository.co.uk.


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

The thing is, Djinn, it's _not_ a pain in the ass to deal with different currencies. If they leave it all sterling, we all pay the same amount, and our credit card companies do the maths regarding exchange rates. The easiest thing to do would have been not to tinker and leave well enough alone.



Mantel said:


> my email has just been ignored so far after asking about the differences in euro prices.


Same here.


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## Doelago (Nov 29, 2009)

Did they lower the Euro prices? Now that I checked, it is even cheaper than yesterday! Why bother buying from my not so local gaming store, if I get it for a cheaper price from their website!


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

Its called playing politics. Gotta make them feel partly ok with stuff if you want to get answers back. We shall see. The threat is implied in there, see if they pick it up.


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## HorusReborn (Nov 19, 2008)

first of all no one has noticed this guy's name is RAGNAR.. how fuckin cool is that LOL! There was no ability to change the currency last night but mine showed in US dollars. I never order their books through their site since my shop gets them directly from GW and a little before the release date. It is a little disheartening to see that the prices are yet again being affected (ebook wise). Another reason why I love killing treese and using recycled paper!


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

I had noticed his name . I am mainly talking about the ebooks as shipping would be stupid high for a book from england. I just like the option to buy it for the cheapest going rate.


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## Doelago (Nov 29, 2009)

They really need to check their € prices... I have seen a few, not even so old, books listed as costing 0.00€...


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## Hachiko (Jan 26, 2011)

Khorne's Fist said:


> I swear to Christ that wasn't there last night when I started bitching. I even went into my account settings to see if I could change it in there.


They are probably just playing around with layout formats I guess. Maybe some of the neg feedback from folks here led them to try a currency selector out?


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## Mantel (Mar 1, 2011)

I got a reply this morning, just on the prices of Hammer and Bolter and the Eisenhorn short stories. They've reduced each by a euro so they're more in line with the conversion rates they used on other ebooks but still more expensive then what I got when paying in £. Still, at least it looks like they take in what people email to them, just need more people to raise the issue of euro prices.


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

> Hi Larry,
> 
> Thanks for getting in touch with us and the heads up, we do value our customers and their feedback.
> 
> ...


/damn10char


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

If they could knock it off their cheapest items, surely it makes sense to knock it off the more expensive novels? The more I think about the more it frustrates me, how willing BL are to spit in long time customers faces. A euro off a short story makes it alright to rip us off with everything else? Fuck off BL.


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

> Caroline,
> 
> The problem they are having in the EU is they were paying via sterling which worked well for them. Now as a breakdown using the US Dollar as the point.
> 
> ...


/damn10char


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

> Hi,
> 
> Being a UK company our website originally only had the function to charge in pounds sterling, we received feedback that this was confusing for customers so we set about updating our website to charge in more local currencies. This went live on Wednesday. We have tried to keep our prices in all currencies consistent with the price of books in that market. Specifically with eBooks we want to keep the price slightly lower than the RRP of the paperback books so as paperback book RRP is €10.50 we priced our eBooks at €8.99.
> 
> ...


What a crock. People are no longer confused about the pricing, now they _know _they're being ripped off.


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

Confused? How exactly is it confusing?


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## jasonbob (Sep 6, 2010)

If your buying an e-book anyway, cant you just change your shipping address to a US address to get the best price and trick the site. Nothing is getting shipped anyway so no risk.


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

:goodpost:


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## Mantel (Mar 1, 2011)

jasonbob said:


> If your buying an e-book anyway, cant you just change your shipping address to a US address to get the best price and trick the site. Nothing is getting shipped anyway so no risk.


The billing address is what matters and they don't give an option for a shipping address for ebooks on the site.


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

> Hi Larry,
> 
> I am sorry that Snuffy is not happy with the service that he/she is receiving.
> 
> ...


I think that was the nicest STFU I have ever gotten.


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## Chaosveteran (Aug 29, 2010)

This is so frustrating and narrow-minded from BL side!!

Though people can have one billing address (mine is in EU for example) but are they too thick to understand that people may have several accounts from which they choose to pay from?! 

And in what universe is the USD equal to the EURO, according to the BL site. I mean really! H&B costs 2.50 GBP. It also costs 3,99 USD and 3,99 EUR, I mean, really BL????


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## Chaosveteran (Aug 29, 2010)

jasonbob said:


> If your buying an e-book anyway, cant you just change your shipping address to a US address to get the best price and trick the site. Nothing is getting shipped anyway so no risk.


No, because if the card from which you pay is registered to a bank in the EU, you can't write a US bank address. System won't accept it.


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## Mantel (Mar 1, 2011)

Chaosveteran said:


> This is so frustrating and narrow-minded from BL side!!
> 
> Though people can have one billing address (mine is in EU for example) but are they too thick to understand that people may have several accounts from which they choose to pay from?!
> 
> And in what universe is the USD equal to the EURO, according to the BL site. I mean really! H&B costs 2.50 GBP. It also costs 3,99 USD and 3,99 EUR, I mean, really BL????


Look at the standard ebooks, 8.99 EUR and 7.99 USD. The numbers aren't even let alone the same value. That's around 3 EUR/2.50 GBP/4 USD in difference.


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## Chaosveteran (Aug 29, 2010)

Mantel said:


> Look at the standard ebooks, 8.99 EUR and 7.99 USD. The numbers aren't even let alone the same value. That's around 3 EUR/2.50 GBP/4 USD in difference.


I was just comparing the H&B issues, as it was a spontaneous post after trying to buy H&B issue 6 and finding out that I will be ripped off (2,50 GBP does not equal 3,99 EUR). At today's ex. rate it's roughly 2,90 EUR...


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## Mantel (Mar 1, 2011)

Chaosveteran said:


> I was just comparing the H&B issues, as it was a spontaneous post after trying to buy H&B issue 6 and finding out that I will be ripped off (2,50 GBP does not equal 3,99 EUR). At today's ex. rate it's roughly 2,90 EUR...


The short story/Hammer and bolter prices where at 4.99 EUR when they made the changes. Best thing to do is email them and let them know their prices are a bit crazy and too high. If they get enough emails about it they'll take a look at the pricing and hopefully revise the prices downward to at least match the GBP pricing.


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## Chaosveteran (Aug 29, 2010)

Mantel said:


> The short story/Hammer and bolter prices where at 4.99 EUR when they made the changes. Best thing to do is email them and let them know their prices are a bit crazy and too high. If they get enough emails about it they'll take a look at the pricing and hopefully revise the prices downward to at least match the GBP pricing.


Already emailed, but no reply yet...

Still, paying 2.5 GBP for some short stories was alright, but now that it's 4 euros...I guess BL just lost a H&B buyer (was only interested in the Soul Drinkers chapters anyway)...may as well wait for the book to come out when they decide to bring it out in print.


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## heiserhorn (Aug 17, 2009)

You got any aswer from BL? I emailed to regardy the huge difference in prices but no answer. I am really pissed off by this story.


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## Roninman (Jul 23, 2010)

This has been an issue for me lately aswell. Ordered directly from BL website books to my country, but in future will only buy print on demand or collectors books from them. Not interested in ebooks though.

If i get Fall of Damnos, Blood reaver, Age of Darkness and Battle of the Fang it cost around 46 euros + shipping. From Play i get all those 30 euros and no shipping costs.

Only positive side of course is getting them earlier.


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## nestersan (Apr 3, 2010)

Seriously, the ebook pricing is murderous. I wonder if I can bill them for the electricity it takes to charge my reader to make up ?


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## heiserhorn (Aug 17, 2009)

They answered to me. The justification of different prices on different currencies is due to taxes applied in different country. That is what they say but is sensless. I thynk they are just trying to make more money. They shuld have left the price in pounds ffor everyone. Then is up to the creditcard company to do the math.

Cheers


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## Esca (Feb 1, 2011)

I was looking forward to getting some BL books for my new ereader then I saw their prices (im US btw) and closed that window. I buy my books locally from borders and a few times a week I get free coupons for 33-40% off and use those to get my BL books. 

I rather just keep getting the physical books at their current ebook prices.


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## nestersan (Apr 3, 2010)

Likewise, I am not trying to be a bastard, but as much as I prefer Ebooks, I can get the paper versions cheaper. I will just lug them around one at a time instead of having them all on my e-reader...


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## EwokDwf (Apr 13, 2011)

if you dont like ebook pricings then go back to regular books
they are so much better..
ebooks are ruining the regular book world.. and putting people out of business.. i get that it saves the tress but what happens when all our electrict stuff goes bye bye
.
just do what i do go to the books store get some books and buy them you save alot more money than you would getting ebooks


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## heiserhorn (Aug 17, 2009)

EwokDwf said:


> if you dont like ebook pricings then go back to regular books
> they are so much better..
> ebooks are ruining the regular book world.. and putting people out of business.. i get that it saves the tress but what happens when all our electrict stuff goes bye bye
> .
> just do what i do go to the books store get some books and buy them you save alot more money than you would getting ebooks


Well, here is just a matter of pricing, we are not discussing if e-books are better than papaerbooks. I just find not normal that e-books cost more than paperbook. I prefere paperbooks too but they take up a lot of space.

my 2 cents

Cheers


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