Tim Almond

It shouldn’t really need saying, but I think that people often opt for Amazon without shopping around… 

I occassionally buy technical books. They are often large (the one I bought is only a few less pages than War and Peace) and very expensive.

I was passing my local Borders store, and I called in and found the book I was after at the sort of price I’d expect - just over £40. Borders is not cheap for technical books (although the selection is excellent).

I then tried the standard port of call - Amazon. I was a little surprised to see that it just wasn’t discounted at all. The price was the same as Borders - just over £40. But I did discover that there was a special edition for £45 (that had some nice and useful new chapters).

The other bookshop that I’ve used for computer books is the Computer Manuals Bookshop. I’ve mostly found similar prices to Amazon, except that the postage is normally faster. They were offering about a 25% discount on the special edition, taking the price down to just over £33. Much better.

It then occurred to me to try and see if I could get it a little lower. So, I typed a few words of the title into Google, and up came a link to Google Products, with some savings. Following Google Products, I found that the people at The Register now have a bookshop selling the book at a 30% discount, down to just under £30.

So, a few minutes shopping around, and I saved about £15 on the book I wanted, enough for a new CD. Any tips on whether to go with the new Mika or Amy Winehouse? Don’t worry, I’ll find somewhere cheap to buy it.

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Tags: Books //