Easton Press Sale

Just wondering thoughts/opinions. It's been a while since I bought an EP title. This last year i've been much more picky on my purchases. The prior three years I was buying tons of DLE's.

My question ... EP used to offer once or twice a year ... "if you spend so much ... you get a free book ... choose between 5 or 6 titles"

I haven't seen that offer in quite a while.

Anyone else notice that deal no longer pops up?

I’ve been waiting for it myself. I generally won’t buy a new Easton book from their website (with a few exceptions) unless they offer the free book sale. This is because the majority of their titles are overpriced, and the majority of the book values (with a few exceptions) drop decently in the secondary market.

Unfortunately, they haven’t offered any free book sales this year since the Chinese virus arrived in the US.

Maybe next year they will get back to the sales.

>1 thisGuy33: in the past, to justify the high price of DLEs I would usually wait for that free $100+ book which I would promptly sell on eBay.

>2 robbieac: >3 HugoDumas: i'm right there with ya ... I really look forward to those "extras". But I've been waiting on a title for quite a while and now there's a new DLE ... and I'm just hoping they'll still be around if/when they offer their 'free book' deal.

>3 HugoDumas: Last 'Free Book' sale took place a long time ago in Feb 2019. I don't expect EP to come back to this model especially when so many LibraryThing users and eBay resellers refrain from buying at all during the year waiting patiently for the sale and then bragging so openly ;)...

More reasonable approach from EP may be to reconsider their pricing model. Instead of weird prices oftentimes all over the place, EP could simplify their pricing with price tiers, for instance DLEs may be priced at $249, $299 etc. It could then offer 10-15% off during more frequent sales or for purchases of multiples DLEs or for customized bundles like Jules Verne DLE bundle or Twain DLE bundle. In other words, they could partially build in some of the possible discounts into their pricing instead of offering free books.

It appears that EP may already offer discounts to bulk purchasers despite their denying it vehemently to casual inquirers as it is somewhat difficult to explain how some eBay resellers end up with tens of copies of the same book...

With supply chains strained due to the virus and trade war with China, EP may face a conundrum this coming Holiday season. With less books on offer due to extended production time, their sales/revenue is in danger of falling off a cliff. With sales/revenue in decline, offering further deep discounts may only make matters worse. I know that EP relies on a cohort of folks on fixed income aka retirees :) to bring in most of their revenue, but with so many parts of the country clobbered by the virus, toll of medical expenses, helping out family/kids etc. it may mean that these individuals will not be buying as much this Holiday season. It remains to be seen...

I am simply not interested in more and more obscure titles EP chooses to publish and charge $200+ regardless of whether it has moire or marbled endpages... Instead tray cases, EP could introduce monogrammed slipcases in a few basic colors with a tasteful E/P logo on the side. These would be cheaper to produce not to mention the fact that they would make the tray case design flaw disappear - instead of the spine portion of the tray case being left open (missing), EP chooses to keep tray fully enclosed with ribbon used to lift up the book. Since the book rests on the ribbon and the ribbon is also pressed into the front cover by the lid (lid is sometimes too thick and/or too tight), it puts the book at risk of developing an imprint from the ribbon with prolonged storage especially when book is stored flat... With only slipcases to worry about, EP could shift some resources into perhaps dividing thicker books like Atlas Shrugged into two volumes :), which would make them easier to handle and store. EP could also introduce slipcased sets of DLEs like Verne, Twain, or perhaps Steinbeck :)...

Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness. Mask up, keep up social distancing and wash your hands with soap and running water! Unless we all participate, it does not matter where the virus came from or where it is going (like Cotton Eye Joe :D), it will stay with us longer wreaking further havoc on the economy and taking more lives.

>5 EPsonNY: I agree the market (and world as a whole) has changed drastically. And almost all businesses have to reevaluate all their sales and marketing strategies.

That said ... I still think at least once a year they can implement the free book deal. The books they usually offer are semi-less desired titles and probably slow selling titles (but there is usually at least one or two enjoyable items in there).

The offered titles were usually ones they were selling for less then $80 (once in a while they'd have a title that was over $100). But thinking their profit margin is above 50% ... their loss is minimal and would probably draw in more purchases of their higher priced titles (where if their profit margin is at least 50% ... on a $400 title ... that's a $200 profit ... so to lose $40 on a free give away is still a clear win for them).

But then again ... what do I know ... I'm just a simple book lover. lol

>5 EPsonNY:

Interesting...many Folio Society folks lament the production of modern and semi-modern works or science fiction and fantasy works in lieu of \obscure\ classics. Then many here at EP lament the good old days when they produced a plethora science fiction and fantasy titles, yet they are always digging up \obscure\ classics. Maybe they need to combine forces.