$30 = 30*50 = INRs.1500 approx. Rs.371 = 371/50 = $7.4 approx. Purchasing power parity needs to be adjusted, yes, but it couldn't be too acute for a product like this.
Methinks the Amazon pricing bot is not doing a great job. Unless it is accounting for the fact that if I order from Flipkart, I'll have to pay shipping charges, which are about $20. That still doesn't make sense, because surely Amazon could ship the book cheaper.
6 comments:
it is PPP in a way... buying the same book in both countries has an opportunity cost approx equal to buying a meal for two in a restaurant.
yes but if the difference is only down to shipping costs, then the strategy isn't clear to me, because shipping cost to amazon << shipping cost to me.
Maybe amazon is not holding this book in any warehouse in the US, that might explain the pricing.
But if it doesn't hold it any warehouse why does it offer to sell the book?
Indian editions of most books are cheaper. Are they the same editions on both sites? The audiences aren't exactly the same anyway. Flipkart is focused on the Indian market, while Amazon doesn't ship here.
can't see any reason why they shouldn't be the same edition.
@jc:
sure Amazon doesn't ship there, but if you look at similar books (Ram Guha's stuff, for eg) they are much cheaper at about $11. My guess is the market for both of these authors is the same for Amazon, so I just don't understand the difference in pricing.
(By the way, I was a bit sloppy in saying the market is the same - what I meant was comparably similar books are sold on both websites - Indian authors on cricket - but there is a major discrepancy in Amazon's pricing that doesn't exist in flipkart).
Dude of course they are different editions. You would have noticed that just by looking at the product pages. The one on Amazon (and Barnes & Noble) is published by Farrar, Stroud and Giroux and is now selling for ~$17. the one on Flipkart is published by Picador India. You could in fact buy the imported (to India) hardcover on Flipkart for ~990 bucks which works out to approximately $20. Comes down to how the publishers price books in different markets, (probably) based in turn on how much they had to pay for country rights, rather than a bug in Amazon's pricing bot.
oops!
all is good then, there is peace across the land.
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