Club Guides cheaper from EBay and Amazon

Posted on 28/11/2019 11:48 by StuartO

The unit cost of production of a book certainly depends on the print run volume, but I don't think anything forces the Club to supply these books wholesale to booksellers if it prefers to sell only directly to the retail (and membership) market itself - and the club should have a pretty good idea by now of how many of each edition of these books it can sell.

The bookseller who is selling them so cheaply on EBay and Amazon must still be making a worthwhile profit so it's difficult to imaging that their buying price is much more than £3 per copy.  The printing cost is likely to be at least £2 for this sort of book per copy, even for a long print run.

Has my previous post been removed by Admin; I didn't try to delete it?  I suppose I might have clicked on "delete" by mistake.

 

Posted on 28/11/2019 09:38 by SteveL

and if you pay for Prime then you get "free?" delivery

You don't necessarily need prime to get  "free" delivery. On books from Amazon the limit for "free" is only £10 not the normal £20. So it would depend on if you buy more than one.

Posted on 29/11/2019 16:09 by StuartO

I bought one of the Touring Spain & Portugal guides from Amazon for the same amount and it arrived next day.

The Guide itself was a bit of a disappointment; more of a booklet than a proper book, less than 7mm thick!  The Portugese sites are listed on a total of only 20 pages with four to eight sites on each page, depending on how many advertisments are also displayed.  The editor has clearly only attempted to include sites suitable for caravans and a couple of "Motorhome Park" sites where we have stayed (excellent sites but caravans are not allowed) are not mentioned.  This guide needs a serious overhaul to cater properly for motorhomes.

At the listed price (before delivery charges) of £8.50, I think this guide is a rip off.

Posted on 28/11/2019 09:38 by DavidKlyne

First and foremost this is a discussion area for help and information. You can alert admin to a particular topic by using the report button which might bring a response. I suspect it depends on whether the Club have any control over the general resale price of the guides which they won't. I imagine the Club price the guides not only to cover the costs of production but also to make a reasonable profit, which of course gets ploughed back into member facilities. If others decide to make hardly any profit out of the sale of these books by discounting them what can can the Club do. At the end of the day if it becomes uneconomic to produce these guides who loses out? Not EBay or Amazon but members of the Club so be a bit careful for what you wish for.

David

Posted on 30/11/2019 19:08 by Tammygirl

I've  just ordered the 2020 versions of France and Spain/Portugal from Amazon £16 for both editions including postage. 

CMC are dtill selling 2019 editions with no choice of 2020  oh well, should het mine mid December.

Posted on 02/12/2019 10:06 by Rufs

hope you are not too disappointed with your purchase, mine arrived today and I am not overly impressed, a lot of site listings particularly for Spain, and the book is nice and compact for stowage in car/van but overall i dont think it is worth the money " once  bitten, twice shy"