May 1 , 2009 — As noted below, we add the cost of credit card processing into our book prices, but also allow our cash customers (i.e. those who send us a check or money order) to take a corresponding discount on their order total. Google Checkout has just raised its fees to us by 1%, so we have increased our prices accordingly, and now cash customers can take a 4% discount to compensate.
January 31, 2008 — When we lowered our prices, we also switched to processing website orders using Google Checkout, so as to lower our expenses by taking advantage of their low fees. One of the benefits was that, in order to get people to use their new service, the good folks at Google decided to waive those fees until February 2008; we in turn passed those savings on to our customers.
The Google Checkout fee is roughly 3% of the total order, and so as of today we have raised our prices by 3% to take this into account. However, since we only pay this fee for orders processed through Google Checkout, we're glad to offer a 3% discount to those of you who mail in your orders to us.
August 7, 2006 — After five years of operation we have decided to set our prices using a straight markup of about 15%. For books, which we generally purchase at a 40% discount, this means that prices will be priced about 30% less than list price. On music CDs we receive a smaller discount, so for those the price is closer to list. For a couple of books we receive little or no discount, and so we sell those more or less at our cost.
We plan to make the price cut retroactive to July 1, 2006. In the next few weeks, folks who have ordered with us since then will receive a refund check for the difference between what they paid and what we now charge.