Saturday, April 14, 2007

I want to pre-order Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

It's official! Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final book in J.K. Rowling's magical Harry Potter series, will be released on July 21, 2007. In the February 1 announcement from the book's publisher, Lisa Holton, President of Scholastic Children's Books, said, 'We are thrilled to announce the publication date of the seventh installment in this remarkable series. We join J.K. Rowling's millions of readers-young and old, veterans and newcomers-in anticipating what lies ahead.' Save the date, and let the countdown begin!


I want to pre-order this book . But I am confused about the point of sale. My priorities are clear :

Price : Lowest
Shipping and Handling Cost : Lowest
The store must be reliable and well known .

This book is available for pre-order only in Amazon, Amazon UK, Sify Shop, Barnes & Noble.com and Buy.com


For Amazon

List Price : $18.89
Shipping and Handling Cost : $12
Reliability : I had purchased from Amazon earlier.That time they deliver the product within 7 days(I stay in India)
Popularity : Oldest known online shop

For Amazon UK

List Price : £8.99 ~ $15.99
Shipping and Handling Cost : $8
Reliability : I had not purchased from Amazon UK anytime in my life . But they are well respected even in India for Amazon US.
Popularity : Approximately 10 years in service.Many people in Asia don’t know that their is an UK version of Amazon

For Sify Shop

List Price : Rs.732 ~ $16.27
Shipping and Handling Cost : Less than Amazon as they ship from India and I stay in India.
Reliability : I had never purchased from them earlier
Popularity : Approximately 3 years in service.Many people even in India don’t know about this site.

For Buy.com

List Price : $22.18
Shipping and Handling Cost : $3
Reliability : I had not purchased from them anytime in my life .
Popularity : Approximately 10 years in service. Well-known in US but not in Asiatic countries

For Barnes and Nobles (B & N)

List Price : $20.99
Shipping and Handling Cost : $3
Reliability : I had not purchased from them anytime in my life .
Popularity : Oldest. Well-known in US as a book-shop but not in Asiatic countries

So the price is lowest in Amazon UK but the shipping cost is higher than Sify .But Sify is not a very popular online store . As Amazon is extremely popular and respected world wide and Amazon UK is just a sub-sidiary of the same company,I prefer Amazon UK . Though if they do not ship to India I’ll go for Sify . My last choice will be to purchase from B & N.

If I rate Best as 10 and Worst as 0 then,

For Amazon

List Price : $18.89 = 7/10
Shipping and Handling Cost : $12 = 3/10
Reliability : I had purchased from Amazon earlier.That time they deliver the product within 7 days(I stay in India) = 10/10
Popularity : Oldest known online shop = 10/10

Total = 30/40

For Amazon UK

List Price : £8.99 ~ $15.99 = 9/10
Shipping and Handling Cost : $8 = 4/10
Reliability : I had not purchased from Amazon UK anytime in my life . But they are well respected even in India for Amazon US.= 8/10
Popularity : Approximately 10 years in service. Many people in Asia don’t know that their is an UK version of Amazon = 7/10

Total = 28/40

For Sify Shop

List Price : Rs.732 ~ $16.27 = 8/10
Shipping and Handling Cost : Less than Amazon as they ship from India and I stay in India. = 9/10
Reliability : I had never purchased from them earlier = 6/10
Popularity : Approximately 3 years in service. Many people even in India don’t know about this site. = 4/10

Total = 27/40

For Buy.com

List Price : $18.88 = 7/10
Shipping and Handling Cost : $3 = 8/10
Reliability : I had not purchased from them anytime in my life . = 7/10
Popularity : Approximately 10 years in service. Well-known in US but not in Asiatic countries = 5/10

Total = 27/40


For Barnes and Nobles (B & N)

List Price : $20.99 = 5/10
Shipping and Handling Cost : $3 = 8/10
Reliability : I had not purchased from them anytime in my life . = 7/10
Popularity : Oldest. Well-known in US as a book-shop but not in Asiatic countries. = 5/10

Total = 25/40

You can easily understand that Amazon is the clear leader .It will be better for me to pre-order the book from Amazon .

My first choice was Sify or Amazon UK but after rating all the shops, my decision had to be changed .

Amazon