Consumer Thoughts

I’ve mentioned this in a few comment sections of blogs where they were talking about saving money on books, but I never thought to post it here.  Well, here goes:

Bookstore discount cards are not a good bargain.  For this example, I’m going to use Barnes & Noble’s card.  Their membership is $25 a year, and it lets you save 10% off all your book purchases.  Now, doesn’t this sound like a great deal?  It’s not, when you think about it.

$25 equals 10% of $250.  In other words, to even earn your membership fee back in savings, you have to spend $250 there in one year.  You only start truly saving 10% off your purchases after that. 

Books-A-Million’s Millionaire Club has slightly better math: Their membership is $15 for 10% off books, meaning you only have to spend $150 in a year.

Borders, on the other hand, offers a free card, but you only get a $5 gift card for every $150 you spend… That’s about 3%.

I’m sure you’ve read that MSN article about 10 things you should never buy new – books are one of them! Personally, I buy books from Marketplace sellers at Amazon… I get them, often in like-new condition, for a few dollars… usually saving 75% or more. I have one of those Amazon Visa cards that lets you earn gift certificates for spending a certain amount of money – when I get my $25 certificate, I can get 5 or 6 books used rather than just one or two brand new.

So next time you think about joining a savings club that costs money to join, calculate how much you’ll have to save to earn your membership fee back, and don’t join if you’re not 100% certain that you’ll save money on top of that fee.