And BTW, I think I have solved the mystery.
When converting from USD to EUR in the local shops they are using the
*inverse* of the exchange rate. Instead of *multiplying* the USD
price by the exchange rate, they are *dividing* by it (or vice versa).
This explains with great accuracy the weird differences between the
USA shop and the EU ones. Sigh.
P.
On Sat, Jan 17, 2015 at 2:12 AM, Pierpaolo Bernardi <olopierpa_at_gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 17, 2015 at 1:48 AM, Philippe Verdy <verdy_p_at_wanadoo.fr> wrote:
>> Note: Lulu has other sale points for other countries.
>
> Lulu was redirecting me automatically to the Italian shop. Switching
> to USA, the price of the books are what they are supposed to be and
> the shipping costs too are reduced. Like this
>
> Item Subtotal: $16.24
> Shipping Subtotal: $40.04
> Value Added Tax: $9.46
> Total: $65.74 (= 56.86 EUR today's exchange rate)
>
> Still a lot, but now it is less extravagant. The principal culprit of
> the high price seems to be that the shipping cost for two books is
> twice that of one book. No discount.
>
>> I can find volume 2 in France there
>>
>> http://www.lulu.com/shop/unicode-consortium/unicode-70-volume-1/paperback/product-21962094.html
>>
>> at €11.96 (but still not including 20% French VAT and still not the shipping
>> costs from US only)
>
> If you proceed with the order, you will be shown shipping and VAT
> before confirming.
>
>> And the 3 delivery costs options are at €9.99, €29.99, and €49.99 (same
>> lengthy delays after printing from US; the third option being complelety
>> useless).
>
> The cheaper shipping is not traced, I have found it totally unreliable
> at my expense, and Lulu does not respond of missing deliveries. All
> the prices I quoted above refers to the cheaper of the traceable
> options.
>
>> Or interested people here could take a group order in a managed paged with
>> help of a small team to make the delivery from US, at reasonnable costs. A
>> local foundation could also take a volume order in advance for some region
>> (EU+EFTA, Japan/Korea/Hong Kong, Russia, South Africa, India, Brasil,
>> Canada); and if there remains some unsold items after some time (e.g. 6
>> months), they would be donated to local public libraries or university
>> library.
>
> I doubt this would be cost effective, even relying on volunteers work.
>
> Best would be to use Amazon logistics. Many Lulu books are available
> from Amazon, I must look into what's involved in making Lulu books
> available from Amazon.
>
>>> Note that taxes are also not included; so expect to pay also the VAT to
>>> the post office or delivery service to get the product
>
> Nowadays this is handled transparently for you by the carriers. If you
> proceed in the checkout you will see your local VAT applied.
>
> Thanks for all the replies. Pardon my rant.
> P.
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Received on Fri Jan 16 2015 - 20:18:20 CST
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