
Top of the line #1

Top of the line #1

“You just won the Powerball!”

What’s your biggest problem?

Trying to figure out how to spend all that money, right? ;)

Naturally, you’d want to run right out and find the most expensive things there are and buy those…

Actually, that probably isn’t what I’d do. Yes, we would want to put in a chlorine-free pool (I’m a former competitive swimmer who now has a really severe problem with chlorine). We’d give people we know money, we’d give some causes money…and okay, I’d like to get some fancy way to convert public domain books I have to digital files…non-destructively.

Ooh, and we’d probably invest in some creative things! I have this idea for an amusement park/hotel I think could really work…but the Powerball probably isn’t enough money to do that, and…where was I? Oh, yeah…top of the line stuff. ;)

I wanted to take a look in the Kindle store and find the most expensive item of various types…just for fun. :)

E-book

Collier on Bankruptcy, Volume 8

Price: $6,399.20 (discounted from $7,999.00) (all prices will be for the USA Kindle store at the time of writing)

We have a new winnah! For quite a while, there were some physics books at the top of this list, but they have been surpassed.  More than the first twenty-five most expensive e-books are all in this Collier bankruptcy series, and they are similarly prices.

Hmm…maybe the first step to avoid bankruptcy is not to spend more than $150,000 on e-books about bankruptcy… ;)

Magazine

Old Cars Weekly

$79.98 per year

Since it’s a weekly, that’s not really a bad deal…it’s $1.48 per issue. I suppose if you are a dealer, you might need to see what changes every week. There are other magazines that are a lot more expensive per issue…I saw several quarterlies that are about $10 per issue.

Newspaper

Leagle Daily Tax Wire

$42.50 per month

Of course, that’s not even counting what it would cost to have a lawyer read it for you! Let’s see…$250 an hour, average reading speed of a lawyer is… ;)

Blog

Google Public Policy Blog

$1.99 a month

Amazon sets the prices for blogs in the Kindle store…I think they are either $1.99 or $0.99 (like this one). The more popular ones, oddly enough, usually have the lower price. This blog was top ten when I just rechecked, for example. That’s what happens to supply and demand with infinite demand, I guess.

Kindle Active Content (games and apps not for the Fire)

eReviewBook MBE

$49.99

The price of this one surprised me! Active content is usually inexpensive. This is a study book for the Bar exam…apparently, they want to teach the low value of money even before they become lawyers. ;)

Cover

kate spade new york Pebbled Leather Case for Kindle Fire HD, Green (only fits Kindle Fire HD 7″)

$99.00

Honestly, I thought I’d find covers that were a lot more expensive than this (I’m looking at you, Oberon). I guess they don’t sell through the Kindle store.

Now, let’s look at a few things you might use on your RSK (Reflective Screen Kindle…anything but a Kindle Fire) or on your Kindle, but aren’t exactly in the Kindle store.

Audiobook

Russian Phase 3, Units 1-30: Learn to Speak and Understand Russian with Pimsleur Language Programs [Unabridged]

$129.95

Actually, there are 80 (!) of these different Pimsleur courses at that price. I haven’t dug deeper in other categories, but I did want to see what was past the Pimsleurs…and this was it:

Our Mutual Friend

$91.95

David Timson portrays fifty-eight characters. They make the point that you could get this one free when you first join Audible (which is also owned by Amazon).

Apps for Fires

The most expensive one was actually right about $1,000, but wasn’t available to me as a USA customer…so I’m going with the next one:

Country and Wood animals

$354.55

That’s right…more than $350 for an app! For kids! It appears to be a memory-type game…gee, at that price point, I’d expect it be holographic. ;)

Amazon Instant Video

Tom, Tom, The Piper’s Son (Institutional Use)

$600.00

Well, there you go! I guess you’d know you are really Richie Rich if you buy these…which might be why people do it. :) Actually, some of these have specialized uses which might justify the prices.

The lowest priced items? Well, for e-books, it is zero…and lots and lots of them at that price. ;)

I guess I should say…I’ve paid $100 and more for books, although those were collectors’ items.

Just to make this fun, what about you? What’s the most that you’ve spent for a book? I know, if we include encyclopedias and such, it will get much higher. Let’s limit it to a single volume. Do you regret the purchase? Why did you buy it? Feel free to let me and my readers know by commenting on this post.

Bonus tip: Amazon Giveaway of Streaming Devices

Amazon’s really been promoting their new TV pilots…they want people to watch and vote.

So, in conjunction with that, we have this:

Amazon Pilots: So Many Ways to Watch Giveaway

They are giving away these prizes:

• One First Prize winner will win a Samsung UN46F6300 46-Inch 1080p 120Hz Slim Smart LED HDTV [approximate retail value (“ARV”) $899.09].
• One Second Prize winner will win an Xbox 360 4GB Console with Kinect and an Xbox LIVE 12 Month Gold Membership [Online Game Code] (total ARV $359.98).
• One Third Prize winner will win a Nintendo Wii U Deluxe Console (32 GB) (ARV $349.99).
• One Fourth Prize winner will win a Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ Tablet (16 GB) (ARV $269.00).
• One Fifth Prize winner will win a Sony BDP-S590 3D Blu-ray Disc Player with Wi-Fi (ARV $149.99).
• One Sixth Prize winner will win a Roku 3 Streaming Player (ARV $99.99).

Those are cool (and hot) gadgets!

One drawback…you can only enter if you are on Facebook…they don’t even give you a way to mail in an entry. Still, many of you probably are Facebookers, so then this seems like one of those “why not?” situations. :)

You have to be 18 years old, a US resident, and enter by May 17th…good luck!

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

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6 Responses to “Top of the line #1”

  1. Zebras Says:

    Sign me up for a visit to the Bufoland amusement park!

    • Bufo Calvin Says:

      Thanks for writing, Zebras!
      :)

      My name wouldn’t be on it. I do think I have a solid idea, and I think it would attract people, but they wouldn’t come because of me. It’s high concept. :) It’s one of those million dollar ideas (although this would be worth a lot more), and if somebody wants to approach me in private who could get it done, I’d be happy to sell the idea. :)

  2. Tony Redman Says:

    And that $600 “Tom, Tom the Piper’s Son” video lasts a whole 2 minutes and 47 seconds! I’m sure that a lot of that price pays for public performance rights as well, You can watch more of it on YouTube for free. According to IMDB, the director apparently based his film on rephotographing a short from 1905. It looks like a number of film students have been subjected to this, and the reviews are not good! That was probably more than you ever wanted to know about the film, but there you go! :-)

    • Bufo Calvin Says:

      Thanks for writing, Tony!

      Don’t worry…it can never be more than I wanted to know, because I want to know it all! :) Thanks for the info!

  3. Tom Semple Says:

    “Our Mutual Friend” price is an anomaly. If you purchase the correct Kindle edition (which is $0.00), you can purchase the audiobook for $2.99 (with Whispersync for Voice).

    The Pimsleur language audiobooks are not such a bad deal as these things are generally priced (over priced IMO). The CD version (16 disks I think, i.e. 16 hours) is essentially the same price. Audible members can purchase for 5 credits (annual subscription is $149.50 for 12 credits, so that works out to be only about $62.29). As it happens I have been thinking of re-learning Russian (I’d progressed to ‘intermediate’ levels in college, without much conversational or reading comprehension to show for it now) but after reviewing Pimsleur’s lesson materials, I don’t think I’d learn anything from them, despite years of attrition, and a superabundance of Audible credits that I could use. Besides I’m mostly interested in reading comprehension, which will require much more vocabulary and grammar review than audio can provide.

    I see that “Country and Wood” is now marked down 99% to $3.54. Better get it before the price goes back up!

    • Bufo Calvin Says:

      Thanks for writing, Tom!

      My adult kid is fluent in Russian, and I took it in high school (but don’t remember much). I am told that I have a decent accent when I speak it, though, and I can certainly set off a rambling response when I do drop the odd word or two. It’s interesting: I can’t really do a stage Russian accent (although I can do many others), and I wonder if it’s because I do know the language some…

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