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Why is Assimil cheaper in the US? | ||
Tags: Low budget | Assimil | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5451 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 9 of 14 20 June 2012 at 11:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
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He's been trolling over the last couple of weeks. However, a thread about where to buy Assimil courses is not a bad
idea in itself. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6941 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 10 of 14 20 June 2012 at 11:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Coming back to the topic, one can only speculate as to why several of the English-base Assimil with Ease courses have been so cheap on Amazon. $32.97 price is indeed low, and what's interesting is that it is not even listed as a mark-down from a higher price.
My own speculation has been that Assimil wanted to get more known in the North American market and was selling low for that reason. I also wonder if the higher price now charged for German with Ease (link - as of this writing, $50.47, discounted from $79.95) does not mean that they feel they have now pentetrated the market and can start charging more. Edited by frenkeld on 20 June 2012 at 11:13pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| simonov Senior Member Portugal Joined 5587 days ago 222 posts - 438 votes Speaks: English | Message 11 of 14 21 June 2012 at 12:11am | IP Logged | |||||
So far, so good. I do agree that this is useful information. But.... Just look at the title, the OP is not out to give useful information:
He asks a silly question, silly because we are in no position to answer. This is why I went out of my way to point out, once again, that his is not the kind of posting people interested in languages should be asked to waste their time pondering. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5332 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 12 of 14 21 June 2012 at 9:35am | IP Logged | |||||
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Sometimes even what might appear to be a stupid question may produce some very good answers.
Personally it does not bother me that people ask that sort of questions, I guess that in a community of more than 30 000 users we must expect and accept a wide range of different personalities. Besides, if everyone were a star, then nobody would stand out. As it is now, those who write insightful, knowledgeable posts will be noticed in a positive way. Let that be your comfort, and let us have a live and let live policy. Edited by Solfrid Cristin on 21 June 2012 at 9:36am 9 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5563 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 13 of 14 21 June 2012 at 12:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I agree - out of the context of previous posts, I don't see this as a particularly
trolling question either. An Assimil book alone is £20ish in the UK - so its the CDs that add the bulk of the £60 price on Amazon - and this about the same as the Euro price direct from Assimil if you factor in postage costs (66E) - so the price of an Assimil pack is the same across Europe, it is nothing to do with the UK. It seems normal in language learning products in the EU to wack up the price of the CD - compare the Routledge Intensive Dutch Course - book £26ish, CD pack (2 cds) - £54 alone, so total cost £80 and Routledge is a UK company with a very high turn over (relative to Assimil). Those CDs have about 1/10th of what's on an Assimil course. The Colloquial and TY series are better priced, but still for languages (like Colloquial Afrikaans) which aren't marketed as a pack the book and the CD costs about equal to buy separatedly. There is VAT (sales tax) on CDs in the UK but not on books and this accounts for some of the additional price - but I think most of the reason is the historically high cost of language courses with audio in the UK/Europe - I remember Linguaphone in the 70s used to offer loans to purchase their products. Perhaps in the USA, where consumers vote with their dollars and the market is more ferocious, publishers can't get away with this practice. Edited by Elexi on 21 June 2012 at 12:35pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6377 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 14 of 14 21 June 2012 at 4:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
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My guess is that it is due to geography and over estimated demand for Assimil products, which are hardly known in the US. Assimil may have sent books to Amazon US at some point and they didn't sell well and Amazon decided to mark down the price rather than incur the cost and hassle of shipping then back to the EU. As frenkeld mentioned, the price of some of the courses has started to increase, perhaps after Amazon cleared out some of its stock. Edited by newyorkeric on 21 June 2012 at 4:12pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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