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Comment by gklitt | Hacker News Reader

The design and added features look nice, but it's hard to believe they're charging $289 -- well over twice the price of the Paperwhite, which is a great e-reader itself. Makes me wonder if this is an artificially high price point meant to drive sales of the Voyage, which now looks comparatively cheap at $199.

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You can always lower a price, but you can rarely raise it. And a high original MSRP lets them advertise a steep discount when the price does get lowered.

Interesting, it's kind of what clothing retailers have been doing especially in the past ten years or so. I think the access to more shopping options have led consumers to expect "large discounts" so maybe companies benefit from high original MSRP more than "pricing right".

The price includes the cover. The Voyage price doesn't.

Right. It's a $200 Voyage (overpriced already), with a better backlight system, and thinner plus a $90 leather battery case.

I think the price, relative to the Voyage, is reasonable.

I think the Voyage price, relative to the PaperWhite, is insane. I should know, I own one (I like it but wow it's expensive to buy those pseudo-buttons).

Yeah, but how many people really even want a $90 cover? I don't use a cover at all, but when I did I sure as hell didn't drop $90 on one.

The cover doesn't cost $90, look:

Voyage ($200) + Premium leather cover ($85) = $285

The Oasis costs $290 with battery cover. You're paying for a more expensive Kindle and a cheaper cover :)

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