News: Comic Book Tattoo Pre-Order Price Reduction At Amazon

At the risk of turning into an Amazon cheerleader, we hasten to point out that their pre-order prices for all three editions of Comic Book Tattoo have been reduced! Slashed, even! The softcover is now $19.79, the hardcover, now “temporarily out of stock” (though one wonders how a not-yet-released book can be out of stock) is $36.49 and the limited edition is $62.99. Thanks to Michael Fellows and susan for the tip!

UPDATE: We’ve received confirmation from Rantz that the price for the limited edition of Comic Book Tattoo is, in fact, $149.99. Given that and the limited run of the edition (1,000 copies), the $62.99 pre-order price that Amazon continues to list does seem suspicious, particularly since they do not appear to be limiting the number of pre-orders on this item — its current sale rank at Amazon is #541!

In addition, Melanie received a reply from Amazon in response to her query about the limited edition, the basic gist of which is that they could not confirm anything about the physical details of the edition. This, of course, makes perfect sense considering that the book has not been published or even solicited to retail yet. They also reiterated that Amazon’s return policy allows for full refunds if a book does not meets one’s expectation.

Given all that, caution is advised in pre-ordering the limited edition from Amazon. Deals that appear too good to be true usually are, so please keep a healthy level of expectation about this. Mind you, we’re not suggesting that Amazon is doing a bait and switch! But considering the lack of details at this stage, no one should be surprised if they can not meet the price they’ve advertised or are unable to supply all copies they have accepted orders for.

On a less cautionary note, Darrell points out that Forbidden Planet is now listing all three editions as well. Their current prices are £13.39 for the softcover, £22.10 for the hardcover, and a much heftier £66.33 (that’s $130.87 at the current exchange rate) for the limited edition.

Amazon.co.uk also has all three editions but does not have prices listed and is not accepting orders for them.