Also that's often comparing the discounted price of a print edition to the full price of the ebook. Print books being still sold under the old wholesale model, Amazon can still discount them, whereas ebooks being sold under the new model, Amazon can't discount them.
When I'm looking at prices at an online bookstore, I don't care what the list price is, I care what the price I have to pay is.
When a physical object that has to be manufactured and shipped costs more than a text file, I feel ripped off. Especially since I can lend a physical book to someone or sell it to a local used book store, neither of which I can do with an ebook.
> When a physical object that has to be manufactured and shipped costs more than a text file, I feel ripped off
But this is highly irrational.
If the physical book is a better deal for you, then go for it. If the eBook deal is better, then go for that. If you still decided that the eBook deal is better than I can't fathom how it can be a 'rip off' because another deal that you turned down is cheaper. What effort went into making the product is entirely irrelevant. All that matters is the price and value to you.
Yes you can lend physical books to other people, but you also have to pack them when moving, and a decent physical book collection is surprisingly very heavy.
Also when lending books to people you have to know them well, and then follow up if you ever want the book returned.
Leaving aside the secondary markets for a moment---which yes, I agree with you on---do you feel ripped off buying video games online? They are, after all, just really large files.
I feel ripped off when buying a video game online costs more than buying the same game in a physical shop yes, or when a movie on a streaming service costs more than the same movie on disc.
I don't buy enough video games to really answer that - usually I buy a couple of games a year during Steam sales and that's about it. I usually buy a couple of books a month (print and ebooks).
