Price Comparison: Dan Brown’s “The Lost Symbol”

Books can vary greatly in price and availability, especially when you are looking for English language editions and you are in a book store in a country whose primary language is something other than English. Hence and in theory, books should be cheaper in cities where more people speak English and where incomes are higher.

Recently though, the Asian Wall Street Journal’s weekly Arbitrage column conducted a survey of prices for Dan Brown’s “The Lost Symbol” in various cities in Asia (and around the world) and the results were somewhat surprising. The survey found that prices ranged considerably around Asia and that prices were highest in Hong Kong and Singapore – two of the biggest English language and upper income cities in the region.

Of course, you can always go to Amazon.com and order the book for  US$16.17 and pay for shipping and handling. Or better yet, order a digital edition of the book for Amazon.com’s Kindle and only pay US$9.99 and have it delivered wirelessly.

Price Comparison*

Paris	€28	US$40.44
Rome	€25	US$37.35
Hong Kong	HK$283	US$36.52
Singapore	S$48	US$34.35
Brussels	€23	US$33.08
Jakarta	297,000 Rupiahs	US$31.45
London	19 Pounds	US$30.20
Tokyo	2,861 Yen	US$30.05
Frankfurt	€20	US$29.23
Kuala Lumpur	100 Ringgit	US$29.07
New York City	US$28.62	US$28.62
Bangkok	913 Baht	US$27.28
Shanghai	183 Yuan	US$26.86
Manila	975 Peso	US$20.85

* Prices are based upon foreign exchange rates as of October 7, 2009