You should know the drill by now.  Amazon’s been having some… odd “deals” on digital comics advertised.  They list a sale on the deals page that looks like it’s the twin of what’s being offered at Comixology, but when you look at the prices, the sale is digital list price.  They did it with the Marvel Ultimates sale (the page is gone, but the pricing at least got fixed).  They did it with the Dark Horse Harrow County sale (the pricing has not been changed as I type this) and now there’s goofiness with the Rick Remender sale.

Now, before we get to the latest incident, it does look like the Marvel Al Ewing sale and the “Dark Alleys of the DCU” sale are both actual sales.  And even the same deep discounts as on the Comixology sister-site.  So maybe they’re starting to get their act together?

But then there’s the Remender sale.  If you’re price-conscious, you’ll want to be aware of what’s going on here.

First, here’s how the Remender sale is billed on the Deals page:

And here’s how it’s listed on Comixology:

 

That’s quite a spread on prices, isn’t it.  So let’s look at a couple individual items.

Seven to Eternity, Vol. 1 for instance.  It’s actually one of my favorite Remender works of the last few years and the Opeña art is superlative. Here’s the Amazon listing on that:

Now, take a close look at the pricing box.  See were it says “Digital List Price?”  My experience is Amazon only shows that line if they’re REALLY discounting off the digital list price.  If they’re only showing the Print List Price, they’re selling it at Digital List.  So what we have here is an actual discount.  OK, it’s really $0.96 discount over digital list price – that 30% number is arguably deceptive, but at least there’s finally a real discount on one of these sales.  And it’s also being sold through normal Amazon channel, not a “price set by seller” arrangement like with Marvel and Dark Horse.

Except when we go to the Comixology page, we see:

Indeed, $3.99 is quite a bit cheaper than $7.03 and the discount is properly based on digital list price.  Ethics point goes to Comixology here.

So let’s take a look at another book listed in that initial Amazon listing – Deadly Class Vol. 6: This is Not the End.  Here’s the Amazon listing:

See a “Digital List Price” notation?  Nope.  That means this probably isn’t on sale at all and being offered at Digital List Price.

Let’s check the Comixology listing and find out:

Yup, list price is $12.99.  That’s not a real sale.  And it’s troubling that Amazon’s comic section is going to the trouble of duplicating a listing for a Comixology sale and then not follow through on it being an actual sale.  For a company that prides itself on fanatical service to their customers, Amazon’s not doing their customers any favors with these shenanigans.

Let’s hope they get this straightened out.