Let's Discuss: Lack of Book Sales

So I know COVID has totally screwed EVERYTHING up this year, but I was starting to wonder...has it truly effected book prices too?

LACK OF BOOK SALES

Has anyone else noticed that book prices have NOT gone on sale no matter which retailer you look at? For the first time in...eons...Amazon is charging FULL price for all 2020 new releases from hardcover to paperback of the mass and trade. It's ridiculous! 

Barnes and Noble is being the same way! All their books from best selling authors to debut authors...all FULL price! There's no preorder price discount, ones that I always took full advantage of.

Has anyone else noticed this? Is anyone else bothered by this? I always been able to justify buying around 50+ books a year because 80% or so of those were all bought at a discount. You know somewhere between 15-20% off. It's not much per book, but when those savings start to stack up per book, it's not long before I just bought myself another book! 

This year though...I started noticing around February the prices weren't lowering for certain titles and then by March, every. Single. Title. Was. FULL. PRICED!

I tried doing the preorder in advance and then check back every once in awhile to see if a sale sneaked in while I was unaware.

NEVER. HAPPENED!

I mean, for the first time in...ever, I have a list of books that released earlier this year that I have NOT bought yet. They have not gone on sale, once. 

Add to that...Barnes and Noble has NOT sent out any coupons since their President's Day weekend one. That's Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and maybe one or two random weekends that have been skipped. There hasn't been any member coupons in the mail at all this year. At least none that I recall from January-February. I remember March-July vividly because I have sooooo many books I need to buy and haven't been able to!

Yes I know, the easiest solution here is to buy ebooks which are cheaper than the real book, for the most part. I sometimes still see certain titles that charge the exact same price for the real book and the ebook.

I know everyone raves over ebooks, but I still don't like them as much. I read them for certain titles, but otherwise, I rather have that real book thankyouverymuch!

But yeah, this is something that has been bugging me pretty much since March when I expected to get a coupon at some point. Now I've books from as early as February and March that I still need to buy but haven't because they've never dropped beyond full price.

Has anyone else noticed this or felt the pain of not getting anything on sale? I feel like this is taking advantage of people during these harsh times. Yes, I know, in the grand scheme of things, it's minor, but coming from a reader-bibliophile-booklover-reader/nerd-blogger (yeah I can keep going on with the names, lol!) this is a HUGE deal! 

So how are you coping with this price gouging? Yeah, I know (still), charging the full price isn't really price gouging but coming from Amazon, it SO is! Lol.