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Kindle Matchbook Now Live – Selection is Limited

Amazon has launched their ebook bundling program, Kindle Matchbook, but darned if I can’t find any of my Amazon purchases that qualify.

This program is intended to let consumers who have bought paper books from Amazon over the years flesh out their libraries with a digital copy of those same books. The catch? You have to pay for them again, albeit for reduced rates. Prices for the ebooks range from $0.99 to $2.99, with some titles free of charge, so they certainly won’t break the wallet.

kindle matchbook

According to the Kindle Matchbook page Amazon has around 74 thousand titles available as part of this program, including works from HarperCollins, Macmillan, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Amazon Publishing, Wiley, Chronicle Books, and Marvel.

This is rather a small figure compared to the 2.2 million titles listed in the Kindle Store, or even the more than 350,000 available in the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library. Also, most of the publishers have only a limited number of titles, but HarperCollins is the exception. Amazon is showing over 9 thousand HC titles in the Matchbook listings, including some titles published in the past few months. Not so coincidentally HC is also the single biggest contributor to the Oyster and Scribd ebook subscription services.

Still, 74 thousand is a major improvement on the 10,000 title catalog that Amazon promised when they announced the program last month.

How the service works is pretty simple. Simply visit the Kindle Matchbook page and click the button, and Amazon will trawl your purchase history for compatible titles. They will be listed automatically.

Or at least that is the way the system is supposed to work. I tried it and it turns out that I haven’t purchased any compatible books from Amazon, much to my surprise.

Have you tried it, and did you find any good deals?

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Comments


Patrick October 29, 2013 um 10:57 am

I found 19 books of mine that qualify, most, not surprisingly, at the 2.99 level. Many of them are still sitting on the bookshelf waiting to be read in the paper format. But there may be 2 or 3 I’d be willing to match.


Rebecca Allen October 29, 2013 um 11:30 am

39. Nothing compelling, only a few tempting. I blogged the details. The earliest purchase that matches is March 1996; my earliest purchase from Amazon was from December 1995.


Paul October 29, 2013 um 11:46 am

Only 1 book out of the hundreds I have bought from Amazon over the years qualified, and that was $2.99, a Terry Pratchett book (Making Money).


Juli Monroe October 29, 2013 um 12:28 pm

I found 2. A book I already own in digital format, and one I hated so much that I’d never consider buying it again. I was surprised to find that many considering how few paper books I buy.


Pamela Withrow October 29, 2013 um 12:54 pm

I found several of mine available, and a couple at .99 that I will be purchasing as soon as possible.


AlanW October 29, 2013 um 12:56 pm

I used to buy a lot of paperback books from Amazon (now I buy a lot of ebooks). 91 of them are in the program with savings typically between 50% and 75% of the ebook price. I lost all my books in hurricane Katrina so I may end up buying quite a few of these. So far as I can tell, if I have already bought the ebook it isn’t included in the list. Also, if I go directly to the Kindle book page I get the Kindle MatchBook price.


dave October 29, 2013 um 1:10 pm

Only 4 for me from years ago & now I only buy digital. However, I have purchased many paper editions as gifts & they don’t show. I wonder if the gift recipients will receive the matchbook offer?

Charles October 29, 2013 um 3:54 pm

One book of mine was a gift sent to someone else. It appears on my list for the kindle deal, not on theirs.

Looks like some of my Lois McMaster Bujold and Robin Hobb titles are appearing at the $1.99 level.

dave October 29, 2013 um 6:53 pm

Charles, now I really feel slighted. I have bought quite a few books for my brother & I just checked on the last 3 which I bought in June of this year. All 3 are available in Kindle format, but none of them showed as available matches.

a October 29, 2013 um 9:31 pm

Dave, I think not all books that have Kindle format are available in this Matchbook?


ucfgrad93 October 29, 2013 um 1:10 pm

I have 5 books that are part of this program. All of them are priced $2.99.


fjtorres October 29, 2013 um 1:28 pm

Three so far.
Good ones at good enough discounts so I matched up.


Castiron October 29, 2013 um 1:55 pm

Fourteen, mostly $1.99 to $2.99. Five are books I definitely like enough to buy twice, especially at that price, and I’m thinking about a couple others. One’s a book I already own in e from another vendor.


Stephen Beale October 29, 2013 um 4:19 pm

I found one, a PHP reference guide, and it was free.


Tom Semple October 29, 2013 um 9:14 pm

This link shows a full list of titles:
https://www.amazon.com/b/?node=7792718011

74,199 at present.


Rob Siders November 1, 2013 um 1:08 pm

I got three matches. One I bought. One I made so I had no need (but would have purchased had I not made it). And one in which I had no interest.


Piotr January 8, 2014 um 3:38 pm

So promising and yet such a big disappointment: out of 100+ books (classical fiction, guide books, children’s literature) that I have bought since 1995 not a single one (!) appears in the program.
I fared somewhat better with the CDs bought at Amazon. Out of also 100+ titles I can access 6.


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