My Birthday Present Bargain

Thanks to my mom and my sister, I had some birthday spending money to take to Florida last week.  While we were in St. Augustine, we went shopping at Barnes & Noble.  I was paying for a small, decorated notebook I had picked up while strolling about the store when I noticed several copies of Annie Liebovitz's new book, "Pilgrimage", on the shelf behind the cashier. 

Each copy was sealed in cellophane and marked with a 20% off sticker.  I asked the clerk about it, not having known that Annie had a new book out, and she told me the retail price was $50.00.  At 20% off, that made it $40.00. 

Then she said, "Let's double check that price".  She scanned the barcode and discovered that the book wasn't just twenty percent off, it was actually marked down by fifty percent (50%)!  Which dropped the price to $25.00 before tax.  Not bad.

Then she told me that I could also use the 30% off coupon my friend Diane had downloaded from their website, which lowered the price by yet another $7.50.

In the end, I paid $17.50 for a brand new copy of a $50 book ($18.55 with sales taxes rolled in) by a woman whose skill with the camera I greatly admire and enjoy.  Talk about a good deal - still a nice chunk of birthday money left to spend (a larger piece of which quickly and easily disappeared at Hobby Lobby!) and a great gift for myself!  Of course, with more than 200 pages, the book was a little heavy to carry home in my luggage but it was well worth it.

You can read descriptions of the book and see some of the photos in it here and here.  Or you can go out to Barnes and Noble or Chapters/Indigo or your favourite book store and get yourself a copy. 

Pretend it's your birthday and treat yourself.