Have you ever accidentally purchased a book twice?

[Karellen]

Not with ebooks as I am careful with checking before purchase.

But in my carefree younger years, it happened quite a few times when I purchased pbooks now to read later or simply to complete a collection, so it would be quite some time before I realised "oh damn, I already have this". Somehow I have ended up with 4 copies of Dune. Don't ever remember buying them, but there they are in my boxes of books. Maybe they were gifts??

Have been get caught out with re-released titles eg Asimov's I, Robot and The Rest of the Robots, which were then combined and re-released as The Complete Robot. Yep the publishers fooled me with that, as is exactly their intent.

Being gifted books I already have adds to many duplicated pbook titles I already own.

[HLS]

yep idone it a few times

[Tarana]

Probably 10 times. Was able to return some of them.

[haertig]

I haven't done this with too many books, probably only two or three.

I have done it several times with DVD's though. I'd rent a DVD (back when that was a thing before streaming), start watching it, recognize it as something quite familiar, then look up on my DVD bookshelf and find that I own the same silly DVD that I just rented.

More often though, I know I have bought something, tear the house apart searching for it, and finally give up and buy it again. And when I go to put the new purchase away, I find myself putting it right next to the original one that I couldn't find before.

[neil_swann80]

I acquired a few duplicates when I decided to read my way through all the Discworld novels in chronological order.

This used to be true, but not sure if it still is... but Pratchett is/was the most shoplifted author in the world.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by haertig

More often though, I know I have bought something, tear the house apart searching for it, and finally give up and buy it again. And when I go to put the new purchase away, I find myself putting it right next to the original one that I couldn't find before.

Loads of things. Sometimes put away for safe keeping and I can't find it.

Also I've bought books and think I've lent them to a family member, they all deny it, can't find it and want to re-read for research or because re-reading series, so have to buy it again. Includes Discworld titles. And yes even Harry Potter

I had to re-buy a modern re-telling of Thomas the Rhymer (basically an old version simply expanded and nothing changed, but excellent). Not to be found.

A missing DVD that NO-ONE EVER borrowed eventually was sheepishly returned by the borrower.

Recently I've lost in the workshop:

• A 50W 2GHz rated 50 Ohms dummy load
• A brand new boxed Ku Band LNBF
• A remote of a brand new combo sat/TV receiver (fortunately remote of an older TV only receiver works 100%)
• A smallish old "boombox" dual cassette stereo FM/AM radio that FM went dead. That one was found by accident when looking for the dummy load.

[Cactus Chef]

I did it just recently, although it was intentional. I broke my own new year's resolution to stop buying Kindle books from Amazon because Blood Music was on sale on Amazon, but nowhere else. So I bought it.

Less than a month later, the sale price was now showing up elsewhere, so I figured, what the heck, I'd buy it again on Kobo. I chalked up the wasted $1.99 as a "convenience fee" to get a version of the book that will sync across all of my devices (which wouldn't happen if I had sideloaded my converted Kindle copy).

I've come close before due to that same "bought it on Amazon, not on Kobo" condition, so I make a mental note now to check my LibraryThing collection before buying any ebooks.

[Sirtel]

I often read the same book on both of my Kobos, but I never sync and sideload everything, so it doesn't matter where I bought the book. I edit the css and the metadata, so I never read any direct downloads even when I bought the book from Kobo. It's not that hard to find my place manually.

I used to read direct downloads and sync 10-12 years ago, but the inconsistent formatting and metadata bothered me so much that I stopped doing it pretty quickly. I started to fix everything in Calibre and never looked back.

[Cactus Chef]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I often read the same book on both of my Kobos, but I never sync and sideload everything, so it doesn't matter where I bought the book. I edit the css and the metadata, so I never read any direct downloads even when I bought the book from Kobo. It's not that hard to find my place manually.

To each his own. If I got to a clean stopping point every night it might not be a big deal, but sometimes chapters are too long to complete in one sitting, so I might have to stop at the nearest paragraph. My Sage is my primary reading device and mostly stays at home, while my Clara HD goes into my work bag/daytrip bag since it's more portable. I like to make sure whatever progress I make gets synced.

I've also got an Android tablet with the Kobo app on it. The tablet is definitely a lesser reading experience to the Sage or even the Clara, but occasionally I've already got it out because I'm using it to read something else (e.g. magazines via Libby, comics, videogame walkthroughs, etc.) and I'm too lazy to fetch the Sage from the other room.

[ZodWallop]

I've purchased multiple duplicates. Usually because I'm out or on vacation and see a deal, not realizing I'd already bought the book from another store, or because Open Road decided to change their book info.

I've never bothered asking for a refund as I buy books at $2.99 or less, usually less.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Cactus Chef

To each his own. If I got to a clean stopping point every night it might not be a big deal, but sometimes chapters are too long to complete in one sitting, so I might have to stop at the nearest paragraph. My Sage is my primary reading device and mostly stays at home, while my Clara HD goes into my work bag/daytrip bag since it's more portable. I like to make sure whatever progress I make gets synced.

I know that most users prefer sync to the manual approach, but that's something I frankly don't understand. It takes way longer for me to switch wifi on, wait until syncing is finished, switch wifi off, repeat with the other device, than it takes me to find my place manually, even in the middle of a paragraph. Of course, most people probably keep wifi always on and syncing on automatic, but I don't want to do that. It would murder the battery life, and I don't want random firmware updates either. Usually I update my Kobos manually.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I know that most users prefer sync to the manual approach, but that's something I frankly don't understand. It takes way longer for me to switch wifi on, wait until syncing is finished, switch wifi off, repeat with the other device, than it takes me to find my place manually, even in the middle of a paragraph.

You aren't alone in this.

[Quizlit]

Before the days of Goodreads and back when I read more paper books, would sometimes get confused when I'd read a lot of one author. Can remember buying a Vonnegut book twice and Murakami to.
Will not mention how far through I got on the second copy before I realised!

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I've purchased multiple duplicates. Usually because I'm out or on vacation and see a deal, not realizing I'd already bought the book from another store, or because Open Road decided to change their book info.

I keep a back-up copy of my library in Dropbox. If I see a deal while out and about, I can check on my phone whether the book is in my library. Not that I always bother; sometimes I just wait until I get home. And if the title has been changed, checking it won't help, of course.

[Colonel Cathcart]

We're all human, accidents happen. I find the question Have you intentionally bought the same book more than once much more interesting. There are some understandable answers, like replacing a lost/borrowed-never-to-be-returned book, or getting a newer edition of some textbook. Have you ever bought a book more than once, intentionally for other reasons?