[jiveturkey]

I won't go so far as to say that's absurd, but you are neglecting value pricing. You aren't paying (say) 20% less than print cost and losing money over net value (which I would highly dispute your calculation). You are paying 20% less than print and gaining more value thanks the e-format.

I won't buy print books anymore, because they are too cumbersome vs digital. The 20% discount vs print, or 30% increase over net value of print, by your calculation, is worth the value I receive.

I exaggerate, because there are some print books I buy, specifically for the print format, because for those books so much of the value is in the packaging and physical form factor. The Apple hardware book, the Nasa Graphics Standards book, the recent Prince of Persia book, etc. For a couple, I buy both print and ebook because both formats have their own value; for the same book sometimes it's good to be able to page flip and sometimes it's good to be able to search. Brendan Gregg's BPF book is a recent one that comes to mind.

But for the most part (95%+), I buy only digital, and I am happy to pay "more" than the net print value.