I’m not sure if anyone has seen the new Buy.com commercial yet. I’ve actually only seen it on TV once myself. Buy.com’s new advertisement campaign is claiming 10% off Amazon.com’s prices on over 900,000 books.

Doesn’t sound to bad, does it? Especially if you are after technical books, which cost an arm and a leg to begin with. Well, I found out today that the offer isn’t as great as it sounds.

I just ordered two books from Amazon.com, because the true price difference between the books was only $0.02. Yes, you read that correct. Two cents.

First off, here are the two books I ordered and the prices at each store, using A to represent Amazon.com and B for Buy.com:

• Foundations of Ajax – A: $26.39 B: $23.75
• Beginning PHP 5 and MySQL – A: $26.39 B: $23.75

Now, it doesn’t take a wiz to figure out the totals came to A: $52.78 B: $47.50. Looks good for Buy.com, right? Well, for some people that would be enough. A $5.28 price difference, which is exactly 10%.

But wait a minute now, we’re ordering online. That means shipping. Now, both stores offered free shipping. But I decided to compare this using the standard 3-5 day shipping.

Once again, Amazon.com was more expensive. Charging $4.98 to ship to the 37849 zip code where I live, while Buy.com only wanted $4.36. This brings our totals up to A: $57.76 and B: 52.86. Buy.com still with a cheaper price. So what’s the big deal? Tax. Buy.com charges it, and Amazon.com didn’t. That added another $4.88 to Buy.com’s price. And, as I said earlier, that bring the total to two cents less than Amazon.com. Not really saving enough for me to fool with Buy.com.

Now the only problem is, I ordered the wrong book. I wanted a book that was strictly MySQL 5. Not PHP5 + MySQL. So, I’ll be returning that book.

To be fair, I decided to run the test once more to see what I came up with. I used the following books:

• Universal Command Guide: For Operating Systems (ISBN: 0764548336)
• Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (ISBN: 0060987103)
• From Emeril’s Kitchens: Favorite Recipes from Emeril’s Restaurants (ISBN: 006018535X)
• CCNA Certification Library (CCNA Self-Study, exam #640-801) (ISBN: 1587200953)

Price total + standard shipping + tax (Buy.com only) came to A: $127.26 $126.17. A buck difference. Big enough deal for you to choose one over the other? Probably not for me. I guess it just really boils down to who you like shopping with more.