Lonely Planet Blow-Out Sale!

Everyone knows of Australia's Lonely Planet brand, which was purchased by the U.K.'s British Broadcasting Corporation (more commonly known by its abbreviation, BBC) in early 2006. Lonely Planet produces unique and detailed guidebooks on virtually any place in the world, from common destinations such as the USA and China to the most obscure of places, such as Belize and Bhutan... And, of course, language guides, DVDs, and other cool stuff, too!

So today I scored this crazy deal that is a combination of FOUR coupons, despite the fact that LP's website says special offers and other discounts cannot be combined.

If you're interested, here's how to get it!

1. I found a 30% off online coupon code via Google. The code is LPCONTACT30. It gives you 30% off of Lonely Planet guides (but not guide travel packs, which usually have three books and are already discounted). I tried to use it to purchase the guide packs (sneaky me, right?!), but it doesn't work.

2. If you buy any three books, the cheapest one is reduced to "free." That creates a tricky game, however, since if you're buying two books for $6.99 each and get one for $4.99, then that last one (i.e. the $4.99 book) is free, but if you're getting a travel package, of, say $39 and a book for $29 and another for $5.99, you still get only $5.99 off... Then look what happens when you buy a thick guidebook (such as one on the USA, Europe, or China) for about $30 (i.e. before the 30% discount), a book for $20 and another book for $22: then your $20 book is free. In short, the more expensive items you buy, the more a chance you have of a more expensive book being free.

3. Shipping is FREE for orders of $40 or more. However, this is applied to the discounted rates (after the 30% off coupon). So you're encouraged to buy $40 worth of books, since shipping normally is about $8.99.

4. Lonely Planet's Best in Travel 2009 guide comes with a free HOT DESTINATION BLUELIST 2008 book! The latter title normally retails for $17.99, but for $22.99 you get BOTH of these cool books!

5. This is a freebie, but it doesn’t decrease the cost of a purchase further, if that’s at all possible. Here’s the deal: if ordering from Lonely Planet, included on the e-mail confirmation receipt to the purchaser is a free voucher for Lonely Planet’s magazine (for a subscription, I assume, but maybe just for a single issue). Unfortunately, this magazine is only distributed in the U.K. for now, so it's obviously only for U.K. mailing addresses, but if you decide to buy something from the LP Shop and have a friend in the U.K., then they can receive this magazine for free--courtesy of you!

Using the above, I just bought five brand new books for $50.37 (with free shipping) that retail in U.S. stores for $115 (and this doesn't include tax, since it's purchased tax-free online!). And this $115 retail price doesn't include shipping either, since it’s normally about $10 but free for orders of $40 or more. Thus, if considering these two things that we normally would pay for, these books would have cost me about $134!!!

If you’re enticed by the aforementioned, the website is http://www.lonelyplanet.com/ .