If you want to buy a Bible, it’ll cost you $14.95 on Amazon. But be cautious — the price could change in the next few months.
Quartz’s Mike Murphy analyzed pricing data from research company CamelCamelCamel and found that the price of the word of God has changed more than 100 times on Amazon since May 2010.
This happens when customer demand for the Bible increases, which occurs often in a nation where 37 percent of households read the Bible once a week and there are more than four copies of it in every home, according to The American Bible Society’s State of the Bible.
Mr. Murphy’s research highlighted three times in recent history when the price of the Bible has increased. These three times, outlined below, could be indicators of where Bible prices are headed in the near future.
Bibles sell at the end of the world
The price of the Bible on Amazon was the highest in December 2012 at $16.99, when many people believed the world was going to end.
According to the CamelCamelCamel research, people rushed to stores to pick up copies of the Bible during this time. It seems many people believed the end of days was coming, Mr. Murphy wrote.
Some have predicted that the same kind of hysteria will come later this year when the world will experience an extra second of life. This could inspire people to pick up more copies of the Bible, which could raise Amazon prices.
Bibles sell in January
Mr. Murphy said January is a popular time for people to buy the Bible, when the price of the Good Book also spikes, according to the data.
The Christmas holiday could be a reason why Bible prices increase in January, as many people may be shopping for Bibles to give as gifts during that time or reflecting on the meaning of the season. The numbers also typically have small spikes around Easter in April.
Bibles sell when there are TV series about the Bible
The data shows that Bible prices steadily increased around March 2013, when the TV miniseries “The Bible” first aired. There was also a spike in February 2014, when the “Son of God” movie, which was “The Bible” miniseries truncated into one film, came out.
With NBC planning to run the “A.D. The Bible Continues” miniseries — which is a follow-up to the “The Bible” series, made by the same producers — in April of this year, there could be an increase on the way for Bible prices, if the data trends continue.
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