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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BryonD" data-source="post: 1723119" data-attributes="member: 957">First, I think Crothian is correct.  Moreso than even you are allowing.Second, I doubt I have bought very many products because of reviews.  A bad review is more likely to make me not buy a product than a good review is to make me buy one.  There are exceptions, but certainly not enough to impact my overall buying trend.In general I buy based on a combination of interest in the topic, past experience with the publisher, and price.  Reviews are generally only used as a tie-breaker.  Thus, not very often.  I'd bet that this is so common that I am pretty much just stating the obvious.The best thing reviews do is serve as a commercial.  Sometimes they let me know that a product on Topic A by Vendor B is out there.  On that front a 3 star review that adds to my understanding of what the book does with the title topic may influence me more than a 5 star book that doesn't.  (Meaning I may decide to buy a book based on the fairly decent 3 star review that states that it handles elves in such and such way that interests Bryon, while I would be less influenced by a 5 star review that simply said "this elf book rocks")I would absolutely say that reviews (good or bad) by Joe Blow have no particular influence on me.  An X star rating is meaningless without context.</blockquote>