David Ames wrote:

which I won earlier this week, at a 20% discount over the previous
auction price.

Excuse me for getting literal with a regular in this newsgroup, but a
discount would have to be under the previous price, not over it.


That's the danger of being too literal. (And, of course, no one would
one say colloquially: "I got a discount UNDER the previous price.")

I was suggesting that the discount I got was "over [and above]," i.e.,
in addition to, the discount the eBay seller got when he bought the
book at auction.

In any case, getting a $2500 book for $300 seems to me like an occasion
for grammatical exuberance.

William M. Klimon
http://www.gateofbliss.com