Maybe you haven't guessed this yet, but I! Love! Libraries! So I'm usually not the one who, when a book gets recommended to me, says, "I'll go buy that!" Instead, I go, "I'll go put that on hold!" The last time I bought a book (before this) was the Iliad from a local bookstore. I had gotten it from the library, but let's be honest, I am definitely not going to finish the Iliad before I have to return it. Plus, it's a good book to own. At said bookstore, the Iliad was pretty expensive (though it pretty much always will be $20+ from any store.) And, well, this was a book I wanted to own. I'm still getting through it, but I think it was worth owning. I'll come back to it, someday, I'm sure. Many times.
While browsing the "wretched hive of scum and villainy" (Thank you, Willow and Obi-Wan Kenobi) of online, though, I came across a reference for the website thriftbooks.com. It does what it sounds like: sells books. Used ones. Cheaply. It's cited a lot as a good place to buy textbooks, which makes a lot of sense. The new books on here are pretty much the bookstore price, that is more than Amazon or other cheap e-retailers. But used books are almost crazily inexpensive.
And the first thing I saw was the Odyssey! Let me emphasize this: for Three. Fifty. Nine. I'm sorry, but that is one-seventh of the price if you bought it new. Almost nowhere, internet or otherwise, will someone let you have a copy of the Odyssey for that amount. Boom. I see why this site has such a good name.
After some browsing and some dithering, I end up with three purchases: The Odyssey, Artemis Fowl, and Fangirl. Which is a lot! More than $25. I'm excited to get these. The Thriftbooks website is, I think, well designed, considering how crazy their inventory must be. They've got a wishlist for saving books they don't have copies of at the time/yet, and their emailing is impeccable, with coupon codes and notifications. I have summer reading this summer, and I need to annotate my books, so I might be returning here again. While their blog is a teense threadbare, there is an extremely interesting video about their process.
Beyond the crazily inexpensive books, they do have lots of deals going on. There's a "Thrift Deal" for certain (a lot of different) books in acceptable condition, with 3 for $10. If you buy $10 worth of books, you get free 4-14 day shipping. And there are emailed coupon codes.
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My books were coming from three different places yet arrived all in a span of three days. The shipping estimate is 4-14 days; these books came in 9-10, so the estimate was correct.
The first arrivals were a new copy of Fangirl and the Acceptable-rated copy of the Odyssey. Thriftbooks reps their recycled packaging a lot: this is what it looks like. New books come in cardboard boxes; used books come in branded pouches. They shipped well and I can't say too much went wrong. However, just remember that when buying used books to check ratings!
No substantive comments on the Fangirl copy, mostly because a new book is a new book. No defects, I suppose. Thriftbooks new books don't come from the same warehouses, but from a different supplier.
The next day arrived the Very Good-rated copy of Artemis Fowl. A Very Good book looks pretty much new inside. The spine is a little battered, but since I'm a reader who cracks new books intentionally before reading, this meant this copy was as good as new to me. Someone pickier might be bothered, but not me.
Verdict? I'll be shopping here for textbooks/English books in the future: books that will have a price advantage between new (Amazon, Barnes & Noble) and used. I like the quality of the Very Good rated books, so I'll shop for those specifically. Shipping's free for media mail, so to take advantage of that I'd be not ordering anything too urgent. Rating? 4.5/5.
Happy reading!
~Citali
ooooo cool!
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