I like to buy books online as I don't always find them locally. But shipping cost can be a burden to me, as I am staying in Malaysia, and sometimes the shipping can be more expensive than the book. I have found Log In, and always buy books from there, as they offer free shipping worldwide, though the price can be slightly higher sometimes. I am satisfied with their service so far, and always recommend this book shop. Do you have any favorite online book shops that you always buy books from?
I buy a lot of "Art Books" on "Amazon.com" and they are used most of the times these days, also the shipping is always $3.99, no matter how heavy they are. The books I buy on this site are always used but sometimes they are like new, and usually only have some old stickers you can just peel off, very easily. At first I was a bit hesitant to buy used books, and the lowest condition would be the "Good Condition" ones, but if I want it bad enough, I would go with a "Fair Condition" one. It just depends if you want a copy of the book,that bad?
I have never tried buying books online but while I was studying in college I used to buy my college books references and textbooks at the local store in our capital city. When books aren't available, I order them directly to the publisher or to their outlets in the national capital city. Of course, I have to shoulder the shipping cost which is not too high. It is just enough and reasonable for a single book or two I have ordered.
I have seen used books on Amazon, and I think it should be fine to buy them if they are at much cheaper rate and still fair condition. To me, as long as I can still read the book comfortably, I don't mind it's an used book. A flat rate of $3.99 sounds good to me. Do you mean it's cost per shipment, or per book? I didn't know we have to bear the shipping cost. Is it because the local store didn't have any intention to get the books at all? But yes, if the cost is not too high, it is still more convenient to do it that way.
Usually this is for one book and the sellers on amazon are selling their own books through amazon. Kaka135 asks "If the $3.99 is for a book or total shipment", and yes, this is usually for one shipment of one book. If you go into the used book section under the book listed,it will have the condition of the book,including any detail about the book still having a dust jacket and other details. Also below that, is the shipping listed as well.
Amazon works very well for me and I have Prime for free shipping. I only look at other sites for rarer books that Amazon and Amazon marketplace sellers do not have in stock. (You do have to watch the marketplace seller and look at their approval ratings, some of them list the wrong book grade, have inflated shipping fees, or long shipping times) Then I will generally Alibris. Or just do a Google search and see what listings come up. But for these rarer books you normally end up paying a steep price because they can get away with it.
@Penny It's good that Amazon works good for you, as I have always heard good comments about Amazon and Prime too. I wish there are Amazon site for my own country. I don't usually go for rare books, and those books I am looking for are always in book depository, even though I can't find them locally. Hence, I always go for book depository nowadays, though it's still good to look for other bookstores too.
The site I always use and where I end up always buying is the Amazon website. I like the variety they have (in fact, I find it incredible) and the prices - mostly - are always very good. All this without counting the facility at the time of making the payments and the fulfillment of the deadlines of deliveries.
I buy my books from kindle store. I have stopped reading hard cover books and have started with e-books. They are very handy and I can read them whenever I feel like. And the best place to buy e-books is the kindle store.
I prefer buying books offline that too at half rate shops or if the books of my choice are available at footpath market where I can get them at throw-away price. The last book I bought priced at INR 110 online at Amazon.in was available at INR 99 at offline store but I got it for INR 40 at a footpath seller. That was a cool saving of almost 65%. I finished that book and sold back to same seller for INR 30.
@anupamas2 I think it'd be nice if I have a kindle, so I can buy those kindle e-books and read them easily. I do buy some PDF ebooks, but not many. For some books, especially children books, I still prefer to buy hard copy book. @Ray1 That's great! I have never sold any books before, but I think there are some books we will not read them the second time or we might not like to read them anymore, it's good to sell them. Not only we can earn some money, it's good for the environment and some other people who need the book can buy it at a cheaper rate too.
@kaka135 It's common practice in our country that we sell all our paper books especially novels and other books which we do not want to read again to footpath sellers which pay us almost 25-30% of the printed price even if we had bought them at half price from anywhere. I have bought a number of best sellers from around the world at even lower rates on such shops. We also sell our old newspaper and magazines which go for recycling.
I actually love to wander around the bookstores in town. I can spend hour upon hour with my head tilted to one side while reading the titles. I love the history section most and always have a look at the best sellers to see what books are selling the best.
How about ebooks? At smashwords.com there are free ebooks as well as lots of other ebooks you can buy at mostly economical prices. Being a bit biased, because I have published at smashwords.com I invite you, to smashwords.com where you can save a lot of money, as well as get free ebooks too. Come on by smashwords.com for a visit anytime.
@kaka135 Though I don't used to buy books online but I have tried it few times. But most of the time I have purchased it with Amazon only. I was searching for books google and I found them on amazon. And I found them in reasonable price too. Shipping charge was also quite reasonable. I don't know if they having big collection of books, but I found the one I want.
I always start with Amazon just to see what is out there and all of that, but soon turn to other places to see if there are any deals or related books, and I can usually find a better deal somewhere. Although lately Amazon has seemed to be dropping prices a bit.
It depends what type of book I am looking to purchase to be honest. If it is a revision book or a book that I can't seem to find in any local stores then I will look at Amazon. The only problem is Amazon usually doesn't have as good discounts as local stores and the delivery charges make the purchase a bit overpriced. Because of that I usually just buy general popular books from WHSmith who usually have good discounts and offer free delivery on all purchases above £10.
I think that the number of online bookstores has gone down quite a bit since it was even a little bit ago. I would have thought it would be the opposite but maybe then again I am probably just looking in the wrong places.
I usually buy books from Flipkart and Amazon. I first search for those books in the stores nearby and if I don't find it there I go looking for them in online sites. Sometimes the shipping costs will be a little frustrating but what to do, I need the books.
I also buy my books from bookdepository, and I do notice that if you go there without using a US proxy, the prices of the books are higher as compared to the prices when you use a US proxy. So when I buy there I make it a point to use a US proxy so that I can get the cheapest prices.
