How do I buy a book? How do you buy a book?

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by John Bear, Apr 23, 2017.

Loading...
  1. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    The discussion in another forum has motivated me to buy a book, list price $26.95.

    Amazon: price $17.54, tax $1.62, shipping $0, total $19.13, delivery 1 or 2 days.
    Powells: price $18.50, tax $0, shipping $3.99, total $22.49, delivery 3-5 days
    My neighborhood bookstore, Books Inc.
    price $26.95, tax $2.43, shipping $0, total $29.38, delivery instant
    Bookfinder.com (Abe Books)
    price $14.49, tax $0, shipping $3, total $17.49, delivery 5-13 days.
    Public Library: price $0, Delivery, uncertain, but could be 12 or more weeks.

    I want to support my local bookstore. But $12 is $12 (and we buy a lot of books)
    I'd like fast delivery, but I'd rather support Abe than Amazon. Better price at Abe,too.
    Still mulling, but leaning toward library.

    PS: In Hidden Figures, when the public library in Virginia wouldn't let Doris checkout a textbook on Fortran, because it wasn't in the Colored section of the library, she stole it (and subsequently became one of the world's first and foremost Fortran programmers).
     
  2. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    I no longer care about my local bookstore (chain) - because they obviously don't care about me. They have an online division that will soon put their own B&M stores out of business. I think both their Internet and B&M stores are staffed by robots.

    I, too, wanted a programming book (not Fortran, though). The store told me it would cost $47 if ordered (prepaid) through the store You place your in-store order on a computer screen that looks like an Internet site - but is a fake. I told them the same book was $27 on Amazon. Turns out it was also $27, ordered from the chain's (real) Internet site. I asked why I would pay $47 now, wait 2-6 weeks and come back to the store to pick up, when the site had 2-day free delivery for the $27 price?

    Of course, they were stuck for an answer.

    J.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 23, 2017
  3. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    My "local" bookstore is Barnes and Noble, and it's tough to get worked up about saving B&N from their own self-imposed death spiral. So I end up buying books on Amazon.com, but when I can I buy them used from charities that resell on Amazon's platform, like Better World Books.

    Also, happy World Book Day to all!
     
  4. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    I don't have a "local" bookstore. I have to travel at least 45 minutes to get to a big Barnes & Noble store. I do that sometimes, usually in conjunction with other shopping, to get that "bookstore experience." It's fun to browse and hard not to come away with something unexpected. Typically, if I'm looking for a specific title, I'll order it from Amazon because even if I drive to the store (immediate gratification) they might not have what I'm looking for.
     
  5. airtorn

    airtorn Moderator

    I generally go through Amazon for books purchases but typically try to check them out from the library (great for movies, too). Barnes & Noble is the closest book store and it has been a couple years since I set foot in it.
     
  6. StevenKing

    StevenKing Active Member

    An excellent movie I would not have ordinarily sought out.

    With Amazon Prime and free shipping, Amazon is hard to beat.
     
  7. Gabe F.

    Gabe F. Active Member

    In my Coastie days, I used to take solace from long days and long patrols at the Borders on School Street in Boston (now closed by the way). The place was HUGE and being the lone wolf type, I spent many days and many dollars in the place.

    After I got out of the Coast Guard, though, I never really found a place that gave me that kind of solace... not even the local library. So I really started buying my books on Amazon and over the past 12 years, I've purchased about 90-95% of my books through the Amazon (the remainder comes from Half-Price Books, Frugal Muse, and Anderson's Bookshop, the later two are local places).

    Of the three physical book retailers I actually visit, none of them are what I'd define as comfortable. There's either a lack of seating, too much noise, and/or too many distractions.

    So, earlier today, I did what I almost always do - spent 5 minutes on Amazon, quickly found and bought two books, and I'll walk to my mailbox in a couple days to get them, return to my home (my solace), and get to reading. :cool2:
     
  8. perrymk

    perrymk Member

    Books are typically purchased either from Amazon or eBay. There are a couple of local bookstores (including an actual local bookstore, not a chain) but they typically do not carry what I am looking for. The actual local bookstore had primarily softcover fiction last time I was there. It's been a while though.

    Another option I like for certain books, usually casual reading and not reference, is to search Amazon for free Kindle versions. I've even saved a book in a WishList and checked on it until it was offered free. Free books are usually only free for a limited time. To put in perspective my frugality, I even waited until after a new Kindle model came out so I could purchase someone's old model on eBay for half price. I purchased my iPhone the same way.

    I need to re-acquaint myself with the bastion of free books, the library. Maybe when I retire (in 3 years, 3 months, 3 days).
     
  9. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    I'm a little jealous that you have a local bookstore that stocks new books. I haven't had one in a long time. There are a couple used bookstores and focus on the paperback client- not really my niche. I hate to say it, but I haven't been into a B&N more than twice in 5 years - once to slip my business card into a few selected titles <grin> and the second to buy a book I needed immediately. Otherwise, it's online all the time.

    P.S.
    re: eBay? I'm done with them, I think their time is ending. Do people even still use eBay? I just sent a request to close my account. I've been a member since 1999 with 100% positive feedback and my user rating is good, in the 500's....but eh, it's nothing like it used to be. Not even worth my time sorting through all the million-dollar-wanna-be-drop-shippers peddling their crap. I use Facebook marketplace to sell anything used I need to sell, and buy pretty much everything else on Amazon.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 25, 2017
  10. 03310151

    03310151 Active Member

    We have a local used book store that gives you credit on books you bring in and sells used ones very cheaply. Old, cramped, disheveled and amazingly beautiful. Mostly there, but sometimes I like to look at the newness in Barnes and Noble. The last five books I bought were purchased on Amazon as they could not be found at the oldie or the newie store.
     
  11. Maniac Craniac

    Maniac Craniac Moderator Staff Member

    I'm a library guy, but when I buy books I usually do so either at thrift stores or by searching cheapestbookprice.com, which comparison shops new and used books across several discount book sellers, including abebooks. I'd never heard of bookfinder.com, but it looks like the two sites do essentially the same thing.

    I find the internet to be great for looking for specific books whereas thrift stores to be great to just browse and find something that catches my eye.
     
  12. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    I was, too. But I handed back my hometown library card (after 58 years) in frustration a few years ago. For the past 20 years, I've found this to be true:

    The Internet would ALWAYS lead me to books - that the library didn't have. In my town, they remodeled the main library and put in 50 computers, so the unemployed who didn't want to read books would have social media. I have maybe 5,000 books of my own. Some I bought 50 years ago or more -- some this week.

    J.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 25, 2017
  13. heirophant

    heirophant Well-Known Member

    Recently, I've found myself buying lots of books from Amazon. Or perhaps more accurately, from other sellers through Amazon. I've found that they often have new copies of recent academic titles for as much as half off the cover price. One seller that I've bought quite a few books from is something called Book Depository in the UK. They sell through Amazon, take payment by credit card in US currency and are reliable. The only downside is that the books take a long time to arrive, since it's international.

    But... for me, browsing in bookstores is one of my joys in life. It's become a lot harder, since so many bookstores have gone out of business or downsized. I still find myself over in Berkeley periodically, shopping for new titles in University Press Books and for used titles at Moe's. Berkeley is one of the last holdouts of the academic bookstore, with many exceptional examples (though many others, like Cody's, have sadly disappeared).

    I still visit Stanford University Bookstore for academic titles, though it's been inexorably shrinking. At one time they had two locations, on campus and on University Avenue in P.A. The Palo Alto branch is long closed and the on-campus branch now only devotes one of its three floors to books. The biggest ground floor is all about Stanford sweat shirts and coffee mugs. People can't get enough of them. The basement is textbooks but the second floor still has academic titles. It's easier for me to get to than Berkeley, since I live in the South Bay. And it gives me an excuse to visit the Stanford campus, much nicer than Berkeley's (no riots, it would bring down the tone). Last year I also enjoyed visiting the nearby Stanford Shopping Center to watch small children tormenting the dalek-like mall-security robots. But now the robots are gone too.
     
  14. Herlinda Obert

    Herlinda Obert New Member

    I usually buy books in our local bookstore nearby. I have not tried online.
     
  15. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member

    My local bookstores rarely carry the books I want to buy.
    So I buy on the internet at the lowest overall price.

    I have found library sales to be good sources for books.

    I also used to buy books from US Publishing Office bookstores (especially on in Pueblo) but they do not seem to exist these days. One can buy on-line and shipping is no additional cost.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 26, 2017
  16. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    And this week the excellent Nolo Press factory' bookstore in Berkeley announced that it will be closing soon. A great source of self-help books of all kinds: from Nolo Press and elsewhere.
     
  17. Steve Levicoff

    Steve Levicoff Well-Known Member

    Golly gee whiz, I recently decided to buy the same book. It’s been discussed here so much, and I had heard Tressie’s interview on NPR, so I figured I should read it.

    I was in Richmond, VA, when I decided to buy it, and was on the way to Reading, PA. So my bookstore of choice is Barnes & Noble, at many (but not all) of which I can park a tractor-trailer. A quick web search showed that there wasa a copy in stock at the B&N in Lancaster, PA, which was on my route, so I reserved the copy, got their confirming e-mail, and stopped by as I was passing through.

    I maintain the B&N customer card, which costs $25/year but pays for itself if you use it enough. They also send a couple of 20% coupons every so often, so:

    Currently reading it, I’m sure I’ll have a comment or two or three in the other thread.

    This is the first book on higher ed that I've read since John and Alan's book on diploma mills - usually the books I read are about theatre (no surprise). I check in with B&N occasionally to see if there's anything new, but B&N has gone way downhill in that area over the years. (They also used to be great for CD's, but they trashed that section in favor of DVD's.) For hard-to-finds, I stick with Amazon, although I prefer not to have my P.O. box junked up if I'm not going to be in the area for a while.
     
  18. cofflehack

    cofflehack Member

    I usually buy the book or ebook from Amazon. If the library has what I'm looking for, I also sometimes borrow.
     
  19. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    Steve:
    Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Prof
    (1 @ 26.95) Member Card 10% (2.70)
    (1 @ 24.25) Item Cpn 20% (4.85)
    (1 @ 19.40) 19.40
    Subtotal 19.40
    Sales Tax T1 (6.000%) 1.16
    TOTAL 20.56

    John
    Plus $____ for gas to drive an 18-wheeler from Interstate 81 to the Barnes and Noble at Red Rose Commons and back???
     
  20. Steve Levicoff

    Steve Levicoff Well-Known Member

    Not at all. I used US-30 from York to Lancaster before heading north on US-222 toward Reading, so B&N was only a block off of the highway. Also, I happened to be bobtailing* (as I often do on weekends), so additional fuel** was minimal.
    __________________

    * Bobtailing: Driving a tractor without a trailer hooked to it.
    ** We never say gas. Tractors take diesel fuel, not gasoline. To say "gas to drive an 18-wheeler" is like calling San Francisco Frisco.
    :slaphappy:
     

Share This Page