Where to Find and Buy Cheap Used Books
Build up a Personal Library With Pocket Change and Single Dollars
Whether it be online or from a walk-in store, used books are becoming more and more affordable. With non-digital media slowly becoming archaic, a good, old fashioned book can be picked up for a quarter or fifty cents. Here are NUMBER ways to amass a mansion-sized library and still be able to afford the rent.
Buy Used Online
The most obvious in this section is Amazon.com. On each page to preview the book, read reviews, and buy new, there's an option to buy it used from a third party. With tons of books selling for a mere cents (a quick search turns back books by Tom Franklin, Frank McCourt, Rick Bass, and Alice Munroe, all selling for a penny!) there are options galore for getting a book shipped to a reader's door for less than five dollars.
With over 110,000,000 books available, Abebooks.com boasts near 50 categories of fiction and non-fiction books. Their selection rivals that of Amazon, but is made entirely up of third party sellers and used or "like new" books. A standard price for fiction books is a dollar, with shipping varying anyways from $3.95 to $5.45 depending on the seller.
Though the selection is a grab bag of sorts, the idea and ease of PaperBackSwap.com is both brilliant and resourceful. After signing up and posting at least ten books she wouldn't mind parting with, a user is given two free "credits" to order any two books from other users. The person getting rid of the book has to pay to ship the book (a paltry two-dollars-and-change), and in exchange she will receive a credit. With a wish list option for automatic request of a book that may not be posted, a user never has to worry about missing out on a book they may want. The best part? If a user is out of credits, she can buy one for $3.45 and get another book for that price, shipped.
Buy From a Used Chain
The environmentally savvy Half Price Books is not only the largest family-owned used bookstore chain in the United States -- over 100 stores in 15 states -- but they are also one of the cheapest for used media of any kind. Their selection of all used books takes the price on the back cover and, true to the store's name, halves it. As if that wasn't a good enough deal, their clearance section of $1-$3 books isn't as much of a place to put the tripe as much as it is an extensive place for the overstock of great reads. And when they run one of their frequent 20% off sales, the little bit of money needed goes even further.
Though it may not be the first thing someone thinks about when they think of a Goodwill store, books can sell for -- depending on the store -- as cheap as a quarter for softcover and fifty cents for hardcover. Filtering through a lot of old cookbooks and Reader's Digest Condensed Books is the only downside, and it all becomes worth it when a reader can find a few good reads and pick them up for money found in the couch.
Buy Used Locally
Portland, OR has Powell's Books. Madison, WI has Frugal Muse Books and Records. Dubuque, IA has Blue Cat Books. Platteville, WI has a local record shop (Downtown Discs) with a used-book room in the back. With a little searching, it can't be too difficult to find a local place to buy used books. Often, these places will unload books for fractions of the cover price.
So Many Resources
With so many resources available to purchase used books these days, there's no excuse to be an avid reader and not own all the favorites. Romance novels and genre fiction are everywhere for cheap in the places listed, and trade paperback versions of the classics are just as frequent. While these types of books greatly outnumber newer books, fiction and non-fiction from the past ten years isn't as rare as one might think. It's safe to say that nearly any book can be found on the cheap these days, and with the places listed here, can be found easily, as well.
Used Books For Cheap
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