I liked half.com. Books were usually $0.75 with about $3 in shipping, but if you bought multiple books from the same seller each additional book was only about $1.89 in shipping.
So each book beyond the first only cost you <$3. So I would make up a list of maybe 5-7 books I wanted, browse around until I found a seller that had most of them in stock and then buy them all, saving money on combined shipping.
Now that they are gone, I don’t know where to find those kinds of deals. I’m looking for particular books, so in person thrift shops like goodwill won’t work.
I tried Amazon, but their books seem to have gone up in price. Also it is harder to find major distributors who sell multiple books I’m looking for in one shipment. Also I don’t know if Amazon lets you combine shipping costs.
What alternatives do I have now that half.com is gone?
Stores I know of; we have several good ones around Pittsburgh. But for on-line I still find Amazon the best bet for me. I will have to wait on some titles though until someone offers a copy cheap enough for me. But I have plenty waiting to be read and I’m fairly patient.
On the outside chance any of their outlets is near you I am including a link to my favorite chain
I have been know to hit out-of-town locations in my travels. Not long ago I scored 78 different titles from the Lakeside Press Christmas Day historic series for $175 which I thought was a great deal considering many will still sealed.
I just looked up a title at Amazon, and a copy was listed as available, shipped by Half Price Books (HBP Inc,). Is this the same organization? Maybe you can still find the same books, but their listings are aggregated under all Amazon partners.
Thriftbooks.com. I love it. Kind of a conglomeration of Thrift Stores, and the books won’t typically come all at once, they come from all over the country. Free shipping at $25, I think, and I have never been disappointed.
I’m not sure but it wouldn’t surprise me. I would see if they have some method/listing of their own since getting direct from third-party is sometimes cheaper than from Amazon themselves. I guess I’m spoiled having a couple of the brick stores so handy and being a better browser in person.
I use www.bookfinder.com which is an aggregator of multiple sources, including Amazon, Amazon marketplace (i.e., third-party sellers who sell on Amazon), eBay, AbeBooks, Biblio, the Book Depository, Wonder Books, and many others. You can specify new or used editions, and the results are listed by price with shipping included. I almost never buy a book without checking there first to see if there’s a better buy.
On occasion, I may also check www.camelcamelcamel.com which doesn’t sell books but tracks price changes for new and used books (and other items) on Amazon. You can tell from the pricing pattern over time whether the price is likely to fall at some time in the next few months. You can also set an alert for when the price falls low enough for your budget.
Half.com was owned by eBay and operated like eBay, but everything was sold on the “Buy It Now” system instead of bidding. Buyers and sellers used their eBay accounts to log in and perform transactions. The merchandise consisted (mostly?) of books, CDs, DVDs, and other similar media. Half.com did not own or ship any of the merchandise sold there. They were just a platform to link buyers and sellers, just like eBay.
Powell’s maybe? They are maybe the largest independent bookstore available, atm, and they trade in used books. I don’t know how their prices compare, but shipping is very reasonable. They charge a flat fee of $4 or free if your order is $50.
