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Michelle

Which online bookstores do you use?

Online Book Buying  

43 members have voted

  1. 1. Which online book stores do you use?

    • Amazon
      35
    • Book Depository
      15
    • Wordery
      2
    • Waterstones
      6
    • B&N
      0
    • Other
      12


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I try to buy books from physical book shops where I can, even if that sometimes means paying more for them, as I like the whole experience of tracking down a book I want to read and finding it in good condition - even if that also means waiting a bit.

 

When I do have to resort to online shopping, though, it is usually Amazon as I have Prime membership more often than not these days. 

 

I did buy What Abigail Did That Summer from Waterstone's however, and would use them again as I got the book on the day of release (although, again, it did cost me more than Amazon would have).

 

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On 20/03/2021 at 11:20 PM, Raven said:

I try to buy books from physical book shops where I can, even if that sometimes means paying more for them, as I like the whole experience of tracking down a book I want to read and finding it in good condition - even if that also means waiting a bit.

 

When I do have to resort to online shopping, though, it is usually Amazon as I have Prime membership more often than not these days. 

 

 

I'm the same. The staff at my local Waterstones are great and they have recommended many good books to me over the years so I buy there more often than not, even thought it is a bit more expensive. I like scouring the second hand bookshops in my towns but they are quiet small and the selection is fairly limited.

Finally, if I want something specific which is a little harder to find I use Amazon. As annoying as they are, they are undoubtedly easy to use and often the cheapest option.

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27 minutes ago, Brian. said:

 

I'm the same. The staff at my local Waterstones are great and they have recommended many good books to me over the years so I buy there more often than not, even thought it is a bit more expensive. I like scouring the second hand bookshops in my towns but they are quiet small and the selection is fairly limited.

Finally, if I want something specific which is a little harder to find I use Amazon. As annoying as they are, they are undoubtedly easy to use and often the cheapest option.

 

 

Before The Dark Times, I used to pop into my local second-hand bookshop once every couple of months to see what they had in stock - usually to buy out of print copies of old novels or railway books.  Just as the last lockdown started, however, I realised that although the majority of their stock is second-hand, they actually sell quite a lot of new books as well, so I may well use them in future if I want to order anything. 

 

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There's one very good second hand bookshop in one of our local shopping centres, they do also sell some new books as well.  Apart from the Works and Waterstone's, there's a bit of a dearth of bookshops in my area, only 2 indie shops left now.  I don't go to them very often as the traffic and parking are so horrendous, and  they're not open on Sunday which is slightly quieter.

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When I want tree-books I use Wordery, Hive or Book Depository.

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I'm in France so have to do the majority of my book buying on-line or at the big twice yearly charity book sale for books in English. There is a small English language bookshop in Bordeaux which I do try to buy from. I try to avoid Amazon and Bookdepository (owned by Amazon), Amazon is very efficient but it isn't good news for smaller retailers, Awesomebooks is a good source of second hand books outside plague years, their stock is a bit limited at the moment, and I've just discovered an on-line bookshop in Ireland which has good prices and as it's in the EU there isn't any problem about customs (there is no duty on books but it doesn't stop some of the carriers trying to charge it and a hefty handling fee.)

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I used to use Awesome Books until I had a couple of incidents where books which they described as being in "good condition" weren't, one was filthy, looked like tea or coffee stains but how they could describe it as being "good condition" is beyond me.  world of Books are pretty good though.

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31 minutes ago, Madeleine said:

 

I used to use Awesome Books until I had a couple of incidents where books which they described as being in "good condition" weren't, one was filthy, looked like tea or coffee stains but how they could describe it as being "good condition" is beyond me. 

 

 

I had this problem with some second hand DVDs I bought last year (it was from a firm like Music Magpie, via Amazon Marketplace).  Described as "very good condition" the box set I ordered had obviously come from a heavy smoker as the box stank and the inlays were yellowed.  Had to give it all a good clean and even then the slip case ended up going in the recycling.

 

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43 minutes ago, Madeleine said:

I used to use Awesome Books until I had a couple of incidents where books which they described as being in "good condition" weren't, one was filthy, looked like tea or coffee stains but how they could describe it as being "good condition" is beyond me.  world of Books are pretty good though.

Yes I've had a couple of run-ins with Awesomebooks too but in general they aren't too bad. The problem with World of Books is that they charge £2 per item to send to France which mounts up! Awesome charge £2.99 for the whole order, no matter how many books or how heavy they are.

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8 hours ago, France said:

The problem with World of Books is that they charge £2 per item to send to France which mounts up! Awesome charge £2.99 for the whole order, no matter how many books or how heavy they are.

Oh wow that would add up! I have used World of Books a couple of times in the past though and they've always been good.

 

I can't remember if I already posted about this (I don't think I did) but I've ordered from an indie bookshop in Wales a couple of times during the lockdown, ( book-ish.co.uk ) and I've noticed they have postage to Europe as an item to add to cart on there. I think I was about £5 if I remember correctly.

 

Did everyone see the new bookshop website that opened a few months ago? I can't remember if we talked about it already! It's the same concept as Hive really but it's meant to give a lot more money to the indie bookshops and still has a small discount. I haven't tried it yet. This was one of the articles about it when it started... A new website for independent bookshops is just what the industry needs | Booksellers | The Guardian .

 

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15 hours ago, Raven said:

Link to the actual site: 

 

https://uk.bookshop.org/

 

Will take a look!

 

Seems to be good, so that’s another online book shop to look at.

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15 hours ago, Raven said:

 

Link to the actual site: 

 

Oh yeah that would have been a good idea... :blush:

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8 hours ago, Hayley said:

 

Oh yeah that would have been a good idea... :blush:

 

 

Tsk.

 

1 hour ago, Madeleine said:

 

Good site but postage a bit pricey.

 

 

It's a trade off, though, isn't it - between getting cheaper books from companies who don't pay their way whilst accruing vast profits, or putting some extra money into the hands of smaller businesses who pay the tax they should and also contribute to their local economies. 

 

COVID, and the various lockdowns we have had, have made me reappraise who and where I buy items from; I'm certainly leaning towards supporting smaller, local businesses wherever I can.

 

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On 27/03/2021 at 6:31 PM, Madeleine said:

Good site but postage a bit pricey.

I didn't actually see how much the postage was. I think I remember that Bert's Books (the one I posted about at the top of the page) has free postage but then they don't have the discount that bookshop.org has.

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