How to find books cheap?

[Joker]

We buy a lot of books in this house and I am wondering if there might be a place to get them cheap. I look at Amazon and Rainbow Resource and use Bookmooch. Is there anywhere else to look? We are using SOTW 2 and Biblioplan this year and my library has only a few of the books I want. They have a three week checkout period and you can renew several times (I have been number 2 on the list for The Well Educated Mind for months now). I admit to probably wanting to get more than I should - but I loved to read as a child and there were very few books sent my way. I actually worked at the first public library in our small town and I was sixteen. I love getting books for my dds and enjoy our time spent reading but it is getting pretty expensive now that we're homeschooling. Just wondering if there's someplace / someway I don't know about.

[Nestof3]

I tend to use: library, www.paperbackswap.com, and Amazon. Sometimes, I'll use Ebay.

 

www.bookcloseouts.com has some good deals too.

[Ali in OR]

We use Biblioplan too. I love the book search. Here's my method:

 

1. Get the book list, preferably by mid-February. That is because our big library book sale is at the end of February. I can usually find some of the books there and they are only a $1 or $2.

2. Take list to local used bookstore. See what else I can find. Can usually find a few for $2-$4.

3. Make a spreadsheet with the books, author, and columns labeled library?, RR for Rainbow Resource, Amazon, and Used. For each book, first check to see if it is in the library. Sometimes I want to own it even if it is in the library, but when the book is out of print, would cost $33 used, and is in the library, of course we use the library's copy.

4. Find the prices at Rainbow Resource. They will have a lot of the books and they will usually beat Amazon. They often beat the best used price when you factor in shipping.

5. Find the prices at Amazon. They may have a few books RR doesn't have. They can sometimes have lower prices.

6. Research the used marketplace. Here's the easiest way. Go to Dealoz.com. Enter the name of the book and search. They will come back with a list of all of the people selling that book (Amazon marketplace, Half.com, e-bay, etc.) and it will be ranked by price. I just did this tonight for the books that we need. I could enter the Cultural Atlas for Young People: Ancient Greece in Amazon, and for used copies it would only pull up the most recent edition at around $20. With DealOz, I could find the older edition for 8 cents plus the $4 shipping. Still from Amazon Marketplace, but it didn't automatically come up when I searched from Amazon. Love DealOz.

 

Anyway, once I have the price information, I print out my spreadsheet and highlight what I will do for each book--library, RR, Amazon, or used. There are a few books that I don't have a solution for--not in library, not in print, too expensive used. I'll just skip them or sub with something in the library.

 

I just placed my orders tonight. 16 books from RR, 4 from Amazon, 6 used, 6 from the library. Fun stuff!! But even more fun when the packages start trickling in. Enjoy!

[DaffodilDreams]

 

www.betterworldbooks.com if you don't mind used books. They also sell new, but you pay more for those. Free shipping always for in the US. Buying from them helps keep books out of landfills and helps fund worldwide literacy programs.

Edited May 24, 2010 by kimmie38017

[Tohru]

dealoz.com

 

It is a search engine that searches for the best prices on a particular book, offers other editions, etc.

 

I've found that the cheapest books are actually on abebooks.com

[ElizabethB]

library sales.

 

There was a good thread recently about how to find cheap books:

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=176017&highlight=library+sales+list

[Violet Crown]

 

http://www.bookfinder.com . "The Google of dead books."

[In The Great White North]

library sales, books sales, garage sales, rummage sales, Salvation Army stores, flea markets, the book shed at the dump :D

[vettechmomof2]

We also use bookcloseouts, library sales(there are some large ones every year in the area) and our area has a HUGE Penguin publishing extra sale every year in Nov.

[G5052]

Thankfully I've been able to do that a few times, and I will loan out books in return to reliable people.

[Heather in AL]

I haunt my library's Friends bookstores (each branch has their own bookstore) and two of our local thrift stores. I get books for $.50 at the thrift stores and $.25 and up at the library.

 

I have bought both classics and new books for my kids (and myself, too!). My best find for my kids was a Charlie Bone (I think I got that right!) harback book for $.50---- it looked brand new. I also snagged the second Percy Jackson book in paperback for $.50 (also looked untouched).

 

One thing I have noticed in my area is that, sadly, stores closer to the more affluent neighborhoods have more books than the stores in less wealthy areas. I went to one store in a different area of town, and there were only a few beat up books, but the stores I haunt have so many books, they are stacked three deep on the shelf and there are also stacks on the floor, so you really have to rummage through!

 

Oh, some homeschoolers use the thrift stores, too, to donate their stuff. I often see Saxon stuff there as well as supplemental materials like math workbooks, history books, etc. There is always a LOT of educational stuff for the older kids, though.

 

Other than the above ideas, I just haunt sites like those the other posters mentioned and the sale board here. :001_smile:

[hsmom2girls]

I usually search amazon first, then ebay. While I haven't bought from overstock.com you may want to try there also.

 

Have you tried visiting "local" used bookstores? You can find out when the local libraries are having "book sales" buy some books there.