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Cheapest way or place to buy books?


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I have a small list right now of 5 books. I put them in my cart on Amazon two ways, first buying with the free Super Shipping and then buying used from individual sellers. It still comes up to around $40 including shipping. Is there a cheaper way that I am missing?

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For books I need Right Now, I generally buy used from Amazon. I'm okay with buying "good" books or even "acceptable" if there is a detailed description. I find lots of stuff for a penny.

 

But mostly we stalk big used book sales in the summer and library sales and yard sales.

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Are they books that are available through either Rainbow Resource or the Book Depository? I often check prices in several places before I order. From a recent list I had, I bought 2 through BD, a couple through amazon.ca (I'm in Canada), and the rest were split with amazon.com and rainbowresource.com. I also have to include a pickup fee in my figuring. There's moments when I wish I lived south of the border.

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If you notice that 2 or more of those books are available from the same Seller, you might go to their private web site, to see you if you can them for less $. Possibly saving on Shipping...

 

The drawback to that is that if you buy from Amazon and there is ever a problem, it will probably be fixed, by the Seller, or by Amazon, quickly... If you do not buy via Amazon, you lose that protection.

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For books I need Right Now, I generally buy used from Amazon. I'm okay with buying "good" books or even "acceptable" if there is a detailed description. I find lots of stuff for a penny.

 

But mostly we stalk big used book sales in the summer and library sales and yard sales.

 

 

This is what I do as well. Sometimes you can catch a good deal on Ebay. The best bargains I have found have been at yard sales and the library, but that doesn't always help when you need a specific book. Earlier this year someone referred me to Abe books and I found a steal of a deal. Don't give up! There's deals to be had! Good luck! :001_smile:

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Earlier, I forgot about the Kindle editions of books on Amazon. If you can get one of those, you save $3.99 Shipping on each book, and you get the book in a minute or 2. We do not have a Kindle, but when I discovered that DD needed a novel, for the next semester of English, it was available on Kindle and we began our Kindle purchases with that one. I installed KindleForPC on her PC and on mine. Then, a few weeks ago, DD asked us to buy a Kindle book for her, which we did. I have some free Kindle books on my PC. I would prefer to hold the book in my hand, but this is not a bad way to go, if the books you need are available for Kindle.

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There are a few ussed homeschool curriculum sale groups on facebook that I like to shop at. Some seller prices are priced poorly for used books but many are reasonable. I only pay via paypal because if a problem arises paypal generally sides with the buyer in my experience

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I like www.betterworldbooks.com. They have sales a lot and support a lot of good causes.

 

This is where we get a lot of our used books. If you sign up for their emails they occasionally have extra sales that can be anywhere from an extra 25-40% off if you buy several books (I think it is usually 4+ books to get the discount).
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Bookfinder.com is owned by Amazon, but I do find they are still a reliable comparison site that shows book prices over multiple sites. They'll show you what the price of something is including shipping.

 

If you're not in a rush, I like setting up searches on ebay.

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I use swagbucks.com to earn free Amazon gift cards.

 

Me, too. I've only been using it about 6 weeks and have enough points for $15 in amazon gift cards. I rarely mess with the surveys, polls, etc anymore. Most of the points are through using their search engine, which is just google results with a different interface.

 

Not totally helpful for the immediate issue, OP (sorry) but good to know for future reference.

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It depends on the books. Last week I picked up 6 particular books we'd need for fall and paid $27. It was a mixture of prime eligible books and four dollar shipping books. We do have a Prime membership though, which makes a difference.

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Better World Books is having a flash sale today- and extra 40% off of 5+ books with a "sale" tag on it. No code or anything, you just add the sale books to your cart and the discount will come off. www.betterworldbooks.com.

 

 

Yikes. My cart is filling up fast. I always try to buy from Better World when I buy used from Amazon. I'm embarrassed to say it never occurred to me to go right to the site. Do they have sales like this often?

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Yikes. My cart is filling up fast. I always try to buy from Better World when I buy used from Amazon. I'm embarrassed to say it never occurred to me to go right to the site. Do they have sales like this often?

 

 

Everytime I've needed to order something, they've at least had SOME kind of sale. The first time, it was 4 for $12 on sale books (much of what I wanted was on sale), and the second time, they were having $2 on kid books! Always free shipping. So even though I have Amazon Prime, getting used books has been cheaper at BWB.

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