Muse
Lifer
I have bought a few, decent I guess. Here's the deal:
I got a Barnes and Noble $25 gift card for my birthday. Saw one a few days ago in a mall and went in, it was jam packed with holiday shoppers, a few days before Xmas. I looked at a few titles I'm interested in, realized I could get them for 60% of those prices at Amazon.com (new books, and I presumed there was no in-store discount from the prices on the jackets). Looked at my gift card and it said I could buy at B&N online. So, a couple of days ago I go to their website and look at some titles I'd like. I see that they are way cheaper if you get them used. I put a couple in my "bag" and see a message that if I buy at least $25 worth, I get free shipping. This is an incentive because the shipping for every book is minimum $3.99, which is much more than the cost of the books themselves (the ones I was picking). I spent a few giddy hours bringing my total up to $25. I'd read the details on the free shipping and as far as I could tell, my used books qualified. However when I started getting close to $25 worth, I wasn't feeling lucky. I realized they were probably going to say my purchases didn't qualify, and that's what happened when I went to payment. So, my total with shipping and tax was about $90 (for 14 books)! How they came up with almost $8 tax boggles my mind. I understand that there are B&M B&N's in California, but how can they charge tax on shipping? 😕
Anyway, I'm contemplating going ahead and paying for this stuff, presumably partly with my gift card, WTH. Amazon seems to have better prices for evidently the same stuff, but the shipping is still $3.99 each. I actually saw obviously the very same books at both sites selling for less at Amazon. However, I have a B&N gift card, so I figure I'll make an order from them.
Deciding on which seller to pick for each title wasn't easy and straight forward. The quality was alternatively "good" or "very good" or "acceptable" or whatever. Sometimes they described the book but I got the feeling that in most cases they had a generic blurb they'd put in for the specific quality they chose. I stayed away from any that said there was highlighting or marking or that there may be markings, even. That kind of thing bugs me. Most of the books I chose were novels.
What's your experience buying used books online?
I got a Barnes and Noble $25 gift card for my birthday. Saw one a few days ago in a mall and went in, it was jam packed with holiday shoppers, a few days before Xmas. I looked at a few titles I'm interested in, realized I could get them for 60% of those prices at Amazon.com (new books, and I presumed there was no in-store discount from the prices on the jackets). Looked at my gift card and it said I could buy at B&N online. So, a couple of days ago I go to their website and look at some titles I'd like. I see that they are way cheaper if you get them used. I put a couple in my "bag" and see a message that if I buy at least $25 worth, I get free shipping. This is an incentive because the shipping for every book is minimum $3.99, which is much more than the cost of the books themselves (the ones I was picking). I spent a few giddy hours bringing my total up to $25. I'd read the details on the free shipping and as far as I could tell, my used books qualified. However when I started getting close to $25 worth, I wasn't feeling lucky. I realized they were probably going to say my purchases didn't qualify, and that's what happened when I went to payment. So, my total with shipping and tax was about $90 (for 14 books)! How they came up with almost $8 tax boggles my mind. I understand that there are B&M B&N's in California, but how can they charge tax on shipping? 😕
Anyway, I'm contemplating going ahead and paying for this stuff, presumably partly with my gift card, WTH. Amazon seems to have better prices for evidently the same stuff, but the shipping is still $3.99 each. I actually saw obviously the very same books at both sites selling for less at Amazon. However, I have a B&N gift card, so I figure I'll make an order from them.
Deciding on which seller to pick for each title wasn't easy and straight forward. The quality was alternatively "good" or "very good" or "acceptable" or whatever. Sometimes they described the book but I got the feeling that in most cases they had a generic blurb they'd put in for the specific quality they chose. I stayed away from any that said there was highlighting or marking or that there may be markings, even. That kind of thing bugs me. Most of the books I chose were novels.
What's your experience buying used books online?
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