Better World Books(betterworldbooks.com)
betterworldbooks.com
Better World Books
https://www.betterworldbooks.com/
40 comments
I had a few shipped to India. It took around 3-4 weeks (which I don’t mind) but did arrive eventually and it was literally a shiny new hardcover sold as used at an excellent price without any additional shipping cost. Excellent site and service.
(Search and filtering could be better with some better pics).
(Search and filtering could be better with some better pics).
Same here. Got a very rare paperback which was in brand new condition.
Well worth the wait.
My books came by ordinary post from Chennai, so I guess they ship them in bulk to a distribution hub which then sends them out by book post.
Well worth the wait.
My books came by ordinary post from Chennai, so I guess they ship them in bulk to a distribution hub which then sends them out by book post.
A nonprofit that sells used books in order to fund adult literacy projects. They are a very unique B corporation, which is a for profit corporation with a social mission. I believe it is unique to only a few states.
I order from them all the time. The books are very cheap, shipping is free, and it's a great cause.
I order from them all the time. The books are very cheap, shipping is free, and it's a great cause.
> shipping is free
Shipping is rolled into the price, which varies depending on where you're shipping.
Shipping is rolled into the price, which varies depending on where you're shipping.
I think it depends on the destination. They are also able to send book rate mail. Either way, the average price of a book is about three dollars and it claims free shipping, so if it's rolled into the price of the book, that is still extremely cheap for a book
Tried switching countries around. For their "free" shipping, if I switch countries from mine to the US the cost of the book drops to a third of what I was originally seeing. Goes from quite expensive to fairly cheap.
When shipping internationally, you need to declare the cost of goods shipped for customs purposes - but do you need to include in that the cost of the shipping? If not - I suspect not but am not 100% sure - this approach of building shipping costs into book price may result in a massive increases in costs paid to import the books in question.
When shipping internationally, you need to declare the cost of goods shipped for customs purposes - but do you need to include in that the cost of the shipping? If not - I suspect not but am not 100% sure - this approach of building shipping costs into book price may result in a massive increases in costs paid to import the books in question.
> do you need to include in that the cost of the shipping?
I think it depends on the country. Here (Canada) I believe you are instructed to include the shipping cost, but in practice they charge by the declared invoice amount, and vendors generally don't include shipping in that.
For BWB, it used to be the case that if you happened to have a US IP address (as I sometimes did from work), you'd be given the US price regardless of the destination. That was fixed years ago.
I think it depends on the country. Here (Canada) I believe you are instructed to include the shipping cost, but in practice they charge by the declared invoice amount, and vendors generally don't include shipping in that.
For BWB, it used to be the case that if you happened to have a US IP address (as I sometimes did from work), you'd be given the US price regardless of the destination. That was fixed years ago.
One of the few that isn’t amazon owned.
Bookfinder.com is also excellent to price compare used books (love the Web 1.0 look too!) but a lot of the recommendations are amazon-owned because they cornered the market, although BF themselves are independent.
Bookfinder.com is also excellent to price compare used books (love the Web 1.0 look too!) but a lot of the recommendations are amazon-owned because they cornered the market, although BF themselves are independent.
BookFinder is owned by AbeBooks, which is owned by Amazon.
:( you’re right, I didn’t know. Well there goes that option since I’m guessing they only recommend amazon-owned stores then?
Not necessarily. It's recommending Biblio, Alibris, and eBay affiliate links too despite the presence of Amazon, AbeBooks, and ZVAB. I think they know that their value comes from not just being an Amazon search.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_World_Books
Also interesting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powell's_Books (Portland - used books and large store)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Lights_Bookstore (SF - published Ginsberg's Howl)
Also interesting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powell's_Books (Portland - used books and large store)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Lights_Bookstore (SF - published Ginsberg's Howl)
Also Alibris: https://www.alibris.com
Nice! I miss the used bookstores in Davis, CA. There were a half dozen until Borders came in. Then Borders died.
https://daviswiki.org/Bogey%27s_Books
https://daviswiki.org/Bogey%27s_Books
Better World Books is one of my two go-to used bookstores, the other being www.secondsale.com. Abebooks is also great but they are owned by Amazon.
World of books I find good. Lots of abebooks sales go there anyway.
They also work with Internet Archive to send books that IA deems desirable for scanning.
https://blog.archive.org/2019/11/06/for-the-love-of-literacy...
https://blog.archive.org/2019/11/06/for-the-love-of-literacy...
I use https://www.ethicalbooksearch.com/ to find books sold by responsible booksellers including BWB.
What a funny coincidence, I literally just placed an order with them today through Abebooks for an old book on ferns and mosses not knowing who they were and was pleasantly surprised when I got the confirmation email that described their mission.
Used bookstores are also a source of blank books with fun covers. The most common types are journals (lined pages) and artist's sketchbooks.
search for "blank journal" or "sketchbook"; or "moleskine" if you're feeling lucky.
This one has a cover of a llama <3 -- https://www.secondsale.com/p/black-paper-sketch-book-x-large...
search for "blank journal" or "sketchbook"; or "moleskine" if you're feeling lucky.
This one has a cover of a llama <3 -- https://www.secondsale.com/p/black-paper-sketch-book-x-large...
Cool company! Norte dame:) if my memory serves me correctly, I graduated in 2003 and I remember it was around that time when 2 grads were just starting it. These guys donates a portion of their profits to literacy programs around the world and i think they raised nearly $30M to date for libraries and literacy programs. They first started w like 5 book drop boxes on campuses and grew to having over 2,300 book drop boxes located in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, where people can donate their used books…. :)
Been using them for more than 10 years. I must have saved thousands of dollars so far. They always deliver.
I’m always looking for deals on books in Spanish from US sellers but the UX is always pretty bad.
All of them seem to make you figure out how to open up their filter menu which usually means searching for “qwerty” and then clearing the search bar so that you can summon the language filter from the sidebar.
And then once you specify a language you have to trawl their entire collection in random order.
All of them seem to make you figure out how to open up their filter menu which usually means searching for “qwerty” and then clearing the search bar so that you can summon the language filter from the sidebar.
And then once you specify a language you have to trawl their entire collection in random order.
I wasn't familiar with this site until just now. I'll have to add this to my rotation of used book searching.
When I buy a book, I usually check Ebay, Thriftbooks, and Amazon (new and used) and do a comparison. Some books just can't be found for much cheaper than their brand new price. Most of the books I buy and read are software related, and some of those just hold their value. I'm pleasantly surprised by Better World Books though, this is the cheapest copy of GoF I've seen at $15 for the standard hard cover, that's a steal! Even the used copies I find are within $5ish of a new print (just about $40).
It's hard to find good software books at a library, usually you'll have something like "XHTML for Dummies" and that's it. If anyone has other suggestions for good places/ways to get technical books, I'm all ears.
When I buy a book, I usually check Ebay, Thriftbooks, and Amazon (new and used) and do a comparison. Some books just can't be found for much cheaper than their brand new price. Most of the books I buy and read are software related, and some of those just hold their value. I'm pleasantly surprised by Better World Books though, this is the cheapest copy of GoF I've seen at $15 for the standard hard cover, that's a steal! Even the used copies I find are within $5ish of a new print (just about $40).
It's hard to find good software books at a library, usually you'll have something like "XHTML for Dummies" and that's it. If anyone has other suggestions for good places/ways to get technical books, I'm all ears.
There are used-book search engines, like dealoz.com, that search all of the above.
Yeah, I almost didn’t click on this post! Great site and useful HN discussion.
I get most of my used books from Amazon. I like it that they handle the transaction, so I don’t have to worry about giving out my credit card or later updating the expiration date, etc.
I get most of my used books from Amazon. I like it that they handle the transaction, so I don’t have to worry about giving out my credit card or later updating the expiration date, etc.
Alibris is is my go-to.
Another great place to buy books is BookOutlet. They sell primarily overstocked books, and I'm always pleasantly surprised by their selection. I'll add books to an Amazon wishlist than every few months take that list to BookOutlet and search and they usually have 20-30% of what I'm after for less than half of Amazon's price. The books usually come with a single dot or swipe of a sharpie along one of the open page edges for a reason I'm not totally clear on but must have something to do with them being contractually unable to sell books in perfect condition or something.
Here I am, successfully refraining from my obsession of buying books without actually reading them and then stuff like this comes along. Why do you got to do this to me, OP?
There are some places that sell library surplus/ex-stock, for example in the UK: https://www.anybook.biz/
This store is great. But I also want to point out that there are more specialty bookstores too. I got a couple Rudolf Steiner books from a store dedicated to those and they sent me a handwritten card and such. Really nice experience when you’re not used to it
I'll also throw in a recommendation for thriftbooks.
They became my go-to by having cheap shipping options to Europe a bunch of years ago. It’s always been a pleasure buying from them.
They increased the shipping charges to 1.49 and the minimum to 15. Other than that, they are ok I guess
That’s my go to as well
Always fun to see someone in my neck of the woods (South Bend, IN) make hacker news!
They have bins all over town, usually pretty stuffed.
They have bins all over town, usually pretty stuffed.
Thanks to their use of Cloudflare, I'm blocked from reaching their site. Sounds like it's a good thing.
Better World Books sends us a bunch of boxes and we can pack them and ship them whenever we need. They generate the label and all we have to do is tape it to the box and send it out with the UPS truck when it comes. No books in the garbage for people to get upset about and presumably Better World Books can do something useful with at least some of them.