Online Book Store Alternatives To Amazon

Abe Books....

Barnes & Noble?

While ABE books is owned by Amazon it is mostly "independent" booksellers. I am avoiding the large book wholesalers as they are undependable on shipping and packing, what it the point in ordering a "very good" copy just to have it arrive in a plastic envelope all banged up. A lot of booksellers maintain their own websites, the Strand and Argosy in New York have a large online inventory. There is also Alibris and Biblio, though I think Biblio is also owned by Amazon. I used to order from Daedalus remainder books but they went under, they had great things for low prices. Here is a profile of Argosy from a few years ago.

Half price books.

I miss going into their local store to just browse for hours but people are stupid so I order on line now.

Also, I think books a million is still around.

Powells.com. New and used. Great service.

Auntie's Bookstore. It's in Spokane, Washington and is owned by a really nice guy who's a former teacher and is involved in his community. He's a decent person

If you don't want a physical book OP, then Apple Books fka iBooks

They also do the audio books thing like Amazon and Audible.

I buy from Half Price Books. I like looking up what I need and then going to whatever branch here in Houston has it.

Thriftbooks

A few new indie bookstore collectives have spring up lately as an effort to combat amazon. I use this one...

Sorry indiebound.org

For physical books, I aways check AbeBooks and Alibris. Even heavily out of print titles can be found there; UK-based bookstores on those sites tend to have great inventories.

John King

I check out books from my library with the Libby app.

R12 I used to use AbeBooks quite a bit years ago, but stopped after realising their payment process is very insecure and their customer service lax. Many buyers and sellers alike have been scammed by phishers and hackers as well as people who just don’t come through on a promise. It’s similar to eBay in terms of vulnerability.

There are thousands of complaints about them online. It’s not the store it once was.

Thanks R15 I hadn't shopped there for quite awhile, but I remembered it being good.....back then.

I second Powell’s. If you live in Portland, they offer contactless pick up at their stores. The Beaverton/ Cedar Hills store opened to public last week.

ABE is not a bookstore but a website with thousands of bookdealers listing their stock. I have bought there for over 20 years and never had a problem. The trouble is that the warehouse-type dealers that infect Amazon also list on ABE. Before you order take a look at the bookstore that is listing the book. I recently ordered a book because it would come from a dealer I thought was near me and then I got an email with tracking saying it is being shipped from a point a thousand miles from me. These are the type of dealers who try to make a profit on the shipping charge by tossing your book in a plastic bag, even art books. Now I will email the dealer before ordering to make sure it will be shipped in a box. There is also Antiqbook which is a British site similar to ABE.

I just made my first order from ThriftBooks this morning. They had a copy of an out of print book that they were selling for $3.99. Amazon was charging $28.00. ThriftBooks doesn’t charge for shipping if you spend more than $10.00, so I added an additional two books that I had been wanting. $13.47 for three books, free shipping. I feel that I’ve gotten a bargain.

Gutenberg project has a huge library of books that are no longer copyright protected.

Vialibri, specific sellers can be excluded in the advanced search options.

Thanks R20!

I’ve been meaning to read THE PRINCE by Machiavelli. This saves me from paying for it.

You might be lucky and find the book you are after scanned on the Internet Archive. You can borrow for an hour at a time.

[quote] 15 Best Places to Find Used Books Online

According to the great publication Reader’s Digest

Resistance is futile.

A bit pricey at times, but Book Depository has a good inventory of European books that are tough to obtain in the USA.

I had luck having a book I wanted shipped from Blackwells bookstore in Oxford, UK. With their high shipping charges Amazon wanted 3 times as much to send the same book to the US.

There Alabaster Books at Fourth Ave and 12th in Manhattan. Small ,but the staff if dedicated.

If there’s a book you want to read, but not necessarily own, ask your local library to get it via Interlibrary Loan. Some charge a small fee (my local library doesn’t). They can sometimes get books from all over the world, depending on what service they use.

Bookfinder is where I go. It lists just about every bookseller from Amazon, ABE, to smaller sellers.

It is better for comparison shopping than checking each source yourself individually.