Tips for Saving Money Buying Books

"Getting money is like digging with a needle;
spending it is like water soaking into sand."

Japanese Proverb

Save Money on New and Used Books

Both Online and Off

For a choice of over 17,000 free downloadable ebooks, including many classic and children's books, check out Project Gutenberg. Most of the books here are out of copyright protection (based on United States copyright laws).

Barnes and Noble has a discount program that costs $25 a year to join, and then you get 10% off all online and offline purchases after that, plus many free coupons. Obviously, it only pays to join if you intend to buy a lot of books. For people like me who like to read and use books for web sites and also have children who are voracious readers, the savings over the course of a year can really add up.

You can sign up for a Borders Reward card for free. They not only regularly send out coupons for discounts on books up to 50% off, but they have coupons and discounts at partner shopping links. I save quite a bit of money on a new refrigerator at Sears through Border's Reward Perks program. I recently bought a clearance 50% off book for my son at Borders, and used a 30% off coupon along with it. I ended up getting a nice $20.00 hard cover book for $7.00, plus tax.

To buy books at close out prices, check out www.bookcloseouts.com . You usually won't find the latest bestsellers here, but you can buy many new books at a quarter of the price of book store prices. It is a great place to buy books on relatively timeless subjects such as recipes, time management, dog training, and exercise.

With the emergence of online catalogs, it's pretty easy to find a used copy of almost any book you want new. Amazon has a used book section that includes previously owned books from both private sellers and book dealers. If Amazon doesn't have what you want, another great place I've found for used books is Advanced Book Exchange (ABE). They have a database that includes books from dealers all over the country. It's a great place to comparison shop prices. I found a rare medical book from the early 1900s at ABE that I never would have found in a million years if I had just called around used book shops.

Besides used books, Amazon also has a bargain book section with a search feature and books categorized by subject as well as price. This is a great place to shop online for gifts at bargain prices.

Online, you can get great deals on overstocked books at a site, aptly titled, Overstock.com in their bargain book section. I found a book there for $20 that I had purchased elsewhere for almost double that price. Since they only carry overstocked and liquidated items, they don't have all of the recent titles. But since they have a search feature it only takes a minute to check to see if they have the book you want.

Off line, library sales are some of the best places I've found to get used books. Many of the libraries in our area have books sales where they sell donated books about twice a year. In the sales I go to, they have newsletters and special pre-sale shopping times for library foundation members. Most of the foundation memberships are only around $5 - $15 annually. So if you like to buy a lot of books like I do, the membership price is well worth the cost in getting the book sale notices and the early admission times.

For a list of library and non profit book sales in your area, check out Book Sale Finder.

This isn't a good idea if you have mold allergies, though. Old books can be a major source of mold, especially if you don't know where they have been stored. My son had problems with mold for awhile so I had to get rid of some of my older books. I still go to the library sales, but I'm more selective about what I buy these days. Many times I can find brand new books or books that are only a year or so old.

If you want to swap paperback books, check out www.paperbackswap.com I have not used it personally because I don't like to part with my books. Most of the books I buy are nonfiction books I use for my web sites. However, if you have books you've read and would like to trade, this might be a good site to check out. Another swap site is bookins.com.

Related Pages: Sell Used Text Books