Online book stores

paflairl

Registered User
Messages
4
Hi all,

I usually purchase my books in bulk at amazon.co.uk, but after my recent set of purchases seem to think that it is now nearly cheaper to purchase on the main street due to the exchange rates.

What other sites do the bookworms amongst us purchase from? Which ones are the best value?

I'm certain this topic has arisen many times before so I'm sure one of the excellent admin persons will provide a link to the appropriate thread.

Thanks in advance.

paflairl
 
Easons.ie sometimes has cheaper rates than they charge in the store. And if you print out the rate and go into the store they will honour the lower price. At least they did for me some time ago.
 
use amazon.com

I find them the cheapest (espeicially currency rates for US to Euro are good).

I find buying from the "used and new" link the cheapest, the sellers generally beat the amazon.com price.
 
You can also look at play.com. They have free delivery, which makes quite a difference compared to amazon.
 
Seagull said:
You can also look at play.com. They have free delivery, which makes quite a difference compared to amazon.

they dont have the range that amazon and their sellers have...

just checked prices for the last 3 books I bought from amazon.com, each one was between 4-8 euro cheaper delivered than the play.com prices.
 
But if you buy from amazon.com will you not get books in American-ese and not in British English (if you get what I mean)? Pedantic, I know but it drives nuts and distracts me when I see all the z's and the more phonetic spellings of the Americans.

Last time I checked the Amazon.com website delivery times were quite a bit longer and would the US-->EU importation factor attract VAT and duty issues? I like the "look inside" feature on amazon.com, mind you.

I buy from play and amazon and sometimes thebookpeople.ie or the secondhand websites like abebooks. That said, I still would prefer the tactile experience of buying in a "real" bookshop.

Rebecca
 
MissRibena said:
Last time I checked the Amazon.com website delivery times were quite a bit longer and would the US-->EU importation factor attract VAT and duty issues? I like the "look inside" feature on amazon.com, mind you.

I never noticed the american spelling style, I probably will from now on! I dont think it would bother me much, its only the odd "z" replacing a "s" etc.

No VAT\Duty to pay on a good imported valued less than a certain amount, think its 170 euro or something. So you wont be affected.

Also, in general the delivery times are a lot shorter than they quote. The odd book might take 4 weeks but in the last few years I'd say on average I havent been waiting more than 2 weeks.
 
I thought the threshold was more like 30 odd euro.

I know I had this issue with an electrical item that cost less than 170 euro a couple of years ago but the seller included the duty & VAT and settled it at his end to make the delivery run smoothly.

Rebecca

PS It's not just the z/s issue. When you start noticing it it's everywhere. A lot of silent letters get dropped for example and words like licence and license are reversed or only one is used, I think. It's not that any of it is a bad thing in itself, it's just drives me mad and I could not read a novel in the American version unless there was absolutely no other option.
 
You quite often find that the American covers are different as well. A prime example is Terry Pratchett books, where you get a really bland cover instead of one of Paul Kidby's glorious creations.
 
MissRibena said:
I thought the threshold was more like 30 odd euro.
.

didnt realise it was this low, but I have bought a few books around the 40-50 euro mark without any problem. Maybe customs dont bother with the small amounts. I did pay 21% on the purchase of an electronic item imported from the US once. It still worked out a lot cheaper than the cheapest price I could find in dublin.
 
I know someone who lives in the US and who lost the book he was reading when on vacation in Ireland, so bought it in the States when he got back, to finish reading it.

It was a translation into English and the translation was different in the American
addition, not just spelling, but different language used.
 
Sorry for bringing up an old thread, but can any one recommend some good online book stores where P&P is not excessive. I have several nieces & nephews to buy for.
 
You should also check out the world famous Kenny's of Galway - http://www.kennys.ie
I found them terrible to deal with. They were listing books online and accepting orders for them even though they did not have them in stock. I submitted two orders for such items and they never told me that the orders would not be fulfilled. I had to chase them to find out what was going on. They told me that they were having trouble updating their website to reflect actual stock etc. I found The Book Depository much better and cheaper. As ever shop/price around as many places as possible.
 
Sorry for bringing up an old thread, but can any one recommend some good online book stores where P&P is not excessive. I have several nieces & nephews to buy for.
The Book Depository above have free worldwide P&P. Obviously compare the prices there to those elsewhere including P&P in case...
 
Thanks Clubman will have a look

What an unfortunate website name !
Rhymes with........:D
 
I've used amazon.de as its one of the cheapest P&P ofany of the amazon sites, I don't speak german but find it easy to place the orders, basically the interface is exactly the same!
Play.com is also good, I just got my latest delivery today :D

I've also used a US site called bookcloseouts.com, they sell end of line / damaged stock, and some of the prices are excellent, P&P can be high, but I've found it does usually balance out to be better than amazon (if the stock is available). I used them last Xmas to buy heaps of kids books, which were Eu10-15 here and I got many for $3-6, so the total was still a lot cheaper.
 
nice one Mell.
Would never had thought to try & use the German Amazon.
At least my prices will be in euros.
Do they have many children's books in English on the site ?
 
If you click on the 'Bucher' there is a tab called Engliche Bucher. I've usually used either the title / author / ISBN to search and only once not found what I was looking for.
I think you will probably find most of what you are looking for, but check the availability timings, as occasionally they can be 7-10 days, my suspicion is that they are shipped from the US to germany, before they can despatch to you.
In fact while checking to answer this posting I've jsut found they are about half price of a graphic novel I was looking at in .com! I might be ordering yet!

Down side is that I do occasionally get some german special offers emails, but for the savings I can hit delete!
 
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