>At: Wed, 23 Jan 2002 20:16:24 -0800
>From: "Michael Robison" <
zspider@gte.net>
>Subject: RARA-AVIS: Charles Williams
miker wrote:
>usually amazon is a good source for
>used books.
...but rarely the most economical one: I have a friend who
sells books on the Internet, and only one of his many stories
concerns the paperback he bought for $5.00, then filled a
request from Amazon, they paying him $20.00
... before turning around and selling the same book to their
customer for something like $80.00 . Nice work if you can get
it. [Amazon doesn't
"stock" used books; but if you want, they'll find it for you.
For an ever so modest mark-up.]
Other's have mentioned Powell's, but even they are becoming
institutionalized.
Try the American Book Exchange
http://whipper.abebooks.com/abep/il.dll?ph=1
a consortium of *hundreds* of small bookshops banded
together: You type in your wants on the entry page, and --
more often than not -- you will get back listings for several
stores holding the title, giving condition. Take your
preferred choice ... and then you deal with the bookstore
directly. Some will take credit cards, many require a check
in the mail; some will not ship outside the U.S.; many
will.
You are not going to find every book you want the instant you
want, but I've rarely come up with no choices at all, and you
can always check back. I've ordered from at least twenty
different "stores" -- and never been stiffed once.
Bookfinder.com
is another variant; they claim 40 *million* books at their
disposal.
[At all costs, avoid Alibris; see below...]
I do buy new books thru Amazon and B&N.com, but primary
use them only as a database to find out if a book has been
published, because, again, there are alternatives.
I like mySimon.com
http://www.mysimon.com/category/index.jhtml?c=media&v=1
which will give you a page with 20 or so hits, which you can
then "sort"
(email-style) by "price" or by "total price" (including
s&h), not always the same sequence. Then you do business
with the individual seller. [mySimon now has French, German,
and UK variants.]
This takes a bit of time to get used to, but unless your
budget is more expansive than mine, well worth the time. I
know full well that *gotta have!* rush to purchase when I
hear of a new book I'd previously been unaware of -- and in
that sense, This List has proved rather Expensive
<g> -- but with savings usually no less than 20%, and
often more than 50%, off Amazon quotes, it's an investment of
time well worth it.
If you have a good local independent book store, used or new,
for Ghod's sake support them.
But if, like me, you are pretty much limited in mobility
because of health, the on-line Independents are a
miracle....
---- Bill Bowers | <Bill@Outworlds.net> | "What's your beef with Alibris? Their whimsical policy of huge and seemingly arbitrary mark-ups of other booksellers' prices? Their offensive and stupid ads? (In case anyone missed them: a full-color photo of the jacket of the Gnome edition of Kuttner/Moore's MUTANT, with the legend: 'April 11, 1977. Freaked you out so bad you had to bury it. Jan. 25, 2001: Unearth on Alibris for son who shares your sci-fi gene.') Or is there still another reason to have nothing to do with them?" --- John Boston | fictionmags
-- # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 24 Jan 2002 EST