Half Price Books

Doesn't Recommend

Debbie Z.

Joined 1 year ago

Do not sell your books to this store. Do not take your books to this store to sell. I brought in a limited edition, autographed, hardcover copy of Under The Dome by Stephen King and was offered $1. I took my book home with me. I refused to give my book away for one dollar. Obviously the workers have not been educated on pricing books. Also, if you do not like the amount of money offered for your books you can take them and leave, you are not required to take their offer. I could not post this comment without clicking on at least one star, though I don't believe it is worth that. Should be possible to rate this as 0 stars.

Doesn't Recommend

HippieLuvin

Joined 3 years ago

A tragedy of a shop.... Had a few books to sell and walked up to the counter. Two employess were standing there sorting books. I waited patiently for thirty seconds before clearing me throat and saying "Hi." The young chap with brown hair and yellow eyes just looked up at me and then turned to talk to his female colleague. I was being ignored, a sin in the retail world. I plopped me bag of books on the counter and told both employees I had some books to sell. The girl said, ok she'd look at them and page me when done. She told me about fifteen minutes as I only had seven books. Forty minutes later I was paged and they offered me precisely fifty three cents for each book. The books were history, biographies, autobiographies and bird books all never used. I was appalled. I took me money and left. The shop isn't very clean, (smells of urine and mud), the employees couldn't care a fig about customers and when a customer approaches an employee the employee completely ignores the customer! This little shop would be a smashing success if they'd clean up their dilapidated shelving, sweep and mop the floors and get some employees without yellow coloured contacts who care about customers! The two employees I encountered had attitude unbefitting of any retail business. You should be ashamed and will not receive me business ever again. Too bad you're a chain store here, else you'd actually suffer.

Doesn't Recommend

cbearg

Joined 3 years ago

Surprisingly bad experience. I like buying books here, but selling -- not so much. I recently brought in about 100 books -- most new within the last five years. Lots of expensive coffee table books, best selling fiction, cool Scandinavian mysteries. Their offer: less than a dollar a book. I've sold books at other stores, and this was so low I felt cheated. As I was waiting (was told it would be twenty minutes, but an hour later...), I looked at the asking price for some of the same titles I had brought in. Used Henning Mankell paperbacks sold for $7 each, but I got less than a dollar. Pricey books on architecture or art sold for $15 each, but again I got an average of a dollar. So basically they have an average markup of over 1,000 percent, and that is hardly fair.

I think I'll go back to Magers & Quinn.

Doesn't Recommend

blogalicious

Joined 4 years ago

Selling them books is a ripoff. Half-Price Books may be a fine place to buy books, but it's a total rip-off to sell them books. I took 425 children's books -- the vast majority in EXCELLENT CONDITION -- and, after carting them in and waiting a half an hour, they offered me $15.00 for the lot of them. According to their own estimations, these 90 hardcovers, 30 board books, 55 hardcover specialty books (e.g., with the spider built right in) and 250 paperbacks would go for about $900.00 (avg. $3 for hardcover; avg $5 for specialty; avg $1 for paperbacks). Why would anyone take $15 for this when you can take a $900 deduction (value about $300) on your taxes if you donate them? Mostly because, once you have toted the books in, you don't want to tote them back out, so you decide to take the rip-off offer. I decided not to, it was so maddening. Toted them back out and donated them to a book drive for a worthy cause, and will take my tax deduction. I suggest everyone else do the same until Half-Price Books starts offering a reasonable percentage.

Recommends

Contributor

Joined 10 years ago

Editorial Review by Citysearch Editors. Bookstore open since 1972 offers new and used books, music, movies, software. Buys used books and more from the public.