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abebooks

Nope, but as far as I know, aren't they the "middleman" for other booksellers? So, you are buying from other booksellers, but doing it via the abebooks.com website. :confused:
 
I've bought a book from India because it was cheaper to buy it there and have it posted than it was to buy it in the UK.
 
I bought 2 books about a week ago, I'm just waiting for them to arrive. They were books I couldn't find anywhere else. Looking at other sutff, they hav e avery decent collection of out of print/hard to find stuff.

They are like a middle man, but no more than amazon and half.com are.
 
venusunfolding said:
They are like a middle man, but no more than amazon and half.com are.
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Er, no.

Amazon has its own warehouse and the transaction is between you and Amazon From where you stand as a customer, there is no middleman...unless you count the postal system.

Abebooks lets bookshops to upload inventory and, once you pick it, checks for availabiltiy, etc. before charging. The transaction is between you and the bookshop, wherever it is, and Abebooks acts as broker i.e. the middleman.
 
Stewart said:
Er, no.

Amazon has its own warehouse and the transaction is between you and Amazon From where you stand as a customer, there is no middleman...unless you count the postal system.

Abebooks lets bookshops to upload inventory and, once you pick it, checks for availabiltiy, etc. before charging. The transaction is between you and the bookshop, wherever it is, and Abebooks acts as broker i.e. the middleman.
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um yeah,
amazon does the same thing as abebooks. i buy used books from other people through amazon all the time.
 
One difference between abebooks and amazon used, is the chance to choose your sellar by payment methods. This is nice if I'm wanting to avoid using my credit card. With amazon and half.com there is no choice. However, I think the shipping fees are lower with half.com. Another good place to look for discounted new books is overstock.com. I like their 'bill me later' option.
 
I just got one of the books that ordered from abe in the mail. Prety quick shipping. I just ordered it last Thursday and it showed up today.
 
Hey abecedarian I'll have to check out half.com com and see what they charge and what books they have.
 
Yes, I've bought dozens of out of print books from abebooks.co.uk, which is the same but gives you prices in pounds and UK sellers first if you like. The only problem I've ever had is from a guy in Canada who forgot to post the book, but did so straight away when I mailed him. I've looked on some other sites, but didn't find anything that wasn't on abebooks as well. It's great for finding the one available copy in the whole world of an obscure book, and sometimes if you look long enough you find one where the seller's misspelt the author's name and it's half the price of the rest.:D
 
The thing I don't like about abebooks is that many of the sellers don't seem to keep their inventories up-to-date. I would say about half of the orders I've placed on abebooks have been cancelled by the seller because the book has already been sold but not removed from the database (most sellers have bricks-and-mortar bookshops where they also list the stock on abebooks).
 
Shade said:
The thing I don't like about abebooks is that many of the sellers don't seem to keep their inventories up-to-date. I would say about half of the orders I've placed on abebooks have been cancelled by the seller because the book has already been sold but not removed from the database (most sellers have bricks-and-mortar bookshops where they also list the stock on abebooks).
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Do they have a link for contacting the sellar prior to ordering? That's an ebay feature that is nice and would be sensible for abebooks as well.
 
I think they do, but I tend to assume (though by now I shouldn't!) that if the book is on the site they should have it in stock.
 
I've used abebooks a great deal and found that US booksellers are really quick at despatching and efficient at packaging. Unfortunately, I can't say the same about British booksellers and, as such, will never use one again. A great shame but I've been sent the wrong books, had to wait nearly a month blah blah.
 
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