Save Money with Cheap Books Sales

What do I mean when I say buy cheap books, I mean books that are a good deal of coarse. I will go over five of the places I look for great deals to find cheap books. Sometimes, the selection is good and other times it isn't. But I will also let you know what I do with cheap books that I find that are a great price but I am not interested in. These cheap books of no interest can put money in your pocket if you take some time and do it correctly. Let's start the list with cheap books that are not on the internet, cheap books that you can find out and about in the real world.

I put these two in the same category because often times I use Craigslist to find yard sales. I do a simple search for books in the search field and this will often show me the yard sales that will be selling books. From this point I can often look through to see if anything strikes my interest or if they are simply listing books. Another tip for craigslist if you are looking for a specific author is to type in the author's name. If the poster is selling a small lot or in a specific genre often times they will put in the names of the authors included in what they are selling. Both craigslist and yard sales sell cheap books. I will always recommend looking online before going to the yard sale if you are looking for specific so you may be able to haggle a little better and get the best deal and make that cheap book even cheaper. There have been times that I offered to buy every book at a yard sale for a really low price and the person has agreed to sell very cheap for the sake of getting rid of all the books.

If you donate pretty frequently to a non-profit or government organization, let the person know this and use it to your advantage. I know that in Ohio Help Me Grow gives books to kids and raises money and books with the assistance of local book stores. Donate the books to a cause like this or some of the books, but let the people know that you help programs like this quite often. Just do not lie about it or be misleading in your intentions. Cheap books are simply cheap books do not ruin your ethics over them.

Cheap books can be found at the library when there are library sales. These sales are generally advertised, although not as much as in years past. Make sure to ask one of the librarians when the next book sale is happening. One way that goes against everything this article is about it to check a book out and then keep it. Not only will you have your overdue fines but you will also have to pay for the book at the library's inflated price. This is not a very savvy way to get your books. From my experience there is at least one book sale a year. I just talked about library book sales and I did not mention that there are other book sales out there. Here is one very helpful link for all of you. Book Sale Finder is a great resource for finding cheap books and book sales all over. I generally hit the library sales because I am use to going to the library and familiar with the people there. But this will help you find other book sales as well as when some of the libraries are holding the sales.

Most people realize that one of the best places with one of the best selections is amazon.com. A resource that most people should take advantage of simply because it is the biggest website out there. I am putting this one third simply because of how common it is known and how good it is overall. I am not talking about the new books, I am talking about the used books on amazon.com being the cheap books. This is also called the marketplace for those who don't know - as stated this is one of the best selections of cheap books around. If you are looking for a cheap book, this is one place that you should always check out when pricing your cheap books out.

The other site is alibris.com. This is a good site and has some great deals on cheap books. You do need to keep an eye out, other sites can and will beat the prices of this site. But the selection is good and the prices are generally on the lower side of the competition. Some items have free shipping and you can make a wishlist for other people to see and buy you books. And there is nothing cheaper than free books. The pricing reminds me a lot of amazon.com to be honest, but a much different layout. So I am clumping these sites together under one listing as well.

Ebay does have some cheap books. This is one of the sites to keep in mind when I talk about books that are a good deal but I might not have an interest in. Ebay often sells in lots for what I buy. It is not often that I buy a single book because a lot of ebay sellers over-charge for shipping and handling. They must think that since they are handling it there is something extra going into it. But for the life of me I can not figure that portion out about it. This one aspect of ebay often kills the cheap book aspect of it. But there are some sales that lots are sold in quantities. I will buy ten pounds of paperbacks or 50 books or what-not if I can buy it for a great price. Sometimes that price has been as low as 30¢ a book, 70¢ a pound, or something about like that. Generally, I will bid on a lot that is likely to have something I will read in it. For me this is a way to make it seem like I am getting an even better deal. But these books I will look at the value of the book on such sites as bookmooch.com or a trade-in site. A site that I will do trade-ins on is swagbucks.

Now before people jump on an imaginary bandwagon, the reason I do this is because I do use swagbucks. So if I buy ten pounds of books for $7.00 plus $10.00 shipping and handling, I just paid a little more for a book than I normally would from other resources. The average book supposedly weighs 12 ounces if you did not know that. So I just paid $1.07 per book and what I do with this is check to see what books are worth more points on different sites. The others I will donate to charity, like the local Goodwill. Between the write-offs and the points I end up making money from things such as this. The reason I do swagbucks for some trade-ins is simply because I do use the site from time to time and turn points in for various products.

Goodwill actually has a book site which goes by Goodwill Books and offers cheap books to everyone. About the only issue I have with this site is the selection. If you are looking for specific books keep an eye out here. Something that surprises me is which books I have seen go through this site. There have been valuable books posted simply because people had no idea they were valuable. Prices vary on the site, but it is not uncommon for books to be as low as 40¢ or up to $5.00 or $6.00. These are prices I have seen for New York Best Sellers, and to be honest I have not seen much rhyme or reason for the pricing. Here is the huge difference that makes this an excellent site, the shipping is very reasonable. For one book you are looking at around $2.50 probably and for three or four books maybe $4.00 to $5.00. This makes Goodwill Books one of the best sites for cheap books in my opinion. But as I stated this site doesn't have a huge selection. The inventory is always rotating, so keep an eye on it to find some great deals on cheap books online.

There are many places where people can find cheap books. What makes some of the deals even better is being able to trade books to others. I personally enjoy being able to keep a book that I truly enjoy and may read it continually over the years. This is my form of breaking down writing styles, character development, and the writing style of an author that I enjoy. I hope I have added to your resources for finding cheap book deals online and offline. Good luck in the hunt and remember that there will always be other people looking for cheap book sales. So be ready and don't hesitate to buy that book. And if you are buying cheap books and it ends up being a dud of a book - at least it was a cheap book.