<p>Okay, I let my Booksamillion Membership expire. I am thinking about biting the bullet and paying $25.00 for the
Barnes and Nobles Membership. (I am cheap and think $25.00 is too much money, but…, I wanna be hip, lol). Is it worth it?</p>
<p>Not to me. I buy all my books online.</p>
<p>It is worth it if you spend enough there in a year to recover the membership fee. When you buy books a couple of months before your membership expires, the cashiers are trained to ask you to renew. Don’t. Let it expire, who cares? Then renew when you are buying books again.</p>
<p>In my family, we always check at Half Price Books first. This is a tremendous money saver.</p>
<p>I buy books online, but Amazon frequently does not have the books I need. The publishers sell them, but the prices are outrageous. B&N online carries these books, and the extra discount given to its $25 membership holders is more than enough to cover the membership price. An example: publisher sells a book for $320, B&N Online charges $280, and its members are charged “only” $250 for the same book. YMMV.</p>
<p>I refuse to pay for store memberships – so it’s a “NO” to Barnes & Noble. But, about a year ago Borders started offering a card. It’s free, and I periodically get discount coupons via email. Plus, there are usually coupons attached to your register receipt. Looking at the number of books we had when we moved 2 years ago, I try to get many from the local library!</p>
<p>We are B&N members and I think it’s worth it. You get the 10% cost off even magazines and, I think, their cafe foods. Also, even though S1 is all grown up and living away, he can still use our number – it’s just our phone number. Since I buy a lot of books as gifts, it’s worth it for us.</p>
<p>Cross posted with CBBBlinker: YES, the library is the best deal in the world – even if I keep the book too long and owe a fine! I only buy books I know I’m going to want forever now, like cookbooks or some “picture” (i.e, art) books.</p>
<p>As a teacher, I get a B and N discount anyway. I won’t join their “club”.</p>
<p>My B&N membership pays for itself every Christmas.</p>
<p>I was about to let my B and N expire – but it hadn’t yet, so I checked there for D’s biology text. Best price I saw anywhere, and because I was a member, I got “fast and free” delivery in two days. Made the price of the card seem like no big deal.</p>
<p>Forget about bookstores and use Amazon. You can shop from your La-z-boy, get pretty much any book in existence as opposed to the limited selection of a typical bookstore chain, often get lower prices than the bookstore will give you, it shows up at your doorstep in just a few days, and you can save gas to boot. Just make sure you buy at least $25 per order to get the free shipping.</p>
<p>I order a lot from Amazon, and not just books – they seem to have everything. The only problem with free shipping from Amazon for its books, though, is that it takes longer to get the books than if you paid for regular shipping. So it is good if books are not needed right away.</p>
<p>odyssey:</p>
<p>I’ve purchased other things from Amazon as well - they have almost anything and the prices are generally very good.</p>
<p>I always do the free shipping and receive the books before their projected timeframe but the books usually come out of a warehouse of theirs that’s only a couple of hours from my house. I try to plan ahead to make sure I have an overlap since I need to have a book to read at all times.</p>
<p>The B&N card works both in the store and online. And they send me coupons for books weekly (at least it feels that way). I bought a textbook several years ago and realized that the membership would have more than paid for itself in that one purchase. So I joined and have been getting nice discounts for quite some time. I had the choice between Amazon and Barnes and Noble and chose B&N because of their faster shipping. They also have the in-store option where you can have them order it and then look at it and then decide if you want to buy it without having to mail it back.</p>
<p>If you buy a lot of books and textbooks, the B&N membership pays for itself quickly.</p>
<p>My membership pays for itself. It really does just come down to, do you spend more than 250 a year at Barnes and Noble? And yes, the discount does work for the cafe.</p>
<p>It really depends how much you spend there - as Physicsmom said - if you spend $250+ there a year then the card is worth it. It was certainly worth it for us in the past - we spent a fortune at Barnes & Nobles. When I told my kids I would always but them whatever books they wanted I had no idea they would hold me to it to the degree they did :eek: .</p>
<p>I also use a B&N membership and never thought that I would. It has more than paid for itself as my kids must purchase their books for school. I check the school bookstore prices versus both B&N and Amazon, and see which is cheaper for which books. Invariably, I end up ordering from all three places. I have to say that in dealing with Amazon this past couple of weeks, I was ready to hang myself, figuratively of course, because their super saver shipping takes SOOOOO long to arrive. B&N is much quicker. At least once a month I get an email coupon from B&N offering somewhere between 15%-40% off an item both online and in person. I generally send the online coupon to my oldest son who lives halfway across the country and he uses it.</p>
<p>Every year I think I won’t save money on a B&N card as Borders is much more convenient. But it’s a near thing, somehow I end up at B&N because Borders doesn’t carry what I want that day, or it’s near a client. I think I’ve lost money because I refuse to buy the card. Borders doesn’t charge for theirs and they send me coupons all the time.</p>
<p>With 5 kiddos (4 college/grad students) our B&N membership pays for itself in 1 semesters worth of book orders. We use ebay, half.com, amazon, biblio.com and others and so far B&N has provided the biggest discounts.</p>
<p>Another poster mentioned the coupons which are in addition to the membership discount. Last Christmas there was a 40% off coupon which was extremely valuable to us. There is almost always a 15%/20% coupon in effect which can be used online/in store. Any order over $25 has free shipping.</p>
<p>Daughter’s biochem book this semester was $207 in college bookstore, $180 at amazon and $165/160 used everywhere else. Delivered new from B&N $83.
That’s for ONE book. Add in 5 other classes and 3 other kiddos. We save thousands a year.</p>
<p>So, yes, the $25 membership fee is worth it to us.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>I don’t have the B and N membership but after reading this thread I might consider it. I sometimes order from amazon but agree that the free shipping often seems to take so long.
I do have the Border’s membership which is free and use the coupon that seems to coming fairly often via email.
For those who don’t shop often at Barnes and Noble you can still register to receive emails from them and I often get a discount coupon from them. Not as often as Borders.
My biggest reader likes the selection at the local independent bookstore. I pay more but appreciate the help and service plus the location.</p>
<p>The B & N membership does make sense in our house (But as someone noted - I don’t automatically renew, I will let it expire depending on timing and book buying to capture another month at the other end). Eldest has had very good luck saving money on textbooks with B & N, and he does cross reference a couple of different sites for the best deals. Youngest son does better if he can mark up a book for school purposes so many times I will buy him a copy so he is free to do that. And I give books as gifts on a very regular basis.</p>
<p>When my 3 children were small and it was later evening before I could finally escape the house for true quiet time, Barnes & Noble was often my destination as the closest store stayed open late (I think until 11?). I didn’t buy as much back then as the budget didn’t allow it, but that probably left a soft spot in my heart for the chain.</p>