<p>I have good luck with sets of books on E-bay. I’ve bought a few lots of paperbacks for pennies on the dollar and a couple of sets of books by a particular author that I really want to keep, and that are hard to get/out of print. It helps that my favorite “pennies on the dollar” paperback seller is in my town, and the shipping is minimal.</p>
<p>I always look at Powells before I buy on Amazon, and try to buy used first. Most things I get at the library first, and only buy if I really like an author.</p>
<p>Amazon still has better prices (not to mention selection) than my local bookstores even with coupons and memberships. I prefer a new book if it’s something I plan on keeping. Free shipping is a plus. I placed orders for several books that were not available in the local stores twice this summer, and I didn’t experience any lengthy delays. Maybe the difference is that I’m in NY which is probably a high volume area.</p>
<p>I agree, cangel-- media mail sems to have taken the slow boat to China in many cases lately. This year I checked many used book vendors (I have posted links to them before and can again if anyone wants them) and ended up ordering my s’s HS books through Amazon’s used book sellers… with the exception of his VERY EXPENSIVE new AP Stat. and AP Econ books that I ordered through Amazon (and since I was getting free shipping, I orderd a few of his paperbacks too, since it’d be cheaper than paying used book proces plus s&h). OK- first, when I ordered the Stat book it said it’d be available and would ship in 2-4 weeks (I have learned from past experience and ordered his books in July). All the used books trickled in in anywhere from 5-10 days or so. No Amazon books. I went back on the website and saw that the Stat book was now listed as being available to ship in late September (that woudlnt do–school started in August) so I called Amazon and had them unbundle the order and ship the Econ and paperbacks. They got here in a reasonable period (within a week I think). I ended up ordering the AP Stat book from another vendor who had it in stock, and when I went to cancel my Amazon order, it was now showing an estimated ship date of Dec 31- Jan 4!!! :eek: I have found that when you call customer service at Amazon to unbundle an order, you can often sweet talk them into sending the items by a faster shipping method at no charge “for the inconvenience”. I don’t think I did that in this case, but to be honest, I don’t remember.</p>
<p>Now, different situation. I sent a book to some friends in NY - sent it media mail on Aug. 3. They STILL do NOT hve the book! We live in a big city and so do they, so it is not like it has to be carried by mule to the hinterlands. As dmd77 said, they are the lowes of the lowest priority, but this was a relatively small hardcover book that shouldn’t have taken up much room. Grrrrr!! I am frustrated with our <em>wonderful</em> postal svc. If I had wanted to put a trackig # on the book, I wouldhve had to pay prioirty rate, and it would have been cheaper for my friends to buy the book themselves. It is silly. Sigh…</p>
<p>As an aside (and I forgot to mention), I was going to buy a european edition of my s’s Econ book . They claim the only thing different is the cover, but I thought my s would not be happy with one that looked “different” (they are anal about this stuff at his school) so I didn’t. Anyone have experience with ordering the European publised editions of textbooks??</p>
<p>Another problem to watch out for with Amazon’s free shipping is that they hold all books until all are available. I ordered an not-yet-released book for my daughter at the same time as I ordered a few for me and weeks and weeks went by before I went back to check and realized this was a rule for Super Saving shipping. So I also had to unbundle to get my books. I agree that it has gotten worse in the past year or so.</p>
<p>I placed an order with Amazon today. With free shipping the estimated delivery is OCTOBER 8 - 25. That seems crazy to me. I think I’m going to start shopping elsewhere.</p>
<p>I’ve bought a calculus book originally meant for Southeast Asia. The book comes in paperback, the paper is thin, it’s all B&W (no color), but otherwise the same and it was substantially cheaper.</p>
<p>I also bought a European version Calculus book for son last year at half the price of a new hardbound. Looked exactly the same, except it was paperback instead of hardbound. Didn’t have any problems using in in class. There was an article sometime back about how US textbook publishers produce exactly the same books for the European markets as the American markets, but they cost much less, and not just becase they are in paperback. I believe some Harvard students took advantage of the price differences, and were buying European textbooks and selling them to fellow students for far less that the Harvard bookstore was selling the American version for.</p>
<p>some of my prof’s even put in their syllabus about purchasing the other editions of books - because they are so much cheaper. I wound up paying about 40 bucks for one book where it was 120 for the american version.</p>
<p>I don’t have an identical hardback copy to compare it to. What I have is a hardback “Brief” edition (which means that it doesn’t contain chapters at the end of the book). But comparing the chapters which are in both books, they are identical–page numbers included.</p>
<p>Also, some of the international editions may not have the CDs in them (although I’ve never known what to do with those CDs).</p>
<p>Here is a similar shipping story. I ordered a made to order T-shirt for my D for her B-day from cafepress.com. They have a flat rate shipping for $5, and warn that it will be 5-6business days in transit. I ordered on Friday, and was surprised to find that they printed up the shirt and it was picked up for shipping on Monday 8/13, only 3 days later. I followed tracking and it went from Ohio to Orlando to West Palm Beach by 8/16. Then it sat there for 8 days. In West Palm Beach. I live less than an hour away. On 8/24 it left West Palm and arrived at my door. I emailed on 8/23 after it had sat “nearby” for a week. It seems that this flat rate shipping is indeed space available, altho even they were surprised that it just sat there for a week. I had time to spare, but given that they sent me the tracking info, it was just frustrating to know that it was only miles away, just sitting there…It took 3 days to move from Ohio to West Palm, and 8 days to move an hour.</p>
<p>sunnyflorida
That sounds like DHL. I think they partner with the USPS for their cheapest delivery. So, they get it pronto quick to the destination city by truck, and then it sits there til the post office decides to accept it and delver it (or something like that). Your government dollars at work.</p>