This one may be a bit niche, but I've been almost entirely successful in moving my online book ordering away from the big, slimy river and to bookshop.org and alibris.com. One of the bad habits the 300-pound gorilla of online retail taught me was to not think about shipping costs or pay much attention to what seller a book was coming from, so long as it was Prime. Another habit was to not really look for sales or coupons.
After a couple of orders from alibris, I realized it was worthwhile to ditch those bad habits. So two parts to this tip:
1) If you subscribe to their email list, alibris sends out links to coupons every other day. They advertise the maximum amount you can save, which requires a minimum purchase, and the maximum amount varies between $10 and $25 that I've seen. If I have a book I want to order, but no particular rush, I generally wait until one of the bigger coupons comes out and then add in a few others from my wishlist to hit the minimum. I also sometimes check out what the actual percent savings is, and generally speaking, the higher value ones are a larger percentage of the minimum required purchase, so they are actually better deals, unless you go way over the largest minimum purchase.
2) Since alibris is primarily a used bookstore aggregator, most books come from different sellers. If you're ordering multiple books, it's often useful to look for finding as many as you can from the same seller, as they'll charge you far less for shipping a slightly larger package than two or three different sellers will charge you for two or three packages. Some books come directly from alibris (mostly new or books that were remaindered, meaning there's a larger inventory of them), and these are eligible for free shipping if you buy above $39.00 total (after coupon). It can be a bit finnicky to work out whether it's better to get a cheaper book from another seller, or pay a bit more to get it from a seller who has another book you're ordering, but it can save a fair amount of money if you play around with it (money better spent on books than on shipping!). Half-Price Books (HPB) has a big presence and several locations with large, varied inventories, so they're often good to check as potentially carrying two or more of the books you're looking for.
Happy reading, and my blessings to any who welcome them, Jeff
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branchandroot
Save Money on Alibris.com
Date: 2023-10-27 08:41 pm (UTC)After a couple of orders from alibris, I realized it was worthwhile to ditch those bad habits. So two parts to this tip:
1) If you subscribe to their email list, alibris sends out links to coupons every other day. They advertise the maximum amount you can save, which requires a minimum purchase, and the maximum amount varies between $10 and $25 that I've seen. If I have a book I want to order, but no particular rush, I generally wait until one of the bigger coupons comes out and then add in a few others from my wishlist to hit the minimum. I also sometimes check out what the actual percent savings is, and generally speaking, the higher value ones are a larger percentage of the minimum required purchase, so they are actually better deals, unless you go way over the largest minimum purchase.
2) Since alibris is primarily a used bookstore aggregator, most books come from different sellers. If you're ordering multiple books, it's often useful to look for finding as many as you can from the same seller, as they'll charge you far less for shipping a slightly larger package than two or three different sellers will charge you for two or three packages. Some books come directly from alibris (mostly new or books that were remaindered, meaning there's a larger inventory of them), and these are eligible for free shipping if you buy above $39.00 total (after coupon). It can be a bit finnicky to work out whether it's better to get a cheaper book from another seller, or pay a bit more to get it from a seller who has another book you're ordering, but it can save a fair amount of money if you play around with it (money better spent on books than on shipping!). Half-Price Books (HPB) has a big presence and several locations with large, varied inventories, so they're often good to check as potentially carrying two or more of the books you're looking for.
Happy reading, and my blessings to any who welcome them,
Jeff