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Where to buy books online?

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  • 13-03-2010 5:20pm
    #1
    silverberg
    Closed Accounts Posts: 46 ✭


    Hi I need to buy a book for college online, but the sellers on amazon will not ship it to Ireland and ebay prices are the same as in the shops. What other safe and secure sites do people use to buy books?


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    #2
    Delirium
    Moderators Posts: 51,812 ✭✭✭✭Delirium


    you could have a look at http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/

    If you can read this, you're too close!



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    #3
    byte
    Moderators, Regional North West Moderators Posts: 19,123 Mod ✭✭✭✭byte
    byte


    Try www.awesomebooks.co.uk

    They sell used books at good prices. They might not have what you want, but worth a gander anyway.


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    #4
    Accountsplus
    Registered Users Posts: 71 ✭✭Accountsplus


    I have found amazon's marketplace to be good for academic books.
    Some are new, some used and some slightly "shop-soiled."
    But overall good value.


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    #5
    bandit197
    Registered Users Posts: 907 ✭✭✭bandit197


    abebooks, very good value


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    #6
    bl8ckh8art
    Closed Accounts Posts: 61 ✭✭bl8ckh8art


    http://www.booksunlimited.ie/


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    #7
    lindtee
    Registered Users Posts: 3,396 ✭✭✭lindtee


    byte wrote: »
    Try www.awesomebooks.co.uk

    They sell used books at good prices. They might not have what you want, but worth a gander anyway.

    I second awesome books. I have gotten a load of social studies and psychology books, most were 1.99, and when you order more than 2 books its free delivery.


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    #8
    JohnnyBananas
    Registered Users Posts: 306 ✭✭JohnnyBananas


    Use book provider search engine.
    http://www.find-book.co.uk/

    As far as I remember, Asda and Sendit both have free delivery to Ireland. I find the book depository is usually the most competive and has free delivery to Ireland (however if you search the bargain/consumer issues forum, you'll find discussions on how they quote higher prices to someone through an Irish server than a UK one).


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    #9
    Cmar-Ireland
    Registered Users Posts: 2,340 ✭✭✭Cmar-Ireland


    Play.com are quite good for books. They have Playtrade for s/h books.


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    #10
    JohnnyBananas
    Registered Users Posts: 306 ✭✭JohnnyBananas


    Cmar-Ireland wrote: »
    Play.com are quite good for books. They have Playtrade for s/h books.

    Take into account their compulsory euro/sterling exchange rate, which used to ad up to a considerable additional charge (again, search consumer/bargains forum, it may have eased in the meantime).


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    #11
    arch staunton
    Registered Users Posts: 115 ✭✭arch staunton


    koth wrote: »
    you could have a look at http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/

    In my opinion these are cheapest and have free shipping to Ireland at moment .I have purchased books from them and recommend them very highly.I recently bought shane ross book the bankers for 8.53 ( free post)and saw it in a shop over here for sale at 16.00 .


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    #12
    bl8ckh8art
    Closed Accounts Posts: 61 ✭✭bl8ckh8art


    My sister tried buying books from play.com. They don't deliver to Ireland or do they actually?


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    #13
    Cmar-Ireland
    Registered Users Posts: 2,340 ✭✭✭Cmar-Ireland


    bl8ckh8art wrote: »
    My sister tried buying books from play.com. They don't deliver to Ireland or do they actually?

    I got several from them this week. No problems.


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    #14
    bl8ckh8art
    Closed Accounts Posts: 61 ✭✭bl8ckh8art


    Ok, cool. She was trying to buy books for her kids so it must be childrens books they don't deliver.


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    #15
    grenfinger
    Registered Users Posts: 10 ✭grenfinger


    Have you tried skoobebooks.co.uk its actually ebooks backwards/ they have a huge catalogue of books. I find amazon is now only stocking books that have a high turnover this new place skoobebooks will get you any book


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    #16
    bluefinger
    Registered Users Posts: 1,801 ✭✭✭bluefinger


    book depository ftw. by far the cheapest and free delivery too. can't be beaten.

    www.betterworld.com is a good site too though, especially for second hand books it's environmentally friendly and profits go to charity.


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    #17
    grenfinger
    Registered Users Posts: 10 ✭grenfinger


    In relation to buying books online i would recommend anyone that raves about the www.bookdepository.co.uk to have a look at the complaints posted on www.econsultancy.com about them but then hey its your money you can give to whoever you want just dont expect anything in return!


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    #18
    Keano
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 12,802 Mod ✭✭✭✭Keano


    grenfinger wrote: »
    In relation to buying books online i would recommend anyone that raves about the www.bookdepository.co.uk to have a look at the complaints posted on www.econsultancy.com about them but then hey its your money you can give to whoever you want just dont expect anything in return!
    Care to give a link to some of the threads as I had a quick check and could not find anything?

    I've used book depository to buy a book that Play.com took an age to get in stock and it worked out cheaper than Play. I'd use them again.


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    #19
    grenfinger
    Registered Users Posts: 10 ✭grenfinger


    Sorry for not including the link before . I have been reviewing a lot of the e-commerce sites for a review i am preparing. I find a lot of the e-commerce sites not only book sellers can be very competitive on certain products that they have in stock but when in comes to certain items they dont have in stock and that they could lose money on they treat the customer very badly dont reply to e-mails, sometimes its a system driven automatic reply -no customer agent available to talk to you, just left in limbo in many cases for months.The reason i recommended www.skoobebooks.co.uk earlier is that they are online self book publisher totally different business model to the other online book sellers. They really only promote themselves to authors or potential authors but they have a catalogue of 2.5 million books. They are a small setup but customer service is excellent.They are at most of books shows in the UK, they get great reviews from people in industry. !! got slightly distracted the link is as follows - scroll to bottom of page
    http://econsultancy.com/blog/3394-site-review-book-depository


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    #20
    lindtee
    Registered Users Posts: 3,396 ✭✭✭lindtee


    There were 9 "comments" over a 9 month period about book depository there:confused::confused: Wouldn't make me stop shopping with them, they are a very reputable company and I have never had any problems with them.


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    #21
    daveyboy_1ie
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,352 ✭✭✭daveyboy_1ie


    bl8ckh8art wrote: »
    Ok, cool. She was trying to buy books for her kids so it must be childrens books they don't deliver.

    Its only electrical goods they don't ship here. However the 'don't ship to this address' sometimes comes up if you still have the currency default as sterling, if you change it to euro the message dissapears. Its an odd glitch I discovered a while back but it works fine if you chaneg the currency settings.


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    #22
    daveyboy_1ie
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,352 ✭✭✭daveyboy_1ie


    grenfinger wrote: »
    In relation to buying books online i would recommend anyone that raves about the www.bookdepository.co.uk to have a look at the complaints posted on www.econsultancy.com about them but then hey its your money you can give to whoever you want just dont expect anything in return!

    I have both over a dozen terry Pratchett books at various times over the last year and never had any issues with bookdepository. Like all online sellers there will always be ones that 'slip through the net' but in general they sell items at very competitive prices and have not done me wrong so far. neither have awesome books, another cheap supplier who deliver free of charge to Ireland once you buy two or more books at a time.


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    #23
    grenfinger
    Registered Users Posts: 10 ✭grenfinger


    Sorry but if you look at the website in more detail you will see that in order to use the site and post and view the research papers and and get the updates you have to register and depending on what level of accesss you require it can be quite expensive so the numbers that access this website are quite limited, it is normally industry people that are involved in the e-commerce or e-marketing that join so your comments about the low numbers posting have to be viewed in context


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    #24
    magister_ludi
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2 ✭magister_ludi


    I can vouch for The Book Depository also, been using them for 4+ years and have no problems with them. My only reason to use their customer service was when I needed to change the delivery address after I had already placed the order - they got back to me saying "no problem" and got the books a few days later, so my experience with them has been only positive.

    There's also www.booksonline.ie - they list websites that deliver to Ireland and shipping costs. Its also broken down by category (audiobooks, ebooks, textbooks, etc.) which is quite handy. They seem to be fans of TBD also and they have a blog which recommends books.


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    #25
    Scoobydooo
    Registered Users Posts: 341 ✭✭Scoobydooo


    How much is postage usually for abe books ?


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    #26
    magister_ludi
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2 ✭magister_ludi


    Postage is usually around €3-4 I think, but it can vary depending on the seller.


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    #27
    Monkey09
    Registered Users Posts: 366 ✭✭Monkey09


    schoolbookexchange.ie are excellent. Have used it quite a lot and have yet to have a problem!


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    #28
    but1er
    Registered Users Posts: 2,505 ✭✭✭but1er


    bought two books of book depository cost €12 delivered in eason it was costing €21 bargain thank you :)


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