Where to get secondhand books from?

[kalniel]

Back in the day, I used to ring or email some mysterious person when I was looking for a specific secondhand speculative fiction book and magically it used to appear and I'd write a check for about 79p.

But that was some time ago, and I've lost their details. Where do people get their secondhand books from these days? The only bricks and mortar one near me has also shut

[Jonj1611]

Amazon have used books. Generally sold by third parties but many available.

[Saracen999]

Well, I probably ought to set up a shop, or an eBay store. Last time I looked, I think my inventory was at about 3500, from memory. And I mostly use Kindle these days. I think the psychological switchover was when I tried to swipe my fingers apart on a paperback to enlarge the text a bit (my eyes are getting older, y'know) .... with fairly predictable results. Hmmm, I thought.

[g8ina]

hIve just copied all these from my book makrs, Ive not checked them recently. Hope this helps.

http://dogbert.abebooks.com/abe/BookSearch

http://www.addall.com/

http://www.alibris.co.uk

http://www.bestwebbuys.com/books/

http://www.castlehillbooks.co.uk/

http://www.laissezfairebooks.com/

http://ukbookworld.com/cgi-bin/search.pl

[Unique]

i usually check 4 places, google, abebooks, ebay and amazon. abebooks its like an ebay/amazon for booksellers, you can search based on price and they have new and second hand options. i've found recently that the cheapest options are usually the same half dozen resellers like world of books, webuybooks and musicmagpie etc that sell on all the sites, but prices vary a little due to fees. on ebay you can often get 25% off with some sellers if you buy another book. sometimes googling you can find somewhere you didn't think off that's cheaper

[Saracen999]

If you're hunting for specific books, I'd guess he sources already suggested to be pretty good. The other possibility, though it's far more haphazard, is to check charity shops. Several ytimes in the last few years, I've had to clear houses of deceased relatives, and books alwyas ended up with local charities. Apparently, they try to sell locally for a while, and if they doesn't work, they may be shifted online and ultimately, if even that doesn't work, they get sold off en-masse for pulping/recycling.

It's very varied though. If someone shifted my book collection that way, they'd hit the sci-fi motherlode. For my motherlaw's books, let's just say I didn't extract many to keep muself.

TL / DR .... Try local charity shops, and rummage?

[AGTDenton]

If you fancy a dry hot dog and some of Baldricks Special Coffee, you could try your local carboot sites when they start opening up.
A few times I've been dragged along there have been 3 or 4 stalls with just books.

[Domestic_Ginger]

The chance of finding a specific book in a charity shop is very low.

Ebay host the largest/high throughput used book sellers. Musicmagpie and worldofbooks spring to mind. Sellers may not list niche books on ebay so check seller homepage perhaps?

Many older niche books are free online if you have an e-reader. I have had a quick look in the past but can neither remember legitimate website's names or what I was looking for.

I moved over to a kindle a while ago so don't buy myself paper books anymore.

What are looking for? Happy to try and look for you.

[BobF64]

I'll throw this one in to the pile, https://www.bookbarninternational.com/

[kalniel]

What are looking for? Happy to try and look for you.

Thanks - it's currently many books hence needing to go second hand for cost reasons! James Corey expanse series, Robin Hobb Fitz/Rainwild etc., Peter F Hamilton salvation series.

[AC81]

I've been buying second hand books on ebay. Got some at great bargains.