Book sales?

[Grumpy'sWife4Ever]

This might be a strange question, but does any store have book sales similar to the toy sales that are going on around this time? I got some good deals on clearance toys at my local chain store, but my kids are ALL about books....They would live at the book store if I let them! But we are far away from the big chain stores and I never hear about book sales. TIA if anyone knows!

 

[3boymthr]

Borders has a deal online right now where if you are a rewards member (free service) you can get $5 in borders bucks for every $50 you spend - which are good on a future purchase and can be combined with coupons. But since most of their books are full price it's not necessarily the best deal. However; this deal is good for most books shipping within 24 hours so that would include many of the bargain books as well. They also ship free for orders over $25. Sign up online for borders rewards membership and they will send you their sale and coupon e-mails.

For kid's books though, I find I get my best buys on e-bay. I buy lots of books in my kid's age and preferred subject range; for example I'll search for baseball chapter lot or transformers lot. I usually get a lot of 30-40 books for about $1 each plus shipping. Used books are always a good buy and my mom will give a lot as a christmas present. .

 

[NYCDiane]

Amazon is great.

Ebay also -- if you find a seller with multiple books that you want, they will combine shipping costs.

 

[drinkme]

Get your kids a library card. They will have access to thousands of great books!
And it's free.

 

[a1970model]

I second the library. However, also check out:

http://www.paperbackswap.com

http://www.bookcloseouts.com

You can also check your local goodwill store. My store is overflowing with books, and I do find some great titles quite often.

 

[PinkRhombus]

We have a great library system and you can request and transfer books from other branches online.

But my kids still love to have books that they own.

One collects those Rainbow Magic books. The other My Little Pony.

I use either Borders or Amazon.

Borders is great! They had a great sale a couple of weeks ago that was $2 off any kids book. So I got a bunch of the Easy Readers for under $2 each. Coupons are emailed to me all the time. Free shipping if you spend over a certain amount.

 

[peggster]

I second the vote for Paperback Swap. I've also had good luck finding books at local thrift stores.

Happy shopping!

 

[Grumpy'sWife4Ever]

Get your kids a library card. They will have access to thousands of great books!
And it's free.

Oh, we are at the library at least once a week! They have an awesome Summer Reading program, and even during the school year we are there at least once a month (to supplement their MANY school library books) - the problem is size and availability. Our library system, while awesome, only carries so many books on each subject or so many of each book in a series. For instance, my DS11 is obsessed with Greek Mythology right now. He's checked out every book on the subject at least once and has doubled up on some. He got DS8 hooked on the Rick Riordan "Percy Jackson" series of books - which is always checked out. He's had the second book in the series on a library hold all summer and still never got it. We finally ran across the paperback in the store for $8 and I let him buy it. Nothing worse than reading a series and not being able to get to the next book!
That, and both DH and I love to have books in our own collections. We have overflowing bookcases around the house on all the topics we love, as well as classic lit, current lit, and reference... We can't pass up a good book! So they come by the want naturally....

Thanks for all the online book club info, I'll have to start a list of what the kids want and poke around to see what is out there and for how much! I also just remembered that I often find good deals at Costco if it they happen to have the book I want. DS11 loves the Guinness Book of World Records and we get him the new one every year - Costco always has it for way less than books stores!

 

[Ava]

I love Paperbackswap.com as well. If you don't have any books you want to "swap" you can also buy credits for a few dollars each. It's a great way to get free & cheap books.

Check out www.strandbooks.com - it's a huge used book store in NYC but they also ship. I don't know how much their shipping costs because I've never ordered from them, but you can get used books for less than half of the cover price. I love that store, I could spend hours in there.

 

[uk_wildcat]

I buy the majority of my kids books at a store called Half Price Books. I head straight to their clearance section first and find books for .50 or $1 each. Then I head over to the new section and get books that are priced half off MSRP.
I also went to the Goodwill the other day and found some great chapter books for .59 and .49 each.
Other than those places, I go to the Scholastic Outlet sales when they have them. We have one about 15 miles from my house and they seem to do sales several times a year. I signed up on their website and get notifications of the sales and can print off coupons.
I get Borders coupons in my email all the time, but I hardly ever use them because I find their prices a bit too high most of the time.

 

[mrsklamc]

Sign up for mailing lists. Borders sends out pretty good coupons- sometimes 40% off.

Also I think both Borders and Barnes and Noble have summer reading programs where the kids can earn free books.

 

[fiveforall]

I'm a librarian and my kids and husband are readers too!

We order from http://www.bookcloseouts.com/default.asp?N=0 quite a bit. Do a google search for a coupon code.

 

[bigbabyblues]

They are (obviously) used books, but our local library has a book sale once or twice a year, and they have things really cheap (usually 50 cents or $1 per book).

 

[semo233]

Here's another idea, they are always at least 50% off

http://www.scholastic.com/bookfairs/events/warehouse/

Scholastic Warehouse Book Sale

Oregon

Portland
Portland Scholastic Book Fairs
5127 NE 158th AVE
Portland, OR 97230
(866) 878-4081
Sat., 08/22/2009 - Thu., 08/27/2009
10:00am - 6:00pm daily
Closed Sunday
Fun, interesting titles for
readers off all ages!

View map

Download
a flyer
(PDF)

 

[Praise2Him]

I use PaperbackSwap a lot. When I have to have a brand new book I order from Books-A-Million.com. I have their discount card and shipping is free for orders over $25.

 

[pilesoflaundry]

www.sortfloorbooks.com is one of my favs for new books. The search is a nightmare but if you are patient they are worth it. Some books have remainder marks or a pen line through the barcode but I've never been disappointed with anything I bought. It's better than book closeouts IMO.

It's nice to see kids so happy about books! My kids' love the library, it's their favorite place to kill a few hours. They love having books at home too though .