Buying Books

[Amaris]

I am an avid Trek reader. I have a nice, small collection of Trek books (about 20 or 30 in all), and I love finding more, but I have a problem. See, I'm trying to collect all of the numbered series books. The TOS, TNG and DS9 books in particular. I have an assortment of them, but I'd like to get all of them. I go to yard sales and flea markets but they rarely have anything. On eBay you can get the lots where they sell 20, 50, 100 books in a collection, but most of them are usually duplicates (from past experience).

I visit websites like Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and while they have Trek books (and usually for great prices), the shipping and handling kills any money saved. For example, I can buy a Trek book for $2.00, but when you add in S&H it becomes $5 to $6 for a used, 10 year old Trek novel. So that by the time I have decided to purchase 9 or 10 older novels, I'm already paying $30+ on shipping alone. So my question is this:

Is there a place I can go online that lets me buy books in bulk and would waive shipping charges if I went over a certain volume? Just curious at this point.


J.

 

[ialfan]

I would be interested in such a site as well that would just allow shipping to be combined on orders instead of being $3.99 a book. Which is always more than the book on Amazon resellers.

 

[Amaris]

I would be interested in such a site as well that would just allow shipping to be combined on orders instead of being $3.99 a book. Which is always more than the book on Amazon resellers.

Exactly. The shipping and handling escalate the price so much that it's financially unreasonable to buy even a moderate number of books.


J.

 

[Thrawn]

Find the closest city, and spend a day driving to all the used bookstores you can find. That'll get you most of them.

I should note, though, that generally speaking the numbered books are the worst ones (with obviously a few exceptions); you'd do better collecting the ones published after they stopped numbering them.

 

[Amaris]

Find the closest city, and spend a day driving to all the used bookstores you can find. That'll get you most of them.

I should note, though, that generally speaking the numbered books are the worst ones (with obviously a few exceptions); you'd do better collecting the ones published after they stopped numbering them.

I've done so, and around here there isn't much to choose from. I've called, drove and emailed many used book stores around where I live, and their selection is always limited to a handful of books, many that I have already.

As for the numbered books, well I like them.
I do want many more, but I want to get the numbered ones first, and then work my way up.

J.

 

[ialfan]

Find the closest city, and spend a day driving to all the used bookstores you can find. That'll get you most of them.

I should note, though, that generally speaking the numbered books are the worst ones (with obviously a few exceptions); you'd do better collecting the ones published after they stopped numbering them.

I've done so, and around here there isn't much to choose from. I've called, drove and emailed many used book stores around where I live, and their selection is always limited to a handful of books, many that I have already.

As for the numbered books, well I like them.
I do want many more, but I want to get the numbered ones first, and then work my way up.

J.

The used bookstore in my city has an entire bookcase and a half of Star Trek books new and used but of course they don't have anything I am looking for now since I already bought what I wanted. ^_^

2/3 of the books there are used copies of the numbered novels. Too bad there isn't something like that closer to you.

 

[Amaris]

Find the closest city, and spend a day driving to all the used bookstores you can find. That'll get you most of them.

I should note, though, that generally speaking the numbered books are the worst ones (with obviously a few exceptions); you'd do better collecting the ones published after they stopped numbering them.

I've done so, and around here there isn't much to choose from. I've called, drove and emailed many used book stores around where I live, and their selection is always limited to a handful of books, many that I have already.

As for the numbered books, well I like them.
I do want many more, but I want to get the numbered ones first, and then work my way up.

J.

The used bookstore in my city has an entire bookcase and a half of Star Trek books new and used but of course they don't have anything I am looking for now since I already bought what I wanted. ^_^

2/3 of the books there are used copies of the numbered novels. Too bad there isn't something like that closer to you.

Wow. Yeah that would be nice. That's why I do most of my bookshopping online, and why I just find these shipping charges per book ($3 & $4 per book) to be outrageous. They don't need to charge that much for a paperback book.

J.

 

[William Leisner]

Find the closest city, and spend a day driving to all the used bookstores you can find. That'll get you most of them.

I should note, though, that generally speaking the numbered books are the worst ones (with obviously a few exceptions); you'd do better collecting the ones published after they stopped numbering them.

I've done so, and around here there isn't much to choose from.

Move to a bigger city, then.

I'm also going to suggest a local store here in Minneapolis, Uncle Hugo's, that has a huge used book inventory. They will accept "want lists" via email, and let you know what they have available and what it'll cost. I have no idea what they charge for shipping, being local and all, but they are decent folks, so I would imagine it's a bit more fair than $4 per book.

 

[Amaris]

Find the closest city, and spend a day driving to all the used bookstores you can find. That'll get you most of them.

I should note, though, that generally speaking the numbered books are the worst ones (with obviously a few exceptions); you'd do better collecting the ones published after they stopped numbering them.

I've done so, and around here there isn't much to choose from.

Move to a bigger city, then.

I'm also going to suggest a local store here in Minneapolis, Uncle Hugo's, that has a huge used book inventory. They will accept "want lists" via email, and let you know what they have available and what it'll cost. I have no idea what they charge for shipping, being local and all, but they are decent folks, so I would imagine it's a bit more fair than $4 per book.

Thank you, sir. I will send them a want list when I get the opportunity. I tend to by large quantities of books (anywhere from 30 to 100 at a time), so we'll see what they can hammer out.

J.

 

[Spookshow]

Used bookstores are your best friend. The stores in my area are chock full of the numbered series.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

I should note, though, that generally speaking the numbered books are the worst ones (with obviously a few exceptions); you'd do better collecting the ones published after they stopped numbering them.

I would argue that where the old TOS novels were concerned. Some of those--perhaps because a lot of canon hadn't been settled yet--showed a really amazing level of creativity. Ford's take on the Klingons and Diane Duane's take on...well, just about anything she wrote...were nothing short of extraordinary.

 

[ATimson]

I would be interested in such a site as well that would just allow shipping to be combined on orders instead of being $3.99 a book. Which is always more than the book on Amazon resellers.

Try half.com; as long as you're buying from the same seller, they combine shipping charges.