Second Hand Books

[EcclesCake]

I am quite a voracious reader and often visit the local Oxfam book shop for favoured authors and to take a cheap punt on unknown/untried authors.

The going rate for a paperback novel in Oxfam Book Shops is £2.49, is this typical across the board for charity shops?

Given what you can pay for kindle versions, it seems a bit steep to me.

[China Doll]

The charity shops I go to range from £1.25 - 3.50. I tend to prefer to just go on amazon and buy a book for a penny and then pay the £2.80 packaging, mostly second hand but a fair few have been new. I get shed loads of cheap books from amazon, I will never understand why people pay full price from big book shops.

[atalanta]

Ask in your local public library when they are to have their next book sale to get rid of their more tired volumes. They will be cheap. But if you live in Oxford there is a charity in the Market Place (Gloucester Green ) which is giving away books to save them from being pulped.

[heathfield]

Charity shop prices increased when they started selling only those books that show little in the way of wear and tear. These days they dump the rest. Round my way the Red Cross shop is the cheapest for books. But Eccles, have you looked at the 'Project Gutenburg' website? Over 30,000 books to download to your Kindle for free. Admittedly, they're out-of-copyright books, but do include nearly all of the classics.

[Robinia]

It's 50p for paperbacks in my local cancer shop at the moment.

[EcclesCake]

Thanks Heathfield, I'll check out Project Gutenberg.

I'll check out Amazon too, although paying £2.80 for postage will defeat the object of me whinging about paying £2.49 in Oxfam!

[lady-janine]

there are quite a lot oc charity shop fairly ame and i hve found the heart foundation to be the most expensive. don't know if this helps.

[wardlaw]

£2.49 is a preposterous rip-off even for such a worthy charity. Try local car boot sales - about 25 to 50p. It will have to stop raining first though.

[DaisyNonna]

Oxfam Worthing, all paperbacks £1. Fantastic turnover. One shop in town centre completely dedicated to selling books.

[ummmm]

I have boxes and boxes of books.

[ladybirder]

Oxfam have had a lot of criticism in the media over the last few years for the pricing of their books. It's an own goal as people will go elsewhere.

[chi-chi66]

yes ladybirder..I certainly will as my earlier post on here...

[DaisyNonna]

Oxfam sell the cheapest paperbacks in my area. 6 charity shops on the High street.

[coughdrop]

Have a look in all the other charity shops around..I can find paperback books for as little as a £1.

coughdrop

[kendra20]

i think oxfam expensive anyway and not just for books I know at one time ( not sure about now ) oxfam used to pay their managers a quite high wage, whereas other charity shop workers work for nothing. I usually find car boots much better for buying books i can get really good condition ones 6 for a pound. when i have finished with them i give them to charity shops so they benifit a little.