Used book prices

[pinehilljoe]

Has anyone else noticed used book prices going up significantly. Seemed like you could go on Alibris then Amazon, find the book and have multiple reasonable options. It hit me the past few days, looking for a copy of Pursue & Destroy: Eighth Air Force's Fighter Group in WWII, and Norman Friedman's US Carriers. Both seem way up there.

 

[cvairwerks]

Found both titles on abebooks.com for under $40 each. BTW...change Eighth to 8th for better search results.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

I'd imagine Friedman's books probably command a premium anyway due to the esteem in which he's held.

 

[aacs45]

The best search aggregator I've found for books is bookfinder.com . It pulls in prices from Abe, Amazon, Alibris, Biblio, Ebay, Zvab, and possibly others. You can specify used or new, hardcover or soft, editions, and publication date range. Prices are sorted lowest to highest. I also use worldcat.org to locate library holdings and/or search for copies to read online (or download).

 

[Sabrejet]

Book prices seem to go up and down for no apparent reason. At the minute the stuff I'm looking for seems to be on the 'down' side but I'm sure it won't be long before that changes. My advice is to wait if something seems expensive: often 6 months later you'll find the same title for a lot less.

 

[pinehilljoe]

I was able to buy used copy of Friedman on Amazon, $24 delivered. Condition is excellent!

 

[junkman3353]

I am not a techie but there also is the fact that the online bookstores use algorithms for pricing. The more a book is searched for the more interest that the algorithms detect. Interest raises prices. Much the same reason that I search for books and such on my iPad and order on my PC.

 

[Snautzer01]

I am not a techie but there also is the fact that the online bookstores use algorithms for pricing. The more a book is searched for the more interest that the algorithms detect. Interest raises prices. Much the same reason that I search for books and such on my iPad and order on my PC.

Thats why you to go incognito when searching.
The cookies keep track of how often you search for a string of words and thus can change things like the price.

 

[MiTasol]

The best search aggregator I've found for books is bookfinder.com . It pulls in prices from Abe, Amazon, Alibris, Biblio, Ebay, Zvab, and possibly others. You can specify used or new, hardcover or soft, editions, and publication date range. Prices are sorted lowest to highest. I also use worldcat.org to locate library holdings and/or search for copies to read online (or download).

I agree on both sources and caution with bookfinder that new can often be cheaper than used because some booksellers have inflated ideas on what a book is worth.

With bookfinder you can also search by author only and that usually fixes the 8th/eighth issue