For book lovers, it is important to buy books as cheaply as possible. It is likely that a book lover will own many books, it is only logical he/she will search high and low for cheap sources. I self-confess that I am one of them and I would like to talk about my sources in this post.
1) Borders – I used to think Borders charges a premium on the books for the range and free browsing in the store. To my surprise, I received 1-2 discount coupons each month after I signed up for their online newsletter. Sometimes, the discount can be up to as high as 35% off. Signing up for the newsletter is free. As a member (paid approx S$22 for a year membership), I receive an additional 10% discount after the use of the coupon. This means that the additional 10% is off the 65% of the price, after I use a 35% coupon. The final discount will be 41.5%, almost close to half price! I got most of my books through this avenue, bulk buys when the discount comes. Lately, I have found that the books I am looking for are out of stock. It seems like the replenishment is rather slow and it can be annoying sometimes – have discount but no books to buy. Anyway, a typical newsletter looks like this:
Borders Newsletter
2) Berkshire Business Books – This is an online bookstore that I discovered a few years back. It focuses on business, management, personal finance and investment books. Their genre of books has increased over the years. The books are offered about 20-25% off the retail price. The only issue is the delivery. There is a waiting time and it is bad when you really want to start reading the book. There are only a handful of locations for you to pick up the books, and if you do not happen to stay near any of the location, you may have to make a trip specially for the books. Alternatively, you can have them delivered to your doorstep, with a charge of S$5 for an order less than S$75. Above that, delivery is free.
3) Flea Market at Far East Square – There used to be a flea market during the weekends at Far East Square. New books at 50% of the retail price! Many books are recent and in good condition. Definitely a steal! But after the flea market closed, I wonder where have they moved to. Anyone knows?
4) MPH – They have an online promotion newsletter too. No coupons but announcements of the promotions. They usually give discount to a particular section of the store, e.g. investment and business books. A good range of investment books (especially at Raffles City) and discount should be around 20-25%.
5) Popular/Harris – They always have 20% off for the bestselling books, especially books by the local writers. If I am not wrong, Harris has an annually 25% storewide discount, which is a good time to snap up books in bulk.
6) PageOne – I like the ambience of the store. I can almost find any books I want. However, discounts are rare and hence, I rarely get books from here.
After getting a little fed up on not getting certain books that I want, I am exploring a new source – Amazon. To my surprise, the books are cheap and comparable in price even when the shipping charges are added. Let us take a look at this example:
Let’s say I want to buy 2 books (which I cannot find in Borders):
(1) Market Wizards by Jack Schwager
(2) Trader Vic by Victor Sperandeo
Amazon charges US$12.21 for (1) and US$19.77 for (2) with shipping charges of US$14.97. Total cost = US$46.95 (use current exchange rate of US$1=S$1.40, total cost = S$65.73)
Berkshire Business Books charges S$24.85 for (1) and S$40.90 for (2). Total cost = S$65.75
The prices from Amazon becomes very competitive since the exchange rate is very attractive now. It is also useful to note that I have yet to add the S$5 delivery charge from Berkshire which will show Amazon is cheaper in this example. Delivery charges can be more manageable if more books are bought at one go – I tested with 4 books and Amazon came out S$20 cheaper. Another way is to buy books that are more expensive from Amazon to get more savingsdue to greater price disparity between Amazon and local suppliers. I believe if you have the patience to look for the books that you like and compare the prices, you may find good deals from Amazon. I have yet to buy anything from Amazon, but it seems I am inclined to getting something soon.
Anyone likes to share your experience?
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{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
heya there!
I am a booklover too and often jot down my tots on the books I read at http://www.readingmaterials.blogspot.com
For me, i rarely get books from bookstores unless they are really really good books. (Usually those I have already read but want to keep for reference. One such book is Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, or 4Hour WorkWeek by Tim Ferris).
I usually make my book purchases at the MPH clearance sales at Singapore Expo.Believe they are held half-yearly. Books can go as cheap at $10 and some fiction novels at 3 for $10. Popular and Times do have such sales too but rarely have good books to select from.
But of course, if you are looking for specialised books, Borders, Kino and PageOne are the places to go. Have Kino membership due to some Jap stuff I get sometimes.
cheers!
Hi Paul, nice to hear from you! Your MPH Clearance sale sounds good and I shall take a look next time round. Thanks for sharing!
You forgot about OpenTrolley Bookstore. The prices are darn cheap and delivery in less than a week. Oh, they have a wide selection too but not comparable to Amazon though.
Hi Darren, I have yet to buy anything from OpenTrolley, that’s why I left it out :)
Have you tried Kinokuniya at Takashimaya? I have seen their range of trading books and it’s quite extensive – as far as I can recall.
Yes James, I don deny the range is big in Kinokuniya but they rarely have discounts.
I was walking through changi village flea market (yes it is getting very popular) and chance upon 2 stalls selling discounted new books. the average discount is 40% for English and 50% off retail price for Chinese. Even though their selection was limited (understandable since it is a flea market afer all), they have selectively pick a few popular titles to sell. I was so happy to find 3 books that I was eyeing:
1) Diary Of A Wimpy Kid #3: The Last Straw by Jeff Kinney
2) Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom
3) The last lecture by Mitch Albom
all at 40% off retail price.
One of the store have a website: http://pushingbooks.livejournal.com/, but the discount is not as good as the first stall I bought from. But they do free delivery! :)
I suspect that they got their books from the same source and just doing this as a part time basis. So this may be a temporary thing.
wow! great find Roland! You must be a happy reader now :)
Any non-fiction books for sale?
Hey Alvin,
saw a mini “book fair” of sorts at the Atrium outside Carrefour Suntec today…at a quick glance, it looked like 2nd hand books. Hope it’ll be of interest to you, for what it’s worth…
hi alvin,
The book by Mitch Albom is non-friction. Yes there are a few business books on display like tipping point and blue ocean strategy. Oh one thing to take note, the flea market is only open on Sat evening. You can’t miss the place.
Thanks guys for the update. Didn’t know there are still many flea markets for books around.
I have ordered many children books from Amazon cos I could not find them in Kino, MPH and Borders. The stores offered to place orders at higher prices than Amazon’s.
So far I have good experience with Amazon. Their after sale service was reliable except for one non-delivery and the replacement was sent within a week after one-month of waiting & investigations. So it had caused me some inconvenience.
I realize books (some) from http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/ can be really value for $ too!
It’s free delivery worldwide.
I realized we’ve common books by Seth Godin, Timothy Ferris …
Thanks AL. I am pleasantly surprised that they provide free delivery worldwide! Definitely cheaper than Amazon in this case!
But how’s the reliability and service? Have you tried?
Dear Book Lovers,
I have about 300 brand new business books for sale. My friend had left the stock for me when he migrated overseas. I am helping him to clear it below cost. For eg, Robert Kiyosaki’s book is selling as low as $10 onwards. Kindly let me know if anyone is interested.
You can also try http://opentrolley.com.sg
I have ordered once from them.
Pleased with their service.
The delivery was prompt. Definitely would buy from them again.
I have been minimizing the number of books that I buy as they’re taking up space. I usually borrow from NLB lately.
Hey I agree with AL Ong.I just placed my order with bookdepository today and am very pleased with their services.As it was my first time buying books online,i sent them an email str8 away after the purchase asking abt the eta,which local post to approach etc etc…To my suprise,they replied in under 4hours answering all my queries^.^.Hmm now to see my mail before i rate a 5/5…but the service is definitely there!