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BuyingBooksOnline

Buying books online when you want a GoodRead is not that easy when you live in Switzerland. The following information is a collection of notes on the various dealers out there. See also BuyingMusicOnline.

I prefer the people at Buch und Ton in Switzerland. They are nice. The mails are written by actual people. They can get me hard to get books like the Hellenika by Xenophon. And they'll get books from Barnes and Noble in the states for me.

• http://www.buchundton.ch/

Amazon in Germany ships free of charge. No hassles, works nicely. Unfortunately, Amazon has a bad reputation now. They had this little "experiment" where new users got cheaper prices than regular customers. And they sued other companies for the use of their so called 1-Click technology which is not actually that great. Registration and buying a book seems horribly complicated. Was it always that difficult? I actually remember Amazon to be quick and easy. Things change...

• http://www.amazon.de/

Barnes & Noble is ok. Registration and bying a book seems horribly complicated. I bought a book for $48, shipping and handling cost another $12.95. I usually prefer it when the people at Buch und Ton handle this for me. :)

• http://www.bn.com/

2nd hand books

• http://www.abebooks.com/
• http://www.bibliofind.com/

I'm trying to buy 2nd hand books these days. Searching and ordering is easy on the sites I recommend, here. They provide a uniform interface to the inventory of many 2nd hand bookshops from around the world. This is great. The service you get in the end, however, depends a lot on the bookshop. Here's what I found:

• Great: Richard Miller, Ashland. I bought a book for $25, shipping and handling cost another $7.50. Arrived within days.
• Great: The Used Bookstore, Kutztown. I bought a book for $3, shipping and handling cost another $4.50. Arrived within days. I noted, however, that the new book would have cost only $6 -- my mistake. But at least it was fast! :)
• Fast: Aquarius Books Ltd., Portland House, United Kingdom. Books arrive after two or three days!
• Fast: Kazoo Books, Kalamazoo, MI, U.S.A. The book was here after a few days only.

• Slow: Greenapplebooks.com, San Francisco. I bought a book for $15, shipping and handling cost another $7.50. Ordered confirmed 2001-01-12, arrived 2001-03-02. That is too slow. Postage cost $2.65, btw.
• Expensive: Wonder Book & Video, Frederick. I bought a book for $25, shipping and handling cost another $16. That is too much.

Shipping

Shipping is a pain. Shipping by Barnes & Noble is about $13, Borders.com charges around $13 as well, and ABE charges around $17 (for one book). Wow. Bying the english books at amazon.de (with no shippment charges from Germany to Switzerland) makes more (economic) sense.

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