Who knows about buying books on the internet?

[mathilde]

::Cross-posted from various other boards. Copyright me::

I've just had meself a bit of a splurge at amazonDOTcoDOTuk. I spent 69.52 UK pounds, which is OK; I can afford it and I wanted the books, but on review I find that 53 quid or so of that was in postage and packing, so only about 16-17 quid was for the actual books.

OK, I'm in Oz, so obviously p&p's going to be more than for local delivery, but three-quarters of the bill for postage, and only a quarter of it for the goods!?!?

I notice there are now lots of small private mobs who supply through Amazon. This is a change (I think) from last time I went to that site, when (I think) you just ordered everything directly, and the p&p component was much lower.

I went into the link for cheaper copies of each book, and chose either the cheapest *decent-looking* copy, or one from what looked like a small, family-run company. All for encouraging small business, I am, but not quite to that extent.

Is there some trick I'm missing? Could I reduce the costs if I made sure to use as few suppliers as possible, or just ordered the ones that are direct from Amazon?

Second question. How the hell does one get into that? I've got hundreds of mouldy old books lying around, that I'd happily sell for 20c (+$10 p&p) ;D

[Pink Betty]

I use amazon - but try to use amazon uk instead of the us branch - then the postage becomes very expensive.

Is there an Amazon.au?

Usually if you spent over a certain amount they offer you the option for a slower, but free, delivery.

[mimi]

I forgot to mention, on another board, that Amazon send books free of postage cost for orders over a certain sum but only in the UK.

[mathilde]

Thanks both. Yeah, pinkmelon, there's no Amazon.au, unfortunately; and thanks Mimi, I saw that thing about free postage for books over a certain total only being available in the UK .

[gus2]

mathilde said:

::Cross-posted from various other boards. Copyright me::

I've just had meself a bit of a splurge at amazonDOTcoDOTuk. I spent 69.52 UK pounds, which is OK; I can afford it and I wanted the books, but on review I find that 53 quid or so of that was in postage and packing, so only about 16-17 quid was for the actual books.

OK, I'm in Oz, so obviously p&p's going to be more than for local delivery, but three-quarters of the bill for postage, and only a quarter of it for the goods!?!?

I notice there are now lots of small private mobs who supply through Amazon. This is a change (I think) from last time I went to that site, when (I think) you just ordered everything directly, and the p&p component was much lower.

I went into the link for cheaper copies of each book, and chose either the cheapest *decent-looking* copy, or one from what looked like a small, family-run company. All for encouraging small business, I am, but not quite to that extent.

Is there some trick I'm missing? Could I reduce the costs if I made sure to use as few suppliers as possible, or just ordered the ones that are direct from Amazon?

Second question. How the hell does one get into that? I've got hundreds of mouldy old books lying around, that I'd happily sell for 20c (+$10 p&p) ;D

mat if you don't mind second hand books a book swap club is a good idea (google) the idea is that you tell the site what books you have and what books you want and some one changes with you, simple and very effective you pay only for the post.
here are two www.eswapnow.com and www.titletrader.com
There may be the same thing in Oz.

your sweetheart gus

[Pink Betty]

That sounds like a good idea Gus.

[Nathan deGargoyle]

This one looks OK Mathilde

www.booktopia.com.au/

[gus2]

admin said:

That sounds like a good idea Gus.

It is, the only snag would be if your swap partner ( down sandy this is not about sex) reneged on the deal but I would take the risk.

gus

[darinka]

Why the postage is so high? because you have to pay shipment for each item you want to buy plus shipment itself.

i cant afford to purchase books from uk amazon, because £ is very expensive in slovakia. for me is better to buy through us amazon, even with higher postage.

so it is better if you want to buy something from amazon, to ask other people if they want to buy something as well and you can split the postage.

[205mm]

darinka said:

so it is better if you want to buy something from amazon, to ask other people if they want to buy something as well and you can split the postage.

Even better if you can find a very kind and rich person to pay all the postage ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[darinka]

205mm said:

darinka said:

so it is better if you want to buy something from amazon, to ask other people if they want to buy something as well and you can split the postage.

Even better if you can find a very kind and rich person to pay all the postage ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

yes, you are right. i have to thank you again. ;D ;D ;D
i owe you a favour:)

[purple joggers]

mimi2 said:

I forgot to mention, on another board, that Amazon send books free of postage cost for orders over a certain sum but only in the UK.

I presume you meant Amazon.uk, Mimi, because in your case you should be able to get free delivery for orders over 20 Euro from Amazon.de. They deliver to Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg.

And you can get (lots of) english books with Amazon.de, there should be no need for you to deal with Amazon.uk.
As for the prices, I just checked 5 current, popular, quality novels (Hornby, Updike, Leon, Lewycka, Brown, in all cases the English version), and the Amazon.de prices come out quite favourably compared to Amazon.uk. Two were 5% cheaper, one an identical price, two 25% dearer (and 25% is only ~ ₤1 more, not a fortune).

In your case, even when some books are dearer, it's better paying the extra 25% on the odd book to make the order up to 20 Euro and getting free delivery, than ordering the book from the Amazon.uk and paying the full postage.

[mimi]

Thank you PJ, that is good news. I'll look at the Amazon.de website and check the titles and prices. I had just assumed the German mob only dealt in German language books etc.