Online book shopping from Australia

April 3, 2007 2:47 AM

Can anybody suggest a cheap online bookstore for Australians?

Amazon has cheap prices on books, but the shipping costs negate some of these savings. I know of cheap CD/DVD online stores that offer free worldwide shipping, but not book stores.

posted by jedro to Shopping (8 answers total)

I work in the booktrade and there's no real equivalent to Amazon, unfortunately, although there are a couple of wanna-be's that have come up recently.

One of these is The Nile but I wasn't hugely impressed by their pricing the last time I did a comparison.

Personally, I try to find what I need on Ebay, club together with friends when purchasing from Amazon to reduce the shipping costs, and use my staff discount whenever I can.

Speaking of which...

(Caution! Minor Shill: If you were ever a member of the Uni Co-op Bookshop, you're still a member. Even if you can't find your card, you'll still get your 10% discount and we DO carry regular books as well as texts - postage is $8 for the first book, $9.50 for 3, $11 for 3 or more, OR you can pick them up from the nearest branch).
posted by ninazer0 at 3:24 AM on April 3, 2007

Booktopia

Maybe?
posted by johnny7 at 3:46 AM on April 3, 2007

Response by poster: I didn't particularly want to mention a specific site. However, what I'm looking for is a book equivalent of cdwow. Good range of stock and very cheap - even with postage.
posted by jedro at 4:31 AM on April 3, 2007

I use http://www.fetchbook.info/ to search across 126 book stores. 11 of those are Australian. But even with the U.S. and European stores, often I can find a used copy of a book I want for less than $2, then even when you factor in the $10 to ship it to NZ and currency conversion, it still works out cheaper than ordering it from a bookshop.
posted by Pigpen at 4:41 AM on April 3, 2007

I've not checked this out myself yet so I can't comment on the range, but several of my very price-conscious friends have recently recommended fishpond as a good source for new and used books at decent prices. From a quick glance, their postage rates certainly seem reasonable.
posted by harmless at 4:47 AM on April 3, 2007

I asked the same thing on LiveJournal! I was told that Booktopia was not to be trusted due to bad experiences. I tried Alibris, but the cheap ones were totally unreliable and the reliable ones were just as much as Amazon if not more (plus shipping).

The list I got:

Angus & Robertson
Abe Books
Australian Online Bookshop
Abbeys
ELX.com.au
McGills
Folio Books

(any Australian bookstore that has both Doing School by Denise Clark Pope and The Teenage Liberation Handbook by Grace Llewelyn has my heart. And cash.)
posted by divabat at 6:53 AM on April 3, 2007

The Book Depository. It's a UK site which offers free shipping to Australia, and they have a large catalogue. I've ordered a few times from them now. The book prices are not quite as good as Amazon.com, taking the Australian dollar's relative values against the pound and the US dollar into account, but the free shipping easily makes up for it. My last order was for four normal-sized paperbacks; they cost about $18 AUD each and arrived in about a week.
posted by andraste at 5:33 PM on April 3, 2007

I've used Fishpond a few times for books and CDs; I've always ordered enough to qualify for the free shipping. I'm happy with the service. I had to return a book with a torn cover, and they replaced it promptly.

And I've received several large orders from Read St Online Book Store. They stock a second hand books, the selection is limited but seems to change frequently. The books are amazingly cheap, and have been in excellent condition. It has the worst interface I have ever used to spend money - it's a disaster! But the price makes it worth the effort. Shipping is free, and quick.
posted by weegreentoad at 6:02 PM on April 3, 2007