I submitted this sometime ago when I first launched it, but it's recently undergone a fairly major redesign (basically a full rewrite of both the front- and backends).
I just came across the Book Depository a few weeks ago and tried ordering a couple of books.
On the downside, the books didn't ship for a week and I wasn't told there would be a delay (I just double-checked the order confirmation) or that a delay had arisen; I assumed the books had shipped until they told me a week later that they had just been mailed. When I asked why, they said they were having trouble sourcing them with suppliers. While these aren't best sellers, they are leading books in their field and commonly used in college classes on the subject. Also, shipping from the UK to the US takes a little while.
"Founded in 2004 to make 'All Books available to All' we focus on selling 'less of more' rather than 'more of less', differentiating ourselves from other retailers who increasingly focus on bestsellers."
"The Long Tail: why are we making as many books available as possible?
Of the 30 million titles ever printed in the English language only a few million of these are in print. We are seeking to make available as many of these titles as possible (and working to do the same with foreign language titles). This way, we will have the largest breadth of titles available in the world. Where books are no longer in print or poorly available we are seeking to make them available again by republishing. We do this through our Dodo Press imprint."
there are 100s of such services out there (most query many more retailers to find the lowest price) + some offer API access so you can do revenue sharing.
You should check out my startup's site: Texts.com. We compare prices across sites like B&N, Chegg, ValoreBooks, and others. While it's targeted towards textbooks, it works very well for just about any book.
For a timesaving tip, you can type any ISBN or keyword (title, author, etc), directly into the URL to save a few seconds. IE:
Amazon offers multiple different kinds of shipping with different prices. (I expect the other vendors do too, but haven't checked.) It looks as if Piranhas picks the default, but I'm a cheapskate and rarely have an emergency need for a book, and therefore tend to choose "super saver" delivery for any items it's available for. If we're comparing against shipping from overseas, this is clearly pretty reasonable.
It would be very cool if you could, e.g., indicate how quickly you want a book, and have Piranhas choose an appropriate shipping option for each vendor.
It's mostly useful for those of us who don't actually live in a country with an Amazon “presence”, so to speak. I can never really be sure which Amazon will be cheapest for me here in Finland.
One narrow use case would be textbook shopping. I don't understand the underlying reasons, but the prices of textbooks between e.g. Canada and the UK can be substantial, and more than enough to justify shipping overseas.
Book Depository is a weird thing; for a couple of years, I was unable to buy books there, because they had met some kind of weird quota for my country. Wonder what was up with that, but I assume it has to do with some tax-dodging deal in Jersey or wherever they're based.
I remember I bought a book probably one or two years ago and it was available on Amazon (but it was sold by BD behind) and directly by BD and BD was cheaper.
like the simplicity.
Maybe factor in used books and kindle versions? I almost never buy new books anymore. Also, half.com often have cheaper prices than amazon.
For ebooks I prefer http://inkmesh.com/ and http://luzme.com/. In Lulzme you can also add wanting to read list. And when price falls you get mail. Interestingly most of the books are cheaper on amazon.uk than on amazon.com. And sometimes Kobobooks has cheaper books but that rarely happen.
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[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 74.1 ms ] threadOn the downside, the books didn't ship for a week and I wasn't told there would be a delay (I just double-checked the order confirmation) or that a delay had arisen; I assumed the books had shipped until they told me a week later that they had just been mailed. When I asked why, they said they were having trouble sourcing them with suppliers. While these aren't best sellers, they are leading books in their field and commonly used in college classes on the subject. Also, shipping from the UK to the US takes a little while.
The upside is that shipping is free and that their mission sounds encouraging: (from their About page: http://www.bookdepository.com/aboutus#helpContent)
"Founded in 2004 to make 'All Books available to All' we focus on selling 'less of more' rather than 'more of less', differentiating ourselves from other retailers who increasingly focus on bestsellers."
"The Long Tail: why are we making as many books available as possible?
Of the 30 million titles ever printed in the English language only a few million of these are in print. We are seeking to make available as many of these titles as possible (and working to do the same with foreign language titles). This way, we will have the largest breadth of titles available in the world. Where books are no longer in print or poorly available we are seeking to make them available again by republishing. We do this through our Dodo Press imprint."
the biggest player in the space is http://bigwords.com
bigwords.com also only seems to work for textbooks.
For a timesaving tip, you can type any ISBN or keyword (title, author, etc), directly into the URL to save a few seconds. IE:
http://texts.com/b/Steve Jobs Walter
>>
http://texts.com/b/Steve%20Jobs%20Walter
>>
http://texts.com/books/9781451648539
Amazon offers multiple different kinds of shipping with different prices. (I expect the other vendors do too, but haven't checked.) It looks as if Piranhas picks the default, but I'm a cheapskate and rarely have an emergency need for a book, and therefore tend to choose "super saver" delivery for any items it's available for. If we're comparing against shipping from overseas, this is clearly pretty reasonable.
It would be very cool if you could, e.g., indicate how quickly you want a book, and have Piranhas choose an appropriate shipping option for each vendor.
A shopping cart approach is something I've thought about, but I'm not sure when I'll have the time and/or energy to get it done…
Also, what is Wordery; I hadn't heard of them. Why would I buy a book there rather than someplace else, other than price?
Book Depository is a weird thing; for a couple of years, I was unable to buy books there, because they had met some kind of weird quota for my country. Wonder what was up with that, but I assume it has to do with some tax-dodging deal in Jersey or wherever they're based.
One improvement that I would very much like to see is the ability to search for a set of books at once.
Thanks, and as Borat says, "big success"!
Is there a way to show what type(paperback, mp3, etc) somewhere in the title ?