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Where to Find the Best Prices for Books
- 05/17/11
- 51
Earlier today I posted the results of a survey that asked where we buy our books and why we choose to buy them there. One interesting result of that survey is that our most important consideration when choosing a place to buy our books is price—we buy where the prices are cheapest. Or we think we do. In many cases we think Amazon offers the best prices even though other e-commerce retailers have undercut them.
Just to verify that other stores do, indeed, offer better prices, I put together a shopping list of 10 books and priced them at 4 different stores: Amazon, Westminster Books, Monergism and CBD. I did not tell any of the retailers that I was going to do this (so the prices are “pure”) and chose books that the people who read this site might really buy. And here are the results (with the lowest price for each book bolded):
| Title | Amazon | Westminster | Monergism | CBD |
| Crazy Love by Francis Chan | $8.99 | $8.84 | $8.99 | $7.99 |
| The Reason for God by Tim Keller | $8.65 | $8.65 | $9.36 | $7.99 |
| Do Hard Things by Alex & Brett Harris | $10.70 | $10.58 | $11.99 | $10.49 |
| Think by John Piper | $12.76 | $12.69 | $12.49 | $12.49 |
| Radical by David Platt | $8.99 | $8.84 | $9.99 | $7.50 |
| Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung | $7.34 | $8.23 | $8.79 | $7.49 |
| Adopted for Life by Russell Moore | $10.87 | $10.71 | $10.87 | $11.99 |
| The Next Story by Tim Challies | $13.59 | $12.87 | $13.07 | $12.99 |
| Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris | $13.59 | $13.39 | $13.49 | $12.99 |
| The Christian Faith by Michael Horton | $31.49 | $30.99 | $30.95 | $29.49 |
| TOTAL | $126.97 | $125.79 | $129.99 | $121.41 |
Shipping is also an important consideration, of course, since the price can’t be fully tallied until we’ve accounted for getting those books to our mailbox. Here is how shipping would play out (assuming that the order was to a US address):
- Amazon: free (USPS, 1-2 weeks)
- Westminster Books: $1 (UPS, 2-5 business days)
- Monergism Books: free (USPS, 1-2 weeks)
- CBD: $9.71 (USPS, 1-2 weeks)
That leaves us with something like this (which actually changes the picture quite a lot):
| Amazon | Westminster | Monergism | CBD | |
| TOTAL | $126.97 | $126.79 | $129.99 | $131.12 |
So maybe I was a little too hard on Amazon. Though Amazon does not have the best prices on their books, when combined with their free shipping, they remain very competitive (if you are buying less than the minimum amount needed for free shipping you will probably find Amazon is not quite so competitive). Even then, it’s amazing that with 10 books plus shipping the difference between the 4 stores is less than 4%—a mere $4.33. Maybe the real lesson here is that we can’t lose. The Internet has made the world so much smaller that stores from across the world are now in direct competition with one another and are forced to remain extremely competitive.
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Comments (51)
One more factor: From Amazon, I can usually get a used copy of the title I’m looking for. Often this means I get the book for virtually free ($0.01), and pay only the minimum shipping that Amazon imposes on it’s sellers.
Tim, what about International cutomers? Well as far as I know, Amazon is not an option here in the United Arab Emirates. Are there any other choices?
Tim, I am wondering how you got the price for Reason for God
Reason for God, $8.49 (CBD Price) is what I just pulled upplus shipping $3.99
Amazon free if 25 or more.
Tim,
Interesting research.
I frequently check around to see what my own book is selling for and invariably it is less expensive at Amazon, which leads me to refer people to their site. I’ve not found any place — other than me on my own website — that sells it for less and ships it as quickly.
For the international customers this website http://www.bookdepository.com/ delivers pretty much worldwide for free! They’ve got 10% off in May. You can also check out http://www.abebooks.com which sells second hand and new books with varying shipping for international customers, if you hunt around you can get shipping for under $10
Thanks for the side-by-side comparison! I know one thing that makes my preference Amazon is the fact that I have a Prime membership.
However, I do feel at times that my money would best be spent supporting an organization that wholly supports the content of the materials they’re selling. I would be curious to see if there things that could be done to revamp the online book shopping experience for Christian bookstores that take some positive cues from things like the Amazon Prime program. For instance, if being a member guarantees discounted rates on shipping to get materials faster.
One program I recently signed up for is Crossway Impact. I bought a lot of books from this publisher and liked the idea of the money I spend on books going back into the hands of the ministries producing them.
This shows that price is almost always close, but I will almost always go with Amazon (unless the book is available digitally in Logos) because I am a Prime member. I get free 2 day shipping. Also, there is a great chance that I can get the book used and cheaper on Amazon.
I love Westminster and Monergism and support them when I can, but even still, when you factor in Prime shipping that is quick and free for a tiny order, Amazon rules the day.
Exactly - plus I have another consideration: I leverage my DiscoverCard rewards. $20 in rewards gets me a $25 Borders gift card and I can usually get free shipping there too. So, if I have a gift card, I usually shop at Borders, even though their books are a little more expensive. If I don’t have a gift card, I usually go to Amazon. CBD is my second choice, because books are cheaper but shipping adds up. thanks for doing the research to verify my conclusions though! :-)
Mike - Prices are constantly in flux; they are often adjusted on a daily basis. I checked that price twice so it must have risen in the past few minutes.
Eric just hit the nail on the head. If available, I always buy used. I can deal with dog eared pages and a few highlights if I’m going to save a decent chunk of change.
Thanks Bryn
Radical also 8.99
It depends on who you want to support. I always buy from Monergism, unless they don’t have the title I’m looking for.
If you’re going to use Amazon, go ahead an use an Amazon portal and support a seminary bookstore like RTS. Use mindandheart.com to send a kickback from your Amazon purchase to support the brick and mortar bookstores on seminary campuses. Some of my greatest learning moments came in the RTS bookstore talking over books. It’s a win-win.
There’s always the little Mom and Pop shops :-) I know, we’re a dying breed. But we have a great selection of new and used books in our shop and are starting to sell online through Abebooks.com. That is another option. We can’t compete with the big dogs though when it comes quantity. We do have great quality though! :-)
Prime. I can get a $1 product with free shipping.
But I also think store lockin is reality. I have a kindle. I buy everything I can on kindle. I share the kindle with 10 people on the account (completely legal and within the terms of service for Amazon, we just can’t all read the same books at the same time, which we don’t normally do anyway.) So I read a book, my friends in France that share the account like the review, they read the book too. My wife, mom, dad, brother, etc. like the book they read it too. I am not worried about losing the digital copy because Amazon has it in the cloud. I am not worried about losing books because of old DRM schemes (which I did before buying kindle). I am not worried about a kindle breaking and losing access to licenses or lost files (also happened before I got a kindle.
I am all for supporting ministries, but I also usually remember to click through on a friends partner ministry sites before buying on Amazon which gives more actual cash than what I think many of the for profit Christian sites give to their ministry partners.
Yes, Amazon has put a lot of mom and pop book stores out of business but so has Walmart, ebook readers, DVDs and neflix, etc.
The shipping is what makes me go with Amazon because as a student I got a free year of Amazon Prime. Also, my health insurer has a rewards program for exercising and eating right that gives me $10 Amazon gift cards roughly once every month.
I agree that if WTS or Monergism had something like Prime I would be more likely to go with them. Once my free Amazon Prime membership expires I may look elsewhere.
Perhaps it’s just my own quirkiness, but I always add in postage when I figure out the price of a book. It looks like most books on CBD are about $4 more because of shipping. I pay less for some books on my kindle than I do for the print version. I also have Amazon Prime—all the books listed above are Prime—-so no shipping. It’s a little more complicated than your chart indicates.
Just priced the same list of books on BN.com (paperback where available), Nook, Kindle. The results:
Several observations:
Agreed when budget is primary concern, shop used and maybe Amazon comes out on top then, but knowing under the same store they call Wicca, Benny Hinn, and Buddhism religion I would always prefer to support my brothers and sisters in Christ when possible, plus if you score a coupon or GC from Friends of Challies is almost undoubtedly makes WTS or others cheaper. I love my local new and used “Christian Book Nook” right next to Sunergos coffee shop, they carry all my texts for SBTS and all kinds of new and used reformed and orthodox theology books all the way down to the Big Picture Story Bible, and in most cases comparable to Amazon and always cheaper than the campus store, plus I like the guy who owns and runs it and always has good used commentaries etc.
Two other reasons I buy from Amazon — they offer a large number of used books at good prices and buy making a one-time annual purchase of their premium shipping, I can get any book shipped free with a two-day guaranteed delivery. If you purchase a large number of books each year (particularly for an organization), this makes the shipping cost negligible. Additionally, I use Best Book Deal (http://www.bestbookdeal.com) to help me find the best prices, as that website combines both the price of the book and shipping in calculating cost; it is particularly helpful for used books.
Here is a key that isn’t mentioned in your analysis, but was a factor in my decision process when I was buying a lot of books. By purchasing from Amazon, I can add almost anything else, be it a business book or an electronic device, to my cart and not pay extra shipping. The narrow focus of the three other booksellers works well, but only when you don’t buy anything else.
So I always used Westminster while I was in seminary (though even they didn’t have a number of the books RTS required me to buy), but now that I’ve left seminary and am buying more business and finance books, as a CPA, it’s lost its appeal. With Amazon, I can buy any mix, and get free shipping over $25.
I prefer to support like minded companies like Monergism. At Monergism I have access to many other “free” resources that they have spent time and money to assemble. Also shopping at Monergism can be done with confidence that they only will sell good books.Monergism is a ministry to unbelievers and believers. How may unbelievers have searched the web and found a free resource on Monergism that has revealed the Truth of God’s Word to them. How many have been saved through sites like Monergism. I will gladly pay the slight difference to buy from Monergism.
I have to say that I would really love to buy from my (one) local Christian bookstore, and have told them that, but they just don’t/won’t/can’t carry the kinds of books I read, which tend to be along reformed lines, although sometimes you can get something like Crazy Love, or maybe Tim Keller amid all the Joel Osteen and Joyce Meyers and so many minutes in hell/heaven books. I would have thought that there’s a living to be made from all these reformed people who seem to be readers, but maybe not…from these comments it seems we all want to buy used, or new with no markup or shipping. I understand that we need be stewards of our money but I am thinking that providing a reasonable profit to fellow Christians is not bad stewardship.
Electronic non-fiction books are ridiculously expensive, since they offer the same content with no structural cost (no paper, no shipping, etc.) There's no difference in origination cost (writing, editing, etc.), though there is some additional marginal cost for preparing for another format.
I wonder, though, if the print price subsidizes the lower ebook price. It may be that the business model that allows those ebook prices also demands the relatively higher print prices.
used books = Win at Amazon
local “christian” book store is a national chain selling little of what I am interested in
Baen.com is the only company that I am aware of that prices its e-books at all competitively ($6 for a new release). And I understand the author makes the same as a hard cover sale.
FYI, Monergism Books frequently gives out free eBooks (1-3 per month) to its frequent customers, usually unavailable elsewhere.
One current free eBook from Monergism :
What the Bible Says About the DOCTRINES OF GRACE by Nathan Pitchford
Available in both Kindle .mobi (http://bit.ly/fblqHM) and ePub ( http://bit.ly/hSx0iB) formats.
To download, right click and save to your hard drive. Then upload it to your hand-held device via the USB cord that came with it. or find find instructions on any order page at MB.
Tim, some other very pro-Amazon considerations:
1. Amazon Prime. Sermon prep starts Monday. Find out I need a book. I’ve got it on Wednesday for free.
2. Amazon Visa. You can get one, and just use it at Amazon. 3% cash refund on all Amazon purchases. This almost always makes Amazon the lowest price for me, even before you consider shipping.
3. Amazon Associates. My family and close friends start out at hakimfamily.info, so I get 4%-6% of their purchase price as a commission, depending upon what they’re buying. Although you cannot get this on your own purchases, it’s quite easy to buddy up with someone else who buys about the same amount of books, and buy through each others’ links.
So, you’re saving about 8% off the Amazon price, using the above, and getting 2nd day air shipping for free on any size order. Even on most of our household purchases, this makes Amazon cheaper than Wal-Mart or any “Big Box” store, or large-quantity wholesaler.
Now, consider that you’re saving the sales tax (7% for me), and gas money ($5 or so per round trip to the store for me).
So on Amazon v.s. brick-and-mortar, I’m now up to around 20% off of Amazon’s prices. And with the amount of Amazon buying, Prime is now down to a few pennies per purchase.
My personal take is if all are within approximately $4 of each other, why not support a Christian retailer - and especially a Christian retailer that agrees more with our specific religious perspective/theology, when we can? ;-)
Thank you for taking the time to do this research. I buy almost all of my books through Amazon because as a student, you get free 2-day shipping for one year. Whoever came up with subscription-based fast shipping is a genius…. First, they started with free shipping with $25 minimum order and then Prime shipping catapulted them into another category of e-commerce. I also sell all of my used books through Amazon and have made a lot of money that would have been sitting around otherwise. Amazon, though a big company, seems, to me, reliable, steady, and amazing. They have never missed a shipping deadline or sent the wrong item or routed the money I earned from selling books to the wrong place.
Westminster charges $35 for shipping to Alaska and Hawaii. Needless to say, I don’t order from them as I live in Alaska.
Of course if you have Amazon Prime (and who doesn’t, amirite?), you don’t have to meet a minimum dollar amount to get free 2-day shipping.
Of course I tend to avoid books that aren’t available as Kindle editions anyway.
As Bryn has mentioned Bookdepository.com is the best for international customers since they mail worldwide free. Koorong in Australia also comes with some good deals and their price including postage works out cheaper for those in New Zealand where the prices are quite high.
International customers are likely to find bookdepository.com or betterworld.com the cheapest option as their shipping is free to most parts of the world. I almost always find book depository to be the cheapest option for getting books in Australia
I usually check Better World Books (betterworldbooks.com). They ship free “worldwide” and sell both new and used. They’re not a Christian organization and don’t carry _everything_, but I can find most older Christian classics as well as, um, classic classics. I just bought No God but God, used hardback in excellent shape, for $5 and free shipping.
If you’re gonna buy from Amazon, consider starting at http://vom.store.good2give.com/public/shop.aspx and a percentage of your purchase at Amazon (and a whole bunch of other retailers) will go to Voice of the Martyrs.
Enjoy… 8-)
One thing about Amazon that hasn’t been mentioned and may be true of other sites as well is that their prices are very dynamic.
I have put a book in my Amazon shopping cart in the morning, gone back to check out in the afternoon, and found that the price has gone up.
Not sure if there is a particular time of day that is the prime time to buy, but it is interesting.
For a test, put a book in your cart and monitor it for a couple of days…the price will probably change several times.
Anyways, thanks for the post Tim. Very interesting.
Simon & Schuster last quarter had lower hardback sales, but even though their ebook prices were lower and their ebook sales tripled (or some such), their profit for the quarter remained the same. It appears ebooks may be holding up the hardback industry. See Digital helps lift profit at Simon & Schuster
Perhaps, but it doesn’t seem that that print prices have gone up SINCE the advent of ebooks. It seems that print prices have risen along at a relative rate to other rising prices. I would also think that if ebook prices were being subsidized by print prices, then print prices would be much higher than ebooks, but that is generally not the case.
I support Monergism with book purchases and monthly support via automatic payment. I recently purchased an ESV Study Bible (Large Print) for $69.29, plus 11.00 for an imprint. Amazon has the same price, but as a Washington State resident, I would pay sales tax from Amazon.
By purchasing my Bible from Monergism in Oregon, I support a Christian endeavor and avoid the tax man in Washington!
Truly a heavenly book purchase if there ever was one. Also I rest easier at night knowing that I bought my new Bible from a fellow believer.
Thanks for the survey Tim.
For overseas shipping, CBD is about the best. Shipping to Vanuatu (South Pacific) takes 2-4 weeks. For about the same shipping rate, Amazon takes 3 months unless you pay an exorbitant rate for faster shipping to arrive about the same time CBD’s order would arrive. I ordered from Monergism once a few years ago; it seems that they were okay. Last year when I was in the States, I ordered a lot from Westminster (their specials are great!), but unfortunately they don’t ship overseas.
I recently got my wife a Kindle which is one of the fastest and cheapest way to get available e-books here.
We are close to Australia, but I’ve not found anything comparable to Amazon, CBD, or Westminster. (Christian book distributor Koorong in Australia is expensive and extremely slow. It’s MUCH faster to order from CBD.) I’ll check out bookdepository.com, betterworld.com, betterworldbooks.com mentioned above.
Just to give you an idea of prices in South Africa…
We have our own online store that probably has the cheapest online prices in South Africa: Kalahari. Using the same list of books used by Tim resulted in the following:
Shipping on more than $35.71 is free. At Amazon, shipping to Africa included, the total will be $140.95. That is a $96.69 savings!
So, as you can see, the prices here are quite sick!
However, the deal is that with Kalahari, I can buy my books for free! My bank has a loyalty points system called eBucks. Over a period of time, when my eBucks accumulated enough, I can use that with Kalahari (who accepts eBucks), to purchase books. In South Africa our currency is Rands. 10 eBucks is equivalent to R1 ($0.14).
IMHO, our cheapest book store in South Africa is Augustine Bookroom, connected to a local Reformed Baptist church close by. They don’t always have all books in store, but this is the list as priced by them: (no price indicate that they do not have the book in stock)
So, if I compare Amazon’s prices to the cheapest book store in South Africa, using the same bundle of books, Amazon comes up with $64.25 + $13.99 S&H, a savings of $16.91.
However, I never buy a whole bundle of books from this store. That I will do through Kalahari when my eBucks have grown substantially. I only buy at Augustine when I want a book immediately, then I drive there quickly (just over 4mi).
So, for all you Americans out there, I do hope that you count your blessings when it comes to the prices of books. What you consider expensive via Amazon or elsewhere, is a wonderful blessing to us. So, next time you gripe about prices, remember us at the southern tip of Africa!
Hi Tim,
Just wondered if your comments are moderated, since my previous comment never showed.
I order many books from CBD, but ONLY when I have a free shipping code. And I usually get a free shipping offer several times a year from CBD. With free ship, I usually find CBD the least expensive…for NEW books at least. I also like to order from a small, family run place: www.scripturetruth.com They have monthly specials which can be quite good! And lately they have been offering some occasional shipping discounts.
The clincher for me is Amazon Prime. My wife and I do a lot of online shopping, so the annual price of a Prime membership is totally worth it. I can purchase books one at a time (rather than needing to order $25 to qualify for free shipping) and have then in two days.
The fact that I’ve also gotten appliances, auto parts, tools, and all manner of other large/heavy objects shipped for “free” in two days is remarkable!
This does assume that all the books we buy are brand new. Also, when I buy a new book from amazon, I get free 2-day shipping with Amazon prime, which I received for free because of a .edu email address.
I’m a big WTS books guy. Their sales are incredible. Of course, most of what I’m looking for fall under the academic realm of things (commentaries and what not) but they offer some real steals.
When I took the survey, I said that all my book purchases came from Amazon. However, reading the survey results and this blog entry (and all the comments) has convicted me. In the future, I plan to order Christian books from Monergism or Westminster when they are available. I will continue to order from Amazon for everything else. (I buy a lot of non-Christian books and music as well.)
Seems like you didn’t read far enough - his second chart factors in the shipping and puts Amazon as least expensive.
Amazon Prime also partners with certain vendors of used books to offer free 2-day shipping, but if I’m not in a rush to get it, I also plug it into google shopping and http://www.bookfinder.com/ to make sure I’m getting the lowest price. Sometimes it’s even worth checking eBay in case a book might be bundled with others from the same author or genre (you just have to be sure to check off “search descriptions as well as titles”).