Save money on books with a quick pre-buy click
If you’re like me, you know there are times when you could probably save money by hunting around for a better deal, but it doesn’t seem like it’s worth the effort to hunt high and low.
At a store like Amazon that sometimes has good promotions but doesn’t do traditional discount coupons, it’s easy just to add the book to the cart and move on.
What works for me is a simple bookmarklet that checks two sites for me. I just click it and can tell at a glance if there’s a better option.
The bookmarklet
Simply drag the “Shop for book” button to your bookmarks bar, or right-click on it and choose “Bookmark this link” (the wording might vary slightly depending on your computer setup). Then when you’re on an Amazon book page, you can go to your bookmark and you’ll get two new windows, with the two sites described below.
ISBN.nu
ISBN.nu is a simple tool that compares book prices across a bunch of stores. I like it better than some alternatives because it includes shipping in the total, which is important if you’re looking at just one book and won’t be eligible for Amazon’s Super Saver Shipping deal.
PaperBackSwap
Many frugal folks are already familiar with PaperBackSwap (and other similar sites, like Frugal Reader), but whether or not you are interested in swapping your own books, it’s worth a quick check to see if the book you want is available, because you can also buy credits in lieu of swapping.
For instance, at PaperBackSwap, a credit costs $3.45 (at the moment, anyway), and that covers the book and the shipping. Compare it to paying $3.99 just for shipping at Amazon, and you can see
Of course, this is only helpful if you don’t mind a used copy, and the book you want is actually available, but considering the potential savings, I like to include it in my routine check. It’s only one click, after all!
What next?
Do you find information and tools like this helpful? What other tools would you like to see?
photo credit: chefranden
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