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New or Used?
New or Used?
Apologies if this question has been asked before, but do you buy new or used books? I ask because just having had my eyes opened to the wealth of books available to me I am in the process of compiling a "To read" list. I think I prefer to buy new as I like the idea of a fresh unread copy, but would probably save a bit of money buying used. It's a dilemma! 

- SonjaMarie
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Both, it depends on the price, and I always read what the description of the condition of the book is. You can get some used books that look like new or just have a few creases on the spine or cover.
SM
SM
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Full List Here: http://www.historicalfictiononline.com/ ... p?p=114965
My Booksfree Queue
Original Join Date: Mar 2006
Previous Amount of Posts: 2,517
Books Read In 2014: 109 - June: 17 (May: 17)
Full List Here: http://www.historicalfictiononline.com/ ... p?p=114965
- Vanessa
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- Currently reading: The Farm at the Edge of the World by Sarah Vaughan
- Interest in HF: The first historical novel I read was Katherine by Anya Seton and this sparked off my interest in this genre.
- Favourite HF book: Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell!
- Preferred HF: Any
- Location: North Yorkshire, UK
I'll buy a used one if it's in very good/excellent condition. I don't mind so much if it's a swap. I have to say, however, that I do prefer a brand new book - they just smell so nice!!

Plus a lot of the bookshops do offers like 3 for 2 and sometimes even buy one, get one free!


Plus a lot of the bookshops do offers like 3 for 2 and sometimes even buy one, get one free!
currently reading: My Books on Goodreads
Books are mirrors, you only see in them what you already have inside you ~ The Shadow of the Wind
Books are mirrors, you only see in them what you already have inside you ~ The Shadow of the Wind
- Miss Moppet
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I like new books but can't afford them unless they are tax deductible, which fiction usually isn't. But I do get to read new books by reserving new releases or putting in purchase requests through the library. That way I can have the pleasure of reading a new book without having to pay for it or store it. I get new books from my subscription library too, and while there is a monthly fee, it's a fraction of what I would pay for new copies, especially as the books I take out are often very expensive academic or art books.
Right now I have out from various libraries two brand new novels and two brand new non-fiction books. The total cost to me had I bought them new would have been £138.40.
I will only buy used if there is no other way I can get to read the book. If it's an older book I prefer a solid 1940s or 50s hardback to a 60s or 70s paperback, but there's not always a choice. I have got some hardback copies of OOP books in excellent condition for under £10 including shipping, some with original dustjackets.
Edited to add: when I say brand new, I mean I am the first person to read it. I haven't counted books which look new but have been borrowed once or twice before.
Right now I have out from various libraries two brand new novels and two brand new non-fiction books. The total cost to me had I bought them new would have been £138.40.
I will only buy used if there is no other way I can get to read the book. If it's an older book I prefer a solid 1940s or 50s hardback to a 60s or 70s paperback, but there's not always a choice. I have got some hardback copies of OOP books in excellent condition for under £10 including shipping, some with original dustjackets.
Edited to add: when I say brand new, I mean I am the first person to read it. I haven't counted books which look new but have been borrowed once or twice before.
Last edited by Miss Moppet on Mon October 11th, 2010, 7:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- Madeleine
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[quote=""Miss Moppet""]Right now I have out from various libraries two brand new novels and two brand new non-fiction books. The total cost to me had I bought them new would have been £138.40.
[/quote]
That's expensive for 4 books, Moppet
, are they special editions?
I like new books but I have started buying used, as long as the seller says they are in good condition; and most of the time they are, in fact some of them look as if they've barely been read (maybe they haven't which is why they were selling them cheaply!). But I keep my own books in good condition, so if I'm buying used I expect it to be in pretty good condition too, although I don't mind a bit of yellowing page and slightly creased spine,which is inevitable with paperbacks after a short while anyway. I tend to buy used books if I can't get a new copy fairly cheaply, ie around £5.00, and find most used booksites pretty reliable, and I have saved quite a bit of money!
[/quote]
That's expensive for 4 books, Moppet

I like new books but I have started buying used, as long as the seller says they are in good condition; and most of the time they are, in fact some of them look as if they've barely been read (maybe they haven't which is why they were selling them cheaply!). But I keep my own books in good condition, so if I'm buying used I expect it to be in pretty good condition too, although I don't mind a bit of yellowing page and slightly creased spine,which is inevitable with paperbacks after a short while anyway. I tend to buy used books if I can't get a new copy fairly cheaply, ie around £5.00, and find most used booksites pretty reliable, and I have saved quite a bit of money!

Currently reading "Black Run" by Antonio Manzini
- boswellbaxter
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I buy both. I buy a lot of out-of-print books, both fiction and nonfiction, used as well as nonfiction books that would be cost-prohibitive if I tried to buy them new. I've run into a lot of used books that appear to have been unread--in the last few months, I've bought two older used books that never had the pages cut!
Susan Higginbotham
Coming in October: The Woodvilles
http://www.susanhigginbotham.com/
http://www.susanhigginbotham.com/blog/
Coming in October: The Woodvilles
http://www.susanhigginbotham.com/
http://www.susanhigginbotham.com/blog/
- Miss Moppet
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[quote=""Madeleine""]That's expensive for 4 books, Moppet
, are they special editions?[/quote]
The novels are:
The People's Queen by Vanora Bennett - £12.99
Juliet by Anne Fortier - £7.99
The non-fiction:
Magna Carta and the England of King John, ed. Janet S. Loengard - £55.00
Rococo: The Continuing Curve, ed. Sarah D. Coffin - £62.42
I could have saved some money on the novels through Amazon or the supermarkets, but not on the non-fiction.

The novels are:
The People's Queen by Vanora Bennett - £12.99
Juliet by Anne Fortier - £7.99
The non-fiction:
Magna Carta and the England of King John, ed. Janet S. Loengard - £55.00
Rococo: The Continuing Curve, ed. Sarah D. Coffin - £62.42
I could have saved some money on the novels through Amazon or the supermarkets, but not on the non-fiction.
I buy mostly used and out of print books, unless there's a new release I'm very interested in and then I normally buy it from Amazon or one of the supermarkets. I do love the smell of new books, but I couldn't afford to buy as many books as I do if I bought them all new
I buy them from a variety of sources: Abebooks, Ebay, Charity shops and car boots being the main ones, I do love a forage in a secondhand bookshop too. If I'm buying a book as a reader then I don't mind the condition too much, but as a keeper I'm quite fussy - I've got a collection of original Jean Plaidy's and my ambition is to have a first edition with an original cover of each one she published under that name! I love the feel of old library books though, the well read feeling - I don't know why, they just feel nice and loved.

I'm not buying much these days, my library is just too darned perfect and they get all the new HF 
Most everything else I try for ILL (interlibrary loan), except for the old OOP paperbacks that I can pick up off of swap sites. If I can't ILL a book or get via swap it has to be something I really really want and then I'll buy it - that is if its not too expensive.

Most everything else I try for ILL (interlibrary loan), except for the old OOP paperbacks that I can pick up off of swap sites. If I can't ILL a book or get via swap it has to be something I really really want and then I'll buy it - that is if its not too expensive.
At home with a good book and the cat...
...is the only place I want to be
...is the only place I want to be