why do people hate to pay for books?

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and not just poor people, I mean disposable-income motherfuckers. "Is this REALLY five dollars?" "Can I get a discount?" You're paying nine dollars for a copy of No Logo, asshole. Still not as bad as the trustafarians who asked me for a discount on Soul on Ice. Please die. Anyway, what do you guys think?

― Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 01:25 (nineteen years ago)

I don't really understand haggling, especially at a large used bookstore where it seems unlikely that the clerks have any power over the price.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 02:02 (nineteen years ago)

doesn't "no logo" espouse thriftiness in the face of
conspicuous consumption?
i applaud these misers to the extent they defeat
the tendency to treat books as fetish objects, and therefore
worthy of $$$. the haggling is tacky though.

― nobucksforbooks, Wednesday, 4 January 2006 02:10 (nineteen years ago)

Personally, I hate paying for books because I used to be able to get them for free at a library (alas, I cannot do this at the moment) or for dirt cheap at a used bookstore (ditto.) So when I pay for books, it's when I really want that particular one and cannot find it anywhere else, in which case I usually just pay for it w/o haggling.

― b (maga), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 02:33 (nineteen years ago)

i applaud these misers to the extent they defeat
the tendency to treat books as fetish objects, and therefore
worthy of $$$.

This doesn't make any sense, la la.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 02:48 (nineteen years ago)

the irritating thing about "No Logo" was that it was being bought by a college kid who obviously looked as if he paid retail for everything else, so I got to wondering why one would pay lord-knows-how-much for Abercrombie and Nikes but balk at paying full price for a book

― Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 03:12 (nineteen years ago)

Chris is right, that doesn't make sense. At ALL

― Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 03:12 (nineteen years ago)

In fact, the more I look at that post, the less sense it makes. The avg. price of a book at this store is five bucks. Wasting time trying to make me feel bad that a book is FIVE DOLLARS precludes miser-applause

― Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 03:16 (nineteen years ago)

i used to feel especially miserly when it came to buying books, if you can imagine that.

i'm not now able to say why exactly that was. but i think it had something to do with my feeling that books had such low reuse value; in my teens i read mostly mass-market science fiction and fantasy and often couldn't even stand to reread them because i would recall too much (not quite a matter of wanting to be surprised by a story, i think, if you get me). low reuse value, and i finished with them fantastically quickly.

― Josh (Josh), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 06:46 (nineteen years ago)

Well, you do strike me as someone who in his teens read voluminously (as I did).

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 09:16 (nineteen years ago)

Please die. Anyway, what do you guys think?

Ha! If you want to experience true disdain for people who haggle over the price of books, try working in a charity bookshop. The stories I could tell you! Except I would probably get fired, so I won't.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 09:31 (nineteen years ago)

Well, I don't like paying full price for books, so that's why I get most of my books from the library or a used bookstore.

I wouldn't be haggling at a used store though, I'd be excited that I found something I was looking for at a good price.

― tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 13:05 (nineteen years ago)

I'm afraid I am a book miser at brand name bookshops. I'll pay the asking price for second-hand books, but I resent the cynicism which makes high street shops inflate the prices on less popular books - even when they don't have to pay the (dead) authors royalties. How can they justify having '2 for the price of 1' offers on the likes of Dan Brown when the vast majority of, say, Robert Grave's work is out of print, and what you can get is obscenely expensive?
Sorry, that was an only semi-relevant rant. At least its off my chest.

― Alice Saville (Bathsheba), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 13:53 (nineteen years ago)

I think that's called supply and demand :(

I would never haggle over books! But then I hardly ever buy them so when I do it's because I really have to own said book and don't mind what I pay (within reason).

― Archel (Archel), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 14:46 (nineteen years ago)

"it was being bought by a college kid who obviously looked as if he paid retail for everything else"

or his parents did. not all college kids, even well-dressed ones, have a lot of money to spend. most are on budgets of some sort. he may have already spent most of his weekly allotment on beer. priorities, Donna, priorities! then again, he could have just been a cheap-ass jerk.

― scott seward (scott seward), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 17:38 (nineteen years ago)

ah, you're right. what was I thinking? I always assume cheap-ass jerkdom, and that's not right

― Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 18:34 (nineteen years ago)

If I was buying a shit load of books, say $100 worth (but several books, not one $100 one.) I probably would ask for a discount.

― Navek Rednam (Navek Rednam), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 19:08 (nineteen years ago)

i would direct them to the nearest library or remind them that stealing from barnes and noble is as easy as pie :(

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 20:11 (nineteen years ago)

but i would never do that! don't do it!

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 20:14 (nineteen years ago)

ever since class action lawsuits forced chain bookstores to stop using "chiclet" security tags that's been extra-super-easy

― Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 20:23 (nineteen years ago)

Answer: because I get them for free. And I'm cheap.

― Laurel (Laurel), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 20:44 (nineteen years ago)

Not ALL of them, obv. But I get enough books for free that I never run out of things to read (or things I feel I sort of "ought to" read), so I feel funny about buying more.

― Laurel (Laurel), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 21:02 (nineteen years ago)

I always pay asking price.

Even if the book is an un-noticed rare item. Used book shops should know their trade.

― SRH (Skrik), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 21:29 (nineteen years ago)

there's a used bookstore near me and 9 times out of 10 i'll bring a stack of used books up the counter that amounts to, say, 25 bucks and the guy will say, "good books...just give me twenty"

― gear (gear), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 22:19 (nineteen years ago)

i try to steal books whenever possible.

― Fred (Fred), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 23:47 (nineteen years ago)

*Well, I don't like paying full price for books, so that's why I get most of my books from the library or a used bookstore.

I wouldn't be haggling at a used store though, I'd be excited that I found something I was looking for at a good price.*

Yeah, same here. I always pay asked price, whether it's zero at the lib, 2 bucks at a used bookstore, or 20 at a retail one.

― b (maga), Wednesday, 4 January 2006 23:51 (nineteen years ago)

donna what is a chiclet tag? they still use tags in expensive/communist books, i don't know.

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Thursday, 5 January 2006 05:19 (nineteen years ago)

I always loved buying/paying for books. Even when I started reading books - granted, very late, at about 12/13 yrs old - I loved spending my pocket money on'em. I very rarely go to the library.

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Thursday, 5 January 2006 09:28 (nineteen years ago)

ever since class action lawsuits forced chain bookstores to stop using "chiclet" security tags that's been extra-super-easy

I worked at Borders during my northern exile and spent countless hours sticking chiclets in every hardcover, manga, porno, etc that we put out. Of course, whenever the alarm went off we'd very quickly find something else to do--bookstore employees not comfortable with confrontation. PS Borders was the worst job I've ever had.

― adam (adam), Thursday, 5 January 2006 16:19 (nineteen years ago)

Yes, Adam, it was the worst job I've ever had also (except when I worked at the peep show, but this thread is not I Love Peep Shows).
Chiclets are those little white magnetic security tags that you'll still find stuck on CD cases sometimes, so called for their "resemblance" to Chiclets gum

― Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Thursday, 5 January 2006 18:44 (nineteen years ago)

I was really surprised at how far everyone in the book club at work goes to not pay money for books. I'd rather have my own copy that I can beat up and not have to return than wait weeks for a library or friend's copy.

(ps, Adam, are you back in New Orleans now? How's it going? E-mail me if you have time.)

― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 5 January 2006 19:32 (nineteen years ago)

Even if the book is an un-noticed rare item. Used book shops should know their trade.
This is absolutely fair and just. I did have an amusing incident once with a regular customer who wanted a small book that I had on the shelf at €12. It got culled and sent to another shop, where the volunteers priced it at €2 and put it out on sale. He bought it, ran back round to my shop and waved it in my face. "Ha! See, I got it!" he said. I was amused.
Sometimes, though, you get lovely people who insist on paying more than the ticket price for books in our shop, and commenting on how reasonable the prices are and how it's all in a good cause. This is always very, very touching and makes one feel that the whole enterprise is really worthwhile.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Thursday, 5 January 2006 22:38 (nineteen years ago)

i tend to haggle over used books. at least when i am buying >5. which is what i normally do, because i find it hard to bother to go to the counter with less. this might not make as much sense as i think it does.

― tom west (thomp), Thursday, 5 January 2006 22:48 (nineteen years ago)

No, it doesn't :)

― Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Thursday, 5 January 2006 23:05 (nineteen years ago)

Why does book people never want to pay?

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Friday, 6 January 2006 09:32 (nineteen years ago)

― tom west (thomp), Friday, 6 January 2006 11:54 (nineteen years ago)

i've never had a problem paying for books. when i had the disposable cash, i would spend tons at used and new book stores. next to records, books are my favorite thing to spend money on. i don't have as much disposable income these days (damn kids!), but i make out like a bandit at the thrift stores. the other day i got 4 records (including a first pressing stereo copy of forever changes by Love), a thea astley novel, two of those huge american splendor/pekar collections and the pekar *our cancer year* graphic novel all for one dollar and fifty cents! they always give me good deals cuz i'm a good customer and i never ever complain about anything. especially prices.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 6 January 2006 13:07 (nineteen years ago)

why were there lawsuits about the security tags?

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Friday, 6 January 2006 16:46 (nineteen years ago)

the book mules that all the black market book dealers were using to shuttle stolen copies of the da vinci code into canada with were getting them stuck up their butts. the aclu cried foul.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 6 January 2006 18:10 (nineteen years ago)

XP: Ummmm maybe because certain people (of whom I am not necessarily admitting to being one, mind you) may have been known to accidentally let one or two of those tags drop and fall into other peoples' totebags...? Which could hypothetically result in bag owner being detained at the purely hypothetical front door? Possibly for a very long time?

― Laurel (Laurel), Friday, 6 January 2006 18:28 (nineteen years ago)

yeah, that too. wow, really? that's tricky.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 6 January 2006 18:50 (nineteen years ago)

I think 'cause The Kids were choking on the tags xxpost

― Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:06 (nineteen years ago)

but can't you do that in like clothing stores too?

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Friday, 6 January 2006 19:31 (nineteen years ago)

nah, they sew the tags into the clothes now, creating a whole new set of probs

― Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Friday, 6 January 2006 20:09 (nineteen years ago)

Maybe they should just create security systems that can detect paper.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 6 January 2006 21:37 (nineteen years ago)

but then those of us who carry books INTO bookstores will have to check them at the door!

― Josh (Josh), Friday, 6 January 2006 21:48 (nineteen years ago)

my head hurts

― Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Friday, 6 January 2006 23:33 (nineteen years ago)

Whenever I think that books (or records) are expensive it actually has to do with the fact that there are so many of them, and I want to read so many of them, and actually paying for that would make it so difficult. You go to the store and you pick out two books that everyone's already read and already talks about, and you get rung up and it's $40, and you think: forty dollars! For just these two! But everyone has read these two, I just want to know what's in them! It's only two books -- not even the tiniest dent in the universe of books I'm going to need to read before I can even start to feel like I'm decently read.

Maybe that's a little bit rude to the books, to think of them not as individual great experience but just as stepping stones to some larger knowledge. The experience of reading a really good book is definitely worth $20 to me. I just have to make an effort to remember that when it seems like, at $20 a book, I'll never get very far.

(Book-lenders, promiscuous book-lenders are the finest people in the world.)

― nabiscothingy (nory), Saturday, 7 January 2006 18:11 (nineteen years ago)

i wonder if it is a US-UK thing at all.

pretty much all the second hand stores i have ever been in have been run almost solely by the owner, and they tend to haggle for you anyway (i.e. "oh, just give me (x) pounds for that.") except for the big big charity stores. and the people there haggle for you too.

― tom west (thomp), Saturday, 7 January 2006 19:09 (nineteen years ago)

Maybe they just think you're cute.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Saturday, 7 January 2006 19:31 (nineteen years ago)

just think of how much worse it would be, nabisco, if you were buying books that WEREN'T popular. my officemate wanted to buy a book on quantum mechanics that was like hundreds of dollars probably solely because of its predicted market.

i have never had ANYONE in a used store offer to haggle for me, and of course i would never try to do so myself. but in one store i come in so often that they said i needn't bother with their discount card and i could just have the discount whenever i came in (which is actually helpful to me, since the card sort of has to be re-upped). of course now it's kind of irritating to work with a cashier instead of the owner. oh well.

― Josh (Josh), Saturday, 7 January 2006 21:52 (nineteen years ago)

N's protest about the cost of books makes me remember standing in a huge bookstore in Toronto at the age of maybe 14ish...staring at the rows and rows of fantasy novels and bitterly resenting that without cash up front I'd never be able to get inside those covers. How wrong it seemed that mere stupid DOLLARS should entitle you to enter a world and therefore I was locked out! Poor 14-yr-old Laurel.

― Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 9 January 2006 15:05 (nineteen years ago)

i give ridiculous discounts to all my customers to preclude thjem ever frowning at my prices..that said the ones that do are so withered by th tyme they leave they never come back

― dan bunnybrain (dan bunnybrain), Tuesday, 10 January 2006 16:59 (nineteen years ago)

four months pass...

sp@m

― sp@m, Tuesday, 6 June 2006 00:42 (nineteen years ago)

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