The Ultimate in Selecting Nearly-Free Books that are on a Subject of Your Choice

You can get used books—even hardcovers in good condition! Even paperbacks in next-to-new condition!—for only $2, no more than $2.50, if you know the ropes.

Better World Books.com has a “Clearance Aisle”—not really a separate page, as described below—whereby you can get six or more books at a discount of $1.50 per book. The discount is actually given as $9 off the initial six books, and then an additional $1.50 off each extra book that you buy. 

For the most parts, these are books “deaccessioned”/removed from the collections of public and other libraries.

Even more happily, you can rest assured that some of your money is being used for charity distribution. BWB gives one book away to a school or library, etc., for every book that it sells.

If you get on the email list, you’ll be apprised of sales of up to 30% off a given number of used books sold directly by BWB. But the “Clearance Aisle” sale is equivalent to almost 37%-off, and you don’t need to wait for a special announcement!

If you buy under this offer a book priced on the site at $3.48, you will pay a fraction under $2. If you buy under this offer a book priced on the site at $3.98, you will pay a fraction under $2.50.

However, not every book priced at $3.48 or $3.98 is included in the offer. You won’t know until you inspect your [Shopping] Cart which books are marked as “SALE!” values. So, here is the insider’s trick.

You need to start your search by putting on your thinking cap, while working with pencil and paper. Come up with search terms for the kinds of books you want. I frequently search for “budget cook,” “thrift cook” and “money cook.” (Don’t search for “budget cookbook,” because the word “book” may not be stated in every relevant title.) Add to your list any specific author or book title that you would like to add to your shelf. (Books should be classics or at least should not be recently published—within a couple, three years—in order to be likely to have been deaccessioned or otherwise in the BWB inventory.) Once you have finished this “homework,” you are ready to go online.

Set up an Account so that you can maintain a Wish List. With a Wish List, you can manage your search in stages.

You’ll have a much easier time searching if you restrict your search to USED books. Similarly, you won’t need to be bothered with clicking for a new page frequently if you choose to display 96 books per page.

Now toss into your Cart—or if you will not be checking out today, then, onto your Wish List—each and every title at the $3.98 or $3.48 price that looks intriguing. (You will quickly notice that only the author and tile and book photograph are described for most books at these prices. There are scarcely any reviews nor is there any further information on these books.) But at the effective price of $2-$2.50, you can’t really go wrong if (for example) a cookbook that you receive through the offer turns out to have only a few good recipes.

In my experience, by having placed about fifteen to twenty promising books in my Cart, I will find that at least six are marked “SALE.” And that’s the charm, they need to be marked “SALE” to be eligible for this Clearance offer. At worst, if I have placed that many books in the Cart area, I need only add one or a couple to reach the magic number of six SALE books.

It is simplicity itself to delete/remove books that are not on clearance from the Cart. And, by the way, this is a secure site with all transactions protected as to payments.