See all those books up there? Know how much I paid for them? Forty bucks including shipping!! They’re not used either! Forty bucks at the bookstore is getting me two books, maybe not even two if they’re hardcovers! But I was able to grab EIGHT of them for forty dollars.
I love reading and I LOVE collecting books but yikes, it adds up quick!
While reading reviews on Amazon, I came across the word ‘remaindered’. The review wasn’t about the book’s content but the book itself. I hadn’t heard this term before so I hopped over to Google and learned that remaindered books are ones that are already printed and no longer selling well so they’re liquidated. They’ll sometimes be marked by the publisher or bookseller so that they can’t be returned but otherwise, they’re generally in new, unused condition.
Learning this term led to me Book Outlet. They sell remaindered books as well as store returns and special publisher buyouts. All of their books are at least 50% off of retail without any coupons. 50% OFF!!! Sounds too good to be true, right!? Well, spoiler alert, it’s not!
I started browsing their horror section just out of curiosity but soon found myself filling my cart because C’MON how could I resist a deal as good as this?
Above are examples of how my books were marked. Out of the eight books in my order, two were completely unmarked and the other six had either a small dot or a line. Seven of the eight looked (aside from tiny marks noted above) and felt brand new. The eighth book has some slight cover damage shown below but honestly, nothing terrible! I would still have purchased it at a bookshop looking like that.
Since the stock is based on books that are remaindered it’s a great place to look for popular books you might not have gotten a chance to grab yet! Some of these were already on my TBR list and others sounded good and had a price I couldn’t resist.
I was so excited about my purchase that I made a second order before the first arrived. All in all, I ended up with fourteen books for eighty dollars which is just bonkers! That’s a little under six bucks per book on average.
I was a bit worried it was too good to be true but all fourteen are something I’d 100% feel comfortable with grabbing from a bookstore in person in the condition they’re in! Aside from the one specifically shown earlier in the post, there was zero visible damage outside of the remaindered mark.
I will one hundred percent be making another purchase… although I’ve already had to tell myself no more browsing for a bit! It’s hard to resist a good deal!
PS! If you purchase through a link in this post you’ll be getting $5 off your first purchase of $25 or more… which makes your books an even better deal. Ahh, how can you resist!?
January 2024 update – Y’all, I STILL love Book Outlet. I’ve made five orders from them thus far and it’s all been lovely! One order was missing a book but they were quick to respond to my email and sent out a replacement immediately. Book Outlet has made building my book collection a breeze. I can’t believe how many great deals I’ve scored.
In all of my orders and time spent on the site, I have realized you can’t hesitate. Books tend to sell out moderately quickly. So, if there’s something you want to read, grab it!
