Half Price Books — Attraction in Madeira

BAD EXPERIENCE when attempting to sell a few items there at the store in the Kenwood Ohio area. The woman, who I assumed may have been the manager, was very rude to me. I had 9 VHS tapes, 2 DVDs, and 2 copies each of older copies of my books I had self-published. She told me the price they could give me for all items was $1.00. I thought she meant $1.00 for each movie and then asked her about the books. Stated again "$1.00, that everything I brought in would be $1.00 total !" Then she rudely stated " these books are POD books (print on demand) and we can't put these on the shelves! Nobody would buy them! " in an angry tone of voice. I explained to her they were old copies I had wanted to sell. She stated angrily " well, no one will buy them. People will have no interest in them! These are books that people would not be looking for and no interest in!" (My books were: children's poetry book and easiest money savings plan book and I know that they sell because customers have bought them when I've shown the books to them but I decided NOT to share this information to her as she seemed to be looking for an argument.) I understood when she said VHS tapes are hard to sell but I did not know why she got so upset and angry. I had heard that half price bookstores buy your old or new used books. One dvd I brought in did not have the DVD in it . She snatched it up angrily showing me it was not in there. I apologized and told her " I am sorry but I thought it was in there. " She said , " it's ok, that it happens all the time." She then snatched up the empty case and said "I'll throw it away!"but I stopped her and said " no, don't , I will need it to put the movie back in when I find it at home. " The two guys that were standing next to her never said a word. I felt that there could have been a more better way for her to have discussed with me about my items I brought in but instead she was very unprofessional! It was strange to me to see that there were not very many people in the store which used to be crowded, even on Thursday, which is when I went to the store. I will never return or buy anything , at least, at that bookstore. Also, I will never try and sell anything at that bookstore again as I feel she is stealing, from my experience with her, by offering me next to nothing for my items I brought in to sell & then turn around and sell it for a much higher price. I felt this woman was very rude, obnoxious, and unprofessional! She talked down to me and made me feel very bad. If she continues to treat other people the way she treated me then nobody will go to the Kenwood, Ohio Half-Price Bookstore. Also, I feel that the prices for most of their books, dvds, & cds...

For years, Half Price Books consisted of about 50/50 new to used books, with all books in the store half price or less. The only time this wasn't the case was with nostalgia. Over the years, as the company has become more and more corporate, they have gotten away from their roots some. There used to be a HPB in Tri-County and they had a store cat, now store cats are not allowed. Stores used to offer free coffee, now some do and some don't. Now stores have dozens of security cameras. They lost some of their independent feel and have adopted the feel of a Barnes and Noble. On top of that, some of the stores have increased their prices on items so that they no longer seem like the deal they once were. Kenwood is not as bad as Mason, but higher than some of the stores in Chicago. You should shop at Half Price Books with the understanding that you are shopping at a major corporation that cares more about making money than its roots, and you should shop at Kenwood...

when in town for a Iron Maiden concert, me and friend were looking for record stores. we both collect cds and since they're almost extinct, we're always on the hunt for stores that sell them when we're out of town.

we stumbled across Half Price Books and struck gold. this store apparently buys and resells books, dvd movies, music and video game related items that customers are looking to get rid of. they also sell some collectable toys and statues, new releases and even host events like author meet and greets.

the prices on the stuff we purchased were impressively reasonable and some titles were as low as $2.00, so we were stoked. we eventually googled and found that they were a chain and so we drove around to visit every store they had in the Cincinnati area.

we hit up like 5 or maybe 6 different locations and found a ton of stuff for our cd and concert DVD collections. this will definitely be a store I look for when traveling out of town from now on....