Half Price Books — Attraction in Roseville

I had an unpleasant experience here. I had been running errands all day and started to feel my blood sugar drop. I bring my bag of books to the pricing counter and ask about the Dunn Bros next door and they tell me it's open. I ask if it's ok for me to dip out and get some food for my blood sugar. I reiterate low blood sugar a few times and the guy says it's ok to leave and come back.

I eat, I get a soup and a sandwich at Dunn Bros (really good btw) I let my blood sugar levels normalize, I return to the store 45 minutes later. This is appropriate treatment for low blood sugar. I return to the desk and the guy who priced my books gestures to another co-worker to do some confronting.

I am then treated to a lecture about how I'm not supposed to leave the store while my books are being appraised because it clutters up the counter and can be bad if there's a ton of customers etc. I apologize for the convenience and told them I had to leave to treat a medical condition. The gal says she didn't know I left for that reason. I tell her I had permission and had asked if it was ok to leave for medical needs and the guy I handed my books off to said it was ok. The guy's just looking down at his hands, not really saying anything other than yes, she did tell me about the blood sugar thing. Thanks for vouching for me pal. She reiterates the rules and I tell her I get it, but I had a medical reason for leaving. Like she didn't accept my excuse for leaving and I had aggrieved her. I apologize again for inconveniencing them and take my receipt for $14 bucks and halfheartedly browsed the store after until I realized I needed to vent.

Prior to this HPB was one of my favorite places to shop. Great selection, books in amazing condition, random and amusing shitnacks. This remarkable confrontation... I feel like a dog who crapped the carpet and got my face rubbed in it. Yeah I get it, medical issues are an unpleasant inconvenience but way to not be accommodating. 45 minutes to eat. A 1 minute lecture on how I was being a bad customer....

I brought in over 35 books, mostly non fiction, all in good condition or better. I have done this in the past at the Ford Plwy store, but hat was over ten years ago. I know it takes time to go through all the books, in order to make an offer. So I set about to wander the store. Not three minutes later they call me back to the counter. (that was just a little bit TOO quick, I thought)

Turns out they rejected ALL but four books. And they only offered THREE DOLLARS for all four of those! Their explanation was "these are all dated".

I had humor, cooking, crafts, religious culture, glossy coffee table art books. I wasted my time and energy getting books packed and lugged over to them....for nothing!!! None of my books were more than a dozen years old!!! I Isn't the point of a used book store is where people go to find older, out of print books that aren't on Amazon, or in new book stores?? This was beyond a bad taste "low-ball offer", it was just an outright insult!!!! I will not be doing any business with HPB in the future. Nor will I ever recomend it to anyone. I do donate many books to Little Libraries. But there are times when I want a bit of a return on...

I’ve purchased before and this is a good experience. Selling, another beast. Possibly it was simply the man running the counter. Who did not smile nor greet. I told him I was working on things at Starbucks, and I had waited until it opened to run over and sell books. He said you need to wait in store or go next door to DD. I said is there other way, I have all my stuff set up. I can be back in 5 min (it was an hour approx wait). No. Ok, so I picked up my stuff at Starbucks, went back to DD and came back to check in. I said how will you let me know if I am still not in store. He said oh, you could get a coffee but not sit there. Seriously, a total waste of time and lack of customer service. A simple call could be nice-ppl are busy and I had already wasted a hour of my time. I would rather give or throw away good books than wait staring at a wall. This is 2023, up your system. So frustrating when we all have so little time. If he had been kind, it may have been different. From my perspective, an hour or two worth of time is worth mountains of new books. I’d rather garbage. ...