Half Price Books — Local services in Maplewood

Since I'm leaving a 2-star rating I'll start with the positive portion. Half Price books has a great selection of merchandise, and far more than just books. You can find board games, DVDs, video games, music, graphic novels, manga, and various collectibles. The prices aren't half bad either, depending on what you're looking for. It's a nice little hub for anyone that likes these things.

My issue with half Price books is because of the offers they give you when you bring things in to sell. Now, I don't expect to get full price for the things I bring in (not even half price, unless it's high quality). But I'm convinced after my trip there tonight that while it's convenient to bring things in and get cash, their offers are insulting. If you have things you just want to get rid of and get a little cash for, they're great for that. But don't expect to get a fair price for anything.

Here's my example. Tonight I brought in 7 games (the entire .hack games for the ps2), which I can sell online together for around $300. Half Price books was selling one of the games I brought for $70 (ONE of the games), so I thought it was worth bringing them in to see. Their offer? $85. Of course, I took my games back with me because it felt like I was being treated like an idiot. They were all in good condition and came with everything. Granted, two of my games didn't "meet their standards" so they didn't price those. But that's still far off.

My other issue is they only give you an offer for everything you bring in, so you don't know what they're paying for each thing. If I hadn't insisted the clerk give me a separate estimate for the games, they would've given me an estimate for everything we brought in (which was a box of books, another box of DVDs, and a collectible Wonder woman figure.

My advice? Either know the value of what you think you want to sell to them (and ask for a separate estimate), or only bring things you don't care what...

I go to Half Price Books in Maplewood and they always have a great selection of books, music, movies and fun gift items. They also have a clearance area where the prices are really low so I often pick up something that I normally might not buy just to try something different. If ratings were based on store content alone they would be a five star store. Unfortunately, I have to consider all aspects and that includes the employees and the policies. I can not remember even one time that I was greeted or asked if I needed any help. In fact, when I did have trouble finding something and wanted help I had just as much trouble finding an employee. I've always gotten the impression that the sales help would like their jobs if it didn't include idiot customers like me. Also, while they say they buy and sell used books, they prices between the two are so far apart it doesn't seem like it's worth carrying the books into the store. The "evaluator?" made me feel like I was not only irritating him with my questions but he was also judging my reading material to be suitable only to morons and the lowest forms of life. Reading through this review may make you wonder why I don't just turn to the internet but I love going into the store and seeing all the categories and information available and thinking about all the characters and stories in that one small space. I don't want that to be lost and hope maybe someone that matters at Half Price Books will see this and remind the staff that they are there because the customers love books as...

So let me start by saying that they do have some cool stuff there. The prices are much higher than what you would find at a garage sale for instance but this review is about selling them books. I brought them about 300 books. Most of them were very short stories more like pamphlet books and nothing of any great value. More like educational books and lots of sets. I don't have a lot of time on my hands but I did research randomly about 10 different books and sets on ebay. Out of the little research that I did I found that most of this stuff sells for $5 to $15 per book and sets for much more. So I'm thinking even at 10 cents a book I should walk out with about 30 bucks and if I got more than hallelujah. To my bewilderment they offered me $7.10! They probably could have resold the boxes that I brought them in for more than that. So my take on this is that if you are thinking you're going to bring a bunch of books up there and collect a bunch of money you have a bunch of surprises coming. For the kind of prices that they are offering you are probably better off donating your books and writing it off on taxes which is exactly what I did with the rest of the books that I planned to bring to them. No just so you understand that I'm not trying to bash this place, I want to stress that it is unique and probably worth your time to take a look around in their store if you are a buyer....