Half Price Books — Local services in Marion

I went to HPB for the first time the other day and it was quite exciting. There were many fun things to look at and so many great books. I loved the selection of kids chapter books that they have. Their teen section was pretty great too and I ended up buying six books (which is six more than I need). I also brought some books to sell, just because they've been sitting around forever and I needed to get them out of the house. I brought a total of 8 books: 2 teen books (one fairly popular, the other obscure), 1 kids book (totally obscure), 2 adult historical fictions (one a best seller in its mass market paperback form, and the other a not so well known book), 1 nonfiction book (obscure and out of date), 1 book of poems (obscure, but expensive and was used in a class I took), and 1 collection of short stories (really old, obscure). They offered me $4.50 for the bunch of them. It was less than I was expecting, but not terrible considering they need to make a profit. I also had my mom bring in 3 of my old textbooks (all used, two of them very obscure, but one that typically goes for around $50, even if used) to be appraised at the same time, just to see what HPB would offer. They offered $8 for all three, but we didn't accept the offer because I can sell them for more elsewhere. All in all, I enjoyed my experience at this store, and the prices for the books I purchased were low. As this is my first time selling second hand books I don't know if I would recommend selling there or not, but I definitely wouldn't recommend selling...

I have loved them for years as a customer, but yesterday when I brought in my books for the first time, my impression on their business had totally changed. I took two Japanese- English dictionaries and several of the Japanese pregnancy and baby care related books, all mostly new and in excellent conditions. I've bought Japanese books there many times, and I know that they don't sell them too cheap. I would have been happy if I have even ten dollars though I knew they are gonna price them to sell far more than that. When I was called out to be given the receipt to get $3, I couldn't believe it. At least, I wished they have a courtesy to check whether I agree to sell them with such an outrageously low price before cutting a receipt. It's almost a level of injustice. My friend said when he took 12 Star Wars books to them, they offered the amount equal to buy their 2 of the similar Star Wars books. So that means they took his books with one sixth of the price they are going to sell. In my case, I know 30 cents a book can't be even one tenth of the price they are going to put. Crazy. I understand that the price of used books could fluctuate quite a bit based on demands and conditions etc, but still there needs to be a certain guideline like so much percentage of the selling price will be given etc. As it is right now, it is a scary black...

Very poor when it comes to offering "Competitive pricing" for used books and movies. The fact that you can bring in 85 books that sell online used for 150-300 dollars depending on the market and they offer you 25 dollars is simply ridiculous. I took not even half the books and sold them online to a website and I got a check for 150.

To so blatantly disrespect your customers like that, it is a wonder that people purchase anything from them at all. Most of their pricing in store is 15-30% higher than it is at other locations, the staff simply stare at you without any regard to your time. They consistently have one person checking out, while 5-6 of them hang out in another area laughing and joking. Instead of helping the line of customers to help get them out the door.

If I could lower their rating to a zero I would, it seems that most people simply go here because there is no where else in town for them to go. I would highly suggest before purchasing from this company to do research on the product you are buying to ensure that you are not...