Half Price Books — Local services in Meridian

This is a good used book store with a wide variety of book ranging from barely used to well used. They also have Movies, music, games (Board, card, computer, and RPG’s) , and some electronics. The store is bright and clean, the staff knowledgeable. I would give 5 stars, and they do deserve it, except for one thing. They buy books, movies, and music from folks but I am of the opinion that they don’t give fair market value. I took five basically brand new game books to them a month and a half ago. The total value of the books was $310 not including tax (Four were $50 and one was $60). Based off the name of the store and the condition of the books it would be easy to believe that they would sell the books for $155. I expected to get half of this, so $77.50, which would be typical and even pawn shops give that. Instead I was given $34.30, which is less than 12.5% of the books value. I was told that it was an algorithm that the employees can not vary from. I contacted the company through their website and was given some excuses about supply and demand. They could not even search their individual stores inventory. So the person on the other end of the email “couldn’t “ know specifically what the market was like(They are headquartered in Dallas mind you) at any of its locations. I happened to go back twice and shot pictures of what they had in that section and the books specific resale prices. And I was correct about how much they sold the books for. Further, they were sold out of the books that I sold them a bit over a month before. They stopped responding a month previous. So great for buying, not so much...

Usually I have a great experience at this location, although their buying prices tend to be a bit lower, I usually bite the bullet because I'm still going to purchase things. However, 2 days ago I had purchased an anime figure (Ram in Arabian Nights Alternative Color) for $25, they had her counterpart (Rem in Arabian Nights Alternative Color) not yet priced for some reason and were unable to sell it to me. Yesterday, I went in to see if it had been priced and it was, but for a shocking $35. These figures sell online for $20, when I informed them of this and told them I had just purchased the similar figure for $10 less and asked them to match the price, they told me they would not be willing to do so. I again mentioned how extremely overpriced the item was but the manager did not seem to care and I felt talked down to as if they thought I was trying to pull a fast one on them. This experience has soured my taste for this bookstore and I likely won't be doing further business with them knowing how willing they are to overprice items. It's bad enough that I was offered a measly $7 for several Manga and children's books that were worth quite a bit more. I will likely not be returning to this location to do anymore buying or selling as these business tactics are not cool and feel like a scam. While I do greatly enjoy the staff and selections, paying nearly double for the price of an item I can order online is not worth it. I hope someone sees this and can offer some reconciliation to convince me to bring my future business back to...

This was an interesting experience. The great rating is because the young man at the sales counter (meaning where they buy items from you) gave the bad news with such an amazing disposition. He, with an amazing smile on his face, told me they'd take my books for $1. My fried brain, after a long week, seriously did not understand the situation. He politely repeated himself at least 3 times, maybe even more while smiling and showing empathy as my shocked self tried to understand that my small box of books would return $1. I truly understand resale value and that you only get a very small return, and had it not been for this young man's delivery, I'd have been even more embarrassed. Honestly, a decline would have been better. However, he also thanked me for trying to sell with them. I do want to add that I did find a book that I hadn't expected to locate used, and I was so pleased to be able to purchase this book discounted. My total spending was $21 on 2 books, but if you're looking for something, I'd suggest shopping here, but if you're selling, give them a try, but definitely with low to no...