Half Price Books — Local services in Naperville

We love this place.

People say Amazon killed bookstores. I would argue that they will do themselves by giving over half of their floor space to knickknacks. Half-Price Books is the best of both: curated knickknacks and so very many titles.

Barnes & Noble may have 100 copies of 20 "popular" books in a space HPB would use for 200 different titles that are sure to catch my interest.

We love spending an hour or so wandering from shelf to shelf, finding books we want throughout. The children's section keeps my son occupied and enables us to stock up on whatever books he is into at the moment.

The clearance section is awesome inspiring. Thirty children's books for $35? I think I will. A USB mouse and keyboard for $5 total to enable me to use my laptop more ergonomicly? Yes, please.

We sell to HPB a lot, too, especially as we have tried to clear out a backlog of books, games, etc. I have heard people complain about not getting an amazing price when selling. Get over it. The middleman has to get a cut to stay open. HPB is fair and honest, and they make it so easy. I know I don't have the time or patience to sell each book on eBay. Anything they give me is more than that item makes in my house, and it gives me back the shelf space.

So that honest part? I sold some books there this weekend. I got a call today saying that further research had led them to realize two books were way more valuable than they thought and that they owef me $45 more. I never would have known if they hadn't called that the books had been undervalued; they could have kept the money. Instead they gave it to me and, let's be honest, I will probably end up...

I've always been disappointed in the pricing and selection of this store, but with 2nd & Charles closing there aren't many used book stores in the area anymore. On my trip in I asked to look at a figure they have, after looking it up online I realized that the figure was a bootleg, I brought this up to the employee helping me and he just said "okay" while nodding his head and smirking. I can't believe that they're either knowingly selling fakes or that they just don't care. This bootleg can be bought new for $35 on Aliexpress and they had it priced at $100. I just feel bad that someone is probably going to buy it and get thoroughly ripped off. They don't seem to price things by condition either, when I went in today two copies of the same manga were priced the same even though one was in pretty bad condition (there's also a lot of books that should never have been accepted in the condition they're in). They also wildy overprice a lot of their stuff (I've been working to collect a certain manga series lately and they've been selling individual copies for $30 when they're only worth and currently selling for about $15 max). I used to work at a used bookstore myself, so I'm very familiar with how buying in used items works. They don't seem to do the work of checking condition and verifying authenticity of what they're taking in. I just want buyers to beware and make sure you're looking up current going prices for what you're buying online first, because about 90% of the stuff that I have looked at is not being sold at a...

This place is the best bookstore in the state. I would go here for their clearance section alone. I have bought some amazing books, (Marilyn Robinson's Gilead, Colson Whitehead's Underground Railroad, Neil Gaiman's American Gods, and others) for between one and three dollars. That is so cheap and the books are in very good shape. There is always something worthwhile on those clearance shelves.

I always go to the clearance section first, but their children's sections, genre sections, gaming, comic book, music, and DVD sections are also robust and reasonable (usually between $7-$12). I have made so many purchases at this store. I have also sold books to them and ordered books from them. They shipped a book from another location and didn't even require that I bought it until I looked at it (I ended up buying it, of course). They are very helpful and accommodating and the staff is also great. I don't tend to see the same people there for very long (I don't know why), but they seem to want to hire people who know and love books and have a passion for sharing their knowledge.

ADDED BONUSES: The bathrooms are super clean. They offer free coffee and comfortable chairs. They have shopping carts.

I can't recommend this store more highly. I wish I could give it 6 stars. I tell all of my...