Half Price Books — Local services in Vernon Hills

We really like this location. It is kept very clean and the staff are always nice. There is also enough space to social distance from other shoppers.

They have definitely lowered the amount they give you when you bring books and dvds to them to sell. This is the lowest offer we have ever received, given the amount of books (many were new) and movies we brought. We had 2 full bags and we got $1.61 for all of it. I would guess this is a reflection of the pandemic. For several months they were not able to accept books and now that they are, I'm sure they are just overloaded.

MY SUGGESTION would be that they offer an alternative to customers. Give us the option of taking a $5 in store credit for any offers under $5. You could even make it conditional so it is only good towards a same day purchase. We would have loved that today! We never leave this store empty handed. Today we purchased $46 in books. A $5 store credit would encourage us to not only come back but to continue to bring our books to 'trade in' here.

Going forward we will still be your customer but will just donate our books and movies to St Vincent DePaul, Bernie's Book Bank, or Goodwill. Better they go towards a good cause instead of hanging on to them before we can make it across town to this store only to get so little for our efforts.

I hope someone there reads this and takes...

I generally have a great experience - both selling and buying at the VH Half Price Books.

However, this past week - my experience was a little odd. I checked in a tote of used books and some art kit/collectibles to sell (nothing different from like-items I've sold here previously). As usual my sell offer was ready lightening fast!

When I returned to sign and gather my tote and un-offered-on items, my tote was empty. This was great, so I commented to the staff member, "You're buying everything?!" They replied, "Everything but these..." and pulled out 3 items from underneath the counter, (the books that were offered on were on the counter), "I can make them go away though, no problem."

I replied that I wanted the non-purchased items back - 2 of the 3 were in pristine condition and literally unused. I'm sorry, but this felt off and odd and nothing like I've ever experienced before at HPB. Is their policy changing? Maybe. Keep an eye out, ask if they're taking all items, and if not, take your items back. HPB isn't the only place buying gently-used or unused book/journal/collectible...

I used to enjoy this store a lot. My wife and I would take our kids there and spend half a day perusing the books and media, and at the end we would always buy a bunch of stuff. After my visit this week, neither I nor my family will shop this store again. This week I brought a large book collection, two dozen large boxes, containing all genres of literature, art, fiction (modern and old), non-fiction, education, history, politics and more, totaling more than 400 books, into the store to sell. I sat there for over 3 hours waiting and when they finally got back to me, it was with a $16 offer for everything. When I declined their insultingly ludicrous offer, they were shocked, and said they'd already thrown away all my boxes. Needles to say we will not shop that store again. If Google would allow it, this review would...