Half Price BooksReviews of hpb.com

Brought 20+ books to half price books & they would only give me $1.18 . Will burn them for now on.

Received a set of moldy musty smelling books with visible mold on the pages edges. Books were described to be in “good” condition. Return shipping was $18+ and at my expense even though the books were misrepresented and the mold was not disclosed prior to purchase. 2 attempts to address return shipping costs with customer service were ignored.

I ordered a book from them. In fact, I went on its website just so they would make more money rather than Amazon. I was sent a book "Magic Voodoo Spells." I assure you that is nowhere close to what I ordered. I tried to contact Half Price Books customer service and all they told me was to send it back. They tried to blame the publisher! Why would I need them if I could get it from the publisher. This place doesn't serve a purpose but to rip people off as the middle man!

I ordered a used hardback and received a new paperback that was made from miniature photocopied pages. It did show up on time.

Ordered a book from this place and never received. Their customer service ignored my email with a canned response. The order was through Amazon and Amazon was of no help either. Avoid both.

I ordered the fifth volume of the Berserk Deluxe Edition at the start of October, it was supposed to deliver by the 24th, crazy long time for delivery but whatever, and it never showed up! Was thankfully able to get a refund from Amazon. Would not recommend dealing with these people.

Today I brought in three boxes of CDs, Cassettes, and about 20 books to their Fremont, CA store to sell. I didn't count the number of CDs, but there were dozens of which many were classical and never used. The CDs and cassettes were in perfect shape and seldom if ever played. Some were still wrapped. I should have read the reviews here and on Yelp, because it's true that they pay pennies on the dollar or less. They state in advance that you need to give them an ID and phone number, which I did, but I'm opening myself up to identity theft, because identity thieves now have two of the three bits of information needed for theft, which are date of birth and driver's license number, along with my name and address, of course. I was instructed to browse the store while they sorted through what I had, and you have to stay in the store because they call your name when they're ready to make you an offer. Of course, the object is that you'll browse the shelves and buy something while you're waiting. When I was called back, I was floored to be offered $13.51 for what I brought in, which was truly insulting. However, I didn't want to drag everything back home, so told them to just keep everything and I didn't want their money. They said I needed to take their receipt and cash out in order to leave anything, so I just took the receipt and walked out. It's demeaning and I'll be damned if I'm going to grovel for chump change. I don't know if they pay for their merchandise from any other source other than individuals coming in to sell their personal property, but for those like me who come off the street to sell, I can't conceive of any other business that essentially gives nothing for their stock, so that each sale is virtually all profit. It borders on unethical. With this kind of business plan, it's not surprising that "Half Price Books's annual revenue is $255.6M" according to Zippia.com. Needless to say, this is the first and last time I'll be patronizing this company. I would have been better off donating or recycling rather than provide some of this company's inventory for almost nothing.

Beware! I took 220+ Christian historical and Christian romance books by well known authors in pristine condition to HPB in Marion. I noted some of the same book sets on their shelves selling between 5 and 7$ individually. They offered me $40.00 dollars for the entire lot or approximately 18 cents a book! Shocking and insulting, also extremely misleading book buy information on website. I drove 60 miles one way to basically donate my books so HPB could make a significant profit. Never again! I’d much rather donate to a charity.