Half Price Books

I always knew that Half Price Books was a shady organization, but I never knew how bad they were until recently. Still, I guess I should have known, when their name says half price and they charge more for the book than you can find new something has to be going on.

In this case though it isn't only their selling price that caused them to be posted here but their buying practice as well. I took a handfull of books in - four hardbacks and a couple of paperbacks - and they would only give $12 for them. Now these weren't shabby books, like new copies of the gold bound Chatham River series of classics, so I asked why the low offer price. The buyer shrugged, pointed to a ceiling-high stack of books behind him and commented about supply and demand.

I wasn't very happy about it, but figured $12 was better than nothing so went ahead with the deal. About a month later I was in the store and saw 3 of the hardbacks on the shelf - with a combined asking price of $165. So there's a tidy markup of 1,300% not even including the books I sold in that batch that I couldn't find. Not even loan sharks have that kind of profit margin and they're illegal...