"I recently brought a hard back for 29.99 for a local book store -- Read it in less than 7 days and visited HPB -- book in pristine condition and they offered 50 cents -- total rip off -- never going back"
"Took books from my Mom's estate to sell. Got a whopping $14 for over 200 books. Many popular authors. Multiple hard cover books in pristene shape. Thought I'd get at least .10 - .25 cents per soft cover and minimum of $1 per hard cover book and got nothing for most. They said there were only a few worth buying and paid nothing. The rest they said had water damage. 10% of the books were well read but none had water damage. They said most would be donated elsewhere and I could take the ones they weren't buying.
But after having to browse their store alot of the books were single on their shelves or not at all. I am sure they will be making a profit off my Mom's love of reading!!!!"
"Purchased a used book that was supposed to be in good condition. What I received had heavy underlining in ink on all but 24 out of 190 pages, and writing all over, beginning on the Table of Contents page - on the covers, on 2-3 margins on many pages, plus highlighting and underling. It took 2 weeks of sending emails to get a return address, the they refuse to refund any shipping costs. Will never do business with them again"
"Ordered a book with HBP through amazon. My correct shipping address was included in my order (as it is always with my amazon account). HBP shipped the package with an incomplete address, I think knowing the shipper would return it to them, and they could charge me a "restocking fee". So in the end the buyer is left having paid shipping and a 20% restocking fee, but does not get the book they ordered. Let this business die in shame and work with a reputable local store if you can. "
"(they gave me for selling to them, got very little for many others that were basically given to them, decent DVD, popular that is, then I thought I really don't need the cash, I'll just get more video's to watch, They give me the "same as cash" voucher no expiration, She said "dont lose it", I come in a few months later, pick out some movies present the "voucher", and they say it had been redeemed, They called the manager forward, they were saying I must have cashed it in, etc. etc. got some movies etc, etc, I said, "that was not the case at all", and even if it was the "voucher" is same as cash anyway. I told the manager, I know exactly what happended, They looked through the "open vouchers" and someone cashed it out. Shady operation up there in North Austin, You would think brick and morter stores under direct threat of closures these days, would be a little smarter on how they treat customers, doubt I will ever go in there again. "
"They pay just pennies on the dollar. Sometimes they offer you nothing for your saleable book, hoping you just give them the book for free."
"This is not so much as a review but as a warning to not take your valuable books and other merchandise to sell to this store as you are literally giving them donations for their inventory and financial gain. Out of desperation I sold about 20 books with exceptional value including best selling up-to-date fiction and outstanding authors along with a collection of DVDs for a minuscule 10.00. I needed groceries and gasoline and I have a 5 year old daughter with no other resources that day and I had to accept it but never again as it was nothing but a donation for them to gain financially. It stings that they will probably price one book alone with a 6.00 tag. This experience left me feeling disgusted and bad. Trust this review and the other ones listed. Stop giving this business free revenue."
"I often opt for Half Price Books for reading material, but for three books with Half Price Books stickers on them priced accumulatively at over $40, they only offered me $1.74 to buy them back. Seems they put a 300% markup on everything. Makes me wonder what the first person to sell to Half Price got for them. Nice money scheme Half Price. I’ll keep my undervalued literature. "
"Honestly you have to be some sort of a moron customer service person when I call because it's saying that the billing address doesn't match the card but yet I use this Card on several other websites without a problem so when I call customer service she said she couldn't even pull the order that I was looking at on my computer screen she said she could pull it up underneath a guest bucket or something but she couldn't even see it under my name so I kept telling her your website has an issue your website has an issue your website has an issue do I need to keep saying this to you your website has an issue"
"Took in 250 books in great condition. Waited an hour while the clerk went through all the books. At the end he offered me $9 for 250 + books. They were in good condition and popular authors. Koontz, King, Patterson Etc. They advertise that they will have somebody there to help you carry them in. They offered me a cart. I am 69 years old and I find that kind of service horrendous. They said they would donate the 250 books that they were not going to buy. I'm sure they will donate them right to their shelves. I would Advise anyone with books to sell do not bother going there. This particular store is located in Citrus Heights California."
" One week before actually going to the HPB store in Pittsburgh on April 20th, I not only reviewed the HPB website for guidelines and policy, I called the Pittsburgh store three times. I clearly stated that I had “surplus” books of my titles and asked if they would purchase them. I told the person who answered the phone that I wanted to clear out more than 600 books. I was told that they would purchase any books that were legally printed and there was no limit on quantity, that they have taken truck loads of books. I also asked if they carried African American titles/books and was told “of course we do.”
On Friday, April 20th, I again called the store to ask the same questions as I wanted to be sure before taking the five-hour drive from the eastern most part of Pennsylvania to the western most part of the state. I was told again, there was no limit on quantity and that they take “any and all” books, period. Again, I told the person on the phone I had a number of cases of books I wanted to sell because there were very few brick and mortar book stores left to sell to. I was told that was fine that they would take the books. I also told them I wanted to be sure before I took the trip to Pittsburgh as it was going to be a five-hour drive to that store, which was the closest location. I was told they would be there until 10 p.m.
My husband and I loaded my car with 16 cases (448 books) of one title, which had won the National Indie Excellence Award and the National Best Book Award in African American fiction; two cases of a second title (64 books) which had won the National Indie Excellence Award and the Award-Finalist in African American fiction; and four cases (128 books) of a third title.
Because we had obligations for the weekend, we decided to head to Pittsburgh although it was after 3 p.m. After a straight through five-hour drive, we arrived at the store at 8:15 p.m. only to learn that "J" was taken aback by the number of books I had. He seesawed between, yes, we can take them all but most of them would probably go their outlet store as he was concerned as to whether the books could be sold at all. I asked why but he seem to not want to say why, so I asked if it was because the books were African American books? Frankly, he said “yes.”
I asked specifically on the phone on two different occasions if they purchased African American books and was told yes. "J" stated that with such volume, there would be diminishing returns on the books, thus less value. At that point I told him to not take all the books, just the 16 cases of Living, Breathing Lies. He said it would not make a difference, so I suggested that he take only one or two cases. "J" said, “No, he would take the entire load of books, but he was going to speak to his Manager-Eric to see if he could get me a better deal. "J" returned to tell me that the best he could do for “all” of the books was $10.00.
I asked if he was talking about $10.00 per case? He said, “No. $10.00 for all 22 cases of books.” Seriously?? Someone should have made this clear to me on the telephone.
To me that meant that HPB did not want a single copy of my books and hence the offer was meant to state that my books have no value and thus HPB really did not want them. Hence, the offer was an offer had no choice but to refuse. After five hours of driving to Pittsburgh and five hours back home disgusted by what had transpired, and two calls to make sure that I would not have a problem, it was very upsetting that "J" threw mud in my face and indicated quite clearly that HPB, no matter the location, would not take African American titles other than the very famous. If that is HPB’s stance, shame on HPB. Guess what? Black People do read.
I should have saved myself and my husband the aggravation of the total 10 1/2 hour drive and the utter embarrassment by first reading the reviews on this page. HPB is a scam driven by pure greed.
"
"Yesterday I bought a dvd from HPB for $4.99 using Google search to find them on B & N marketplace. They accepted my order then cancelled it today so they could mark the dvd up $1.40 higher in price! At first I thought they sold it but there they were on Google for $6.39. Barnes & Noble said they would look into it! Terrible and dishonest!!!"
"No, they didn't pick out one or two books that they would like to buy for $2.00. They offered me TWO dollars for over 80 books! An hour later, I walked out of a competitors store with $30.50 in my pocket, and I still had almost all of my books. I will NEVER go to HPB again. This was in Westerville, Ohio, but from reading the reviews, it seems that Corporate Greed is their company motto. People all over the country are complaining about them!!"
"All I can say is Donate Donate Donate. Do not allow these folks to pay you nothing for your new books etc. and overcharge people to buy your donations. The tax write off is a much better choice if you gather all of your donations at once and add them up. The chaos in this store and lack of intelligence when reviewing your books, albums, cd's etc is disturbing , random and not fair"
"Wish I would have check them out before wasting my time and taking books, CD's, tapes, etc to them. Like what has been said their a total rip off. Better off giving to some charity. I brought 4 boxes of books and maybe 100 CDs and 40 DVDs and even many VHS movies and they were kind enough to give me $18.50. I would say most if not all of books and other materials were in resaleable shape. What is up with this company? I know its business but lets at least be somewhat fair. Never again and that is my advice to others. "