Half Price Books

A fun place for any book lover to explore. I could spend hours there, every day. You never know what you’re going to find. The only slightly frustrating part (and I understand that they have to make a profit) I do wish they’d be a little more generous when you bring in books to sell.

Any book person will love this place. Especially love the collection of old books. Great sales.

While I adore the store and all the amazing books and items they have, I was a little saddened by the amount of money they pay when they buy books.
I brought in a full bookbag, about a dozen books, the only one in less than perfect condition was a vintage book that looked rough when I bought it a few years ago-​and I got a whole $ 4!
Enjoy this store for the great selection to buy but if you’re wanting to sell items, go to Prospero’s Parkside Books in Blue Springs or Dog Eared Books on Noland Rd. They have never done me wrong in the 15 years I’ve lived in the area!

Nah, I have enough stacks of books that I am never going to read taking up space in my apartment.
Said no one ever.
Who DOESN’T need more books? I mean seriously. I love the library and everything, but why get the milk for free if you could buy a cow? Ya know what I’m saying? Yeah. Me either.
But seriously… There are a handful of stores that I would travel great distances to, and this is one of them. It is on par with IKEA, in my opinion. This store is chalk full of an AMAZING selection of books, all in PERFECT condition. They carry new books, too, but you can’t even tell the difference between their new and used books.
The organization of this place is unreal. It’s just as organized as a Barnes and Noble, seriously. While I love any and all used book stores, this place puts all of the dungeony basement used bookstores to shame. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Labels. Alphabetical order. There is a reason that «library science» is still a college major. Books were not meant to be thrown randomly on shelves.
The employees here are the BEST. And when I say here, I mean both this location and this company in general. Like, you know they just work here to get the discount, but they still give it their all. SO nice and friendly. And they actually know stuff, too. I’ve been approached multiple times with offers of assistance, and every time my lame-​ass questions were answered, or the associate took my giant stack of books to the counter for me.
They have tons of cool stuff that isn’t books, too. Bookmarks, calendars, diaries, that kind of thing.
EVERY TIME I’ve been into a HPB, I’ve struck gold, and this time was no different. I am astonished with the amazing deals I’ve scored here, and they are always running great specials and extra discounts/​deals.
I’ve sold my books to HPB (in Seattle) before, too, and while it wasn’t an insane amount of money, it was a fair price, and just as much as you would get elsewhere, and took zero effort. You drop off your books and shop around while they tabulate them for you.
I love this store more than anything. I heard that St. Louis (Chesterfield…) is getting one of these soon. The only thing that could make me happier is if they told me they were putting a Chick-​fil-​A in the food court at work. And also if they put a food court in at work.
Half Price Books, you full price my heart.

I love to read, and I hate spending money, so I guess you could say that I was pretty excited for a new place to shop for used books. Say what you will (everyone else does) but after a long day of stressful adult things like work and college and bills, my favorite way to relax is reading the books I loved as a kid, like Nancy Drew mysteries. Their kids section is awesome, and I love that one whole section, floor to ceiling, is clearance, which means the books are only a dollar. Normal price books are more expensive than I’m used to – most thrift stores sell books for around 75 cents or so, and if you ask me, a used, 50-​year-​old hardback shouldn’t cost very much at all — but the books here are literally half the publisher’s price, so at least it’s easy to calculate. I tried selling some stuff (a box full of paperbacks and another box full of DVDs, some still wrapped in plastic) and I got only $ 14 for the lot. I literally spent more money than that per DVD and there were a good 30 or so in there, so that was pretty disappointing. Besides books and DVDs, they also sell CDs and all sorts of computer games and software, and service runs anywhere from enthusiastic to bored and indifferent.

What a great addition to the neighborhood.
I happened to be here for opening day. A long line of eager patrons curled around the side of the shopping center in anticipation of being one of the first 100 people to enter and thus get a free shopping tote. I wondered in once the line died down and was number 106 or something close to it.
This store, since it is brand new, is clean, well organized, and stocked. Though much of its selection is «used,» it never seems like that. The condition of everything (books, gifts, calendars, books on tape, vinyls, DVDs, comics and animé, etc) is like-​new or actually new, but of course marked half or less the retail value. The staff are happy to be there and happy you are there, too.
We’ve had many of our old books for sale on Amazon for awhile now, though when we do actually sell a book via this venue, they take commission, we have to package and ship it, and we don’t make much money. In an attempt to get rid of books we no longer need/​read (hello grad school text books), we took 7 boxes of books to sell (about 150 books in total). A kind staff member scans each book, gets a suggested price, adds it all up, and tells you what they can give you for the lot. They took every book we offered with the exception of some old, old books with a compromised spine. In short, we made $ 204 for all our books. Not bad :)
So happy this store is part of our landscape now. I’ve already been there twice in 4 days… I may spend that $ 204 as quickly as I acquired it!