We walked into a Barnes & Noble last month and walked out with a single paperback and $18 less in our account. That same week, we ordered five books from ThriftBooks for under $20 total. The pile arrived in good condition, and we’ve been hooked ever since. If you read more than two books a year, ThriftBooks is a no-brainer.
The Largest Online Used Bookseller in America
ThriftBooks has sold over 160 million used books since its founding in 2003. That scale means their inventory is genuinely massive—over 10 million titles across every category you can think of. Bestsellers like Colleen Hoover’s It Starts with Us start at $4.39. Classics like Edith Hamilton’s Mythology begin at $3.99. Robert Greene’s The 48 Laws of Power runs about $14.19 in used condition, compared to $20+ new. Every book is graded by condition—Like New, Very Good, Good, Acceptable—so you know exactly what you’re getting. We’ve ordered about 40 books over the past year, and maybe two arrived in worse shape than described. ThriftBooks replaced both without questions.
ReadingRewards and the Math on Free Shipping
Here’s where it gets genuinely smart. Free US shipping kicks in at $15, and the ReadingRewards loyalty program earns you points on every purchase. For every 500 points, you get a free book. Buy 5-7 books in a single order and you save 15%; buy 8 or more and the discount jumps to 20%. We tend to batch our orders—if we have four books in our cart, we’ll browse for one or two more to hit the free shipping threshold and unlock the tier discount. Last month we grabbed 9 books for $34 shipped. That’s less than $4 per book delivered to our door. Teachers get an additional 15% off, which is one of the better educator discounts we’ve seen.
Current Sales and What to Grab Now
ThriftBooks runs seasonal flash sales throughout the year, and their “Best Books of the Year” collections often feature titles discounted 30-40% below their already-low used pricing. Right now, kids’ books are featured at $2.99 each, which is the cheapest we’ve seen them. The “Adventures in Americana” themed collection just dropped for July, curating historical fiction and nonfiction at bundle pricing. These themed collections sell out fast—the flash sale section on their homepage rotates weekly.
Read More, Spend Less
We won’t pretend every book arrives in pristine condition. You’ll get the occasional dog-eared paperback with a cracked spine. But if you actually read books instead of displaying them, ThriftBooks is the most cost-effective way to feed a reading habit. We’ve built a 200-book library for what we would have spent on 40 new hardcovers. Start with a $15 order, stack the loyalty points, and your reading list will never be limited by your budget again.
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