RiverRead Books

RiverRead Books Used Book Purchasing Guidelines

Our goal is to purchase by issuing store credit, only gently used, salable books to offer our customers at substantial savings. We therefore have developed some guidelines for what we will purchase for resale.  

Condition

No rips, tears, stains, or odors:

Rips and tears 
Our general guideline is that any title with a cover tear of more than a quarter of an inch or any title with multiple rips or tears to the edges will be passed on condition.
Some books may not have obvious rips or tears but are still generally beaten up or in worn condition or may be covered in unsightly stickers or price markings from other stores.

Books with tape repairs to any portion of the interior or exterior will also be  passed on            

Stains:

Stains and/or water damage in the form of wavy pages or brittle pages that have since dried will be passed on. 

No writing or highlighting (with the exception of an owner's name written in front)

Writing and/or highlighting of any kind won't be accepted. 

No pages falling out or coming loose and no broken spines/bindings

Please thumb through any book you are trying to sell .  Beyond the obvious pages that may come loose in this process, you are looking to see if the book naturally falls open or stops at a certain section which is often the indication of a broken spine.

Broken spines can also be spotted by noting white crease lines down the spine of a paperback title.

Additionally, paperback books with a pronounced angle to their spine may also be passed on.

Mass Markets

Please be aware that there is a high rejection rate on mass market titles.

Due to the cheaper construction of mass market bindings, they will tend to have more condition issues than other titles. Always flip through the book first to check for loose pages. Also, be sure the book doesn't exhibit the following.   Any mass market title that has a pronounced crease in the spine, as this is most often a sign that the binding is broken or near enough to breaking that we may not be able to resell it again. Any mass market with a visibly broken or cracked spine will be passed on.

No Ex-Library or Book Club Editions

Book Club Editions

If you belong to a book club from which you receive regular shipments of new titles in the mail, like from the Book of the Month Club or a similar organization, then this is a very good indication that the books you receive are book club editions.


Ex-Library:

Ex-library books are pretty self explanatory as they most often have the common markings of any book formerly housed in a library (call numbers, library name stamps, check out cards or remnants of such)

No ARCs, UPs, or books marked "Not for Resale"

Advance Reader's Copies (ARCs) and Uncorrected Proofs (UPs) are usually marked as such on the front cover and will have marketing and publicity information on the rear cover. They are pre-publication editions produced only for booksellers and reviewers and are not meant for resale. All of these types of books will be passed on.

What we pay for used books

Our primary concern it to buy books we can resell. Our bids are based on the expected retail value of the books we buy. That retail value is derived from the books' desirability, current and historic market values, in-print prices, conditions, and our current stock levels.

Why store credit instead of cash 

At this time, we are only offering store credit for used books.  If our cash position  improves as a result of used book sales, we will consider cash purchases in the near future.  Store credit may be redeemed for any merchandise we have for sale in the store.

What we won't buy

With so many books in the world, and our own stock continually changing, it is impossible to say exactly what we'll be interested in at any one time. However, we can say exactly what kinds of books we are not interested in. Those are:

Books in poor condition (see condition standards above)

Family bibles

Old encyclopedia sets

Adult series Westerns (Longarm, etc.)

Adult series romances (Harlequin, etc.)

Many book club editions

Magazines

Original software users manuals 

Hardcover versions of books available in paperback

Textbooks (consider reselling your textbooks to Mando’s, another locally owned                                  independent business http://www.mandobooks.com/)

When 

Used book purchasing hours are Monday-Friday 10AM-3PM, or call for appt.