Alternatives to Amazon and Ebay

[arikara]

Its hard to boycott favorite shopping places without some alternative. I am a bookaholic who has spent lots of money at amazon and ebay. But there are other sites. For example... I just found out about this one and even without the boycott it has quickly become my first book buying go-to place. Comparable prices - cheaper in a lot of cases, a huge selection, free shipping anywhere in the world. Fast. I've ordered from them and have been very pleased.

http://www.bookdepository.com

Then there is the old stand-by www.abebooks.com

As for unique things, both hand-made and vintage try this site:

www.etsy.com I've noticed that many of the ebay vendors also sell their things on etsy too.

If anyone else has suggestions, please add them to the list! As you know ebay owns paypal. Does anyone know of any alternatives to paypal?

[FSogol]

1. Powells is the best bookstore in the World

http://www.powells.com/

[EmilyKent]

2. Many thanks!

[SecularMotion]

3. Alibris has good deals on used books

http://www.alibris.com/

[Donnachaidh]

5. I second that. I've found rare books there at a pittance

I bought one map book at $28 that was auctioned on Ebay for $1000! Alibris is a great resource.

[madmax]

4. k & r

[Oceansaway]

6. K&R...n/t

[tammywammy]

7. Abe Books is a subsidiary of Amazon. n/t

[arikara]

8. Thanks for the reminder...

I knew that too at one point.

[starroute]

9. There's also the AddALL book search site

http://www.addall.com/

It searches all the major online booksellers and shows comparative prices.

[renate]

15. Cool, thanks! I like bookfinder.com, too n/t

[autumncorvus]

10. betterworldbooks.com

I'm really warming to BetterWorldBooks.com, which seems to donate part of its proceeds to literacy charities. I've bought from them before through abebooks, however now that I know it's a subsidiary of Amazon I'll never use them again.

What we really need is a widely available alternative to PayPal.

[pitohui]

12. there's no alternative to paypal if you support small micro independent businesses

but at the end of the day most people don't want to see a small person, a sick or disabled person, an unmployed or unexmployable person get ANYTHING

paypal is bad and must be demonized because it's the cheapest way for a small person to get funds and actually GET the funds instead of having the entire profit eaten by fees

paypal is bad and must be demonized because it does much the same thing as the big banks such as allowing you to buy and sell online and to get currency in a foreign country but for a cheap price that puts the big boys to shame

the alternative to paypal is citibank, bank of america, and so on but of course you know that or at least the persons behind this campaign to demonize paypal know that

IBM used to call it FUD fear uncertainty doubt

it is tiresome to see the same crap FUD used against paypal

if you want the small person who doesn't have hundreds of dollars to pay visa to be able to accept payments to just lay down and die, just admit it, stop smearing paypal

i don't mean this poster in particular, i mean ALL who have been spreading lies about paypal

i'm really sick of it, esp. at xmas!!!

some people really in their hearts don't want to have ANYTHING available to the small person, EVERYTHING has to be for the rich and the owners of citibank

[DainBramaged]

11. If it makes you feel good, go for it

Obama gave away the store and you all think this will make a difference?


Priorities, what DU lives for......

[pitohui]

13. there are some truly clueless or else deliberately misguideds out there

why buy in america, when you can buy from abebooks in canada?

why use paypal, use citibank and if a small person can't qualify to accept visa cards thru a big bank well let them eat chickenshit and die, who cares abt the little people at christmas? we should be happy to be beggars or we should just get out of the way and die

bitter much, yeah, no kidding


people who are part of the problem are pretending it's all obama's fault, it's pretty obv. to me that some people are part of a huge astro turf campaign or just repeating bullshit talking points

[arikara]

14. Speaking on a personal level

I buy locally first if at all possible. I do most of my gift shopping at the local craft fair thus supporting the people in my own community. I buy books from the local used bookstore. But when I want something they don't carry, rather than driving in to the city and paying full list price at chapters I order online. Therefore I would rather order from a company that is not part of the problem if possible.

As for paypal... it isn't that long ago in history that we used to only send a cheque or money order. Lots of the smaller sellers will still accept them but being used to instant gratification nowadays most of us are not willing to wait a couple weeks longer for them to clear the bank. Paypal has been a big help to the small sellers for that reason, but it would be nice if there were an ethical alternative.