Religious

Scripture Truth Book Company. If Scripture Truth has an item it almost certainly will be cheaper than you can get it anywhere else. The operative word there is "if" - their inventory is pretty big, but it is much smaller than, for example, Christian Book Distributors' (below). It also changes all of the time. They post on their Web site on the first day of every month a list of what they have available at that time.

Christian Book Distributors (CBD) does have a set inventory all of the time - and it's a huge one! Their prices usually are higher (only slightly, though) than Scripture Truth's, but it seems like you can find practically any book in print written by a denominational author. For several other reasons, also, it is generally more convenient doing business with CBD than it is with Scripture Truth.

Neither one of the preceding bookstores commonly sells books by people identified with the "Restoration Movement" (churches of Christ, Christian Church, et al.) , with a few exceptions. Bargain Bookfinders (mentioned again under "Bookstores Selling Used Books", below) sells a number of new books of that kind, but doesn't have the full line that the traditional religious bookstores run by brethren do. Some traditional religious bookstores run by brethren, such as Religious Supply Center in Louisville, Kentucky (800.626.5348, www.religioussupply.org), will (at least they used to) give you a small discount (10%) if you are a preacher. I've heard that some other bookstores do, too; if you want to know if they do you will probably just have to ask them.

Amazon.com. I'm sure that other bookstores that have an online presence, such as Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million, etc., are fine to do business with, but Amazon is my favorite place to buy that new book that I want on a secular subject.

BestBookDeal.com is a book price comparison site, which, as of today's date (09/02/04), checks the prices of 44 booksellers in the U.S. and 14 booksellers in the U.K. It even has a feature in which you can plug in your Zip code and it will give you the tax, shipping charge, and the "total" price including tax and shipping. If you want to find the absolute lowest cost on a new book, this is the place to which to go.

You may be wondering why I would be giving out this information, since I am a used bookseller myself! Well, I look at this business that I'm in as a way of being of service to my brethren: I try to help get good books into their hands. If there is a book that you want and I don't have it or you for some other reason don't buy it from me, I still want you to get it from somewhere! Too, I am convinced that no one can beat prices that I have (the _total_ prices - counting shipping, handling, etc.) on comparable items that I have in my inventory!

Though better known as a source for new books rather than secondhand ones, Amazon.com offers a large number of used books through the used book sellers that it works with. The prices that you find on books that Amazon.com offers for sale are frequently lower than you can find anywhere else. However, I have found that the default search engine that they offer on their home page gives lots of irrelevant returns and fails to return relevant returns. Here is a way to get to their advanced book search feature, which usually does an excellent job in giving relevant returns: first follow the link to Amazon.com. Then, click on a link for "Books" on the left hand side of the page about a third of the way down the page. When the resulting page comes up, scroll down to near the bottom of the page where there is a "Books search" link. When you click on it, a page will open up with the advanced book search on it. Note: the mega book search engines Bookfinder and Addall (see below) search Amazon's inventory.

Baker Book House. Although it is better known as a publisher of lots of religious books (interestingly, Baker Book House started out years ago as only a used book business), the used book division of Baker Book House seems to have a lots of religious books in its inventory, also. Their store, which is in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has few books written by people identified with the "Restoration Movement," however.

Bargain Bookfinders in Henderson, Tennessee is a great source for used religious books. Clyde Woods, a professor at Freed-Hardeman University, is the proprietor of this business. As of today (06-08-06), he states that he has some 100,000 used books in his inventory - his inventory is especially strong in those works written by people identified with the "Restoration Movement" (a couple of examples of books that I queried him about recently, and that he had: the 1931 Abilene Christian College Lectures book and Like a Lion: 70 Years of Preaching (a biography of Daniel Sommer, by Matthew C. Morrison)). He is certainly the "go to" guy in my book (no pun intended :-) ) for getting used out-of-print, hard-to-find books of that kind. At this writing, brother Woods does not have a Web site up and running or an e-mail address at which you can reach him (he plans to have both in the near future - I will make make an update on this page if and when he gets either or both of them, and I find out about it). If there is some book that you want to know if he has in his inventory, you can call him at 731.989.4954. If he is not available to take your call, you can leave a message on his answering machine and he will return your call, usually in two or three days or less, if he has the item that you inquired about. Oh, despite the name of his business, I would consider brother Woods' prices only fair - certainly not "bargain" - and I don't know that he actually will "find" a book for you if he doesn't have it in his inventory.

Chula Vista Books is the name of a used book business run by Mark McWhorter in Pell City, Alabama. Brother McWhorter sends out by e-mail, two or three times a week on average, a list of books, journals, and even religious tracts(!) that he has for sale. Apparently, any used books that he does not sell after sending out a list he offers later on (a) subsequent list(s). He also offers a select few new books, at a modest discount. He offers many books, journals, and tracts written by people identified with the "Restoration Movement," but many of the books that brother McWhorter offers for sale are not religious books or books related to religion and preaching. Brother McWhorter's prices are good. E-mail brother McWhorter at mtmcvb@concentric.net if you would like to be put on his mailing list.

Though not really a bookstore (it has no inventory of its own, but simply matches sellers with buyers), there are a huge number of used books available through Half.com. Most of the books available through Half.com, an eBay subsidiary, are those published in the last 30 or 40 years, however. Frequently you will find Half.com to have the lowest price on a book that you are interested in, if they offer the book. Note: the mega book search engines Bookfinder and Addall (see below) search Half.com's inventory.

(FYI, Kregel Books is no longer in business, as of August 11, 2005).

Jim McMillan primarily sells books written by people identified with the "Restoration Movement". Those books tend to be rarer and more obscure works written by the pioneers in the "Restoration Movement". Send a message to him at 9handicap@ameritech.net to get on the mailing list for the lists that he e-mails out periodically. I consider his prices to be moderate, but keep in mind that with some of his offerings being rarer and more obscure that doesn't mean that they will always be inexpensive! Brother McMillan lives in Springfield, Illinois - telephone number-217.585.4003; fax-217.585.4006.

Brent Phillips, a preacher of the gospel in Glendale, Arizona, is selling his substantial library on a piecemeal basis. On his Web site he lists the books that he currently has available to sell--probably 150 or so at the present time (3/1/04); he updates his list from time to time. Brother Phillips has quite a few books listed that are written by people identified with the "Restoration Movement". A good number of his books are hard-to-find titles. His prices are only about average, but he expresses a willingness to negotiate on the prices to some extent.

Grady Scott sends out by e-mail once a month or so a list of religious books that he has for sale. I consider brother Scott's prices to be a little on the high side, but he may have an item that you can't find anywhere else. E-mail him at gbscott1954@charter.net if you would like to receive his list.

Ronny F. Wade in Springfield, Missouri sells some used books under the business name of Yesterday's Treasures. Almost all of the books that he sells are titles written by members of churches of Christ. He does not have a Web site for the business, as far as I know. Here is the contact information that I have for him: Dr. Ronny F. Wade, P.O. Box 10811, 2254 E Raynell Street, Springfield, MO 65808-0811, 417.883.2315, clockronny@aol.com.

Religious and Secular

Many of the individual booksellers on the Web have search engines on their sites which search their respective inventories. I will forego mentioning any of them, however, because all of the ones that I would mention are searched by the "mega" book search engines that I will mention below. Many people use general search engines and directories (such as Google, Yahoo!, etc.) to search for books that they want, but generally it is far more fruitful to use mega book search engines. "Mega" book search engines are search engines that search the inventories of many booksellers.

Bookfinder is a good mega book search engine.

Addall is my favorite mega book search engine.

The search engines which those two mega search engines search overlap considerably - you will end up getting many of the same results using one of the mega search engines as using the other one. I suggest that you try to find the book that you want with Addall and then, if you don't get the results that you want, try to see if Bookfinder returns any additional hits (if it returns any additional hits). Note: none of these search engines - nor any of the other book search engines that I know of - search Baker Books' (mentioned above under "Bookstores Selling Used Books") sizeable inventory of religious books. If you want to know if they have a certain book in their inventory, you will need to use the search engine on their Web site.

Note: the above search engines also do not search my inventory. And since my price on a book usually will be less than any other dealer, you will want to check my inventory at some point to see if I have (an) item(s) that you are interested in.

I don't offer a formal "book search service," but if for some reason after checking the above sources you still can't find a book that you are interested in, contact me and I will check some other sources and see what I might be able to come up with for you.

If you have information about other sources for books, especially cheap sources, please send it to me! I will investigate for myself and possibly include the information on this Web page.

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