When buying from any online book marketplace, it’s critical to choose one that’s legit. You have to find a marketplace that has a decent selection of books from different authors and is selling them for a good price.
It’s also important to pick a marketplace that has good shipping and excellent customer service, so you get your books in time. It is especially critical to choose a legit marketplace when buying art and collectibles, because it’s easy to fall for scammers selling fake art or collectibles.
AbeBooks is one such online marketplace for books, arts, and collectibles. Founded in 1996, it is one of the oldest online marketplaces for books in the world.
In this article, I will be reviewing AbeBooks and investigating whether it’s a legitimate platform you can trust for purchasing art, collectibles, and books.
The short version: Yes, AbeBooks is legit, but investigate each seller carefully before purchasing. Some sellers offer poor service, sell you the wrong items, or are scammers.
Let’s get into it.
Understanding AbeBooks
AbeBooks was founded in 1996, which means it has been around since the beginning of the internet and ecommerce days. The name is interesting – it’s not named after someone called Abe but comes from the acronym ABE (Advanced Book Exchange).
At one point, AbeBooks had agreements with stores like eBay, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon to sell through their sites. That changed, and Amazon ended up buying AbeBooks entirely in 2008.
AbeBooks, however, sells not just books but art and collectibles.
It is a highly popular site. According to SimilarWeb, AbeBooks.com is listed as #14 in the ecommerce category in the US, and it gets over 10 million visits per month.
Remember, that is just for the US site. AbeBooks has different sites for different countries, such as AbeBooks.fr for France and AbeBooks.it for Italy, as well as various others.
In addition to regular books, it has served as a platform for rare books and collectibles that cost tens of thousands of dollars – or more.
AbeBooks periodically records the most expensive sales on its site. In the first few months of 2023, the most expensive sales included $85,620 for a rare, first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Before we get into some potential problems users have experienced with AbeBooks, let’s go over the main features and offerings on AbeBooks.
What Can You Buy on AbeBooks?
There are all kinds of books on AbeBooks, including cheap books for under $10 and children’s books. There are also rare books, which you can find in the Rare Books category.
There are books that have been out of print for years, leather-bound books, books that look like they belong in museums, books that have been signed or inscribed by their authors, limited edition books, and more!
You can also purchase textbooks on AbeBooks. Textbooks exist for all kinds of subjects and are cheap and affordable for college students who are on a budget.
There are also collections, which contain collections of books on specific topics by AbeBooks sellers. For example, you can buy a collection on engineering or a collection of rare books from an author like Dr. Seuss.
When it comes to art and collectibles, there are all types of collectibles available. Here are some of them:
- Magazines
- Manuscripts
- Old maps
- Classic comics
- Sheet music
- Paintings
- Photographs
As you can see in the screenshot below, you can find paintings from famous artists that cost hundreds of dollars or antique and beautiful collectibles that cost less than $20.
Regardless of what you plan on buying on AbeBooks, there are useful search tools that will help you find specific books or books sold by a specific author.
The Advanced Search tool lets you search by keyword, publisher, published date, author, ISBN, book title, price, product type, product condition, and a lot more.
Another interesting service offered by AbeBooks is its buyback program. It allows you to sell just a few books without needing to sign up as a full-blown AbeBooks seller.
It is a fantastic program because it allows you to read books and sell them later when you no longer need them. That can give you some cash to buy even more books, so if you are buying books to read them and not collect them, check it out.
With the buyback program, you will get an instant price for your books by just entering the ISBN. You will then get a free return shipping label you can use to ship the book in.
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Addressing Legitimacy Concerns
So, is AbeBooks legit? In this section, we will discuss certain factors relating to AbeBooks’ legitimacy.
First, let’s discuss the safety of using the site. Fortunately, AbeBooks is a secure site, with a valid SSL certificate issued by Amazon RSA 2048 M01.The checkout process is secure, so you can safely enter your credit card or payment information.
I checked AbeBooks.com on Google Safe Browsing, and the tool told me that there was no malicious content found.
I also checked it with the Virus Total tool, and again, it scanned the site and found no malicious content.
AbeBooks is not BBB accredited, but it does have an A rating with the BBB, which is excellent and indicates the company is legit. Not having a BBB accreditation actually doesn’t mean anything – it just means the company didn’t apply and pay for BBB accreditation, which is not free.
It’s worth taking a closer look at AbeBooks’ privacy policy if you are concerned about safety. I liked how clear and easy to read the privacy policy was – AbeBooks wrote it so the average person can understand, which I can’t say is true of most websites.
That means that the site is transparent and honest about the information it collects.
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Quality and Authenticity of Books
Next, let’s investigate the quality, authenticity, and condition of the books sold on AbeBooks.
AbeBooks is a reputable site. However, it’s a marketplace that allows third-party sellers to list their wares, similar to Amazon or eBay, which means that your experience may vary depending on which seller you are dealing with.
That means that you can’t just blindly purchase items from AbeBooks and trust that things will go well. You must first ensure that the seller is a legitimate seller who is not only not a scammer but also provides excellent customer service and quick shipping.
Check out the seller’s profile. There, you will be able to see their overall rating, how long they have been in business, a description, and other information, such as their address.
Unfortunately, a major downside of AbeBooks, in my opinion, is that buyers can’t actually leave reviews for sellers. That means that while you can see an overall rating for the seller, you can’t see actual reviews or comments that might reveal if the seller provides poor service or takes too long to ship.
Still, if the seller is highly rated and has been around for many years, as the seller in the screenshot above, you can typically assume they are reliable and trustworthy.
If you don’t investigate the seller, it could be a hit-and-miss.
Another thing to keep in mind is the condition of the book listed. Different people may have different expectations of what “Good” or “Very Good” mean.
As a customer buying a used book for the first time, you may see “Good Condition” and expect it to be in excellent condition. However, when used books are listed as “Good,” they are often quite obviously used and may have scruffs, some tears, scratches on the cover, etc.
Furthermore, different sellers may have different standards for what they consider “Good.” Therefore, it’s important to either inquire about the condition of the book beforehand or expect that the actual condition of the book can vary.
Books sold on AbeBooks are generally legit, but if you’re purchasing a rare book or collectible, it’s again important to verify that the seller is legit so you don’t end up buying a fake collectible.
Seller Verification and Reputation
To sign up as a seller on AbeBooks, you must submit an application. Sellers must submit payment information, tax information, information about their business, and more.
However, the requirements are not that strict.
One thing that is good about AbeBooks, at least for buyers, is that sellers must pay a fee to become sellers on the platform. Fees start at $25/month for sellers, which is in addition to any commissions on sales that they must pay when they make a sale.
This does weed out a lot of scammers, as many are not willing to pay a monthly fee and would instead hop onto eBay or some other online marketplace to sell their fake collectibles.
Still, because the requirements to be a seller aren’t that strict, it means that some scammers can slip through the cracks. Even sellers who are not outright scammers may provide poor service, list books in better condition than what they truly are in, be late to ship, or send you incorrect items (either on purpose or by accident).
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Customer Support and Returns
AbeBooks has a knowledge base for buyers with articles that talk about common questions and issues you may have as a buyer on AbeBooks.
If you can’t find answers to your questions in the knowledge base, there are support options as well. Do that by going to this page and sending a message to support – make sure you are signed in to send a message.
However, according to the contact page, it could take more than 24 hours for the team to get back to you. That is a bit long, in my opinion, although you may get a response quicker if the support team is not overworked.
In addition, there doesn’t seem to be a phone number you can call for support, which is definitely a downside.
What about returns and refunds?
AbeBooks has a 30-day money-back guarantee. Sellers are not allowed to have a “sale is final” policy unless they are selling ebooks.
You can get a refund in 30 days if any of the following happen:
- You received an incorrect item
- The item arrived damaged
- The item did not arrive by the estimated delivery date
For all of the above return reasons, you are also eligible for a refund on shipping costs (and if you are returning the item, you will get free return shipping).
If none of the above applies, you may still be able to return the item, but it depends on the seller’s policies. You may request to return an item for any reason, and some sellers will agree, but you won’t get refunded shipping costs, and you will have to cover return shipping yourself.
When you submit a return request, the seller has to accept or cancel within two days. If the request is not canceled by the seller, it will be accepted automatically, which is good for you as a buyer.
It is also possible to ask for a partial refund if the item didn’t arrive as you expected but you still want to keep it. For example, if you thought that the condition was a lot better than it was, you can ask the seller for a partial refund, but they are under no obligation to agree to it.
See the AbeBooks return policy for more information.
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Reviews and Feedback
In this section, we’ll go over customer reviews and ratings of AbeBooks, so you can see what real customers have experienced in the past when buying on this platform.
One thing worth noting before we get into things is that many times, a site will have bad ratings if it doesn’t work on reputation management. That’s because people are more likely to speak up when they feel disgruntled, while people who purchase without experiencing any problems will often move on with their lives and say nothing.
On SiteJabber, AbeBooks has a rating of 1.8 stars out of more than 650 reviews. Customers typically complain about poor customer service, payment issues, shipping issues, and items not arriving as described.
Many customers said the items didn’t arrive in the condition they expected, the wrong items arrived, or only part of their orders arrived. Some said that AbeBooks’ customer support was slow or nonexistent and didn’t help them resolve their issues.
On TrustPilot, AbeBooks has a rating of 1.6 stars from over 550 reviews, again indicating that a lot of customers have been dissatisfied with the service provided. Again, what I saw were that customers were complaining about the wrong items arriving, items not arriving at all, and other issues.
Also, they said that refunds were not issued as promised.
On the Better Business Bureau listing, AbeBooks has a rating of 1.71 stars, although there aren’t that many reviews. However, there have been over 60 complaints.
The reason AbeBooks still has an A rating with the BBB is that it has been responding to complaints. Thus, many complaints have been closed, with the customer receiving a satisfactory resolution.
Most books on AbeBooks are legit, but again, you must verify that the seller is legitimate.
There are some scams on AbeBooks. Sometimes, sellers will try to jack up the price of either the book or shipping after you have already purchased it.
A common scam, according to this Reddit thread, is called bookjacking. Sellers list books that they don’t actually have copies of.
Then, when an order comes in, they will order the book and send it to you.
The problem with this kind of business model is that you don’t know the condition of the book, as neither does the seller until they see it physically. Also, sellers who engage in this practice will typically jack up the price of the book so they can make a profit on the margin they add.
Also, it will lead to unnecessary delays.
So, if you see a seller listing all of their books in the same condition, be wary. They may not have any physical copies on hand.
The same applies if you see a seller whose prices are a lot higher than the usual – look at other sellers selling similar books to get a feel for which price is right.
Also, another problem that customers often experience is the meaning of a book condition varying widely from one seller to another, which is something I already mentioned.
Just because you bought a book listed as in “Good Condition” by one seller and were satisfied with the condition, that doesn’t mean that you will get the same quality if you order a book listed in “Good Condition” by another seller.
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Recap – Is AbeBooks Legit?
Yes. AbeBooks itself has been in business since 1996, and it is owned by Amazon, a legitimate company.
However, the issue with AbeBooks is that since the books are sold by third-party sellers, it faces quality control issues. Every seller is different, so it’s critical to check a seller’s profile and rating and ensure they are legitimate before you do any business with them.
Finally, to avoid scams such as bookjacking, look out for sellers who have poor reviews, don’t provide unique descriptions for each book copy, and who haven’t been in business for long.
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