Attention Broke College Students!

How to Buy Theological Books (Online):

"When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes."

Erasmus

Warning: This will either be the most boring or useful “how-to” that you ever read. BTW: I’m always looking for good ideas/deals!

Step One: Utilize Your Brain Trust

E-mail some folks you who are “in the know” concerning your subject matter (professors, pastors, other nerds, etc.) Ask the following question: “If you could only own three books on say, supralapsarianism, what would they be?”

Step Two: 3+2=5

Take the top three, by simple majority, and add anything on the subject by Ben Witherington or NT Wright. (Yes, I know that this brings you to five, but I am a preacher, not a mathematician!)

Step Three: Snag the ISBN

First stop: CBD.com. They typically have the most current information on books, i.e. publishing dates, etc. The most important piece of data is that ISBN or International Standard Book Number. The ISBN is unique to that book, although a title may have more than one ISBN due to editions, bindings, etc. Most new books have two ISBNs, a 10 and 13 digit code because of differences in inventory software. The point is, if you have the ISBN from a book, you can usually find that EXACT pressing of that book (in some cases however, the cover will differ as multiple printings will maintain the same ISBN, thus the cover may vary but the binding and content will be identical.

Step Four: Cut and Paste Daniel-san…

Using your trusty Cntrl (option or “squiggle” key on Macs), highlight the ISBNs, then using Cntrl-C and Cntrl-V commands, pasting them into your word processing software. Next, visit the following secure sites using the ISBN to search for your books:

Addall (the mother of all book search engines)

CBD

Buy.com

Abebooks

Amazon

E-Bay

Alibris

As you locate your books, toss them all in the shopping cart (keeping browser tabs up, Fire Fox is best for this IMHO). Then check the total price. Often, shipping incentives on sites like CBD will offset the initial cost of a book. BUT, sometimes you can score huge deals like I did today when I got Witherington’s commentary on Galatians for 20.98 + 3.75 = $24.73. The book retails at $42.00 (I saved $21.22, enough to buy the NT Wright book and a box of Cheeze-Its).

My best experiences have been with Abebooks because of their strict standards on gauging used titles (i.e. any writing at all, even a name, puts the book at “Good” condition or 3 of 5). Another plus to Abebooks, is that they often have titles that are out of stock elsewhere since they are mostly used or “remainder” titles (overstock returns from retail outfits like Mardel or Barnes and Noble).

Step Five: Be Not Afraid

CBD has an amazing “damaged” bin. Damaged to them means that someone dropped the box, so the book had a bent edge, or it has a scratch on the cover from the box being opened hastily etc. 99.9% of the time, a “damaged” book is just as good as a book you’ve had in your backpack for a week. Recently I saw paperback Hebrew OT texts for $10.99, which is like $20 off.

Step Six: CutePDF.exe

As a pastor, the IRS gives me a tax break on some things I buy for the ministry through an “accountable re-imbursement” arrangement with our church. The best way I have found to keep track of my IRS deductible receipts from online purchases is to “print” my receipts using CutePDF writer. CutePDF allows you to use the print menu to create PDF files out of anything, webpages, Word Docs, etc. You can get that from download.com or just Google it to go to their homepage.

Step Six: ROADTRIP!

As for “brick and mortar” Stores, Mardel and Barnes and Noble are usually useless when it comes to (evangelically oriented) academic Biblical studies resources. So, if you want something on Jesus by someone other than Elaine Pegals or Jon Dominic Crossan, you have to look elsewhere. Also, what they have is usually special ordered and then “orphaned” so they want full price to recoup their investment.

My suggestion is to hit used book stores. In Springfield MO the place to go is Redeemed Books (who usually has free coffee!), or ABC Books. The coolest thing about these stores is that you can actually pay for books with books!!! My wife scores tons of home school books using ones we don’t use anymore. Call ahead though, because most stores only allow trades on certain days and have some restrictions (i.e. you can hardly give away Left Behind books!) OH, and Redeemed has two sales a year where things are 25-50% off, AND ministers get a discount on everything, including music.

Lastly, if you are blessed to live near a publishing house (i.e, Grand Rapids, MI or New York, NY…) Dr. Bayer told a story of being able to visit the actual publishing facility and purchasing defective books (like one that were bound upside down) for so little money that they literally filled their car. Just a thought (any one up for a trip to Grand Rapids!?).

So, now that I have eternally secured my status as nerd of the year, happy hunting!