ThriftBooks: New & Used Books for Android

Just got this app and started looking at books. It is very annoying that the back button does not work right. If you try to go back more than one page it just switches back and forth between two pages instead of going to previous. I tried the “Back to Search Results” link but that does the same thing, takes me to the page I came back from, not to search results. This is very annoying. I have started my search over at the first page three times. Steps to reproduce: go to category page, click through to book, click on author link, click back button to go back to book. Next back button should take you to the original category page but instead takes you to the author page. Please fix this!

…the quality of the books is starting to slip! I’ve been a ThriftBooks user for about a year and a half now. I’ve bought both new and used books, but mostly used. My last order included a book that was deemed “acceptable” quality, but I’m going to have to replace it as soon as I can locate a better copy. It smells like a wet, moldy basement and is so filthy, I felt compelled to shake it out in case there was critters in between the pages. There’s very visible water damage on more than half of the pages and should NEVER have been listed as acceptable. I wish ThriftBooks would list the name or some sort of ID of the seller, so I can avoid deceptive sellers like this. With that being said, I’ve ordered many books from ThriftBooks (and received several free ones!) and issues like the one above have been very few until recently (another book from the same order was RIFE with notes, highlighting, and underlying). I’ll continue to order from ThriftBooks.

This app is great, they have almost any book you’ll ever want - and if they don’t have it you can request a notification when it’s available. You can buy used books in any quality you prefer: I like “acceptable” because that means someone might’ve written some cryptic margin notes or left a coffee ring on the cover. The books arrive on the promised schedule, well packaged. You can easily accrue points to get free books. Wheee!

You spend time and energy looking for the exact book you want; you finally find the book you want in the format and with the cover design you want and place an order. You trust Thriftbook’s product picture and description. You receive your book and it’s not what you thought you were ordering; different size, different cover design, etc.

I really want to love Thriftbooks. I like the rewards system and the app is pretty good. (Except my place in a search is lost when I click on a listing) However, pricing seems random and condition is unpredictable. Some things are listed at prices higher than new on Amazon and are not even in good condition. Ex Library books are not flagged as such, when for any collection, they are a deal breaker. These are all fixable. Please improve.