Book Depository closure

[Rumpelteazer]

Amazon is making cutbacks and one of them is to close the Book Depository. The store will close at noon 26 April (BST) and will ship and provide support until 23 June. Any pre-orders released after the 26th will be reimbursed.

I will miss them, any paper books I wanted and couldn't get (easily) from my local store I would order from them. And I liked how simple and uncluttered their website was.

They've put up a FAQ page.

[Terisa de morgan]

Sad news, really.

[Quoth]

It was better before Amazon bought it. A tax deductible expense.

[Paperbackstash]

Saw this announcement this week. Won't affect me personally but sad news for the book world in general as I know it was helpful and cherished by many.

[SteveEisenberg]

I used the free worldwide delivery a few times to send gifts to Taiwan and Germany.

Checking one current hardcover, the price at Amazon.com, to ship a book to Taiwan, is about equal to the price of the book

[Quoth]

World of Books (WOB) seems to be still outside Amazon. Amazon ate AbeBooks too. They sell on Amazon, but shipping in many countries is free if you use their website for that country. I now use them directly.

[BionicGecko]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

I used the free worldwide delivery a few times to send gifts to Taiwan and Germany.

Checking one current hardcover, the price at Amazon.com, to ship a book to Taiwan, is about equal to the price of the book

This might have been part of the site's downfall as well. While the delivery was technically free, it was in fact factored in the price based on your location, so you would be quoted a different price for the book depending on your IP address. Many people were gaming the system by using a VPN, so you would get a cheaper quote on the books but still get them delivered to the address you wanted for free.

If I recall they would punish this behavior by making the delivery very long, but perhaps it was only a minor deterrent.

[Luffy]

Originally Posted by BionicGecko

This might have been part of the site's downfall as well. While the delivery was technically free, it was in fact factored in the price based on your location, so you would be quoted a different price for the book depending on your IP address. Many people were gaming the system by using a VPN, so you would get a cheaper quote on the books but still get them delivered to the address you wanted for free.

If I recall they would punish this behavior by making the delivery very long, but perhaps it was only a minor deterrent.

Last year the delivery was very long for me, despite the fact that I did not lie about my location. I could not understand the reason for a 6 month delay until delivery. I depended on it for my physical books. Amazon strikes again... wish that were true for its workforce.

[ownedbycats]

I've used the site a few times (mostly for wall calendars but also the occasional book only available in print) so this is disappointing.

I did a bit of searching and it seems that Blackwell's and Wordery are both good delivery-included-in-price alternatives but cannot vouch personally.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I did a bit of searching and it seems that Blackwell's and Wordery are both good delivery-included-in-price alternatives but cannot vouch personally.

Thank you. It looks like Blackwell's will meet my occassional gifting needs, with free worldwide delivery and prices only slighly higher than Amazon:

Shipping and Delivery Information

Wordery looks similar.

I hope lack of competition from the Book Depository doesn't lead to them to giving up a policy that might eat into profits.

[Fat Abe]

This is the announcement on their site:

We are sorry to let you know that Book Depository has now closed.

We will continue to deliver orders placed before midday (12pm BST) on 26 April and will provide support for any order issues until 23 June 2023.

From all of us at Book Depository we want to say 'thank you'. Delivering your favourite reads to you since 2007 has been a pleasure.

Unlike U.S. sites, there is a UK Modern Slavery document worth reading:

https://sustainability.aboutamazon.c...ement-2021.pdf

Very sorry to hear of the closure. Amazon put dpreview.com (a photography site) on the chopping block this April, and only public outcries have kept the site open for archival searches. We should write to Amazon to preserve any book reviews that may have been hosted on Book Depository.

This is an example of what will be missing after Book Depository goes dark. This is a webcache of the books that the site once offered:

https://webcache.googleusercontent.c...&ct=clnk&gl=us

If you can't see the contents of the link, just search for "Leigh Brackett" and "Book Depository" and get google to show you the cached version of the page.