Buying books online – cheaper than local bookstores?

Practical money-saving advice for online book buyers not part of the civilized world (the US and wherever else Amazon has local sites):

If you buy from Amazon (or really any other site that charges for delivery), consider BookDepository, a UK-based online shop which ships books worldwide for free. Yes, that’s right, no shipping costs! Books are somewhat more expensive, but shipping + VAT (at least in Israel) is more expensive still. Case in point:

I want to make a purchase of 8 books (all popular non-fiction). Subtotal in Amazon was slightly less than US$100. If there’s only one shipment, that’s $7 for the shipment, plus $4 per item, that’s a total of around $140. Israeli VAT is 15.5%, so my final payment is around $160. If I want to avoid the VAT, I have to split into at least three shipments of less than $50 each, but the per-shipment cost makes this a pointless endeavor.

On BookDepository, the subtotal is roughly $120 – about 20% more expensive than Amazon. No shipping fees, so if sent in a single shipment, that’s about $140 after VAT. However, since shipping is free, I can split this into three separate shipments with no added costs, avoiding the VAT, saving me $40! Woo!

Furthermore, Israeli bookstores usually sell popular titles for NIS60-80, that is $15-20. Taking the cheaper price, that matches BookDepository. However, the titles I’m interested in are usually not available in Israel (unless translated, and I greatly prefer originals), and certainly the convenience of online shopping is much better than physically hunting obscure geek titles. I’m a bit miffed by the economics involved, but the numbers speak for themselves.

Another perk is the possibility to buy books on a whim, without waiting for the wishlist to fill up (this can actually be catastrophic if you’re impulsive, but hey…).

Mileage outside of Israel may vary, since VAT may be  lower or non-existent in other countries, but Amazon’s worldwide shipping charges are still more than 20% of popular titles.

One caveat is that I’m yet to actually buy anything, so can’t report on the gruesome details of the delivery. Still, I imagine it can’t get worse than standard international shipping, which I’d get in Amazon anyway.

Giant hat tip to Mark, who allowed me to cram more enlightenment into my salary.

If you know even cheaper online book deals, please let me know.