Half Price Books

I’ve gone to this location several times and I always end up with a handful (or more) of books (mostly comics). They’ve got a great selection and pretty good prices too. There’s something for everyone in this store, not just books.
The employees at checkout are usually pretty friendly with me, but usually the employees don’t bother to greet me or ask if I need assistance (maybe because I’m a teenager? Not sure).
I usually don’t get much when I sell books to them. The employee buying my books is usually not very friendly either.
Despite the slightly cold service I get, I love checking out their used books, comics, dvd’s, and their clearance section.

How did I miss this place for so long? The record and CD selection is fantastic, with real bargains. The book and movie selection is immense and well priced. I spent nearly two hours here and barely scratched the surface. Half Price Books is a Dublin treasure. I’ll certainly be back next time I’m in town.

I’m not going to lie. I love this store. It’s got a great selection of used books and DVDs that are reasonably priced. Unfortunately, I don’t go there to shop for the books or DVD’s. So why three stars? Because I go there to shop for vinyl and I often find their used vinyl to be extremely overpriced at this store. Being an avid buyer, I’m pretty aware of fair price points for records. Half Price Dublin seems to be unaware of the going prices for used records. For example, I recently saw a used Billy Joel Greatest Hits priced at $ 30. Really? Yes, it was in good shape, but it’s hardly a collectors item and you can purchase a brand new sealed copy for under 30. And, it’s a record you can find at any other record store for under 10 bucks. I found one for 8.99. I’ve often run into this issue at the Dublin store. For some reason, I don’t seem to run into this problem at Half Price’s Concord store. I don’t know who is in charge of pricing vinyl at the Dublin location, but they should really do some research before pricing their records.

Customer service was horrible at the Dublin store. The woman at the book counter in the back was rude and customer unfriendly. I usually go there to shop, but after this encounter I will hesitate.

Brought in almost 40 books and they are cheap and I mean cheap about how much they pay you. They only paid $ 14. This was my first time bringing in my books and I won’t ever do that again. I waited about 40 minutes as they require you to be in the store while they generated the offer price. Next time I would rather donate it to the library or Savers or Goodwill and get a write off. I probably would do better with the write-​off rather than being ripped off by this place. If you are thinking of donating your stuff, think twice. It was not worth my time for sure. Live and learn. Save yourself the time and regrets.

I go here monthly (at least) — but not for all my needs.
DVDs (used) — selection is solid but the discount is no good. I am a DVD collector but I bypass the stock at HPB because any of their DVDs would be cheaper on Amazon. Sorry guys.
Records (new and used) — I have bought some vinyl here — nice selection at a price that I have come to expect for vinyl these days.
Books — This is their specialty — buy your books here.
Comics — Much smaller selection than an outright comic book store BUT also the best discounted comics anywhere around! Good issues sell for half the cover price and they have a 10 cent section too. I love to buy comics here.
Love the vibe — they play jazz music most of the time. Clientele are great folks as are the salesman. If nothing else, its cool just hang out with all the people in there.

Great place for retro video games and consoles! They have a clearance section in the back, and I got Madden 2003 for original Xbox for $ 3. Lots of other sports titles, too. They also had a Wii Balance Board for $ 3, but I wasn’t too interested and thinking it might just be clutter.
The games in the front are priced pretty well, too. I got Halo 2 for $ 5.
All the games and consoles are neatly arranged.

They are just really really awesome.
I’m a book nerd and by association also a bookstore nerd. I can get myself lost in a bookstore for hours, come out with $ 10 dollars worth of books and be ecstatically satisfied. Half Price Books are awesome because of their proximity to my house and sometimes when I need to lose myself, I come here and explore the aisles. The best thing is you can never finish browsing the myriad of books here — the massive amount of famous classics and sci-​fi/​fantasy is like a child looking for her favorite flavor of candies. I come here to discover books that’s popular (number of used copies they own) but I haven’t yet heard of and books on topics I’m specifically looking for. I often come away with a prize or two and some unexpected things as well.
I’ve found it is best to come here for books that’s been released a while (classics and literatures, hooray they are one of my favorites), the newest books are only 20% off retail and other ones are 50% off retail. The classics can sometimes be marked down further. They also have quite a collection of other used things — like CDs, DVDs, games, etc. The older CDs can be great deals, I picked up a Wagner and a few more classics for $ 2-​$ 3.

My boyfriend and I love this store. Every time we come here, we find something new and super cool to check out. The staff is friendly but not overbearing, which I really appreciate. The best thing about this place is their prices. It’s actually gotten me back into reading because I don’t have to worry about returning any books and I don’t feel too extravagant purchasing them. Love it!

My wife sent me here to sell our old DVD’s which they did nicely and fairly. Did not realize they sold more than books here. They have tons of CDs and DVDs and games here. Great place for families as they have a huge selections for kids stuff. Rather go here than the big chain book stores.

I just discovered this place last night and wow!!! Love it. The selection may be smaller but there is enough of a selection that you’ll find what you want-​and at a huge discount. I got4 books and 5 DVDs last night for only $ 35. What a steal!!! They also have records and I’ll be going back to grab some of those today. What a gem!

There’s something about holding a book in your hands opposed to staring at a kindle or iPad. That’s why I love a used book store.
This place in particular is very clean and organized. I especially love the front of the store where you can find some really cute and one of a kind items for your office or for gifts.
They have a MASSIVE selection of books at this store and the prices are really awesome too! I could spend hours in this place just looking through their entire collection.
I bought a ouija board here (no, no ghosts came with it) and it was like new. It also worked for anyone who’s curious?!
This is my go to spot for all books now.

Bookstores: Generally a place where one can find intelligent people. I don’t care how much Amazon and its ilk has cut into the market, there is something comforting about going into an establishment where people are mulling about contemplating which literature to discuss or possibly purchase. The presence of quality coffee helps as well.
From about 1995 to 2005, Borders had the formula down, which is why I appeared there almost every week. But the later part of the aughts found them fighting a rather unsuccessful battle against the online market until their eventual bankruptcy in 2011, leaving a void in the market. Yes, Barnes & Noble does essentially the same thing, but somehow it’s not quite the same thing.
So it was in a suddenly less competitive market that Half Price Books stepped in. Looking at the setup, the yellowish/​white price stickers, and the availability of other sundries such as CDs and cards, one can’t help but think they are actually Borders Part 2. A brief bit of research suggests that isn’t the case, but I’m not fully convinced.
Anyway, for Christmas 2014 I received a gift card from this chain from my brother-​in-​law. Given that there are no outlets near where I live, I perused their website, found a couple of books, and then realized I could only use the card at a brick-​and-​mortar location. Given that the closest outlets are in Berkeley (where I never go) and Dublin, I realized it’d be awhile before I could take advantage of the gift, during which my biggest challenge would be to not lose the card (and if you have seen my wallet, you’ll understand that I really don’t need any more of such clutter, monetary value notwithstanding).
Finally, nearly nine months later, the opportunity to visit the Dublin franchise presented itself. Certainly this place has enough to keep a bookworm occupied for some time, and given that there was a 20% discount being given on Labor Day Weekend, there were a fair number of people milling about. My wife and I wound up with close to $ 170 in merchandise, but with the various discounts it wound up being closer to $ 110. We had a friendly cashier who recognized a Parks And Recreation reference I made, which always helps the process. I will say that the lines get long very quickly here, and there doesn’t seem to be enough cashiers available, a commonality at such discount outlets.
I only wish one could use the gift card online.

Great place for decent priced books, comics, cds, and miscellaneous textbooks for college. Came in here today because of a gift card (only drawback for this place, can’t use their gift cards online) and walked out with four large bags of books. Most of the finds ranged between one dollar to four bucks with a twenty percent storewide discount on top of that. It’s large enough to find most desired titles while offering enough obscure books to meet an eclectic reader’s needs. The staff is also very friendly. My cashier got my Parks and Rec reference with his own comeback reference. Good laughs. Worth a repeat visit from my behalf.

I was really sad when Borders closed down and Barnes & Noble got to be too far away so I was happy to find this gem! I love coming here. The place is well organized and the staff is so helpful. If ever you’re looking for a book, they’re happy to help you find it. & if they don’t have it in the store, they can order it for you online!
With its low prices and wide selection of books, movies, & music, it makes it hard for me to justify going to Barnes & Noble anymore. Unless I’m looking for a book that has just recently been published, I go here first because it’s way cheaper. The clearance section has books that look brand new for as low as $ 1!
I only took one star off because selling at the store doesn’t get you too much money. Unless you have very new books that would probably be in a store like Barnes & Noble currently, you probably won’t get paid a lot. I once turned in over two boxes full of books and got $ 27. You’re better off selling/​trading in books on Amazon.
Sign up for their email club. There’s always coupons being sent out to get the prices even lower!

I love this Half Price Books location! This location is WAY bigger and better maintained than the one in Downtown Berkeley. Plus, this location always has bigger sales. For example, sometimes the store will have a young adult 10 for $ 5 sale out in front or a science fiction book 10 for $ 5 sale — random sales like that. Berkeley location almost never does this!
Dublin location is 3 times as big as the one in Berkeley so it has a wider selection for every genre. Workers are MUCH friendlier, too!

AMAZING find. This location is well organized and the prices are AMAZING.
My three children ranging from teen to 5 years old all love to go here now. We were amazed that a Harry Potter book was $ 30 in hardback at B&N. I suggested to my son that we spend his birthday money at Half Price Books instead… and I have created a MONSTER! We found a copy that looks like it was never read for $ 7.99! He was able to buy 5 books (one for each sibling and more for himself) for $ 27.00 out the door. This made his day.
They offer so many items: games, DVD, CD, books, etc. I will be back when I have more time with all of them and I hope to go by myself to look around a bit more. Watch for sales too! They had a Memorial Day sale for an extra 20% off! Which made the books an even better deal.
The staff was helpful and knowledgeable. They have created a fan for life. We will all be back and we will all be telling our friends about this location!

HPB is one of my favorite hangout spots. I can spend hours upon hours in here perusing each shelf. This location is pretty big and shared with other businesses in the same vicinity — there’s a Marshall’s, DSW, Ross and Michaels in the same center. I love coming here and looking on the carts in each section– these carts are the books that haven’t made it to the shelves yet so we get first dibs on these books before they hit the shelves. I’ve found many new titles here and very cheap books on the clearance section. I returned a book to Barnes and Noble that I spent $ 11 on because I found it at HPB for $ 2. I was so excited lol.
This location tends to have more Christian and religious titles than the location closer to me (Berkeley) so it’s worth the drive.
Music selection and gifts are affordable here as well. Only come in if you have time to spare, you’ll want to spend a lot of time here!

Books +vinyl +vintage video games = Heaven
After visiting their Fremont location, I couldn’t help myself by making a pit stop here on my way to my parents’ house. It made my geeky little heart sing! I went in there just to browse, but ended up walking out with some Julie London and Sammy Davis Jr., a few books, more CDs, and the original Transformers movie. I definitely had plenty of energon and luck that day.
They have a great selection and the staff is friendly and helpful. You’ve got the touch, you’ve got the power and I like it.

This place should be call Kinda Half Price Books and stuff you don’t really need, but that’s besides the point.
I love this place. I probably end up spending a good $ 100 on a monthly basis. Video games, books, toys.
Can’t beat the prices for most of the used books. As far as the new stuff, they are pretty comparable to other book stores… if there were any other book stores around.