Half Price Books

The customer service here blows hot and cold. Sometimes I’ve gotten great help. Other times, like today, I walked out in frustration. I had walked in with a $ 60 gift card, all ready to buy one of their USB turntables. The woman at the counter knew nothing about them and, since there’s no one there whose job it is to answer questions, she linked me up with an employee who was re-​stocking the CDs and videos. He made me feel so stupid, like I wasn’t seeing the obvious on the turntable packaging. I wanted to know which one was the best price for the money and what the difference was between the 4 available models. «You want me to make your decision for you, don’t you?» he said, among other things. Um, no, I needed someone who knew the merchandise. It was obvious he didn’t, nor did anyone else in the store. Finally I just left, spending nothing. It takes real talent to drive away a customer who walked in ready to buy.

Love this place for Blu-​Ray movies! Even got to know a few of the long time employees.
Rare treasures await those who seek it here. find vintage VHS still in the plastic wrap.
Vinyl records, CDs, video games for all kinds of consoles and PC and consoles from ages ago sometimes. D&D books and modules 1^st edition! And I even saw a darth vader speakerphone for sale there. geeky/​nerdy collectibles It’s better than a garage sale LOL.
Its not just about books here.

A great experience with this store. My daughter needed a book for class, tomorrow! I called to see if they had it in stock, yes! The person I talked to (didn’t get his name) was so helpful. he offered to hold it at the front desk. Stopped by the store and it was waiting. So easy. This all sounds simple but actually its refreshing that someone offers to help you and provide information (pricing, type of book available, etc…) Thank you HPB. You all are the best.

Great Half Price Books! There are always plenty of staff, to keep the place tidy and stocked, which other Half Price locations could take a hint at. The place is two-​stories and there are two stairways in different sections of the store. I highly recommend going up there because that’s where the clearance section is and I always, always, always find books there no more than four bucks. It’s a dangerous place for me! If you sell your items here, the staff is fairly quick at getting through them and giving you an offer. There’s one unisex bathroom on the first floor and a private parking lot — but note that during the holidays it gets full. This bookstore is always a stop for me whenever I’m in Redmond.

Always find something interesting. Just found a not released yet in the U.S. book!
Large assortment of books and other media.

Yes, bring back real bookstores. There is nothing like roaming and rummaging around for books. And lots of them. I seem to always find interesting ones like Letters of Oscar Wilde. Now, I always go straight to that section first to see what treasures await me. I’ve also picked up several vinyl albums and a few DVDs for so little money, I thought the price was marked wrong. They’re great at buying your books back so you don’t feel guilty when you have to purge every once in a while to make more room for others. I like the space which makes it sprawling and comfortable for browsing.

I really enjoy this store and while, in my opinion, some things are still over priced being I can get them cheaper online, there are still good deals and frankly most places you go are over priced.
The staff are nice, the store is well kept, and they will have items brought to your location if they’re at a different store.

I swear, they remind me of platos closest, they pay you nothing for your books/​magazines!
I asked them what they resell magazines for and they told me «we would sell this for .50 cents» yeah right! I’ve never seen a magazine sold here for .50 cents!

Pretty good place with lots of selections in all categories (at least the ones I’m interested in). Very relaxed atmosphere and fair prices for used books. I go in about once every couple months and enjoy browsing around, taking my time. Nice atmosphere in this old vintage building and I’ve never been rushed or harrassed by the employees.
Don’t bother selling books to them though — they give you practically nothing for them. If your lucky they’ll give you a quarter a book; doesn’t even pay for the gas to haul them down there.

We love to read and if you have a hard time paying full price, this is the place to go. Yes, it may not have every title under the sun, but what book store does? FUnky atmosphere and the possibility of finding a really cool book, even an out of print one, make this our go to store for reading.

My husband and I love browsing this store. It’s large and clean, with a great selection of high quality used books. We rarely make it out the door without purchasing at least one book.
The reason for 4 stars is that parking can be a bit difficult at times, as the lot is pretty small.

This is one of the better shops actually located in Redmond. It is clean, large, and well stocked. I also love the layout. I have to remind myself to always check here first when I’m in the market for a new book. They’re in great condition and well-​priced. The staff is nice here too.

I am a bargain shopper for books, and this hits the spot. If you are clearing books out to make room for new titles on your home library shelves, you can browse and they will connect with you by intercom and give you a «bid.» Generally these bids are much lower than I would prefer, so I have ended up holding on to many titles, but their pricing is affordable from the customer standpoint, and I can understand they need to maintain margins. I am glad to support physical bookstore locations.

I enjoyed coming here with the Mrs. when we lived closer. It felt like a small store yet is much larger. I think it’s because it’s broken into two rooms, one being narrow but long. They had a great selection of used and mixed books and video games, mostly used books which is why they’re half price, duh.
It can be difficult locating a parking space since the parking lot is kind of like a dead end alley. Maybe it’s changed since I was last here over two years ago since Redmond is always under construction in that area.

My husband and I enjoy browsing through Half Price Books. It’s amazing what you can find. I found some great old stories and kids books for my niece and love coming across a used book series for a fraction of the new cost. Even my mother in law has to visit them when she visits us from out of town.
The parking lot is a bit crowded and awkward to navigate but since they added the new public lot next door (I would recommend parking there) its much less stressful to get in and out of.
As for selling books, I have only been through that experience once. Apparently the books I had were not popular/​older but still in excellent shape and I didn’t get much for them. I think I would have been better off just donating some of them instead of selling them but oh well.

This is a GREAT used book store. Lots of good cookbooks.
You can sell your books here, too, and get a few bucks at least. But that probably won’t be enough to make up for all the cool books you find that you end up taking home!

Half Price Books rocks for the most part. You definitely have to pay attention to the neighborhood where it’s at, as it will tend to reflect the surrounding demographic factor, particularly in what they read.
LOCATION: It’s in core retail section of old Redmond. There are lots of stores and restaurants within walking distance. Half Price Books is in a building built in 1910.
PARKING: It sucks. There is parking on the south side of the building. Making a left turn to get back out onto the main street is a bit of a challenge during normal commuting hours.
SERVICE: Good.
SELECTION: There are lots of nerds in Redmond (thanks to the good olé MS). The selection here is particularly good at this store.
PRICING: Fair. Some Half Price Books stores leave me wondering, but I never question the pricing here at this store.
Overall, a great book store. The only sore spot is the parking.

I came to this store recently and was pleasantly surprised by how awesome it is! I’ve lived in Redmond for over 17 years, and eons ago, I brought many books here to sell. Most of the books were new and were coffee table art books (i.e., super expensive), and I remember how shocked and disappointed I was when they offered me pennies for them. I vowed never to come back.
Fast forward 15 years or so, and I came back. As a customer in the market to buy books, this is a great place. My kids got books they needed for school and I got some current bestseller non-​fiction books, in addition to a mint Monty Python & the Holy Grail DVD. Also got a box of lovely notecards for $ 2.99. Everything was very reasonably priced, the lay out of the store is great, and the selection in every section I checked out was impressive. The books themselves all were in good to great quality; a few I saw had handwritten notes in the margins or highlighted areas. But not bad. Some appeared totally new. And the salesperson was friendly enough at the cash.
My overall assessment: great place to buy books, but you won’t get much return here if you’re selling your books here.

Half Price Books is a great bookstore. I used to go to locations in Austin, TX, so I was delighted to see they had stores here in Washington state. With so many bookstores closing down due to an increase in online media, it is nice to see that HPB is still around. They will buy back your used books, software, music, videos, etc. for either store credit or cash payout. You will get more value out of your used book sales by taking the store credit, but it is nice to know that cash payout is still an option.

I was shocked at how many low stars this place got! How in the world can books for less $ be a problem (good customer service or not)? Sure, I’ve been here and received weird customer service… but I could get that anywhere. I wasn’t there for the customer service interaction. After all, what is that…1 to 3 minutes out of my day? No big whoop! I love this place for their wide selection of books, movies and music. I like to spend an hour or more here… and so could you! Go now!!!