
Show HN: Compare book prices across Amazon, Wordery, and the Book Depository - k33l0r
http://www.piranhas.co/
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heroh
there are 100s of such services out there (most query many more retailers to
find the lowest price) + some offer API access so you can do revenue sharing.

the biggest player in the space is [http://bigwords.com](http://bigwords.com)

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k33l0r
I used to use a couple of competitors, but I was pretty dissatisfied with them
all. I thought I could do better, hence the site...

bigwords.com also only seems to work for textbooks.

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pkfrank
You should check out my startup's site: Texts.com. We compare prices across
sites like B&N, Chegg, ValoreBooks, and others. While it's targeted towards
textbooks, it works very well for just about any book.

For a timesaving tip, you can type any ISBN or keyword (title, author, etc),
directly into the URL to save a few seconds. IE:

[http://texts.com/b/Steve](http://texts.com/b/Steve) Jobs Walter

>>

[http://texts.com/b/Steve%20Jobs%20Walter](http://texts.com/b/Steve%20Jobs%20Walter)

>>

[http://texts.com/books/9781451648539](http://texts.com/books/9781451648539)

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amaterasu
Another great alternative for this is booko.com.au.

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gjm11
Very nice!

Amazon offers multiple different kinds of shipping with different prices. (I
expect the other vendors do too, but haven't checked.) It looks as if Piranhas
picks the default, but I'm a cheapskate and rarely have an _emergency_ need
for a book, and therefore tend to choose "super saver" delivery for any items
it's available for. If we're comparing against shipping from overseas, this is
clearly pretty reasonable.

It would be very cool if you could, e.g., indicate how quickly you want a
book, and have Piranhas choose an appropriate shipping option for each vendor.

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k33l0r
Thanks for the feedback.

A shopping cart approach is something I've thought about, but I'm not sure
when I'll have the time and/or energy to get it done…

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k33l0r
I submitted this sometime ago when I first launched it, but it's recently
undergone a fairly major redesign (basically a full rewrite of both the front-
and backends).

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kmfrk
Very snazzy - looking forward to HTTPS. :)

Book Depository is a weird thing; for a couple of years, I was unable to buy
books there, because they had met some kind of weird quota for my country.
Wonder what was up with that, but I assume it has to do with some tax-dodging
deal in Jersey or wherever they're based.

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tomorokoshi
Book Depository used to have, for some books, much better deals than Amazon.
Then it got bought by Amazon, and prices are pretty much equivalent now.

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Ecio78
I remember I bought a book probably one or two years ago and it was available
on Amazon (but it was sold by BD behind) and directly by BD and BD was
cheaper.

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dublinben
What is the benefit of searching five different national versions of Amazon?

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k33l0r
It's mostly useful for those of us who don't actually live in a country with
an Amazon “presence”, so to speak. I can never really be sure which Amazon
will be cheapest for me here in Finland.

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tomorokoshi
This is nice. Some years ago, I used a site called "bestbookdeal" that did
pretty much the same thing.

One improvement that I would very much like to see is the ability to search
for a set of books at once.

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neilsharma
like the simplicity. Maybe factor in used books and kindle versions? I almost
never buy new books anymore. Also, half.com often have cheaper prices than
amazon.

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MaBu
For ebooks I prefer [http://inkmesh.com/](http://inkmesh.com/) and
[http://luzme.com/](http://luzme.com/). In Lulzme you can also add wanting to
read list. And when price falls you get mail. Interestingly most of the books
are cheaper on amazon.uk than on amazon.com. And sometimes Kobobooks has
cheaper books but that rarely happen.

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sitkack
Why doesn't this do used books? Why no alibris? Most books I do end up
purchasing are not new. This site wouldn't be of immediate use to me.

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dewey
I never heard of Book Depository before but it's cheaper than Amazon for most
of the books on my wantlist. Neat! Thanks for posting.

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hackuser
I just came across the Book Depository a few weeks ago and tried ordering a
couple of books.

On the downside, the books didn't ship for a week and I wasn't told there
would be a delay (I just double-checked the order confirmation) or that a
delay had arisen; I assumed the books had shipped until they told me a week
later that they had just been mailed. When I asked why, they said they were
having trouble sourcing them with suppliers. While these aren't best sellers,
they are leading books in their field and commonly used in college classes on
the subject. Also, shipping from the UK to the US takes a little while.

The upside is that shipping is free and that their mission sounds encouraging:
(from their About page:
[http://www.bookdepository.com/aboutus#helpContent](http://www.bookdepository.com/aboutus#helpContent))

"Founded in 2004 to make 'All Books available to All' we focus on selling
'less of more' rather than 'more of less', differentiating ourselves from
other retailers who increasingly focus on bestsellers."

"The Long Tail: why are we making as many books available as possible?

Of the 30 million titles ever printed in the English language only a few
million of these are in print. We are seeking to make available as many of
these titles as possible (and working to do the same with foreign language
titles). This way, we will have the largest breadth of titles available in the
world. Where books are no longer in print or poorly available we are seeking
to make them available again by republishing. We do this through our Dodo
Press imprint."

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bvancea
Really nice site, the interface looks really good and I'm very pleased to see
the shipping price is also included in the listing.

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chestnut-tree
This is super. Simple, easy interface. Search results are presented very
nicely: clear and easy to scan. Excellent work. Bookmarked!

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k33l0r
Thanks!

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ghostDancer
Brilliant , i always do this manually. It would be better, at least for me ,
if you could add also amazon.es :-). Thank you.

~~~
k33l0r
Amazon.es is on my todo list. I should get round to it relatively soon…

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elusivemowgli
Another website called dealoz.com provides the same service for books and a
whole bunch of things like electronics.

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Zolomon
There is a swedish version of this at [http://bokfynd.nu](http://bokfynd.nu)

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whatusername
For an Australian version: [http://www.booko.com](http://www.booko.com)

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dajohnson89
Is there a reason why Barnes and Noble prices aren't included in the
comparison?

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alixaxel
Sweet, I'll use your website next time. :-)

Thanks, and as Borat says, "big success"!

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incogmind
Great work.Would be cool if it shows ebook prices too when I do the search.

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almog
Well done! I too often make these comparisons manually.

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k33l0r
Thanks

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hackuser
Why these three? Are you based in the UK?

Also, what is Wordery; I hadn't heard of them. Why would I buy a book there
rather than someplace else, other than price?

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jayaram
pretty cool!

Is there a way to show what type(paperback, mp3, etc) somewhere in the title ?

