row of books

Introduction


I believe that many visitors to this site expect to find a list of books for sale, but I regret this is not the case. On a positive note, however, I can offer the following guidance on their purchase.

Books in print


When you take into account the small number of bowls books being published each year (see Books by Decade) you shouldn't be surprised if you fail to find even one title in your local bookstore. Even the giant online bookstore Amazon currently has only about half a dozen in-print titles available. (Be careful when browsing this site as the word 'new' is sometimes used by Amazon Marketplace sellers to describe the condition of a book published several years ago.) Once you've located the title you want, it's worth finding the best bargain at a price comparison site such as the impressive BookFinder.com.

Second-hand books


Traditional sources of used books include second-hand bookshops, book fairs, auctions, car boot sales, fetes and charity shops, but the advent of the Internet has increased the options significantly. There are two main online sources - second-hand booksellers and auctions.

Online second-hand book booksellers

Google lists a huge number of these suppliers, but the task of searching for a particular title has been greatly facilitated by the availability of a number of book-oriented meta search engines. Try BookFinder.com which searches over 150 million books from more than 100,000 booksellers in over 50 countries. Many books offered for sale by Amazon through their Marketplace facility are very competitively priced, but as BookFinder.com includes five Amazon sites in its search, there's no need to search Amazon separately. And check out World of Books which recycles books on behalf of charity shops in the UK, and Awesome Books is also often worth a visit - both these sites offering free UK delivery.

Online auctions

The granddaddy of all auction sites is eBay and an appropriate search will often prove successful in finding a number of titles, but the fixed prices at Amazon Marketplace will frequently prove to be a better buy. Having said that, eBay can provide good opportunities for bidding successfully for scarcer titles and landing a bargain; or try one or more of the 50+ auction sites listed at Auction Lotwatch.

Sites that always seem to have a fair number of bowls books on offer include South Africa's Bid or Buy; Australia's QuickSales; and New Zealand's Trade Me. The downside for many potential bidders with the last site is that in order to register for bidding, you must be a resident of New Zealand or Australia.

Finally, be aware that bowls books sold from the USA are often exorbitantly priced.

Good hunting!


Please note that the Amazon, Google and eBay links provided above refer to the UK sites.