Where to buy books in Germany

I tried out some different portals for buying books and Amazon.de has always proved to be the right one for me. A few times before I also tried to order some books on AbeBooks.de, where the books are often the cheapest in the whole EU (one can get a 5% cashback discount thanks to the registration at iGraal),  I just wouldn´t recomend you to order books which are meant as a gift or purchase them for resale. Because the books are wrapped in a bubble envelope and sometimes are the cornes scraped due to the transportation and also the delivery time is around 10 days. Amazone packes the books thoughtfully, they have them in stock and the delivery time is around 1 - 3 working days (you have to make sure that your seller is really Amazone). Books meant for resale and already packed in a box without logo (so you don´t have to buy another wrapping or box etc.) can be bought on Buecher.de. But you have to make sure, that they have the book in stock, in other case is the delivery time relatively long. Books are the most frequent article, which I purchase in Germany...

If you need to find out, which book is the cheapest in the world (new or old), then I recomend you this website, where you can compare them: JustBooks.de.

The manual for making your own, almost for free, book cover is shown here: http://frederick41.de/buchverp.html. The best way to break the cardboard is to break it in the right direction (if possible, not perpendicular to the lateral offsets board) and cut it by a steel ruler with a snap-off knife.

How does Amazon send off deliveries from Leipzig

We receive deliveries from Amazon everyday, which are often perfectly wrapped up (with exceptions) and I was quite curious how does the production of those deliveries in their "factory" work. E.g. this is the center in Leipzig, where they send off deliveries for their regular dealers, who are selling on Amazon.

Websites for tracking deliveries

You can see some links below, which allows you to keep track of your delivery, that you are expecting to come. It is necessary to know the tracking number (often marked as Paketscheinnr., Referenznr., Sendungsnr., Trackingnr., Kontrollnr., Tracking ID, Sendungsverfolgung, etc.)

• DHL Deutsche Post
• Hermes
• DPD
• GLS
• UPS
• TNT
• Česká pošta

Recorded delivery mail (RR) can´t be tracked, Recorded package (BA) yes.

This is how the received delivery from 3. 6. 2011 from Hermes looks like: 

Setting the mailing address in Gemany on eBay, Amazon etc.

When you you are setting your mailing adress in Germany in e-shops like eBay, Amazon etc., it is necessary to follow up on some rules. DHL Deutsche Post wants the deliveries, which are coming to the storehouse, to have in the first line the delivery place Mailboxde.com. The standard formular from a regular e-shop could look for example like this:

Firmenname: Mailboxde.com GmbH

Zeile 2: ID .... (... = Vaše číslo)

Zeile 3: nechte prázdné

Vorname: Vaše jméno

Nachname: Vaše příjmení

Strasse: Äussere Weberstr. 57

Postleitzahl: 02763

Stadt: Zittau

Land: Deutschland

Bundesland/Kanton: Sachsen

But e.g. on eBay.de it is needed to proceed in a little bit different way, so that you can achieve the required adress:

Mein eBay > Mitgliedskonto > Adressen > Bevorzugte Lieferadresse > Ändern (or Neue Adressen hinzufügen) > Land oder Region: Deutschland > Name der Kontaktperson: Mailboxde.com GmbH > Straße: Name Surname (or name company name), ID ... > till the field Straße (Teil 2) write: Äussere Weberstr. 57 > Postleitzahl: 02763, Ort: Zittau > I recommend to click on: Diese Adresse als meine Standardlieferadresse verwenden.

 On Amazon.de like this:

Mein Konto > Einstellungen: Neue Adresse hinzufügen > POZOR: In the 1. line have to be the name  Mailboxde.com, that´s why it´s needed to be solved this way > Vor- und Nachname: Mailboxde.com GmbH > Firmenname: Name Surname (or company name), ID ... > Straße und Hausnummer: Äussere Weberstr. 57 > Stadt: Zittau > Bundesland/Kanton: Sachsen (compulsory) > Postleitzahl: 02763 > Land: Deutschland > Telefonnummer für Rückfragen: Your telephone number with the dialling code (eg. +420).

It is necessary that the structure of your address looks approximately like this:

Mailboxde.com GmbH

Name Surname (or company name), ID ... (... = Your box number)

Dresdner Str. 9

02763 Zittau

Germany

It should be ok, even if you couldn´t state Mailboxde.com GmbH in the first line, just make sure it is written somewhere in the address.

Amazon Warehouse Deals

In the meantime I have only experiences with the purchase of books on Amazon Warehouse Deals, which are returned for example by other buyers. Amazon is offering them again with high percentage discounts and they also write down if there is any problem with the goods. In the same way Amazon offers many different kind of goods, which can be bought for a favourable prices. They are ofte marked as B-Ware etc. Before I thought of them as defective products, but it works like this: 

Amazone´ll receive the once sold goods back, they´ll check if the product is still functioning properly and avaluate the state of the product and at the end the product will be offered on Amazon again for a very low price as Warehouse Deal...

Used books from Amazon

I wanted to see how the used books look like, which are offered directly by Amazon warehouse. It is not just a common seller, who is also offering some goods on the portal, but their products are always marked as e. g. Warehouse Delas - which means that it´s selled by Amazon. You don´t have to pay those 3 Euros for the postage like from other users.

I was quite suprised how perfectly was the book wrapped up and the only sign of someone using it was the stamp on the lower back part of the book. It was probably a sample. 

I just took a brief look at the book, but it became really popular at home. What´s worse, there was a really long list of similar books attached to it, which I supposedly should order sometimes again :) Amazon knows how it´s done....

Creativity, inspiration,...

Free postage from Amazon

It´s a good idea to read through the conditions of delivery by Amazonu. There are actually a few options, how your goods could be delivered. 

I mostly buy books and I use the sending type Standardversand:

Standardversand (Bis zu 2 Werktage. Kostenlose Lieferung für Amazon Prime-Mitglieder, Büchersendungen und Bestellungen über 29 EUR)

Büchersendungen und Bestellungen über 29 EUR means, that the books (of any value), or orders over 29 EUR are send for free in Germany. Amazon also mentions in their conditions, that the category free of charge also refers to these goods:

Music, DVD, VHS, Games und Software.

It is possible to have the goods sent to you by express, just beware of fees which are mostly charged. Another way how to send without any charges is with the help of Premium Versnad, which is in the first month free of charge for new users, but after this time they will charge you an annual fee when you won´t cancel the service in time. I´ve never used it, that´s why I can´t judge it. Maybe just in the aspect, that the delivery time is faster by one day.

It´s necessary to mention that those conditions are directly from the Amazon storehouse. Some of the products on Amazon are sold by other users, which can have their own delivery conditions.