I've decided to broaden my focus and include shopping tips for the savvy book consumer.
Folks, if you buy books online you owe it to yourself to check out the Alibris website.
Alibris is a bookselling/media venue with a large number of third-party sellers listing their stock on it, much like you might see on Amazon's Marketplace. Alibris itself is a bookseller, and sells some books from its own stock.
The following coupon is good through September 30, 2009:
LAPPE - $3 off $30+
If you need 3 $30 items, slap 'em in your cart and enter this coupon at checkout. You'll get the items in my example for $27 plus shipping.
If the items are from the same seller, you get a discount on shipping, which is better than what Amazon does, where you can order 10 books from the same seller and wind up paying $39.90 in shipping.
Another trick I suggest is to sign up with "Ebates". This site will give you 3% cashback on each purchase you make through them with Alibris, so in my above example you'd get back 90 cents.
This knocks your product cost on your $30 purchase down to $26.10, at which point you just got 13% off on your purchase.
That's a good deal in anyone's book!