Is there any way to cheaply obtain 3.5e splatbooks

[stormtemplar]

Title says it all. 3.5e splatbooks can be crazy expensive (75 for MiC? I think not) Is there any place where I can either obtain cheap copies or PDFs?

[Golden Ladybug]

{{scrubbed}}

Also see if you can get help from friends; perhaps chipping in some dosh with a few others to buy sourcebooks and sharing them between you, or buting the PDFs from Wizards or whoever, and then giving each of you a copy of it.

Other than that, I'd only suggest trawling Ebay and the like to find books on the cheap, or trying to store up some brownie points at your LGS and get a discount (something I've done in the past; playing other games like Magic, Yugioh or Pokemon that award gift vouchers as prizes makes the strain on your wallet much lighter).

[Curmudgeon]

Yard sales near college campuses. Sadly, this is exactly the wrong time of year; you want to get people as they're ready to move away for the summer, not when they've recently arrived.

[Hirax]

Yard sales near college campuses. Sadly, this is exactly the wrong time of year; you want to get people as they're ready to move away for the summer, not when they've recently arrived.

Heed this man if you live anywhere remotely near a large school. This doesn't just apply to books, if you're up for furniture or appliances it's also a great stop.

[faceroll]

A year ago I found 3.5 books at a game shop in virginia for 25% off their hardcover price. Picked up Frostburn. Should have got another Core set. Not like I couldn't afford it.

Oh well :(

[PersonMan]

Title says it all. 3.5e splatbooks can be crazy expensive (75 for MiC? I think not) Is there any place where I can either obtain cheap copies or PDFs?

Well, apart from combing gaming shops(a few in my area have a handful of 3.5 books for about 35 dollars, although the selection is 90% stuff I have) for a few, I'd say online used would be the best way. Problem is, they'll be getting more expensive as time goes on(well, theoretically. If people stop playing 3.5 they'll get cheap again, but...), so there's not much that can be done.

For example, the MiC can be had for..."only" 54 dollars. (http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0786943459/ref=sr_1_1_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1319011139&sr=8-1&condition=used) I was hoping to find it cheaper, but it's still less than 75.

[Endarire]

Try Alibris.com, Half.com, Amazon.com, and Pricegrabber.com.

I got Dragonlance Campaign Setting for about $3.

[Kaje]

Half-Price Books stores.

[Yucca]

Half-Price Books stores.

I saw a MIC at Half-Priced a few weeks ago. It was labeled "out of print" and priced at $50. I was sad.

[NOhara24]

Amazon always works best for me. There was a listing for a BRAND NEW ToB for $40 on there. Sadly, my order was cancelled because someone else got to it before I did. The InvisibleHand browser extension works wonders, though.

[Person_Man]

Find a storage unit facility near a large college campus. Call them and ask the attendant how they handle delinquent/unpaid units. Most places will seize the property within a certain number of days, and then either auction the property or hand it over to a pawn store (which is sometimes owned by the same person who own the storage facility). Find out what his auction schedule is and/or what time of the month the pawn store gets new stuff from the storage facility. It's a great way to pick up dirt cheap books, furniture, video games, tvs, computers, etc. Similarly, you can just troll auction sites (there's a bunch of them), and then not bid on things until the last minute. If you make friends with auctioneers and pawn dealers and let them know what you're looking for, they will often find the stuff for you.

Things have gotten a lot more expensive since cable has started running all of the pawn and auction reality shows. But there are still a lot of deals out there. The trick is to never ever bid against anyone. If you're just patient and wait for stuff that no one else wants, you can get pretty much anything for pennies on the dollar.

You can also just hang out with other gamers. People tend to sell off their collections during times of transition - when they go to college, graduate college, get married, and have their first kid. I sold off my entire Magic the Gathering collection for almost nothing. (But I was young and foolish then.
I feel old and foolish now). I know a guy who bought pretty much the entire World of Darkness (100+ books) in exchange for a case of beer. Again, just be patient and keep your eyes open.

[hushblade]

{{scrubbed}}

[Hazzardevil]

{{scrubbed}}

Kindle should start selling dnd books, they'd make a huge profit on them.

[ericgrau]

You can get them used fairly cheaply at various sites like ebay. You might even find a better deal on a collection. Make sure the books you actually want in the collection are worth the price, ignoring any dead-weight. Just do that.

Discussing illegal methods is against the forum rules, btw.

[Tyndmyr]

{{scrubbed}}

Out of print is not exactly the same as "legal to torrent". I'd avoid that.

I built my 3.5 collection off ebay, amazon, used book stores, discount racks at game shops, etc. I believe I averaged $10 a book. Now, prices have gone up(especially for certain popular books), but the same style of trawling less popular places is still viable.

[Curmudgeon]

Is it still taboo to recommend "illegal" downloads if ...
Yes, regardless of whatever follows that statement.

Hey, even if you're doing entirely legal downloads you can get grief in the process. I once downloaded some public domain Edgar Allan Poe stuff from an omnibus fantasy & SF torrent, so I'd have a computer searchable version to go along with my bound complete works volume. I got a DMCA complaint notice because that torrent included Harry Potter books (which I own in hardcover anyway) and I'd downloaded the book titles (not the contents) in that torrent. :smallmad:

[CapnVan]

All I can think of is the Chappelle's Show episode where Lil' Jon goes to the doctor, and the doc asks, "Do you smoke marijuana?"

Much laughter ensued. In character.

[Jeraa]

You can sometimes find cheap books at shopgoodwill.com (http://www.shopgoodwill.com/)

They only have a few 1st edition books at the moment, but I've gotten several 3.0/3.5 books off of there before. It is an auction site, so the price isn't fixed, but I've never payed more then $10 (not counting shipping) for a book, and usually get multiple books for that.

It isn't the best way to get books, but if/when they do have them it is usually cheap.

[zanetheinsane]

I built an almost complete 3.5 collection (need two more books) using glyde.com and ebay. I averaged about $10 per book which seems to be the sweet spot. Got a Spell Compendium and a Magic Item Compendium in a lot that averaged like $6 per book.

Tips: when searching ebay, use generic terms and sort by highest price first since the good lots will be towards the top. If you sort by "Auction Only" you cut out a lot of the crap, although I have found some amazing deals with buy it now, including a set of the leather rulebooks in flawless condition for $100 shipped.

Another trick is to sort by auctions ending soonest and filter your price range to 0.99-0.99. Look for items with 0 bids ending soon and just throw out 99 cent bids on things. You'll be surprised what you can win for a dollar. A few of my 3.5 books came that way.

It just takes patience if you want to get the books pretty cheap. I spent over a year but it paid off since I saved so much over just buying everything at whatever price it was available at.

[Grendus]

Kindle should start selling dnd books, they'd make a huge profit on them.

WotC won't allow that, and not without good reason. 3.5e is one of the main competitors to 4e, alongside Pathfinder. Making the materials easier to obtain reduces the number of potential players they can theoretically get for 4e material. Now Pathfinder... if they aren't on Kindle they should be. Not that you can't buy the pfd's and load them onto your platform, but just for the convenience of being available through the Kindle store.