AbeBooks. Thousands of booksellers - millions of books.Do you enjoy the adventure of finding a rare or out-of-print book in one of the back stacks of a used-book store? Or do you like the idea of paying a fraction of the price for a gently used book as you would have to pay for a new one? (By the way, if you don’t see an image on this page, we suggest you turn off your Ad Blocker for this site, or you’ll miss a lot. We promise not to clutter up your screen. 🙂 )

The internet has its versions of used and rare book stores as well, and we  have found AbeBooks.com to be one of the best and certainly much more easily navigable than some others. It is owned by Amazon, and some of the very same books are featured on Amazon, and if you’re a penny pincher, it’s worth comparing prices. We’ve found that some items actually shipped to Canada or the US cheaper than we could get them through Amazon, partly because Amazon has a flat rate for shipping and the rate from AbeBooks.com member store varies. AbeBooks.com also carries some new books.

A few things we found:

  • A set of Arthur Maxwell Bible Stories, like new at much less than new price.
  • A set of Uncle Arthur’s Bedtime Stories, like new at much less than new price.
  • Books in series published by Pacific Press but no longer carried by the ABC.

What will you find?

Remember, though, that used and rare books are not limited to AbeBooks.com. You may also find them listed at Amazon.com.

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Comments

Used & Rare Books — 11 Comments

  1. Need help. Our church is search of the 1941 SDA Hymnals. We need about 90 of them. I have searched GOOGLE, E-BAY, Overstock, R&H, etc. The best I can come up with is 3 so far. Anyone have any ideas of how to find a larger quantity?

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    • Well, Jerry, if you'll search the AbeBooks.com links on this site, you will find at least 3 more, and there are some listed without dates. However, you may be able to tell by the number of pages. The Church Hymnal has 640 pages in the notes version. (The one without notes would have considerably fewer.) The new Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal has 832 pages.

      You can also find 9 copies on Amazon.com with prices ranging from around US$30.00 (5 copies) to over US$4,000.00 (brand new)!

      If you are searching online search for Adventist "Church Hymnal" not SDA Hymnal if you want to find relevant results. If you'll tell us approximately where you live, some folks reading here may have some they would sell to you.

      Those members of your congregation who have smartphones or tablets can search for an app that has both the new hymnal and the old one (1941) on it. It will have the words, not the musical notes, and many of the hymns may include midi files.

      I hope this helps.

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  2. Central PA (just outside of Harrisburg). $4,000 is a bit pricey. 🙂 I did notice that the search title ought to by CHURCH HYMNAL. Thanks.

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    • LOL! Yes, I agree that $4,000 is a bit pricey, but around $30.00 is closer to what one would expect to pay. Ideally, you'd find a church with a trove of old hymnals they are no longer using. In the meantime, there are those 8 (5 on Amazon and 3 on AbeBooks) that are available online. 🙂

      If anyone replies here that they have old hymnals to give away or sell, I can forward the info to you. We don't publish actual contact info online so as not to subject our readers to spam.

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  3. Can anyone remember the name of the Primary Sabbath School Songbook from about 60+ years ago? It was green/blue and had the song "Tell it again" in it with a boy lying down in the tent.

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    • Do you mean Happy Songs for Boys and Girls, published by Review and Herald, 1952?

      If this is the book you mean, you can find several copies at AbeBooks.com and at Amazon.com, as I mentioned above. I remember using it in Sabbath School for our own children in the early 70's, and I still have a couple of copies. I had no idea they were being offered at such prices!

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