I used to live near Maplewood over a decade ago and I completely forgot that I used to go to this HPB location. Compared to other locations, I think it is bigger and has a wide variety to choose from. Originally, I was looking to hopefully snag a cookbook, but didn't plan on finding myself a planner as well. You will find a variety of potential gifts for others or even yourself - ranging from bookmarks, planners, calendars to board games or books. Maybe this is what 40s is looking like to me, but HPB is severely underrated. read more

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fun book shop! Lots of used books in good condition, some new too. There are some good deals to be had if you're willing to look around for a while. They have a great kids book selection, the board game section is expansive as well, lots to check out! read more

This was my second time at a Half Price Books, but my first time at this location, and I was really impressed! Greeted with a warm hello as I walked in, which was a great start. The store is bright, clean, and much better lay out than the other location I've visited. Everything was super organized, making it easy to find exactly what you're looking for. Man, is it easy to go wild in here and easy to lose track of time. The selection here was fantastic... books, games, DVDs, records--you name it. I was especially impressed with how large and well‑stocked the children's section was. I noticed staff regularly tidying up and keeping things neat, which made browsing even more enjoyable. My interaction with the gentleman at checkout was quick and efficient, just the way I like it. I only picked out one book this time (hard to resist grabbing more!), but I'm already looking forward to coming back very soon. read more

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Very fair. Polite. Comprehensive. The selection of material, books, records, maps, puzzzles and games is fantastc.

I used to shop at HPB for several years. Over those years I learned that it is rare when any of their staff knows the difference between a 1st edition and a BCE, or a trade paperback to a mass market paperback. I would often find historical fiction mixed with non-fiction, and yes, there is a difference. I do not believe they open any used books they purchase because many times I would take a used book from a shelf and it would have highlighting, margin notes, missing pages, photos, smudge marks, etc... And finally, I would not sell books to any HPB because you will get only a few cents for a new condition book. Or, if they do not purchase your book(s) you will be given the common excuse of, "We have several copies of those" or "The book is too old." You could bring the Dead Sea Scrolls in and they would not know what it was and would say, "It's too old." Donate your books or take them to more reputable and knowledgeable bookstores, they are out there and are not difficult to find. read more

I stop in here often....you never know what's been dropped off. The staff are always friendly and helpful, as in they will look up if another store has a particular dvd I'm looking for and ask if I want it transferred to the store. Thanks for always providing a great shopping experience Half Price Books! read more

I really like their new location. It's a lot more spacious with a pretty good selection of items.However, not as great as Highland Park in terms of variety in certain sections. Was pleasantly surprised to receive the amount that we received for the bag of magazines we brought in and a few old DvD's. Of course I put that towards my new purchases. Right now a lot of stuff is 20 percent off. Found some great books for practically next to nothing. They have little coffee pots set up for customers and the staff is always pleasant here. Like the new spot and location. read more

Asked to speak with a manager about how they determine the offers they give to booksellers. The "Manager" I spoke with ended the exchange almost immediately after I questioned their process. The "Manager" simply said: " We're done here." When the opportunity arose to speak to the *Actual* manager all he had to say for himself and his staff was: " We do the best we can with our customer service."... seems like an admission to having sub-par customer service... I had planned on buying several books from the store and let it be known to the initial "Manager" I spoke with that he was now at fault for those books that were about to be purchased, remaining on the shelf. I could not recommend enough to take your business elsewhere! read more

Visited the Maplewood location to obtain information on selling a collection of vinyl records. The sales clerk I spoke with was arrogant and condescending. I simply asked HPBs approximate markup from the price they pay for used LPs so I could get a idea of what I might expect from my collection. He refused to provide a straight answer and haughtily replied that it depends on condition, artist, demand, blah, blah, blah ... well duh. I'm not a 12 year old kid! I visited two other used record stores today and the clerks were very helpful. They told me the markup they try to achieve and with that info I was able to approximate the value of my collection based on their retail prices. Based on their scant, overpriced LP inventory and their clerk's snotty attitude, HPBs isn't interested in jumping on the vinyl craze bandwagon. I'll be selling my vinyl elsewhere. read more

I have been a huge buyer of books for my friends and family for years from HPB. Recently I have tried a few times to sell books from my own vast collection and the experience has been crummy. Now I do understand that re-selling anything is never going to amount to what you bought it for, like a car books,games and all of the things HPB sells depreciates in value. In these hard times I think after a loyal consumer brings 4 bags of books and items to resell the staff should have the tact to offer them something more then 0.50 cents it's a slap in the face as a consumer and seller at HPB for staff at HPB look at me with a straight face offer 0.50 cents for my 4 bags of items and then say you can take the offer or take your items back.... The whole point is not to come back home with items someone else can use and make a pinch of cash. Instead the 0.50 cents I took didn't even cover a percent of the fuel used to go and return home. Thanks HALF PRICE BOOKS!!! read more

When I come home, I love stopping in here. When I was in middle & high school, my girlfriends and I lost quite a few afternoons at the mall (didn't everyone?) and then wandered over to Half Price Books and spent a few more hours browsing, reading, relaxing in infinite possibilities of inexpensive books to buy. The great thing about this place is that they always have everything - and nothing is ever expensive. It's very well organized and the staff are very helpful. Cons: no system to know what books are in stock or not, you just have to check for yourself. Also, basically no "international" cookbooks here... just your basic American, Italian, and possibly Mexican if you want to get really creative. read more

Big big fan of this Half Price Books. I was looking for a way to sell my ancient books from college with minimal effort. The internet told me that there is a HPB near us. The HPB website told me that no appointment is necessary and that they will take all books, movies, and music off your hands even if they can't sell them. DONE AND DONE. So my boyfriend and I brought in several boxes of books and movies (DVDs) last Sunday. It was pretty busy but I think we only waited about 25 minutes for them to give us an offer. We got around $70 for all our stuff, which is of course but a fraction of the actual worth, but waaaaay more than we were expecting to get. Woo hoo!! They also disposed of our cardboard boxes and even the weird containers other things were in. Soooo much better than places that make you take back the stuff they don't want. HPB donates items they can't sell, which is awesome and "green" of them. We looked around while waiting for them to appraise our collection. We picked up three "new" books, all of which were ridiculously cheap. The store is neat and clean, laid out and labeled in a way that makes it easy to find things, has tons and tons of books, and all of the books looked to be in really good shape. Most of them looked new, to be honest. No musty basement books here! One old review says that have no way to look up inventory, but this has changed. Their computer system can access the inventory of all stores. When we got home my boyfriend realized he may have accidentally sold an irreplaceable book from his childhood. He called the store and they called back several hours later. They didn't find the book, but assured us they'd looked everywhere, including in the dumpster. The guy also said he was working the next day and he would keep an eye out for it. We really appreciated that they went above and beyond to try and locate the book even though it was our fault. (Shhh -- Don't tell anyone but he found the book last night in a strange place at home.) I love small, independent bookshops but they have limited inventories which makes it difficult to both buy and sell. HPB lies somewhere in-between the independent bookstore and the Goliath Barnes & Noble. This spacious HPB has a good selection (plus more music than I expected) and great prices. Plus buying practices that helped us clear out the basement and storage closet and put cash in our pockets. There is a parking lot (outside) and two restrooms (inside). Right across from Maplewood Mall. On a couple bus lines. This Half Price Books has a new fan!! read more

This is one of our favorite Half Price Books in Minnesota. It's got huge windows and great light. Everything seems bright and everything is well organized. They have a "movie classics" section that I love and always seem to find one of my favorite movies. We did very well on a recent visit. We make this store a regular stop when we are in the area. read more

There's a reason this place always has lots of customers in it and the name of the store says it all. There's a good selection of gently used and new/like-new books that are at least half the price of retail. If I had to categorize this store, I would say that Half Price Books is like the offspring of a Borders and the Goodwill. I'm a big fan of book shopping at thrift stores but the state of the bookshelves at most thrift stores is very, very sad. A lot of the books smell bad or are so disorganized that you actually have to feel them all up in order to read the titles. And while I love books, I don't LOVE books, so yeah. That's not the case at Half Price Books. I shop the clearance section of this store religiously because I can pick up gently used paperbacks and hard covers for $2 that actually are good books I want to read. The selection is always changing so there's almost always something new to see. And it's also clean, which is always a bonus. Another bonus? They pay cash for old books. It's not much, obviously, but it's better than nothing. This weekend, I picked up a gorgeous hardcover knitting book by Teva Durham that I've been wanting for quite some time but didn't want to spend the money on, but for only $9.95 and in near-mint condition, it was a third of the retail price so I got it. There was also a Kaffe Fassett book on the shelf which I almost brought home but didn't. If it's still there the next time I go back, it's mine! read more

We came over here while waiting for the game store across the street to open. Dood, free coffee and a section of vinyl and dvds. Sweet. The place is well set up, and you can find stuff pretty easily. Although there was a bit of a time constraint, we both decided to return another time. I seriously dig this bookstore. read more

Half Price Books - Music & DVDs Near Me - Maplewood, Minnesota

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I went to Maplewood Mn Half Price Bookstore. I will not bring my books again. I was disappointed with the amount they gave me. Basically a $1.00 for each book. From now on will donate the books. Second I was suppose to receive $11.00 only received $6.00. Very disappointed I won't go back again. read more

For being a used book store some of the prices were higher than expected but overall I was happy with the selection. That being said- I was NOT happy with their offer. I was delighted to find out they were going to purchase all of my books- but only for $8.00! I brought in ~20 books. I understand they cannot offer much but for $8 I would rather drive a little farther and get more in-store credit. read more

Had to check out the 20% off weekend. I went to the old location to find it empty and wondered what they did with all the books. Turns out they found a better home. I overheard someone say it's bigger than Roseville. This location seems more orderly and arranged better. You don't have to hunt for things. A larger selection of hardback and large print books too. Go in spite of the heavy construction, this is closer to the freeway anyway. What to do with the old location, how about another Trader Joe's. read more

I can't say much more about the book selection than what others have been saying: you're bound to find something good and cheap if you look around enough! What I will say is that the Maplewood location has an especially strong video game collection! You'll find something from just about any era, through the glut of their collection is mostly PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, and Wii games. However, you'll find small bunches of things like Atari 2600 cartridges and PSX discs here and there. Prices on these games can be hit or miss, though ($30 for Super Mario World on SNES - really?) The Maplewood HPB is also a great place to sell off your games. They will buy any of your used games and consoles, and it seems like they make pretty good offers! I brought in about 15 of my games (11 PS2, 2 Wii, and 2 hard-to-find Gamecube games), and they offered me $70 for the lot. I was expecting to get about $10 or so! What a pleasant surprise! Granted I likely would have received more if I sold them online, but it was an quick and easy way to cash in. So consider selling some of your old games here. To get a better sense of what they'll offer you for them, I recommend checking out their collection. They'll likely give you a better offer for games they don't already have on the shelves as opposed to the games they have many copies of already. read more

I made the mistake of trying to bring books in today, which is Thursday. They don't buy anymore on Thursday. I was told that they're short staffed and this will likely be a long term change, if not permanent. I've been going to HPB for years (although only rarely actually buying or selling any books) and never had to worry about what day it is. Why should your staffing issue cause my inconvenience? Perhaps you should start paying your employees and then some might decide to stay. Can't afford to pay them? Perhaps you should stop charging 3-5 dollars for books you're paying 10-25 cents for and then people might start purchasing. If your business model isn't allowing you to stay in business then just close up. Trust me, the public won't mind that much. read more

Very disappointed with what they gave me for like 15 boxes of books. $30!!! The customer service is very poor. Feel like they don't like to do their jobs. Gave me weird look for being so many books. Wow!!! Never going back again. read more

Went into to sell some books, the worker on duty (Babs) was not friendly and was very rude. And to top it off they hardly gave me anything for the books. Won't be going back there again. read more

I absolutely love this store! It's nice, clean and it has that 'book lover's' ambient bookworms love. The staff is friendly and I have an amazing experience every time I go there. EVERYTHING is in either 'new' or 'like new' condition which is a plus. read more

Over the last three years I have been to three Half Price Bookstore locations.I will never ever go back or have anything to do with the their Maplewood location. They always seem to have only two, very rude employees on the floor. The employees don't want to help me find a copy of Harry Potter and the Halfblood Prince and very loudly have loudly me that such a book does not exist. The Maplewood location askes very expensive prices for books, CDs and vinyl albums. I have tried selling my lightly used books to them, some books are still in the shrink wrap I bought them in. They have rude cashiers take their dear sweet time looking at those books that I'm trying to sell and offer me only $0.50 for all of them! Never again will I shop at the Half Price Bookstore franchise, least of all their Maplewood location! read more

I've baught a couple books from here, no problem. But I was more excited about the fact that they sold old N64 games! Awesome!

Called to have a book sent to a closer store for pick up. I had to repeat the title of the book eight times. I gave up, hung up and waited to be less frustrated. Called back, was lectured that I had the wrong title. For the record, I originally the very first time gave the wrong title and the correct author, but the second through eighth repetition of the title was correct. The guy was just totally stuck on the first thing I said... Terrible customer service. Definitely don't appreciate the attitude of the bookseller on the phone. Didn't appreciate being lectured at nine am on the weekend either. He found the book, but who cares, so did Amazon. read more

Cheapest LP's you'll ever find. They used to be 50 cents when I was in high school, but I hear they're more expensive now. In any case, I bought my first 50-or-so records here. Amazing deals for books, too. read more

This isn't my "home" HPB (I live out of state), but thanks to Nick I was able to find a somewhat esoteric out-of-print book that none of the other HPB stores in the country seemed to have. At first the book appeared to be missing, but Nick went the extra mile to seek it out & found it for me! I really appreciate his taking the time to do this for a book that probably had little value to most of their customers - what a great HPB store!! (Wish my home stores were this excellent!) Thanks Nick!! read more

Decent location with good selection that's rotated out regularly. Nice open layout that makes busy times less intrusive and claustrophobic. Only downside is some "creative" stocking choices. For example, if you want a tapas cookbook, you need to look in 'Latin America' cooking sub-section, despite tapas being from Europe. A pretty blatant faux pas bordering on ignorant. read more

Not a really huge offering of vinyl records, but I've never been to a Half Price Books that's had more less than this store has. Prices run all over, from expensive to pretty damn cheap. I picked a $1 copy of the Cotton Goes To Harlem soundtrack by Galt McDermot and a $1 copy of Bob James' Lucky Seven album. Both were in really good condition, too. Onto books... I'm a fan of Native American, history, philosophy, art, and architecture. Since I was pressed for time, I only checked the Native American section. Some really great selections with very nice pricing. I will be replacing my lost copy of "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse", as well as picking a few other books I found there. All in all, a really nice store. I hope to visit the other store I keep hearing about, in the near future. read more

I'm a huge fan of Half Price Books, which stems from me being a huge video game, book, comic, and movie nerd. Needless to say, this place is kind of like heaven to someone like me. However, not all of them have the best stock. The one is Maplewood is a great one that will more than likely have what you need. The people are always helpful and always know exactly where everything is at, and are knowledgeable about what they are selling. Movies and video games are in a pretty good stock, and their comic stock is one of the best I've seen. Stop by and give them a try if you are in the area. read more

I will never, ever take books here again to sell. I have taken books there twice, both time I had a nice collection of nearly new books, excellent condition. And the author is very well known. I was told that they don't take "book club" books, which I don't see where these books would have been in a book club. And as I waited for my quote, I found the exact same books in the store that they had already, only in paper back. Mine were nice hard copies. This place sucks!!!!! read more

If you're buying, great selection and prices. If you're selling, you'd be better off saving your gas and throwing your books out or giving them away. I brought in about 20 books that were not all that common, and ended up getting 2 dollars for them. They were in perfect shape as well. read more