Amazing Books & Records

Reviews 14

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Robert Fallon

Amazing Books is true to its name. Go visit--theres always parking within a block of the store on Murray. The first amazing thing is the variety of books. In a moderately sized space, packed with books from floor to ceiling, you can find a long wall of fiction, an array of mysteries, a remarkably rich section of Judaica, aisles of new additions, a healthy handful of new releases, and hefty shelves full of poetry, biography, lit crit, African-American, music, drama, art, gardening, kids, travel, sci-fi/fantasy, American history, European history, religion, sociology, and philosophy. There are also interesting selections of LPs and DVDs. ***Thats the key--the books are indeed well chosen, and the selection is constantly changing.*** Almost all of the books are used, and thus sold at good prices. And the prices are discounted if you buy a handful or join as a member. Used books are bought and sold there all time. The next-to-best thing about Amazing Books is the staff, who are great folks--friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable. They throw parties about once a month, and the store is always up to something fun and interesting. Finally, I dont want to ignore the obvious. The best thing about Amazing Books is that it exists at all, in a great location, providing Squirrel Hill and all of Pittsburgh with a constantly changing selection of classic, popular, academic, rare, new, and always attractive books. Thank you, Amazing Books, for making Pittsburgh an even better place!

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Sacha Cohen

I had walked by this store for years and never felt the need to enter but i had decided to give it a shot and i immediately regretted it, the entryway was dirty and the stairway leading down dangerously cluttered. It was atleast a solid 10 minutes before i had entered the store before i was acknowledged by the employeee sitting in what can only be described as a nest of dirt and cut paper hunched over his laptop. I began looking at a few books and it was terribly obvious that their books were overpriced for their condition and that their records were insulting on how much they charged for literal rubbish. Finally the employee mazed his way out of the nest of filth to introduced himself as the owner shockingly; he was unkempt and scraggly and smelled of old beans but we all have our bad days so i disregard that though he gave a fake interest and an air of prpretentious. Not to my surprise the rest of the store was covered in messes of books dangerously stacked and actual sawdust on the ground, i was surprised to see that they actually had flooring under all this chaos ( i can firmly get behind a store feeling cozy and unique but this was clearly from neglect and lack of caring) . Too end it short i do not plan on going back to this store anytime soon though ive heard they have two other locations so i may stop by those later this week

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Samuel Williamson

Honestly, not a huge selection, and what is there is extremely overpriced for used condition books (there are a lot books that were, for example, priced $8 new, and are being sold in this shop in obviously used condition [creased spine, worn edges, etc.] for $6). Its also messy, pretty disorganized, and if you have to pee venture elsewhere, their bathroom was seriously gross and needed a cleaning stat. Really unsanitary -- (actual toilet bowl was visibly soiled, there were tissues on the floor, a dirty bottle of dish soap on the sink to wash your hands, a loose roll of damp paper towels on the back of the toilet to dry your hands with, step stool with stuff on it directly in front of the toilet...) Ive been in twice and both times the people working there were very friendly and helpful, so there is that, but it wasnt enough for me to come back.

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Julien DeMarco

This used to be my all time favourite store. For the longest time half of my library was from this bookstore it is no longer the case. Having develop a personal relationship with the owner and then working for the owner and then said working relationship ending badly spilled over into the customer relationship which the owner in his own pretentiousness and rudeness ended the customer relationship. His employees are rude. The store is somewhat if not always a mess. The selection is great dont get me wrong but the books for the condition that they are in are overpriced. I would avoid all locations and I would go to the bookstore up the street from this location which is significantly better and has if not better selection and better staff.

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Chandra Marriott

I went to sell almost 50 books in excellent condition. The employee working that day said many of the books looked like they hadnt even been read. After pricing the books (which consisted of flipping through them and reading their summaries), he said he would take all of the books and offered me $7 cash or $14 store credit. I was surprised at how little I was offered. I found 2 books I wanted to purchase and the store credit wasnt even enough to buy them. I basically traded 50 books for less than 2. I dont know if thats how it typically goes in used book stores. Next time I have a batch of books to get rid of, Ill either try a different used book store or donate them to a worthy organization and take the tax deduction.

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Hanon Sachs

Excellent selection. And what they dont have they can order in. Last week I went in looking for an obscure title and they had it ordered in for me very swiftly. Plus they bought a bunch of books from me for a decent amount! But what I most like about this place is that theyre Honest.

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Victor Venturi

They have a huge variety of books! I didnt get the chance to look at their record colection, but I was impressed by the amount of books they had! The prices are also very reasonable. It is a nice place,very pretty indeed, and I was very well treated by the staff.

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Paul Bilger

Its hard to make money in the used book selling business, and spending lots of money on buying used books (even in excellent condition) is a losing game. Give them a break about this sort of thing. Excellent service, friendly staff.

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Paul Santucci

Small vinyl selection. No good deals to be had though at the time. All the stuff nobody wants is a few bucks, and all the stuff people want is similar to ebay pricing. Lot of books, of thats your medium. Clerk was nice.

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Josie Campbell

I cant even give no stars i bought a few comics from there an told them to send me a recite through messaing an now everyone on my plan has a bug in there phone someone please help me...

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Dave D

Outstanding service and very nice stuff and store. Highly recommend!!!!

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Joshua Juda

Its was okay. Kinda disorganized and messy. Prices were high for vinyl!

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Timothy Fournier

Lots of vintage books and records. They have hard to find stuff.

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Dan Lamont

Great selection

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