BMV Books
471 Bloor Street West
Phone: 416.967.5757
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BMV Books is one of Toronto's most loved independent bookstore chains. The photo above is outside their location in the Annex.
Comments (24)
The James Joyce Irish Pub is right across the street with live music every night at 10pm! A great place to have a drink and start reading a book you bought at BMV Books! Look us up on facebook groups under "James Joyce Toronto" to see our specials and events!!
Hey James Joyce - you suck. No one looking up BMV gives a shit about your bar. Plug somewhere else.
And most loathed among other bookstores in the city - both new and used. Thanks for failing to support the publishing industry and slowly putting Book City out of business!
Book City, along with other "good" bookstores was overpriced and not competitive! BMV at least offers most used books at half price. I don't care who is in business and who isn't. Cheaper books means more people read and the more people read the less ignorant they are! Why should I buy 2 books for $70.00 at a new bookstore when I can buy 7 books at $10.00 each at a used bookstore? LONG LIVE THE USED BOOKSTORE FOR KEEPING READING AFFORDABLE :)
Hi i went there for comic books and they are amazingly cheap and awesome with a wide selection but i was wondering if it was good to sell my books there. I want to sell my books to earn some money for my sisters birthday but i want to get a good amount for them because many of them are expensive and never even been opened.
We went into the bookstore today were amazed in the vat of used magazines we recommend this store to anyone who is advid collector. I really loved this store it was excellent and big i'll never forget this store and will go to BMV books everytime i come to toronto.
This is my favourite bookstore, being an English specialist I sometimes have to read close to 30 novels in one semester and at over $15 each I can't afford them. I spent half the price of a new bookstore here and am usually able to find everything I'm looking for.
I recently sold some books there and they say they usually buy books/comics for %20 of the cover price.
A word of warning about the Annex location. If you're taking in books or DVDs to sell, and there's a slight, dark-haired girl behind the counter, be wary. She "pays" less than virtually anyone else. Either she's been told from on high to lower payouts for used books--and thus increase the profit margins when BMV marks them back up--or she's just ridiculously frugal (perhaps to prove her worth?).
By way of example, I had two copies of the same book that I took there to sell on different occasions. Both books were in brand new condition as that's how they'd been purchased. The guy who bought the first one (with some others) told me, when asked, that he was giving me $7 for that particular book, and a fair price. I went back about a month later with another small bundle, and this chick tallies up my pile and her grand total seemed a bit low to me. So I asked her for a breakdown of the buy price for each book, and lo and behold, the book that netted me $7 was only worth $4 in her eyes, and it was in the same condition and, in fact, had never been read since it was a duplicate. I grimaced a bit, but took the money as I needed to unload these books to make room in my apartment, but from now on if I slug a backpack full of books all the way down there and I see her, I'll tip the f**k back out the door.
I still recommend BMV as a place to buy books as their prices are generally fair, but now that I KNOW their profit margins are increasing exponentially on certain used products brought in by customers, I'll be more cautious in the future. And DON'T tell me they're doing it because of the economy. The other two locations are still rather generous.
BMV at Yonge and Eglinton is the best I have come across for buying and selling. I brought in a stack of books last Saturday to sell. I called the store before hand and was told exactly what not to bring in. When I arrived, my books were checked over quickly but carefully and I was given an incredibly generous amount for my used books. The guy who works in the store states that he is fair. In my opinion, he was more than fair, in addition to always being knowledgable and courteous.
I'd agree that the Yonge & Eg store is more generous than either of the other two. The Annex store is now dead last in my eyes, though they still have the largest selection, so it's a trade-off, really.
The Yonge & Eg store also beats the others on Blu-Ray discs, oddly enough. Picked up three recent arrivals there on the weekend that hadn't even been on the market more than about two weeks. Each was $11.99. They're catalogue titles, but they're still more than double that price at the mainstream stores. I had to double check with the guy why these (and a few others) were even lower than many other Blu-Rays on the shelves, and he gave what seemed a reasonable answer, particularly when I noted the "spoiled" UPC codes on the back (small hole punched in them).
I too took books in there on many occasions and will probably continue to do so, as the prices were reasonable on almost every occasion. I've sold stuff to three different guys in there, and only one seemed a little chintzy one day, but obviously I can't say if that's a recurring situation the way it is with the girl at the Annex location, who's DEFINITELY cheaping out on what the store pays in relation to what they re-sell for.
Brian T: A second copy of the same book is worth a little less than the first copy to the same bookstore, unless they're likely to move it quickly. The second copy basically can't be sold until the first copy is gone, so it's just taking up space for howevermany months it takes for the first one to finally sell. So you can't expect that the same book at the same store will always bring the same price -- it just doesn't work that way!
Chris: It DOES work that way when the first copy you gave them has been sold.
You'll note above that I said I sold them the second copy about a MONTH later. In between, I visited the store three times (it's a favourite haunt), and on one of those visits, I saw my book for sale on the shelf (and yes, I knew it was mine -- there were clues, plus it was a damned nice book, and an easy reseller).
I looked again for it, thoroughly, while in the store on a second visit, and it was gone. I was in the neighborhood a few days later and checked again. Still gone. I'm a frequent visitor to BMV Annex, so I DO buy other stuff when I'm in there, but in this case, I did this specifically BECAUSE I had another copy I wanted to unload.
BMV does not keep computerized inventory of every book their buyers purchase. These two identical books were bought by two different people. Theyse people don't check a computer database to see if they've already got a copy so they can adjust the payout downward -- if they did, you'd be waiting all day. No, they buy based on resale potential and condition, and that's pretty much it. If a book has resale value, they WILL buy more than one copy, often unwittingly because there's more than one buyer and they don't have telekinesis. And two identical books a MONTH apart are unlikely to jog a BMV buyer's memory even IF the same person bought the book both times.
I stand by my original comments. The girl who does the buying at BMV is a cheapskate, and that store probably has higher profit margins on many titles as a result. I guess that's good business. Or something.
Once i went to sell books there-the guy said he would not want them even for free-shitty attitude I might say-and he is just a salesman-I am a professional nurse and photographer and language teacher with 2 degrees-I watch what I say and how i say it.
Ha-ha funny. The used books are not worth that much. Most of the time the buyers will just make up a price. Perhaps the girl is not knowledgeable enough to price the book at 7 bucks and does not have experience to know when it can sell. Your book at used bookstore is not worth more than 25% of the cover as they have to sell it at more than half of the cover and they have to make money and they have to account for all the books that stay there a looong time without selling. I once brought a stack of books to sell to BMV downtown many years ago. The owner laughed and said it was the worst batch he has ever seen and that I can take it outside and put it for garbage collector. Made me very uncomfortable, but I have learned that the guy really knows his business. In addition I know now if I have some books that are worth something or if they are garbage books!
Sell your books privately if you don't like the price being offered by the used bookstore. Of course, then you'd really get an idea of how much your books are worth :)
Here's the low down on all three BMV locations:
Bloor/Spadina (Annex)- Has a great collection of books for all subjects: Literature,History,Children's,Language,Fiction, Non-Fiction,Entertainment etc. They are also the only location to have VHS/DVDS,Magazines, CDS, and Records. Comic book lovers, GO THERE!
Yonge/Eglington - Also has a great collection of books, varying all subjects (I was there the other day and got 8 books for $33).They also have movies. As a tip, go there if you are looking for children's books. They have a LARGE collection. They also have comic books.
Edward St - This BMV is the weakest of the three chains.It used to be awesome, but they redid the whole store to make it look like a snobby Indigo. They have a minimal collection of literature compared to the other two, and they shrunk down their VHS/DVD area. The largest area of that store is the Erotica/Porno section. Classy.
So book readers, hope this blog has helped you, and thank you for supporting the BMV chain. Only snobs go to Chapters/Indigo, and Toronto doesn't need snobby people (There's Mississauga for that)
Am I the only person who sees the irony in how Sarah's post, while trying to deride snobbery is, itself, a paragon of it?
"The largest area of that store is the Erotica/Porno section. Classy."
"The largest area of that store is the Erotica/Porno section. Classy."
That's supposed to be a joke. Why don't you lighten up? Maybe you're the snob yourself.
Yo what up. It seems a little weird to me that you had 2 exact copies of a brand new book. You sold to BMV on two separate occasions. Plus you seem to be very frugal yourself, asking for a breakdown of individual book prices. However, come to think of it, I might adopt the practice from now on. When I sold books there was a young guy with dark hair, and he just sorted through our stuff, handed some back that they wouldn't buy, and for the rest - maybe like ten books, he gave us $20. We were looking to rid ourselves of the books, and it was paper money, so we happily accepted. But in retrospect, perhaps on some things they only paid fifty cents, and I would have been better giving it to charity.
And for the writer, you sound like someone who is either a bit slow on the uptake, or someone who is looking to dump alot of books at Used bookstores.
Come clean!
Do you work at like a U of T bookstore? Do you stuff the books in your undies on the way out, and then pawn them off on BMV for a few lousy dollars?
Only the truth will set you free!
Does this place sell any cheap Ap books? I need them to study for my AP courses in high school this year.
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