Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Alden’s Books is a non-profit organization. This means we will try to make  your experience on our website a very happy and educational one. We’ve compiled a list of questions and their respective answers on this page so you can refer to them. If there are questions and subjects that are not answered by our comprehensive FAQ, please email to us your questions. Send emails to Info@AldensBooks.com; we strive to respond to questions within a 24 hour period.  

Question: Does Alden’s Books Sell New or Used Books? We sell both types of books, new and used. In general we have more used books for sale than new. In both cases of new and used, you will find our new books heavily discounted from their retail pricing. In the case of used books we sell the books at the current market pricing. When we offer used books at prices greater than their original retail prices, then those books are collectibles and oftentimes are very rare. In our modern era of electronics when information is available via the internet, fewer books are being printed. Over time, books in general will become more valuable.

Question: Why Are Your Books Priced So Low? Am I Buying Books Nobody Wants? In a sense, you are buying books nobody wants. Most of our books are donations to Alden’s Books. Donors chose to give us their books so we can continue to help troubled teens. Because the books are donated, we can resell the books at very low prices. The quality of the books is very good. In cases of rare books, their conditions are listed in their description. Their owners trade in other books so we can continue to do our charitable work. We will never reject donations or trades. Finally, we also buy books. When we buy books we stick to books of very good condition. You can be assured of complete satisfaction when you buy an Alden’s Books item. We want you to be our regular customer and tell your friends. In this way we can continue to do our charitable work.

Question: How Long Do I Have to Wait for my Books to be Delivered? Alden’s Books sends out your order within two days’ of your  placement. We try to fulfill your order the very same day, but you can be assured the order will not be inactive for more than two days. We send our books out using the United States Postal Service. In most cases we will use Media Mail rates, which is the least expensive for books and reading materials. Media Mail rates deliveries are toward the slow end of delivery time. The post office stipulates that Media Mail mailed packages will arrive from 3-14 days of their shipment in the lower 48 states. Delivery time for packages mailed out to Hawaii and Alaska will run from 2-4 weeks. In cases where delivery time must be faster than Media Mail we will deliver using the post office’s other services: overnight, priority mail, etc. In super rush orders, we will use FedEx, DHL, United Parcel Service's overnight delivery, or special messenger. Yes, we do have unique books that sometimes requires immediate delivery.

Question: Do You Insure Your Packages? Every Media Mail delivered package has the Delivery Confirmation service attached to it. This is the United States Post Office service that tracks the date and time of deliverability. Each package so shipped has a tracking number and you can use the tracking number to track the status of your package. Other packages mailed more expediently will have similar tracking services added. We want to make sure that the books you buy do get into your hands safely.

Question: Will My Books Arrive in Good Condition? We pack our books with care. We recycle our packaging materials. Hardly anything is wasted in Alden’s Books operations. Whatever materials we use we guarantee that your package will arrive with it’s books in the same shape that were in when they leave our shipping area. If your books are damaged in transit, please contact us and we will make immediate refunds. We will do whatever is necessary to make your experience with Alden’s Books a great one.

Question: Should I Be Worried About Entering My Credit Card Information for My Books Purchase? The Alden’s Books website has built-in programming that prevents your credit card information from being stolen and used for charges that you do not authorize. Additionally, United States laws limit your exposure to possible fraud in the use of your credit card by imposing conditions to your credit card issuing company. You have two levels of security of your credit card information. The security of credit card transactions is very good both from the software programming side, and also from the legal side.

Question: Will You Use My Email Address Improperly? Alden’s Books will use your email address for several purposes. The first purpose is to validate your authenticity. Is the person placing the order really who they are? Once you create an order with Alden’s Books we will send you acknowledgements via your email address. If you are who you say you are, then you will receive this acknowledgement. Next, we will continue to use your email address by sending you status of your purchase delivery time. We will add your email address to our internal list of customers and will send you emails of our new books arrivals, special discounts on future purchases, etc. We will never make your email address available to anyone outside of our own operational procedures.

Question: Do I Have to Create an Account to Make a Book Purchase? Yes, you do need to create an account with a User Name and a Password. Pick a password that you will remember easily, but will not be hackable by others (use numbers and letters in your password and it will be more secure). Once an account is set up by you for your purchase you will be able to make future purchases merely using your User Name and Password; you will no longer need to enter the billing and delivery addresses again, etc.

Question: I Am Located Outside of the United States. Can You Deliver Books to Me? Yes, we can deliver books to you if you live outside of the United States. We use international rates if using the United States Postal Service, our FedEx, or other services. Please email us about specific rates to your country. We will make sure the package is delivered to you in a timely and safe way.

Question: Do Holiday Schedules Affect My Order Processing? Most of our employees donate their time to operate Alden’s Books. In no case, even with holiday scheduling, will your order be processed more than two days after placement. In general we process within the same day of placement.

Question: I Am Not Satisfied with the Book I Purchased. Can I Obtain a Refund? Yes, one of our goals is to attain complete customer satisfaction. If you are not happy with your books we will refund the book purchase price immediately. You have up to 30 days to return the books to us. Of course, the books must be in the same condition you received it since we will offer them to our customers. We won’t be able to refund the cost of the shipping and handling to you, however. In the case where we refund your purchase price, we both lose. We try to prevent this from happening by offering you quality books at very reasonable prices. Failing that we will gladly refund your purchase to your satisfaction.

Question: May I Refer Friends and Relatives to Buy Books from Alden’s Books? How should we answer that question? Why of course we want referrals from you. This is the only way we continue to satisfy the reading needs of our customers. The continued profits from your purchases from Alden’s Books will be donated to charitable causes to help troubled teens. Your purchase of books will help us serve this need. We also have a program that you can benefit from in our operation. We have a referral program on our website. When you go into the detailed listing of any book, there is also a button that says “Tell a Friend and Earn Free Books”. If you click on that button you will be shown a page that will allow you to create a custom message that Alden’s Books will then send to your friend’s email address. If your friend buys that book, we will set up an account for you that we will fund with 5% of your friend’s purchase price. Your account credit will accumulate as your friends make more purchases. Soon, there will be enough credits in your account for you to make purchases! For FREE. And, here’s something that you will be glad to know. Credits accrued from this referral program can be used not only to buy books from the website and in the store, you can use the credits to buy gift cards. You can give the gift cards to others to use. These credits are useable in their entirety and do not have to be matched by cash or credit card use (please make a distinction of this Referral Credit from our Store Credits for books bought by us from you, the seller).

Question: Do You Accept Donations? Yes, we gladly accept donations. This is what keeps Alden’s Books operating. If you donate a lot of books we’ll even arrange with you to pick up the books, at your convenience, so you don’t have to lug them over to our store. A small box of books weighs about 40 pounds. (When we move our boxes of books around we treat them as if we're exercising at the health club!) If you have smaller boxes of books, we’ll pick them up when we make our weekly pickups; all you have to do is to leave them outside of your home or office with a note that says: Alden’s Books PickUp. When you donate your books to us we clean them up, process them, and then offer them up for resale on our website and in our store. Profits from the sales of these books fund our charitable causes in Alden's name.

Question: Do You Buy Books and How Do I Spend My Store Credits? Yes, we buy books. When you sell us your books we will offer their value in store credits. Let’s say you bring in a box of books and we arrive at a value of $50. We will then offer you store credits in the amount of $50.  You can then spend your store credits on future purchases. To spend your store credit, you must match the purchase price with half it’s value in cash. In this example you now have $50 in store credits. To spend the store credits on a future purchase of $35.00 you can use $17.50 of the store credit (leaving you with a blance of $32.50 in store credit) plus $17.50 in cash or credit card purchase for the $35.00 total purchase. Please contact us for special pricing on your collection of collectible and valuable books from estates. In cases of estate sales the seller oftentimes will not be interested in buying books from Alden's Books; we will pay cash for these purchases. If you have a lot of books (in excess of 1,000) we will even pick them up after we arrange for a price that’s agreeable to everyone involved.

Question: How Does Your Gift Card Program Work? You can purchase our gift cards outright with cash or credit card. You can even use your credits you accumulate when you sell us your books, obtain credits through qualified referrals (those referrals who actually do buy books from Alden’s Books), or a combination of both. The gift cards are transferable to whoever will be using them. So, not only are they valuable because you can buy them with credits, but they are valuable because anyone can use them. We do not limit who can use the gift cards. Gift cards are ideal for Christmas gift giving. They can also be used to buy books online. To use them online all the buyer needs to do is enter the gift card number that is registered with Alden's Books. We will draw down the balance with each purchase. You can add more value to the current balance on your gift card at any time; they never expire. Unlike most gift cards that are active we never charge a monthly handling fee that eats up your current balance. What the balance is today will be the same balance two months from now, three months, etc. We will never force you to use your gift card because of it's decaying value for the simple fact that we do not impose any inactivity charges!

Question: How Do I Use Your Coupon Codes on Alden's Books Website? In certain cases we will offer coupons with a coupon code that will allow the online buyer to obtain a discount. We might send you an email with the coupon code, or pass out a flyer or a business card with the coupon code. Our offers vary from a low of 5% to as high as 75% of future purchases. The coupon codes have a certain life so they do expire. When you are given the code, just enter the code at the time of purchase and you will receive the immediate discount. Our customers with registered email addresses will be sent regular coupon codes for discounts on future purchases. We are serious when we say we want to have you as a customer for life!

The above set of questions should answer most of your questions. If you have a question that hasn't been answered by the above FAQ, please email it to us at Info@AldensBooks.com and we will answer as soon as we can.