Purchasing a Book

Ordering a book on the AbeBooks Web sites is an easy and secure process. Once you've found a book that you'd like to buy, you begin the purchase process by clicking the [Add to Basket] button to "place" the book in your shopping basket.

Please note: A book placed in your shopping basket isn't removed from our Web sites. Another book buyer may purchase the book even though you've added it to your shopping basket. Only when you complete the checkout process is the book removed from our inventory, and becomes unavailable to others.

Making a purchase on the AbeBooks site:

Locate a book that you would like to purchase from a "Search Results" page or your "Recent Want Matches" page.
Click the [Add to Basket] button that corresponds with the book you want to purchase.
Repeat the process until you have all the books you'd like to purchase in your shopping basket.
Within your shopping basket, confirm the shipping destination ("Order Destination") and the item information in your shopping basket is correct. (For example, if you're purchasing a gift for a friend in another country, change the "Order Destination" to that location by making the appropriate selection from the drop-down box.)

** Note: Once you've begun the check-out process, you may receive the following security message if you've been inactive on a secure page for more than 15 minutes:

Sign On

We've automatically signed off your account. To prevent unauthorized access to your personal information, we sign you off when you're inactive on a secure page for more than 15 minutes. Please click the [sign on] icon above to continue.

If you do see the message, simply sign onto your account to proceed or if you don't have an AbeBooks account, you can create one on the same screen. **
If you'd like to change the shipping speed/options, use the drop-down box found next to the displayed shipping rates.

Please note: Shipping speeds quoted at the time of check-out are estimates only. Please keep in mind that the time quoted is stated in business days (Monday to Friday) and do not include weekends or holidays. If your parcel has to pass through Customs, there may be delays due to Customs processing that couldn't be factored into the calculation of the estimated delivery date.
Click [Proceed to Checkout].
Choose the payment method you'd like to use for your order. Visa and MasterCard are payment options for all AbeBooks orders. Some of our booksellers choose to offer additional payment methods. If the bookseller(s) for your order offers additional payment methods, you'll see these presented in the drop-down list.

Note: If your order includes several books from a number of different booksellers, you may choose different payment methods for each individual bookseller. To do so, click the link "Choose multiple payment methods" located to the right of the payment options drop-down list.
Click [Save & Continue] to proceed.
On the "Order Summary" page, review your shipping address, payment type and shipping speed/method. If you have any information that you would like to pass onto the bookseller, please enter your message in the "Special Instructions" text box.

For information on editing or changing your shipping address during the check-out process, please see "Changing Your Shipping Address During the Checkout Process" below.
To complete your purchase, click [Place Order Now].
The "Thank You" page confirms that the order has been placed. You'll receive an "Order Notification" message via e-mail also confirming the receipt of your order. Once the bookseller has processed the order, you'll receive a second e-mail notifying you of this. If necessary, the bookseller will also contact you directly for payment details. The status of your order may also be viewed on the "Track Your Orders" page. (Note: Please allow up to 30 minutes after placing your order for it to appear on your "Track Your Orders" page.)

Changing Your Shipping Address During the Checkout Process

If you'd like to change your ship to address, this can easily be done during the checkout process:

After finding the books you'd like to buy and placing these in your shopping basket, proceed through the checkout process (as detailed above) until you reach the "Order Summary" page.
Click the [Edit] button next to the shipping address displayed in the upper left of the screen.
To edit your saved shipping information, click the "Edit" link found at the bottom of the address information.

The address information is transferred to the lower area of the screen, "Add/Edit Address" where you can make your changes.
Click [Save Changes] to finalize your changes.
If you want to add an address to your address book, simply enter the new information into the "Add/Edit" address area without editing your saved address information. (Skip Step 3.)

Note: A check mark next to "Save as my default address" indicates that this address will be used to automatically populate the shipping address field when making future purchases. You can change this setting at any time by clicking on the check box to remove the check mark and/or by clicking on the check box to make a new address the default shipping address.

Security tip – Please do not send credit card numbers or confidential information via e-mail or other non-secure methods.