I picked up some books at the local Borders this evening… that’d be two computer books totaling $86 after tax. When I got home, I checked out their reviews and prices on Amazon, and found that I could get them for $55 w/ free shipping.

So what did I do next? Ordered them on Amazon, and added one more book in. So, I still spent $86. Well, I spent $160, but I plan on returning the books I purchased within the week so I don’t own costly duplicates.

How often do you buy books and return them? I know bookstores aren’t libraries, but their return policy (w/ a receipt within 30 days) can easily be followed if you want to get a quick read in, or buy now and buy cheaper later. I feel guilty doing that and don’t do it often, but in this case the Amazon price is so much cheaper, and I haven’t really read the books yet. Of course, the people at the store don’t know that, and I always feel so foolish when I return my entire purchase a few days later.

Plenty of people sit in Borders and read books, so I don’t see a huge difference in taking it home to review and returning it. I rarely do this, though, because I like to write in my books and keep them. The only reason I’m going to return these is because I bought the same ones for cheaper online.