Nice Price Books

My go-​to book store. Great selection, great prices. Screw Barnes and Noble. Go here.

Amazing selection. Great prices. Friendly, helpful service. Perfect place to spend an afternoon.

Awesome bookstore with so many neat little finds. Plus, the books are ridiculously cheap for their conditions. I was so surprised. Will be coming back here a lot more.

Nice Price is a great used bookstore. It’s a smallish neighborhood store but had some pretty rare finds and not just paperbacks either.

I’d give them 6 stars out of 5 if it were possible. Awesome place. Friendly people and a treasure of books, vinyl, DVDs — in good order (so you can actually find stuff) AND all at reasonable prices. You literally could not ask for more from a 2^nd hand media store.

best used book shop in durham

Yeah I could spend hours here.
Also has a decent French literature section.

Called there today to see if there was a limit on how many DVDs and CDs you can bring in to sell and was told they «didn’t want them». So much for a place to take your things to sell. I will not be going to this store.

Nice Price Books has two stores in the Triangle area (Durham and Raleigh). I visit the Nice Price in Durham more than any other bookstore in the area (at least 2 visits a week).
Pros: The first thing you notice about Nice Price is the nice, large (and free) parking lot. As you walk into the store, immediately to your right, is the New Arrivals section. This is the section I tend to focus on, even if I’m just popping in. They have a really great turnover rate of new stuff coming in the door and it’s rare not to find 2 – 3 books in this section every visit. They also have a great selection of 12 LPs and CDs. On most days, as many customers are browsing the audio section as those that browse the book sections. The staff is very knowledgeable and since I’m a frequent visitor they offer great suggestions based on my buying habits and the conversations we have. Book prices are generally no more than $ 7.98 or ½ of the cover price if there isn’t a sticker. Nice Price also has a frequent buyer program. If you spend $ 10, they will stamp a store card. Once you reach 10 stamps, you receive $ 10 off your purchase. Because I’m such a fixture and purchase such a high volume of books from them, I frequently receive 2 – 3 stamps for each visit.
Cons: Nice Price has so many books, they really don’t have enough shelves; therefore, there are books stacked above my reach (I’m barely 5’4) on the top of the bookshelves to the ceiling. There are also books stacked on the floor in front of some shelves. However, there are several step stools available to reach the higher shelves and the staff is always available to help retrieve an out-​of-​reach item.
Great Finds: Within a week of it’s release, I grabbed the hardcover version of Steig Larsson’s The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. I’ve also picked up several Library of America volumes for $ 7.50 each. This is the cheapest price I have found for these collectibles in the area. Because of the vicinity of the University of North Carolina — Chapel Hill, I have picked up advanced reading copies of UNC Press releases. On occasion, you can also find books from the Duke University Press.
Trade-​in Policy: Nice Price does have a trade-​in policy. They will trade for cash until they run out of cash for that particular day (so it’s best to go in early if you want to trade for cash). Otherwise, they will trade for store credit.

Despite the name of the store, I go here for the record shopping. A nice selection of LPs for good prices, and it is well-​organized, though you still get to dig. You never know what you’ll find, which is fun. Most records are $ 3.00, which is also fun.

I used to have weekly appointments right next door to this location of Nice Price Books, which was really convenient. I love this store and the manager; they are well organized for a low priced bookshop, and it was awesome to discover Nice Price after moving here from the Bay Area of California and missing my old Half Price Books so much :) They have an awesome selection and I highly recommend making a trip there when you get a chance.

Update:
I want to focus this new update on this store’s selection of academic books in the humanities and social sciences. It still gets 4 stars. It’s not as good as Carrboro’s Nice Price Books though which seems to have a wider range. For the Durham area, this may be the only good used bookstore for humanities/​social sciences academic books.
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A good used books bookshop. Though it seems Durhamites give Regulator more thumbs up, I’d give Nice Price Books more instead. It has a wider selection of books, though not new books (but who cares?), and more subjects covered.

Nice price is a gem. I walked in a few months ago on a whim after picking up some crap at Dollar General and was instantly impressed. Pavement’s Slanted and Enchanted was playing on the stereo and they had a very well-​organized selection of CDs (surprise) and of course books. There is an outstanding selection of classics in different editions, with different price ranges, but all reasonable. New stuff too. I ended up picking up a Kesey novel for ~$ 2.00 and a New Order CD for ~$ 6. Some of the higher demand CDs were a few bucks more expensive, to give you a price range. They also have a good LP selection if you have a record player. To me this is consumerism done right — enlightening products, good prices, a good shopping experience. The only problem is you may spend longer than you had planned perusing the aisles. Go!

My excuse for not reading nearly as much as I probably should has classically been «Well, books are just so expensive…». Curse you Nice Price Books with your massive selection of very reasonably priced books! I may just have to come up with a new excuse now…
So this place is simply amazing. It is the epitome of organized chaos with tons of books bursting from floor to ceiling shelves along with numerous additional books stacked on floors in front of the shelves throughout the store (yup, the books on the floor alone could probably constitute the entire catalog within your typical bookstore). There are both fiction and non-​fiction titles, with just about any sub-​genre and sub-​sub-​genre you could think of. For those less adventurous souls, there is a new releases section in the front of the store as well, thus providing a smaller and more manageable area to wade through. Feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the literary selections at your fingertips? Well, why don’t you take a break and peruse through the slightly less daunting collections of DVDs, CDs, cassettes, VHS tapes, or vinyl? Oh yeah, there are tons of those goodies as well.
I passed this place by numerous times before I finally made the decision to stop in, and I’m certainly glad that I did. Sure, you’ll probably look super lost the first time you walk through the doors (as I did) but the owner is quite friendly, knowledgeable, and more than willing to be your tour guide through the seeming craziness housed within the walls of this shop. If you’ve got a touch of inattention (like I do), though, be forewarned that your head will be literally spinning from all the choices! Best to load up on some caffeine or other stimulant of choice to boost that focus before you swing by here.

Love this place, quirky people with quirky music that u can indulge your interests… More goes on than meets the eye.

Amazing! I could have spent hours in this store… if my husband and two dogs weren’t sitting in the car, in the parking lot, with the windows up, and the AC off, waiting for me.
As it was, my (quick) first impression was stellar. This place is packed to the gills with goodies. Shelves stacked thick and tall with out-​of-​reach books, the highest of which you need to pull up a ladder to get to. They’re organized into fiction, non-​fiction, new, and some sub-​categories like African-​American lit. Of course there’s also a whole ton of records and music throughout. Most of the books were barely worn, and if they were a bit more used, the prices generally reflected that.
With Miles Davis crooning on the audio, the friendly owner helping point people in the right direction, and all the Durham-​ites coming to chat and filter through the collection for great finds on a rainy morning, this is one place I’m definitely proud to have in my neighborhood.

This is not the most complete selection of books, but I was able to find quite a few books by authors I like and felt satisfied walking out. All of the books I saw were in like-​new condition. I was very pleased with the cost and the employees were friendly and helpful. Also, they are open later than I expected for a bookstore. I was headed out into the field for six weeks (no tv, no internet) so I needed to stock up on good-​old-​fashioned entertainment, and Nice Price delivered that.

I’ve passed this place many times and decided to give it a go since it looks pretty big and packed with books. Inside, it’s a bit cramped and messy, so it’s a bit hard to peruse. They seem to have a decent selection and as their name states «nice (ly) priced books.»

Nice Price Books buys and sells not only used books, but CDs, records, DVDs and VHS tapes. (I didn’t see the DVD section myself, but I saw a sign mentioning one, so I assume I just missed it. There are tall shelves filled with books, books on the floor, books everywhere you look — hardback and paperback, all seemingly in pretty good condition. Paperbacks are half off the cover price, hardbacks as marked, according to a sign I saw posted, and they’re grouped by subject — there’s an entire little section set aside for religion/​spirituality books, for instance, and lots of history, broken down by regions and other sub-​categories. I found myself drawn to the children’s/young adult section. Wow, that was a trip back in time — «Up a Road Slowly», anyone? «Welcome Home, Jellybean»… «Witch of Blackbird Pond»… «The Hot and Cold Summer?» Seriously, the books of our childhood era kick the asses of the books kids read today. If I had kids, I think I’d bring them over here and stock up cheaply on the good stuff. Plus, after you buy your books you can get some cheap vinyl. I came this close to coming home with my very own copy of «Don’t Come Home A’ Drinkin’»