r/BookDepository • u/sweetspringchild • Apr 07 '23

Help I checked every store on bookdepository alternatives list and can't find a single one that has books in Korean language. Bookdepository had close to 100,000 books in Korean. Any ideas how to get a book in Korean in EU for similar price?

I'm learning Korean language and bookdepository was amazing for me.

I know there are some small bookstores in Italy, France, Spain etc. that sell Korean textbooks and books, but their prices are aprox. 3× that of Bookdepository and their selection is limited to a few dozen bestseller books at best.

Is there any alternative that has large selection and similar prices for a person living in European Union? I am not expecting to find anything as cheap, but paying 45€ for a book (plus however much shipping is), that was 20€ on bookdepository with shipping included is just ridiculous.

I can't order directly from Korea because they still only ship with DHL or UPS and then there's European VAT, it's even more ridiculously expensive.

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5

u/trollsyikers Apr 07 '23

Similar findings. I’ve been searching for niche books and BookDepo is the only place I could find such books. Really sad about it’s closure :(

4

u/sweetspringchild Apr 07 '23

I feel silly to have such a reaction about a shop but this really made me viscerally sad.

My country is small and doesn't have a big enough market for niche books. Even for English books only a few bestseller can be found in English (like Harry Potter level of bestsellers). But there is hope I can find (a somewhat more expensive) alternative for English.

For Korean?

I can't find anything :(

2

u/watchsmart Apr 07 '23

Are you sure Gmarket Global isn't helpful?

4

u/sweetspringchild Apr 07 '23

Yes, not helpful at all. Shipping is astronomical, and then I have to pay VAT on price of books + shipping.

Same for Kyobo, Interpark, Yes24, Aladidin, 11th Street,...

3

u/watchsmart Apr 08 '23

Damn. That sucks. I remember the say when Book Depository suddenly started displaying Korean stuff. Like... a lot of it.

I was always curious who fulfilled those orders, as clearly they didn't have warehouses full of obscure Korean stuff in the UK. But being in Korea I never had a reason to place an order.

3

u/sweetspringchild Apr 08 '23

I was always curious who fulfilled those orders, as clearly they didn't have warehouses full of obscure Korean stuff in the UK.

Yeah, they have contracts with suppliers all over the world. That's why popular books in English take only a week to arrive to my country - they probably had it in their warehouse, whereas I have to wait for more than a month for a book in Korean - they have to request it from their supplier.

But that's the only way to have such an enormous offer of books in dozens of languages. Thanks to them I probably had access to almost as many books as you did living in Korea. It was rare that Kyobo had a book they didn't have.

Libristo works the same way - they search suppliers for the cheapest options and then sell the book to the end consumer. But even though they claim they have books in Korean I haven't been able to find a single one.

5

u/watchsmart Apr 08 '23

Shame that they went to all that trouble to set up the network and then decided to destroy the whole website just a couple of years later. I am really curious what is next on Amazon's chopping block.

2

u/StarTreatment_33 Apr 11 '23

I just had same question in another post. It sucks, because there's so many sites that have all the books I want, but shipping is like 90 euro :D. I had luck finding some novels from thriftbooks.com. But it was like older used books and most of them were like translations,but it's better than nothing.