The End of Borders Bookstore: It's now over :_(

Update:
I checked my local Borders today and the sales still suck. The highest discount is 40% on magazines and since it's at least a week old they are getting wiped out on those.
Strategy guides are only 10% off (20% if your lucky) and that kind of discount is no discount at all.

I remember last summer I went into a borders on the LAST DAY, seriously they were locking the doors for good that evening and the discounts were still only mediocre.
 
Found tons of worthwhile deals on trade paperbacks & just in time for the softback blackest night stuff...well there goes $150.
 
I've bought one book so far during the liquidation (Tobe Hooper's Midnight Movie). I plan to hit the two Border's stores in Charlotte, NC tomorrow to see if I can find anything worthwhile.
 
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borders is surprisingly getting a lot of people walking out with stuff... The other day when I was there, I saw only one other person smart phone scanning items while others were picking up stuff at 10-20% off. Your best tool is a smartphone when you go into these places right now.
 
Anyone care to guess if there will be a noteworthy increase in discounts this week? That Aug 5 borders plus ending is around the corner :(
 
[quote name='ITDEFX'] That Aug 5 borders plus ending is around the corner :([/QUOTE]

I'm sure that they intentionally chose the August 5th date to make sure that it ended before the discounts became worthwhile.
 
[quote name='arcane93']I'm sure that they intentionally chose the August 5th date to make sure that it ended before the discounts became worthwhile.[/QUOTE]


shit...and there is no way I can see how much I really saved when I used them since I stacked them with those 30/40 percent coupons so in the end I don't know if I made it worth the money :|

Also it seems there are reports that mid to late sept. is when they are shutting down.
 
If they truly are shutting down 100% as of Friday, then this has been an even more fruitless closing sale than all of the Hollywood Video and Blockbuster stores combined.

I stopped into my closest Borders last night on a whim to see what they had left. Most books ranged from only 20-30% off full MSRP, while I believe magazines and Blu-Rays were 40%.

Of course, 40% of 30% above the normal prices most other stores charge means you're getting them for the usual price everywhere else.

Oh well. Not like I would be buying much of anything at this closing anyway.
 
The store I called said that their closing date was sometime in September. Hopefully that's correct, because I'll be out of town this Friday! (and the deals were still at 30-40% off today)
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']If they truly are shutting down 100% as of Friday, then this has been an even more fruitless closing sale than all of the Hollywood Video and Blockbuster stores combined.[/QUOTE]

What? They're not shutting down as of Friday. They were supposed to stop giving the extra Borders Plus discount after Friday, but now they've extended it to...

Sunday.

Yup. Big damn deal. (Discounts still won't be worth bothering by then.)

They haven't announced actual dates that the stores are closing completely yet, though. It will probably vary from store to store, but given how long most liquidations last I'd expect it to be mid-to-late September, or possibly even early October.
 
[quote name='AugustAPC']fuck this economy.

However, questionable their business practices were, too many good people will loose their jobs.

I wish them all the best.[/QUOTE]


fuck the tea party and the fact that Bush is an oil man
 
[quote name='Drclaw411']fuck the tea party and the fact that Bush is an oil man[/QUOTE]

Ladies and gentlemen, an idiot. Bush hasn't been president for 2.5 years. Get over it.
 
Stopped by a Borders store today for the first time that I've bothered since the sale started. The only notable discount so far is that blu-rays are 50% off (along with, until Sunday, the additional 10% off for Plus members). Even then there weren't any really great bargains to be had. They were also getting pretty picked through at this point (not a lot worthwhile left).

I ended up grabbing the Akira blu-ray on a whim for $22.50. More than I wanted to pay for it, but still a couple of bucks cheaper than the lowest price that it has been on Amazon (and that was only for like one day a year and a half ago -- it's only occasionally even dropped below $30 there). The guy at the register said that he'd been hoping it would drop further -- yeah, that's why I have to buy it now, dude, because if I wait for another drop, you'll grab it before I get there. Heh. Besides, the next drop will be 60%, and will only barely be better than the 50% and the 10% membership discount combined -- will be a while before it really gets significantly better.

So anyway, anyone that's been waiting for a real price drop on Akira, you're probably in luck now -- it's bound to plummet in the next two weeks now that I've stopped waiting for a deal and bought it with no returns or exchanges allowed. :lol:

Beyond that... Meh. 25% off on most books, 30% on some particular genres. 25% off on DVDs and toys. 30% off on CDs. Nothing else that I looked at was all that great a deal.
 
All blu rays are 50% off right now, and I managed to get The Third Man Criterion Blu ray for $20! : whee: Also the Kobo e-readers are 80 in case anyone is interested.
 
Nope, still 50 at the store I went to today.
The only decent deals in the whole store were the red/blue tagged clearance items that were marked down an additional 25-30%, and there wasn't a very large selection of those.
 
Unless they extend it again, today was the last day for Borders Plus. We'll probably start to see better discounts once it's gone, though of course the next discount increase won't be all that significant for people who would have gotten the Plus discount previously.
 
Some manga is worth looking at since Amazon doesn't discount all manga - such as Zelda manga. And some paper backs too, but over all as far as books go it seems Amazon matches or beats the discounts being given right now.

I went to Borders twice since this started and neither time did they whip out the Sharpie marker. So far.
 
I stopped at the local Borders today and pretty much had the same experience. None of the discounts offered right now even come close to what you'd pay on Amazon for anything. Yeah, 50% off all Blu-Ray movies, oh wait, they have the same titles as Wal-Mart except Wal-Mart only want $15 while Borders wants $50, what a savings! I don't anticipate deals getting good until at least after Labor Day.
 
[quote name='rocketcat']I went to Borders twice since this started and neither time did they whip out the Sharpie marker. So far.[/QUOTE]

Since 1) all the stores are closing, so they don't have to worry about you returning merchandise to another, non-closing store, and 2) the sale is being handled by a liquidator this time, not Borders, I wouldn't expect the Sharpies to appear this time.
 
Update on closeout.

gb-stolo_03.jpg
 
[quote name='spmahn']I stopped at the local Borders today and pretty much had the same experience. None of the discounts offered right now even come close to what you'd pay on Amazon for anything. Yeah, 50% off all Blu-Ray movies, oh wait, they have the same titles as Wal-Mart except Wal-Mart only want $15 while Borders wants $50, what a savings! I don't anticipate deals getting good until at least after Labor Day.[/QUOTE]

The worst part is that borders is now freaking FULL of people. Like, the store is full of moron vultures and huge lines. I don't know what they're doing! Do people not have computers? Or do they just think that "going out of business" automatically means "good price"? Nearly everything costs more there than on amazon STILL.
 
[quote name='arcane93']the sale is being handled by a liquidator this time, not Borders[/QUOTE]
Ahah, I was wondering why I didn't see many Border's employees last time I went. There was just a bunch of people walking around with headsets on asking me repeatedly if I needed help.
 
Yeah, the amount of general books cleared out at 10% knocked my faith in humanity down a few pegs. For heaven's sakes, the coupons they gave out regularly were better than that!

I was looking for a coulple books by Paul Ekman, but I didn't know where they'd be since there aren't exactly sections for either lying or microexpressions.
 
I'll admit that I did buy some magazines at 40% off - some random art stuff. But Borders was the only place with an interesting selection of weird magazines anyway. Also, 40% is a respectable discount.
 
[quote name='envelopes']The worst part is that borders is now freaking FULL of people. Like, the store is full of moron vultures and huge lines. I don't know what they're doing! Do people not have computers? Or do they just think that "going out of business" automatically means "good price"? Nearly everything costs more there than on amazon STILL.[/QUOTE]

Go to NYC and you will see businesses that are covered with "Going Out Of Business" signs all over the windows but in reality they are not. They are just going after tourists that don't know any better.

[quote name='ROB64']Ahah, I was wondering why I didn't see many Border's employees last time I went. There was just a bunch of people walking around with headsets on asking me repeatedly if I needed help.[/QUOTE]

Some Borders employees have already gotten jobs at the Barnes & Noble down the road by me.
 
[quote name='PenguinoMF']
Some Borders employees have already gotten jobs at the Barnes & Noble down the road by me.[/QUOTE]
I was wondering if B&N would open up and let some Borders employees get jobs. Hopefully every B&N that can do it is doing it, since that's a lot of people left without a job by the time Borders finally closes their doors.


Question: I haven't read any specifics, but does anyone know if Borders will keep their online store open? I just didn't know if it would be like Circuit City where they go bankrupt and close the doors, but keep an online store running. I've saved quite a bit of money buying used books from Borders online, so it'd be nice to still be able to do that.
 
[quote name='kodave']Furniture stores love to "go out of business" then re-open in a new location a couple months later.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I think our state government in Ohio made that illegal here a while back. I seem to recall seeing that somewhere on here.
 
[quote name='ROB64']Question: I haven't read any specifics, but does anyone know if Borders will keep their online store open? I just didn't know if it would be like Circuit City where they go bankrupt and close the doors, but keep an online store running. I've saved quite a bit of money buying used books from Borders online, so it'd be nice to still be able to do that.[/QUOTE]

The online property will likely be sold off to a third party, if it hasn't already. They'll keep it running under the Borders name, but it won't have anything to do with the Borders of old. That's basically what happened to Circuit City, who are owned by the people who own TigerDirect and CompUSA.

It'd probably be wise for Amazon or B&N to buy the domain name and redirect it to one of their websites.
 
Went in today with the gf and she bought a book. The girl at the counter was like, "just one book?" Of course just one book. Even at the discounted prices, things were still cheaper at amazon.

People were eating this "sale" up though.
 
I've still been mainly avoiding the sale. I relented on Friday and bought a book, then noticed later it was about 8-10 bucks cheaper on Amazon, at least before shipping (Have a very basic cell phone so not internet). Oh well, it's a cool book so I can live.
 
Are the % off universal across all locations? There are a couple of things I'd pick up if they're still there when fiction goes to 50% off, but I don't want to go back to that place until it happens.
 
[quote name='envelopes']The worst part is that borders is now freaking FULL of people. Like, the store is full of moron vultures and huge lines. I don't know what they're doing! Do people not have computers? Or do they just think that "going out of business" automatically means "good price"? Nearly everything costs more there than on amazon STILL.[/QUOTE]
:applause::lol: I've been saying this for YEARS now. Back in the mid 2000's(round 2005-2006) I hit up a bunch of Sam Goody closing sales when Transworld Entertainment(FYE, Coconuts, etc) had bought them out.

Even in the last week of business there was a TON of stuff for very cheap left. Nowadays people buy up shit at 10% off like it's the biggest and best sale EVER.

Even at the closing Blockbuster Video stores where the USED games were marked up for $40-50 EACH you would see idiots with 3-6 titles in their hands during the early phases of the closing sales.:roll:
 
:lol: I had some dude insult me while I was looking at the artbooks/anime/game guides tonight. He asked me if I was 'gonna break my piggy bank' to buy some of the stuff on the shelf, which was only a piddily 30% off still.:roll:

I proceeded to tell him I just usually wait till Gamestop and Best Buy penny this sorta shit out and get them for almost nothing.:razz: That shut him up for a bit.

Only thing I saw I might pick up IF it's still there when the percentages get a lil bit better(highest discount is 50% for Blu-Rays as of now) is this thick Darksiders artbook. They wanted $39.99 for it with 30% off of that.:roll:

Plus I wanna try and buy a couple replacement LCD monitors once they start selling those bitches, but knowing my luck I'll miss out on them like I did the ones at HWV when they closed.:bomb:
 
Got an email overnight saying everything is now 40% - 60%.

Didn't list blus at all though, and Borders.com isn't updated yet to see if they are part of the 60%.
 
We're like mid month of what the second month since these liquidation sales started, right? By this time on prior sales the shit would all likely be 60%. But since the vultures are happy enough with 30% on overpriced books/dvd's/cd's the liquidators have ZERO reason to up these percentages at all. STOP BUYING SHIT, DUMBASSES!!:razz:

They did have a special going yesterday where certain stuff(read: the movies/cds from people you've never fuckin' heard of:roll:) was an additional 10-30% off or some shit.

What amused me most yesterday was that quite a few of the locking cases for dvd's and a bunch of the long A frame shelves were already marked as SOLD, yet the other shit(computers/LCD HDtv's on the walls) are 'not for sale yet'(meaning that the fuckin' employees probably have em on lockdown for them or their friends).:bomb:

Don't get me wrong. I probably wouldn't want any of the LCD monitors or the small HDtvs on the walls unless they were like $15-30 at most cuz those things have likely been on for 12-16 hours a day for as many years as they've had em in store.
 
Now that the % off has gotten higher, I expect more shit to sell.. It's too bad everything's a mess right now...I would really love to get my hands of the Art of District 9 book.
 
You know after ITCG comments, I was just thinking......if they are not marking out the barcodes....then what is stopping the people who bought all that shit for 30-50% off listed priced from taking it to say, Walmart for store credit or other book stores for store credit?
 
[quote name='ITDEFX']You know after ITCG comments, I was just thinking......if they are not marking out the barcodes....then what is stopping the people who bought all that shit for 30-50% off listed priced from taking it to say, Walmart for store credit or other book stores for store credit?[/QUOTE]

Morals?

You could do it at Walmart but what are the odds of WM carrying the book? They only have a limited selection. Unless you mean Blu-rays, even then after WM lowest price it probably will be close to the same.

Barnes and Noble will not accept returns without a receipt.


My GF works at Barnes and Noble and says people try to return things to them that clearly have the Borders barcode sticker still on it.
 
[quote name='PenguinoMF']Morals?

You could do it at Walmart but what are the odds of WM carrying the book? They only have a limited selection. Unless you mean Blu-rays, even then after WM lowest price it probably will be close to the same.

Barnes and Noble will not accept returns without a receipt.


My GF works at Barnes and Noble and says people try to return things to them that clearly have the Borders barcode sticker still on it.[/QUOTE]

Also, the law. That's fraud to try the returns in that manner.
 
[quote name='PenguinoMF']Looking through my past emails there is a trend of new price cuts every Thursday.[/QUOTE]

[quote name='dabamus']Just got the email that it's up to 50-70%.

Not much info on what is what percent though.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the heads-up! Now I know what day to go and check out the new percentage drops.
 
:rofl: 50 to 70% off of overpriced is STILL too fuckin' high for me. Someone wake me up when it's their last week in business so I can go clean up the scraps for $1 a book/item.
 
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