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Is the Barnes and Noble membership worth $25?

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View Poll Results: Is the Barnes & Noble 10% off memberhip discount worth $25 per year?
Absolutely! (explanations/anecdotes appreciated)
11
28.21%
Not-solutely! (explanations/anecdotes appreciated)
23
58.97%
Whatever that twikoff thing means. (explanations/anecdotes appreciated)
5
12.82%
Voters: 39. You may not vote on this poll

Is the Barnes and Noble membership worth $25?

Old 01-04-07, 04:33 PM
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Is the Barnes and Noble membership worth $25?

I never think about joining B&N because I rarely shop there. Then, all of a sudden, I find myself in one killing time while the girlfriend is shopping in the mall or there's a deal like the current B1G1 TVonDVD sale and I take pause.

Is the 10% off merchandise deal worth my $25? Their prices seem so high, and I'm not always in there (although that could possibly change, with the membership). I've probably purchased ten books there in the past eighteen months, and all of them off the bargain rack. Again, this has more to do with price than anything.

Basically, I'm interested in hearing opinions on why the membership is worth it or not, and any stories on how it became worth it or not for other users.

Thank you.
Old 01-04-07, 04:36 PM
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I have one. I probably don't use it enough anymore to pay for the $25 fee, but I used to use it all the time in the coffee shop inside. With work and dvd's, I just don't buy books as much as I used to.
Old 01-04-07, 04:47 PM
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Well, if you're paying $25 for a 10% discount, then you'll have to spend $250 before you break even. And even then, if you spend $500 a year, you're still only netting a 5% discount.

Amazon has better prices on books, and CDs and DVDs can usually be found cheaper elsewhere.

The Borders card is a better deal when you factor in that it's free, and you can use coupons with it. You don't see your discount immediately, though you do get 5% back at the end of the year, providing you've spent at least $200 that calendar year.
Old 01-04-07, 05:21 PM
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It sure was worth it to me. I signed up a few weeks ago and got a $250 Lego Mindstorm set for around $170 with their member discount of $25 and a member 25% off discount.

Since then I've bought several books with 10-25% off member coupons. They opened up a new B&N B&M closer to my house than Borders and I was sick of Borders anyway so I'm pretty happy with it. I found that I don't like the way they organize their cookbooks though.
Old 01-04-07, 05:51 PM
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you can get 40% thardcover bestsellers, 20% off all other books and 10% off everythihng else
Old 01-05-07, 09:17 PM
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Originally Posted by X
It sure was worth it to me. I signed up a few weeks ago and got a $250 Lego Mindstorm set for around $170 with their member discount of $25 and a member 25% off discount.
I also took advantage of this same Lego deal based on your original post - thanks again. Along with the many orders that my wife puts through BN, the membership has already paid itself off over the years.
Old 01-06-07, 12:44 AM
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I wouldn't normally think it's worth it, but I purchased a membership with the Mindstorms deal. Normally I don't buy enough to justify a membership, but starting with a $250 item before the coupon discount made it a no brainer.
Old 01-06-07, 07:53 PM
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YMMV, but I just found a Lego Mindstorms at Target at the wonderful clearance price of $124

I'm now the owner of 2 Lego Mindstorms (this one goes along with the B&N deal). :-)
Old 01-06-07, 08:01 PM
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For me yeah, we buy a lot of books there (especially my wife). I can get them cheaper online (or at their library) but when I want to read something I want to read it now.
Old 01-06-07, 08:14 PM
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I think it's worth it, mostly. With some patience, I can pile a coupon code, B&N discount, and Amazon, and get books at B&N.com much cheaper than Amazon. And sometimes that works for instore too:

Earlier this summer I picked up Dragons of the Dwarven Depths by Weis & Hickman. I had a coupon for IIRC 25% off any book. The book had a 40% off sticker as a new bestseller. Plus the B&N discount it came to like $9 for a brand new hardcover.

Like Josh said, though, you need to spend $250 a year to break even on the card. I had a $100 giftcard to burn through last year I got for xmas, I got a $50 B&N GC this year.

BTW if you buy Starbucks at the B&N (ours in located in the mall) you also can get 10% off the Starbucks prices. For us that only occurs once in a great while, but still. Something to consider.
Old 01-07-07, 12:09 AM
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I buy many original scores which places like BB and CC don't carry and even if they're cheaper on Amazon, when you add shipping, it does become more expensive. Then there's the coupons and other extra discounts...
Old 01-07-07, 12:34 AM
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It's a good deal if you're going to spend over $250 a year there. Obviously, if you don't, it's not.

I did it after moving to a new city and finding myself going there weekly. Between me and the wife, we easily spend the $250 to make it a bargain. Don't just look at the 10% off, either. They also send out coupons weekly to members. Sometimes they're for specific items, other times they're additional % off on anything. You also get a catalog in the mail a couple of times a year loaded with more coupons you're not going to get anywhere else. After getting their holiday catalog, I walked out of there with 2 tins of tea, 2 pounds of coffee, 2 books and a couple of Criterions for $40. Saved a hell of a lot more than the $25 cost right there.
Old 01-07-07, 09:26 AM
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I bought my membership 2.5 years ago and have never had to renew. So theoretically, you have more than a year to make your $25 back and you don't have to make it back every year.
Old 01-07-07, 11:02 AM
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I have gotten screwed with enough store clubs, the last one to close up shop was Waldenbooks club. I will NEVER pay for a store membership again. FYE is always asking me to join, I always ask them if it's free, they say no and I say NO....Do not pay for any store clubs!
Old 01-07-07, 06:54 PM
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Originally Posted by Josh-da-man

The Borders card is a better deal when you factor in that it's free, and you can use coupons with it. You don't see your discount immediately, though you do get 5% back at the end of the year, providing you've spent at least $200 that calendar year.
Actually, you do see discounts immediately. You get frequent coupons in the email for 30% off of any book. There are lots of in-store discounts for members only. For a free card, it's pretty good.

I actually like Barnes and Noble stores better, but just can't bring myself to buy there when I can get the same thing for 30% off every couple of weeks at Borders. Why would I bother paying $25.00 for LESS value than the free Borders card?
Old 01-08-07, 01:33 AM
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I do not purchase ANY memberships to get discounts. If a store doesn't want to give me a decent price then I will just find some place else to shop. And from what I've seen, Barnes and Noble doesn't offer overwhelmingly great prices to justify a paid membership. And considering I only buy a book occasionally, it's just not worth it for me.
Old 01-08-07, 07:52 AM
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I voted WHATEVER simply because I say yes and no. I signed up because I ordered some of my textbooks there while in college. Anything I could pick up used at the campus bookstores I got, but anything new I bought I went into B&N store and had them order for me, got the 10% off, and when you're spending $300/semester there it's worth it. It takes about a week for the books to come in, but no one ever uses the books during the first week anyway b/c so many people added/dropped classes during the week. After that, anything else I bought there was a bonus and I certainly got my $25 back.

But now I'm out of college and don't find myself there very often. I bought a book my grandma wanted for Christmas, a book I wanted, and up until the B1G1 where you could use the $10 coupon and member discount, I hadn't bought much else recently. Even then, deals like that don't happen very often at B&N, b/c the sets are priced so much higher. After the $10 and member discount, the two sets I bought were still $38, or $19 a piece and you find TV sets on sale for that price somewhat regularly. A lot of sets just simply don't get that low often and some are on sale for $20 every other week (friends, seinfeld, king of queens, married w/ children), but I wait for other shows to go on sale and jump when the Law & Order and Monk sets were $20.... I just had to quite a while.

So I may or may not renew membership in a few months... I'll have to see what goes on with their books and DVDs from now until then and see if there are any very worthwhile deals and if more are coming, I may jump... but more than likely I won't.
Old 01-08-07, 10:31 PM
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My book vendor of choice is booksamillion.com which has a 10% card called "The Millionaire's Club" for $10.

This card gives you 10% off all their books which are usually slightly lower than Amazon after the discount. They also offer free shipping with a minimum order of $25.
Old 01-09-07, 07:35 AM
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The only store I pay to shop at is Costco
Old 01-09-07, 11:04 AM
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I usually just order off eBay, half, or Amazon & save at least 50% that way. I think I spend maybe $100 a year with B&N mostly on stuff I need immediately.
Old 01-09-07, 11:13 AM
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Correct me if I'm worng, but Barnes and Noble does sell more than just books, right? Seems like alot of people are saying that they only buy one book a year or so.
Old 01-09-07, 02:33 PM
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I only use it for books and it is worth it for me. I can't imagine that using it exclusively for DVD's is worth it. They have a good amount of deals on books throughout the year that can make it worth it (i.e. - I just bought about 30 books from their After Holiday Sale). I guess it really depends on how you use the discount. I'd say if you're unsure, then you probably wouldn't use it to it's fullest extent.

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