We’re very pleased to announce that we have quietly snuck the new Biblio UK site out the back door of our skunkworks!

The new site is focused largely on serving European customers who are looking to source second hand and antiquarian books “locally” from the UK or other parts of Europe.

While a few other companies already operate used book marketplaces in the UK, we’ve tried to do things a little different. We didn’t want to create a cross-the-Atlantic “twin” of our main “dot com” site with a different domain extension, different default currency, but the same choice of books and booksellers.

Instead, the new site primarily features books from European book dealers. The total number of books available won’t be the full 50 million as on Biblio.com (which will continue to serve as our international marketplace). But, we think that in a time of rising shipping prices and increasing concern about the environmental impact of one’s purchase decisions, European customers will find it refreshing to have access to inventory more specific to their needs and location without having to hunt through page upon page of books shipping out of non-European countries.

We’ve also used to opportunity to expand the payment choices we are able to offer customers to include European cards such as Maestro, Switch, Solo, and Electron. We’ve also added the ability for customers to pay by direct bank draft and Google Checkout (available with some sellers).

Of course, our new UK site does share many other things with Biblio.com, including:

* the same core technology, including our fast and full featured second hand book search
* our rare and antiquarian book room, in this case, featuring rare books primarily from UK sellers
* the same exact standards among our fine book dealers
* the same high commitment to personal customer service and satisfaction
* our carbon neutral shipping program, whereby we use a percentage of every purchase to support renewable energy research and development
* our dedication to communities, by which we designate of a portion of our profits to support literacy and education, both at home and in South America

We’ve also taken the opportunity to rebuild some major parts under the hood – but I’ll spare you the details. Suffice to say we’ll be even better equipped down the road to continue growing our little business and our mission of providing the best possible service and products to discerning readers, collectors, booksellers, and all our other friends out there in the independent book community!

Your comments, feedback, ideas: more than welcome as always. And thank you again for your continuing support of Biblio, independent bookstores, and the causes we stand for!