ThriftBooks - Read More. Spend Less. ThriftBooks started in 2003 with a pick-up truck of used books stashed in a storage unit, listing books solely on Amazon.com. Our first book sold was the beloved children's classic, Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. Over the years, we've added regional processing centers across the country and hundreds of employees. Throughout this time, we also built our processes to purchase, grade, and distribute used and rare/collectible books.