> I have not yet completely understood what made Book Depository special. Was it only the free international shipping? Or was there more to it?
My understanding is that their business model was to offer a really wide selection of titles, instead of the "top 10" type offering Amazon is mostly about. I think that's a significant part of it.
I apologize if it came across as I made the claim that they really do; I was making an attempt at summarizing my understanding of how the business model for bookdepository might carry some value adding proposition to customers that extended beyond "just" free international shipping. That understanding comes entirely from this quote from a Guardian article about Book Depository's demise:
> The Gloucester-based bookseller was founded in 2004 by Stuart Felton and Andrew Crawford, a former Amazon employee, with the mantra of “selling ‘less of more’ rather than ‘more of less’”. It aimed to sell 6m titles covering a wide variety of genres and topics, as opposed to focusing solely on bestsellers. [0]
Seeing as Book Depository later became a subsidiary of Amazon, it's fair to question whether that model held true. I don't have enough insight into Amazon's catalogue to say either way. Also, I can't remember to which degree Amazon relied on "other sellers" back in 2004 or if that came later ("other sellers" being a way to offer a wider selection than what one carries oneself in retail).
To answer your question for an example of a title Amazon doesn't have; I recently found myself recently looking for "Hur svårt kan det va'" by Eva Bodfäldt, which may admittedly be a contrived example, although Amazon does carry another title in Swedish by the same author [1] (though used and from a third party). As it happens, Book Depository has the title... alas, it's not available for delivery anymore.
My understanding is that their business model was to offer a really wide selection of titles, instead of the "top 10" type offering Amazon is mostly about. I think that's a significant part of it.