AbeBooks was founded in 1995 by Rick and Vivian Pura, and Keith and Cathy Waters.
The site was launched in 1996, initially including listings for only four bookstores. AbeBooks acquired Germany's JustBooks GmbH online book marketplace in 2001, which helped the company expand into the German, French and British online bookselling markets.
In 2004, AbeBooks expanded its model to include new books, and acquired the Spanish company IberLibro, to better serve Spanish language markets.
In 2002, the founding partners were bought out by German media company Hubert Burda Media.
From the late 1990s through 2005, AbeBooks had reseller agreements with eBay, Half.com, Barnes & Noble.com, BibliOZ.com and Amazon.com, allowing AbeBooks to market and sell booksellers' books through those channels; these agreements were dissolved in 2005.
AbeBooks purchased IberLibro.com in October 2004 and its inventory was integrated into the AbeBooks' database in December 2006. In November 2005, AbeBooks acquired BookFinder.com, an American book price comparison "metasearch" shopping service site.In February 2006, AbeBooks acquired book-inventory and order-management company FillZ.In May 2006, AbeBooks purchased a 40 per cent stake in LibraryThing, a social networking and book cataloging website for bibliophiles.
In February 2008 AbeBooks announced the creation of the Gojaba.com site. This marketplace was designed initially for Russian and Swedish audiences, does not share inventory listings with the other sites and operates under different standards and rules.
In June 2008 AbeBooks was awarded the British Columbia Technology Industry Association Impact Award for Leadership in Social Responsibility for its charitable activities, literacy initiatives, and commitment to environmental friendliness in its business practices.
On August 1, 2008, AbeBooks announced that it would be acquired by Amazon.com. The deal gave Amazon.com a stake in both LibraryThing, of which AbeBooks owned 40%, and competitor Shelfari, in which Amazon.com had invested separately.
In October 2008, Abebooks was named one of BC's Top Employers by Mediacorp Canada Inc., which was announced by The Vancouver Sun, The Province and the Victoria Times-Colonist.