[speakingtohe]

What I can't quite grasp is the hostility to publishers charging what they want to for ebooks, and the great desire to resell books.

Used bookstores pay pretty well nothing after initial startup and most want 50% of your trade/purchase in cash.
One is lucky to recoup 20% of the price you paid for a used pbook in a trade in situation.

pay $7.50 for a used $10 book, get $3.75 trade in value. Pay $3.75 in cash. Savings would seem to be $3.75, but you already paid $7.50 for the book you traded so for 2 books you are paying $11.25 a savings of almost 50% and you still have credit. So you buy another $10 book which is another $3.75 bringing the total to $15 for 3 books. Here you are getting your 50% savings.

But.. Many used bookstores will not take all of your books as trades. Especially bestsellers as they already have many copies in inventory. Frustrating.
You spend time and money transporting your used books to the bookstore and some are turned away even if you bought them there.

The bookstore grants you 50% credit of their selling price, but at the same time gets $3.75 or more cash so worst case they are breaking even on transaction. And just try returning a used book because of missing pages.

And as I said before, most used bookstores pay nothing for inventory, get their books hand delivered by the customer, make a tidy profit on most transactions as most people who trade 4 books, buy 4 or more books, netting the bookstore double what they have given in trade in credit. They often do pay rent and minimum wage to their employees, but compared to cash layouts by publishers this is a pittance. So why is there not more animousity towards used bookstores?

And selling on Amazon/Ebay seesm to be pointless in most instances. Most used books are selling at 90% less than cover price and one assumes tha tthe average reader would be selling only one copy of the book. Many, if not most books with a cover price of $9.99 are selling for &0.99. So you get your 10% back but is it worth the trouble of setting yourself up as a retailer to do this. If you read 7 books a week, you can save a whopping $7 if you manage to sell them all, the buyer may pay shipping, but you have to spend time and energy, perhaps gas and wrapping paper to fulfill requirements. Spending even an hour of your time to recoup $0.99 seems just plain silly to me.

My opinion only, but the advantages of selling used books are highly overrated

Helen