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The difference between second-hand books and second-hand cars, etc, is that a second hand book can be on sale at extremely low cost within a few days while publisher and author are still trying hard to at least break even on a newly released work.
Books beyond that first flush of youth profit in second-hand sale from wider readership and promotional value, those sold second-hand while a book is fresh might well undermine the 'success' of a book's initial sales performance to detrimental effect by reducing the enthusiasm level of publisher and author to produce more new works.
Having said that, I am not at war with second-hand bookshops and certainly stand firmly behind the campaign to save libraries. However, there should be an informal decency limit on when a book can be fairly 'sold' as a pre-used product; a business in itself as opposed to fair lending and sharing, which is a basic right I support heartily. Neil
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