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You're correct, of course, Marc. There's no data currently available to say for sure what effect used book sales may have on the early sales record of a newly released title (otherwise I would have quoted a source rather than use the word 'might'). I was expressing, as you so politely point out, a mere supposition. I felt it a realistic possibility, though, and worth considering. After all, until reliable statistics became available, it was only supposition that online book sales and, later, ebooks might severely curtail the brick-and-mortar book trade. Best wishes. Neil
PS: Re-reading this paragraph before posting, I realise that there is a difference. In the case of used books possibly unfairly competing with new release of a title, there has been plenty of time (decades at least) for statistics to be drawn up by anyone interested and with the necessary resources to conduct a study. Again supposition: perhaps this rather obvious lack of data might indicate that major publishers see the early re-sale of new titles as of little significance, which does pretty well blow my casual hypothesis out of the water, dunnit! One of the great values of this forum is that reasoned arguments for and against can influence opinion. Not for the first time, it's worked in making me think again. Many thanks, folks. N
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