Quote:
Originally Posted by speakingtohe
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.
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Don't forget that for a while there were a few on-line book trading sites available to those in the US. Many with good selections and better prices than a UBS.
I know some have closed, but the one I belong to is still doing a great amount of trading. As of today, they have 4.8 million books available, 632,000 of those unique titles. The cost for a credit to get any of those books is media mail costs, what you can buy them for from other members. (I last bought a batch at $2.60 each last time) or from the club Kiosk at $3.95.
Cheaper than most of the catalog at my local UBS, especially for hardbacks. Better selection too.
They're coming up on 15 million books traded since they opened, and now are selling books themselves.
For a lot of people, it's very important that a book be tradeable, because that's how they keep their TBR piles rotated out for fresh book. So they're geared to want books that can be traded and keep their stash full at a price they can afford.
For me, I value the portablility of the ebooks, the better readability, and will only pay what I think one reading is worth to me. Just like I decide which movie I'll pay for VIP tickets, which I'll pay general seating, and which I'll wait until it shows up on tv. And since I'm a re-reader, that second read is just icing on the cake.
And some just like paper first and foremost. They always will.