Quote:
Originally Posted by DuskyRose
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.
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All valid points.
I was not clear in my post unfortunately.
My point was that the amount of savings when trading in books for credit is not that high.
Trading a $10 book bought new will get you maybe $5.00 credit and generally only $2.50 to $3.75 and sometimes less. To use the credit you often have to pay an equivalant amount of cash.
You must travel to the store, browse unorganised shelves (which can often be enjoyable
) and on occasion not find anything you want.
And on more than one occasion I have had 1/2 of the books I brought to trade refused because the store was already overstocked on them. I am talking new condition current bestsellers here.
Buying used books seems to be a buyers market these days, with, prices being very low as mentioned by yourself and Katsunami.
The fact that you can buy low, means that generally you
cannot sell high.
If you get more than 10% return on your original cover price you are doing well. If you bought it for $1.00 and sell it for $0.99 you are doing well percentage wise, but is it worth the time and trouble to get that $0.99. I have seen posts suggesting that you can buy for $10 and sell for $9.99 well good luck with that there.
I have bought, traded and even sold thousands of used books, (I read way too much) and it was great when you traded two for one and bought a few more in the process. Still fine for a long time, but then many started selling at 90% of cover and one store I went to charged half in cash and another 20 % surcharge on top of that. Quite bizarre I thought.
This switched me to the library and buying new when I could afford it.
It is way cheaper to buy second hand, perfectly fine practice, especially if you prefer paper. Counting on a substantial savings through resale or trade-ins seems like pie in the sky. Better to use the time and effort involved more profitably by collecting cans, taking in sewing or getting a part time job
Helen