Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
Blaming publishers' woes on the used book market is downright silly.
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I am not so sure.
I look at myself - I buy several thousands of $ of books per year, and more and more my money are shifting into used books and ebooks, since I hate mmpb's (and small print generally), so I'd rather buy a used hc/tpb.
I buy a lot of new books from the UK courtesy of BookDepository free s&h, but from the US I rarely buy new books for me, only children books and even for those I buy quite a lot used since the prices are so much better.
In the past it was much harder to find used books - 12-18 years ago I knew all the used bookstores within driving distance, as well as stopping at any such on vacations, while after moving to the NYC area in 96, Strand was my friend for years, visiting it several times a month.
But now it's so easy to buy used books online and the prices are so good, so I have not visited Strand or another physical used bookstore in 5-6 years at least, as well as knowing a lot of the online used bookstores in terms of how fast they ship (varies), how reliable they are (usually very), so I use Better World Books first (excellent customer service), Hippo Books next (fast shippers), avoid Owl Books as much as I can unless their offer is much cheaper (slow shippers)...
It's true I love visiting BN and Borders and every week I spend hours there in the cafe with my son reading, playing, but I tend to bring our own books to read, and we buy food and drinks, sometimes games and sale books, but rarely new full price books.