eBooks and second-hand sales

pdurrant · 09-30-2008, 05:51 PM

An article on second-hand sales of video games

http://techdirt.com/article.php?sid=...&threaded=true

made me understand another reason when eBooks are worth less than paper books.

There's no second-hand market for eBooks. Not even for non-DRMed eBooks. Why not? Because I can't get rid of my copy of the eBook. Even if I copy it onto a CD-R and wipe all copies from my computers, I still have the eBook -- sitting in my bookshelf at fictionwise.com or webscriptions.net.

So - if I buy a paperback or hardback, the book retains some resale value. This makes it more valuable that the equivalent eBook.

eBooks should* always cost less than the paper edition.

Paul

*OK "should" is problematical. Things cost what people are willing to pay. I think that in the long term, people won't be willingto pay as much for an eBook as for a paperbook. If publishers keep trying to sell eBooks for as much or more than the paper editions, they won't make significant eBook sales.

DaleDe · 09-30-2008, 06:59 PM

A lot of times the pricing is basically just a mistake. For example the hardback book comes out then the eBook. The eBook is priced less than the hard book which is good. A year later the paperback book comes out priced below both and nobody thinks to go back an reprise the eBook. Often if you point this out the result will be a lower of the price of the eBook.

DDHarriman · 09-30-2008, 07:01 PM

Simple: the selling model has to be different.

See what scientific magazine aggregators are doing: renting by year the access the 10 of thousands of magazines in full text to an organization who then lets their users download them at will. If you stop the subscription, you go out with all the files you have "bought" in those years, and the stuff published before - most of it as no much value anymore.

This is just an example but many other can emerge!

09-30-2008, 05:51 PM	#1
pdurrant The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠 Posts: 73,664 Karma: 315126578 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Norfolk, England Device: Kindle Oasis	eBooks and second-hand sales An article on second-hand sales of video games http://techdirt.com/article.php?sid=...&threaded=true made me understand another reason when eBooks are worth less than paper books. There's no second-hand market for eBooks. Not even for non-DRMed eBooks. Why not? Because I can't get rid of my copy of the eBook. Even if I copy it onto a CD-R and wipe all copies from my computers, I still have the eBook -- sitting in my bookshelf at fictionwise.com or webscriptions.net. So - if I buy a paperback or hardback, the book retains some resale value. This makes it more valuable that the equivalent eBook. eBooks should* always cost less than the paper edition. Paul *OK "should" is problematical. Things cost what people are willing to pay. I think that in the long term, people won't be willingto pay as much for an eBook as for a paperbook. If publishers keep trying to sell eBooks for as much or more than the paper editions, they won't make significant eBook sales.

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09-30-2008, 06:59 PM	#2
DaleDe Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,470 Karma: 13095790 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Grass Valley, CA Device: EB 1150, EZ Reader, Literati, iPad 2 & Air 2, iPhone 7	A lot of times the pricing is basically just a mistake. For example the hardback book comes out then the eBook. The eBook is priced less than the hard book which is good. A year later the paperback book comes out priced below both and nobody thinks to go back an reprise the eBook. Often if you point this out the result will be a lower of the price of the eBook.

09-30-2008, 07:01 PM	#3
DDHarriman Guru Posts: 860 Karma: 4380 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Almada, Portugal Device: Cybook Gen3, Sony PRS 505, Kindle DXG and Samsung Galaxy Note	Simple: the selling model has to be different. See what scientific magazine aggregators are doing: renting by year the access the 10 of thousands of magazines in full text to an organization who then lets their users download them at will. If you stop the subscription, you go out with all the files you have "bought" in those years, and the stuff published before - most of it as no much value anymore. This is just an example but many other can emerge!

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