The eventual impact of ebooks on the used book market

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by leebase

Only the reduced buying of NEW paper books affects the supply of Used paper books. I imagine that is already happening and will only accelerate.

Used books need shelves to sit on. When the used book shops are gone, where are the books going to be stored? There are thrift shops, but they're run on a shoestring, and are unlikely to be offering their used books over Amazon or Abe. And they only have so much shelf space.

As you said, demand for used books is going down. It doesn't have to go to zero before a used book shop can't make a profit and must shut down (as I'm seeing in my neighbourhood). The fewer shops are left, the fewer shelves to store the used books on, the fewer used books are available to sell. The bulk donation operations don't sell used books directly to readers, they sell to book shops. So, not even those operations are going to save used books if they have no one to give them to.

That's why I think there's going to be a catastrophic decrease in the supply of used books, as opposed to a gradual one that matches the drop in demand.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by rkomar

Used books need shelves to sit on. When the used book shops are gone, where are the books going to be stored? There are thrift shops, but they're run on a shoestring, and are unlikely to be offering their used books over Amazon or Abe. And they only have so much shelf space.

As you said, demand for used books is going down. It doesn't have to go to zero before a used book shop can't make a profit and must shut down (as I'm seeing in my neighbourhood). The fewer shops are left, the fewer shelves to store the used books on, the fewer used books are available to sell. The bulk donation operations don't sell used books directly to readers, they sell to book shops. So, not even those operations are going to save used books if they have no one to give them to.

That's why I think there's going to be a catastrophic decrease in the supply of used books, as opposed to a gradual one that matches the drop in demand.

Interesting point.

Where I live the used book stores disappeared 15-20 years ago. Still a few around but not 10% of what there used to be.

It is the rent that is killing them IMO. Whenever a building housing a used bookstore is demolished and replaced, the bookstore disappears.

Smaller towns with lower rents still seem to have quite a few.

I would be surprised to see a catastrophic drop though. Still lots of thrift shops and garage sales and the local hospital has a book room where you can put money in a box or borrow or trade etc. The honor system Some airports have places to drop books and pick them up. Community centers and even hotels have small used book stores, again mostly the honor system.

Helen