Hard copy vs EBOOK

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by sabredog

Why are you on an ebooks forum then?

About to ask the same question. Sometimes trolls just like to start arguments. Time to ignore...

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by HamsterRage

This thread feels a little trollish to but it does point out a fundamental difference with the ebook model: that you can't really resell an ebook.

To me, that just adds fuel to the idea that an ebook should be way, way cheaper than a physical book. Like maybe 20% of the price of a paper book.

Which is why they should be priced at the same level that a used paperback would be. Not 10p from a jumble sale, but the price level set by Ebay, Amazon, Abe, etc. Which by an odd coincidence, is a little bit under £3.

That is what it will take for ebooks to go mass market, but I don't think we will get that price level until people can buy ebook readers in Tesco for £30 or so.

At the moment, people with ebook readers are the sort of people who had mp3 players in 1997.

[mike_bike_kite]

The question should just ask whether ebooks are too expensive. Including the idea of giving books to charity just muddies the water. Personally I don't give books to charity as I rather like seeing them in my library but that's me. In answer to your question I'd say yes, ebooks are way too expensive. Luckily there are so many free sources for ebooks out there that the question doesn't really concern me.

[WillAdams]

But each hard copy book which one purchases has a significant carbon footprint, so ebook reader hardware, once one has read a couple of ebooks (varies depending on brand) one begins to come out significantly ahead in terms of net energy usage and impact on the environment. See my post in this thread for the actual calculations:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24868

William

[Vintage Season]

Some of us keep each and every book we enjoy, with the thought that we might re-read it again someday, or that our children/grandchildren might do the same. My own love of literature began with my grandfather's library, and it is a legacy worth remembering.

If you feel compelled to clean out your once-read volumes, and donate them to some sort of charity, I applaud your generosity... but should you belittle others for not doing likewise, your shortsightedness is rather likely to undermine any perceived credibility you might have otherwise attained.

- M.

[AlbertaCowboy]

Originally Posted by rabbie

Comments please!!

You asked for comments. Next time specify that you only want positive comments by people who agree with you.

[pholy]

Originally Posted by AlbertaCowboy

You asked for comments. Next time specify that you only want positive comments by people who agree with you.

But that would have been a much shorter thread! And more boring, too.

[Bremen Cole]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

He's British; he means "bin", as in "throw in the dustbin", the way an American would say to "trash" something.

My apologizes then, I misunderstood....

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by rabbie

Why are we using ebooks at all when we can generate £2-£3 per book for charity when we have finished with our hard copy books.?? I donate all my books to the British Heart Foundation who then sell them for the above sum. They are the purchased and read by someone who hopefully takes them back so that they can be sold again. You cannot do this with ebooks so therefore we should bin all the ebook readers and get back to print. The fact that a lot of ebooks are the same price or more expensive than the printed copy only makes this argument more vaid

Comments please!!

Ummm... That's *wonderful* that you are into raising money for your favorite charity by donating your dead-tree books to it for resale. I applaud you.

Now. Why should *I* be forced to endure all the problems of dead-tree reading simply because *you* want to help charities? Sorry, but the 'ability to help a charity some time down the line' is NOT a major concern for me when I buy something. The disadvantages of dead-tree books far outweigh the 'feel-good-ism' I *might* derive from donating used books. ( Call me a curmudgeon if you want, but true freedom involves being able to decide not just *what* charities I want to support, but also being able to decide to NOT SUPPORT any charity. )

Derek

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by rabbie

I should have clarified that I was refering to the UK where we already have charity shops on the high street that generate a lot of money by recycling good books. I would not be persuaded to buy an ebook reader until the cost becomes more competitive. With ebooks there is no distribution cost and nocost for raw material in my view the price at the moment is a complete rip off.

Cost of my (refurbished) K2 (US model) = $48.97
Number of ebooks read on same = 547
Share of cost of device added to net cost of each ebook = $0.08952.

Cost of retail K2i = $189
Same number of ebooks read = 547
Share of cost added had I purchased a new K2i = $0.34552

Given the advantages of reading ebooks, the additional $0.09 (or $0.35 with a new K2i) per ebook cost of buying at this time is negligible. And with an average 'life' of at least a decade for a K2, at my current rate of ebooks per year, the 'cost' per ebook of buying falls below one cent.

And I *love* to re-read my favorite stories. If I'm constantly 'bin'ning them, I'm constantly having to repurchase them. And if I choose to keep them around I have the added expense of building more and more bookshelves - losing valuable room space. Nope. Replacing the low cost of ebooks and ebook readers with the high cost of dead-tree ownership *just* to help a charity? Does NOT compute!

Derek

[HamsterRage]

I feel compelled to point out that every time I've walked into an Oxfam shop, which would have been to buy a used book, they haven't exactly bursting at the seams with books. So it would appear that only a very small percentage of books make their way into these charity shops.

[wgrimm]

Originally Posted by sabredog

Somehow I do not think so.

I have little room as it is for my paperback and hardback collection, buying more dead tree versions is not feasible for either my wife or myself.

If you do not like the price of ebooks, do not buy them. Pretty simple really.

I shop around and read a lot of indie author ebooks which rarely cost more than US$7-8, which is roughly $10 cheaper than a new or used paperback.

Digital books are the future, not bulky hard cover books.

Yeah, after the situation I am having with ereader.com, I am not so sure that is the case. I am unable to download over 40 of the books I bought there. That's somewhere between 600 and 800 dollars. If I buy a paper book, it won't just disappear on me.

This is really going to affect my buying habits. And probably any book I plan on referencing or re-reading will be bought in hardback. Who cares if you save a few bucks if the book could disappear at any time.

I am going to call my AG's office about this. Seems to me that this is theft, plain and simple. And I think it is doing a great disservice to the ebook market, and will probably cause a lot more readers to consider piracy as a way of getting their books.

[Worldwalker]

My ebooks won't randomly disappear.

But then again, I don't buy DRM-restricted ebooks, either.

[Ravensknight]

I have a better idea!
Lets ban the internal combustion engine, then put all the out of work people to work, plowing fields!

Brilliant.

and for the record, some of us don't buy hardcover books. and trying to "donate" boxes of paperbacks? Not even the libraries want them.

I'd say more, but it would just be vitriolic, so I'm signing off...

[Marcy]

Some of us like to keep our books and don't want our entire house filled with our books. Some of us are voracious readers and love carrying one small reader with over 1000 books on it with us, instead of just one or two pbooks.

And as others have said it isn't that easy to get rid of your used paperbacks. I finally got a local library to take my pbooks that I replaced with ebooks. I later discovered they sell donated paperbacks at their quarterly book sales for 25¢ each. Not much of a charitable contribution.

-Marcy