The old bookshop’s new site

Blacktat spotted An article from Australia on the revolution of the secondhand book business..and reviving the business out to a wider audience.

They say A shift is under way in how we buy and think about books. People seek out books on the net because it is easy and cheap. Often they don’t care whether a book is new or used. Someone in Illinois might buy a used copy of a hardback from half.com or a dealer in New York, read it and then sell it to someone in California, having spent, in effect, only a few dollars.

August 5, 2003 by Uncategorized 2

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2 Responses

  1. tangognat says:
    August 5, 2003 at 8:25 pm

    free money
    One thing that struck me about this article was the comment that “libraries are giving away free money” in their used book sales. Should libraries be trying to profit more from these sales, instead of offering up books for $.50 or a dollar to people who can turn around and resell the books at a much higher price?

    Reply
  2. Aaron says:
    August 5, 2003 at 8:44 pm

    Re:free money
    I see nothing wrong with libraries using their heads to benefit from donated books. AFAIK, books sold for $1 or $.50 still bring in a profit to the library, so why shouldn’t we be smart about it and benefit more? Of course, the profit making is generally left to the Friends of the Library who pass the money on. The territory becomes a bit muddy, perhaps, when the actual library is doing the selling. But then again, don’t many libraries sell book bags, stationary or mugs? What are you thoughts?

    The Library Friends at my library are very active looks for first editions and rare books among the many donations we receive. These have been sold on eBay and other sites, bringing the library a decent amount of cash.

    Reply

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