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Used books on those digital book reading things. |
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#1 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 1,818
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Used books on those digital book reading things.
Can you buy used books to download?
I rarely buy a new book these days...get them off the market or from charity shops. Presumably you can't buy used books for them digi reader gadgets. *sad face* Maybe if they could be downloaded with coffee stains and bent pages? Just a thought.......... |
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#2 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,480
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Simple answer is no you cannot buy used books.
When you think about it, there is no such thing as a used book on an e-reader. Whenever you buy/download a book you have created a new copy, as the original still exists. |
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#3 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: South West
Posts: 3,280
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No used books but many free ones. These include thousands of old books that are out of copyright and also books from new authors - some of which are better than others!
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#4 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,173
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You can't buy used ebooks yet.
Amazon recently launched a "lending library" for their Kindle devices in the US as part of their "Amazon Prime" service. AP subscribers can borrow one book a month and keep it as long as they want. What Amazon does is purchase a copy of the book when someone wants to borrow it and then lends that copy to you. If you return the book they can then lend it out to someone else but if you don't return it for a while and someone else wants to borrow the same book they buy another copy. What this means is that if 10,000 people borrow the same book at the same time Amazon has to purchase 10,000 copies of that book. If that book's popularity is short-lived Amazon could be left with several thousand copies of the book that they don't need the following month. I believe that these ex-library ebooks will eventually form the basis of a used ebook market on the Amazon site (and i believe it's this possibility that has the Authors Guild up in arms over Amazon's lending library and the claims of ebook price erosion). |
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#5 |
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Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: West Yorkshire
Posts: 527
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I've only recently purchased a Kindle myself and haven't looked into it all that much yet but some libraries also lend ebooks. I looked into this when i was looking at the Kobo which is compatible with epubs, the Kindle isn't and something tells me that libraries only do epubs. It might be worth you having a look though, depending on which reader you have.
I frustrates me how expensive ebooks are when you are physically getting nothing, i've also been buying more second hand books to save money (and trees) but when an ebook costs more than the physical one, part of me would rather have an actual physical 'thing' to own! |
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#6 |
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: colchester
Posts: 15,352
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Quote:
I've only recently purchased a Kindle myself and haven't looked into it all that much yet but some libraries also lend ebooks. I looked into this when i was looking at the Kobo which is compatible with epubs, the Kindle isn't and something tells me that libraries only do epubs.
However, the main thing is to check the number of copies available and the waiting list. When I last tried, there was only one copy of a popular novel for the whole of essex, so not really much of a goer since the waiting list was double digit. |
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#7 |
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Newbury
Posts: 6,749
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I frustrates me how expensive ebooks are when you are physically getting nothing
I don't imagine for one moment the intrinsic cost of a paperback is anything like the price charged for it. It's a bit like saying a £20 note is just worth the paper it's printed on.
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#8 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 1,249
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Quote:
You are paying to read the author's intellectual property. That's whether you buy a paper book or an electronic one.
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#9 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2004
Posts: 14,718
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Quote:
You are paying to read the author's intellectual property. That's whether you buy a paper book or an electronic one.
I don't imagine for one moment the intrinsic cost of a paperback is anything like the price charged for it. It's a bit like saying a £20 note is just worth the paper it's printed on. ![]() Also with paper books you can give the book away to a charity shop or even sell it on eBay, you get no such option with e books. Selling an e book must be much more profitable than selling a paper book. I love e books but they are overpriced, what a fair price would be I don't know but it must be less than at present. |
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#10 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: UK
Posts: 14,219
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That explains part of the cost but only part of it. You can remove all the production and delivery costs, how much does the author get on a paper book or an e book?
Also with paper books you can give the book away to a charity shop or even sell it on eBay, you get no such option with e books. Selling an e book must be much more profitable than selling a paper book. I love e books but they are overpriced, what a fair price would be I don't know but it must be less than at present. |
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#11 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2004
Posts: 14,718
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Quote:
An ebook still has production costs associated with it. It has to be formatted and edited and it also costs money to store on the server. Then of course ebooks are subject to VAT.
I don't think they should be free or even a few pence but they should be very much cheaper than a paper copy. All the manufacturing, storage and delivery costs plus intermediates in this chain. How much of the cost of an £8 paperback do you think are due to formatting and editing? |
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#12 |
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: South West
Posts: 3,280
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Quote:
Of course they do though for a big seller these costs are very small as a percentage of the total price (VAT excepted). They are more relevant went looking at a book that may only sell in the hundreds or low thousands, once you are into hundreds of thousands plus they become irrelevant.
I don't think they should be free or even a few pence but they should be very much cheaper than a paper copy. All the manufacturing, storage and delivery costs plus intermediates in this chain. How much of the cost of an £8 paperback do you think are due to formatting and editing? |
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#13 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2004
Posts: 14,718
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Quote:
I assume you use the same argument for music downloads to be much cheaper than CDs?
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