I think owning a used bookstore would be awesome as used bookstores are one of my favorite places but I’ve never been able to figure out how you could make much of a living at it. Used books just don’t cost much. This article in the New York Times, Reading Between the Lines of Used Book Sales, offers insight into the new versus used book markets. It turns out that used books don’t affect new book prices much – for every 10% more a new book cost, used book sales only go up by 1%. So that means people are willing to pay a lot of a new book.
Why do so many people prefer to buy a new book to a used one? Do they keep them all and so want the best copy possible? Or do people that would probably buy a used book tend to frequent the library more?