For starters, Americans are reading less and less (and I strongly suspect what they're most reading is utter trash [e.g. the political here-say/Trump fan fiction of the month]. The reason I bring those up is because they are terrible for second-hand because no one cares about Clinton's tell-all book after the first 6 months. These books end up first-hand in the bargain bin or at Costco after the initial hype.
I would be curious about Amazon thought, because there is certainly a thriving ecosystem of second-hand book stores listing their inventories there. USPS plays a huge part in making this possible through the Media Mail class of mail.
Many of the second-hand stores are also British, but you will find almost none of them are Canadian because Canada hates being competitive and as such, does not have a viable class of mail to ship books with, be it it domestically, or abroad.
You can especially see this at your local Goodwill (in the US) - all the hardcover books are of a certain "bestseller" type and many will be clearly never even opened.
Meanwhile actual second-hand bookstores often specialize in something (there was a really good one that specialized in science fiction) - they still have a normal selection of books like a small library, but most of the shelf space is whatever they specialize in.
Comments
For starters, Americans are reading less and less (and I strongly suspect what they're most reading is utter trash [e.g. the political here-say/Trump fan fiction of the month]. The reason I bring those up is because they are terrible for second-hand because no one cares about Clinton's tell-all book after the first 6 months. These books end up first-hand in the bargain bin or at Costco after the initial hype.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/388541/americans-reading-fewer-...
I would be curious about Amazon thought, because there is certainly a thriving ecosystem of second-hand book stores listing their inventories there. USPS plays a huge part in making this possible through the Media Mail class of mail.
Many of the second-hand stores are also British, but you will find almost none of them are Canadian because Canada hates being competitive and as such, does not have a viable class of mail to ship books with, be it it domestically, or abroad.
You can especially see this at your local Goodwill (in the US) - all the hardcover books are of a certain "bestseller" type and many will be clearly never even opened.
Meanwhile actual second-hand bookstores often specialize in something (there was a really good one that specialized in science fiction) - they still have a normal selection of books like a small library, but most of the shelf space is whatever they specialize in.
I wonder how much book reading has been displaced by audiobooks rather than just “Americans dumb, no like book”.
Basically all my friends including myself consume audiobooks but rarely sit down to read a book.