31–40 of 103 posts
Maybe I'm old fashioned but I detest these people. I see them always in big book sales: they come in very early, hoard all the books that they think are valuable, and I mean hundreds of books and then scan through them nervously. In the end they pick their selection and leave the mess in a corner. Meanwhile, I do not have access to those books!
He never explains why he feels bad about it. It seems like a perfectly respectable profession to me, bringing books from ignored corners of dank bookstores to the hands of those who really want them.
Exactly. There's nothing dishonorable about arbitrage.
TL;DR: I believe in “work smarter, not harder,” but most people I know/knew believe in the opposite.
The guy who wrote this Slate article is doing a similar thing - being a regular purchasing customer of the places he frequents.
Maybe I'm old fashioned but I detest these people. I see them always in big book sales: they come in very early, hoard all the books that they think are valuable, and I mean hundreds of books and then scan through them nervously. In the end they pick their selection and leave the mess in a corner. Meanwhile, I do not have access to those books!
Sure you have access to these second-hand books - at the going market rate on Amazon.
It's like a guy who runs in a cafeteria, gets all the good desserts and then tries to sell them to you.
He never explains why he feels bad about it. It seems like a perfectly respectable profession to me, bringing books from ignored corners of dank bookstores to the hands of those who really want them.
Were I in his shoes, I wouldn't just feel bad about it, I'd find it soul-destroying.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's actually of benefit - there is a book out there that I want but it's hidden in a library or garage sale in a city 1000mi away. This guy makes it available for me to buy at a price I set on Amazon - rather than the book ending up in the trash and me not having what I want.
Depends on perspective, I suppose. It can be a detriment to the local market. I frequent a local thrift store (Deseret Industries, run by the LDS church), where I always quickly scan all 6 book shelves. Every morning (that I've been there that early), there's one dude that rushes his way to the "new" book shelves (the ones that were just rolled out of the back and not yet sorted onto the shelves), towing a cart, and…
Shredding your books is not doing anyone any good.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Depends on perspective, I suppose. It can be a detriment to the local market. I frequent a local thrift store (Deseret Industries, run by the LDS church), where I always quickly scan all 6 book shelves. Every morning (that I've been there that early), there's one dude that rushes his way to the "new" book shelves (the ones that were just rolled out of the back and not yet sorted onto the shelves), towing a cart, and…
I view what he is doing as recycling - getting used books to people who want them most. Shredding your books is not doing anyone any good.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's actually of benefit - there is a book out there that I want but it's hidden in a library or garage sale in a city 1000mi away. This guy makes it available for me to buy at a price I set on Amazon - rather than the book ending up in the trash and me not having what I want.
Depends on perspective, I suppose. It can be a detriment to the local market. I frequent a local thrift store (Deseret Industries, run by the LDS church), where I always quickly scan all 6 book shelves. Every morning (that I've been there that early), there's one dude that rushes his way to the "new" book shelves (the ones that were just rolled out of the back and not yet sorted onto the shelves), towing a cart, and…
On the other hand, the copy bought on Amazon for five bucks might wind up in the hands of some poor nonlocal kid who betters himself using this book he really wanted.
I have a bunch of books I bought at garage sales which I never really wanted but picked up because they were cheap (like, one-dollar hardcover biology textbooks) and I thought I might look at them someday. The world would probably be a better place if they had been bought by someone who really wanted them... or alternatively by a middleman who could sell them on.
Of course I could sell them myself, but it's not worth figuring out how to do so in order to make whatever small amount of money is involved.
He never explains why he feels bad about it. It seems like a perfectly respectable profession to me, bringing books from ignored corners of dank bookstores to the hands of those who really want them.
The people on amazon have already found out about these books. They will probably get them somehow at some point in some way. If however there was a perfect market, or even significantly perfected more than it currently is, that novelty of stumbling upon a book might be completely lost.
I am not entirely certain though. I suppose in one way it is not immoral, but in another way you just get the feeling that what he does is not exactly as uncontroversial as what a doctor does or even marketer.