The demise of the second-hand bookshop

At the heart of this is the indisputable fact:- People save books!!. This led to many millions of tiny isolated and undocumented collections of assorted books. People who wanted a particular book had one option - a Used Book Seller(UBS). These UBS's would open a retail spot and gather books from estates or the public or library disposals of un-demanded books etc. As time passed, they would create a viable business. Time passed and most cities had UBS shops. Then the internet happened, craigslist EBAY, etc., which enabled anyone +dog to list all they had as line items, author, date, condition etc - often with photos. This enabled the collector to select what he wanted at very low prices compared to the UBS stores, as there was a huge overhanging mass of books that people wanted small $$ for - competition soon drove the prices down. True rare books maintained a higher value - but the mass of pulpable junk swamped the market. USB could not easily bulk buy from these Ebayers or Craigslisters because their business model required them to offer lowball offers. One by one these UBS died off. Killed by rents/taxes etc. A few who owned their own stores had a degree of immunity to these market forces, but their income fell as well, and after a while they could make more $$ by going online from a cheaper warehoused list and they rented their high street shops to a Starbucks or ??, and never looked back. I travelled in Northern Ontario (Canada) and there was a huge rambling UBS in Cobalt Ontario, with zero rent on owned land - even they eventually ceased = http://www.highwaybooks.ca/ they still operate online in some manner. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_Book_Shop

What could well be the very last truly independent bookshop in London, will be gone soon. And I don’t mean Henry Pordes on Charing Cross Road, which I love, but Anthony Hall in Twickenham. He owns his entire building outright, and even though he is a specialist book dealer, has always maintained a small bookshop as a luxury addition to his main office, if you like. At one point, all nine rooms of the building were filled with books, but he’s in his 80s and is selling up. Most of his business is on the internet, as he says now. No need for the bookshop.

The big second-hand bookseller in my town has a huge collection and several locations in multiple metro areas. Yet they have no way to search for a specific title!

I was shocked. If you have no idea of your current inventory and sales history, how do you know how much to pay for people's books? Their books are about $0.50 a title -- I would gladly pay that price for a book I would otherwise get from the library if I knew it was available. They would be able to do a serious business selling required titles to local college students. And they could have a robust online presence through 3rd party sellers like Amazon and Ebay.

Yes, some beloved used bookstores are falling victim to "market forces". But if those same market forces inject some modernity into these businesses that badly need it, I'd be very grateful.

The Original Book Barn in Connecticut (I think they’ve since opened many “satellite” locations) is one of my favorite places in the world. Carefully curated for quality but just messy enough to make it fun to hunt around for treasure.

Most new books are not that expensive compared to how much time people put into reading them and the value they derive, and libraries provide a free alternative. I think the middle is just getting squeezed.