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Oh, for Pete's Sake (re: the warning). I agree that everything in life is being "dumbed down" from my generation. Been saying for years "the dumbing of America".
I still use ebay to purchase my "Old Hollywood" and Marx Brothers hardcover books. I have a limit, including shipping, on what I will pay for anything. I have lost items for as low as a nickel in the past. But I don't budge, there is always more of the same item on there currently or will be listed in the near future.
As an AZ seller, I don't generally list a book for less than $8.00. Between shipping costs going up (and Amazon not raising what they charge the buyer) and fees, it's not worth it to sell for less. Sellers who sell a lot of books can get a pro account with smaller fees, that's not an option for me. Sellers who do Fulfillment by Amazon don't have to worry about shipping costs, so if you are looking for a heavy book at a low price, FBA sellers are your best bet. I still ship all my own books myself.
Makes sense, but wow. I'm glad I already have essentially all I ever wanted by way of reading material. I buy on Amazon using free points on a credit card anyway, so I won't be paying anything, but I guess I will be getting about three times fewer books than in the past.
Our library gets TONS (literally, 2,000 lbs) of books donated month after month, as we live in a mostly 55+ neighborhood of several thousand people. They get far more donations than they have room to stock, and many are duplicate copies of stuff they already have. So, about 3 times a year, they have a sale where you can buy 3 books for 5 dollars, or a plastic grocery sack of books for ten dollars. Check with your local library to see if they have book sales like this occasionally. For a voracious reader this is a very affordable way to stock up.
Our library gets TONS (literally, 2,000 lbs) of books donated month after month, as we live in a mostly 55+ neighborhood of several thousand people. They get far more donations than they have room to stock, and many are duplicate copies of stuff they already have. So, about 3 times a year, they have a sale where you can buy 3 books for 5 dollars, or a plastic grocery sack of books for ten dollars. Check with your local library to see if they have book sales like this occasionally. For a voracious reader this is a very affordable way to stock up.
Oh yes, I know all about it. I have been living in three large cities with three best libary systems in the country. They all have library sales, but one of them (San Francisco Public Library) has ongoing sales (or has had them before covid), every day of the week at their donation place, every Wed in front of the library if it doesn't rain, better/rare books for a few $ more continuously at the library store, and once a year one gigantic library sale with probably hundreds of thousands of books offered. San Franciscans tend to donate books of unbelievably good quality (I don't mean well preserved, ie, they are the usual ratty old used books, but you can find exceptionally interesting, and even fairly rare, books at SFPL library sales - not occasionally but every week!). More than half of my books are from that source. It appears, though, I am going to be kicked out of San Francisco (ie, will have to sell my SF condo in 2024 if the proposal for additional $10,000 annual tax on small second homes ($20k for those over 1,000 sq ft) passes this fall - as it appears to be likely to happen), but I will still have a couple of thousand of books collected from SFPL sales over 20 years. At this point, I am fairly sickened by many things in San Francisco (crime, homelessness, this extortionate tax on second homes), so will not miss the city all that much, but I will miss badly the library, and my little micro-condo where I have read so many books, bundled up with a thermos of tea in the foggy evergreen garden in the back!
I'm keeping my own private library because I think that public libraries are eventually going to fall by the wayside thanks to ebooks and the digital age.
The problem is that the classics are being abridged. The works of great authors are being modified and dumbed down for today's readers. So, I hang onto my little library.
Have you been to a good public library lately? I don't think they are going away anytime soon.
I saw a note from an author friend whose books are listed on Amazon. The cost of books will go up very soon due largely to the cost of paper going up. If you want to buy a book before the increase you need to do it soon.
Our library sale, one of the biggest in the country, has raised the hardback price from $2 to $3. They are also having fewer days per sale and sales 10 months of the year instead of 4-6 times.
I have not bought anything on Amazon in almost two years, and was searching for a used book today. I noticed with surprise that the price was about triple from what I expected. A brief look into about dozen other books showed that this has indeed happened across the board: all the used books I checked out were listed for twice to four times the price for which you could order them 2.5 years ago! This is quite unbelievable! While the fact that I have thousands of used books (mostly from $1 library sales, some for $4-$8 sourced from Amazon) could make me a real profiteer if I decide to sell my home library in 30 years (if I can't see enough to read any more), it is still a rather unpleasant surprise. I have so many books that I don't think I want too many more, but still. Are paper books suddenly becoming valuable antiques, or is this just a general effect of inflation?
Try a local used book store, their prices IMO are outrageous, especially for newer books. I have found that the used books with free shipping have always run in the $6-9 range although occasionally you could find one down to $3.99. Used book sales done by libraries are always the cheapest or you could go to a Goodwill store and they might have some. Shipping isn't cheap, even USPS, unless they use media rate and that can be slow and upset the customer.
Have you been to a good public library lately? I don't think they are going away anytime soon.
I saw a note from an author friend whose books are listed on Amazon. The cost of books will go up very soon due largely to the cost of paper going up. If you want to buy a book before the increase you need to do it soon.
It's been awhile since I've been to a large public library. I'm not sure if anything is missing off of their shelves, yet, or not but I suspect that there will come a time when you won't be able to find certain classics or even certain history books or possibly even religious books.
Shipping has increased, but it is primarily the cost of books themselves. I was looking for a used paperback, not rare, not special, and expected to find it in "very good" condition for $2.50... the cheapest is in "acceptable" condition from Goodwill for $8.00 plus shipping. Other books I looked up (including some I bought just pre-pandemic) are likewise 2x to 4x what I expected, or paid for pre-pandemic.
Although I am normally an avid bookstore browser, I have not been inside a bookstore in two years either, so I don't know what the bookstore prices are now.
Maybe that market is drying up?
I do buy books from time to time, like from 1/2 Price but I haven't seen the prices go up that much. What I have seen gone up over the years on Amazon are DVD prices. The heyday was when the video stores were closing and there was a lot of surplus....but those days are long gone.
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