If used cars make new cars more valuable, what about used books?

By at 10:22 am Thursday, Mar 17

I got set up too late to take exhaustive notes on Chris Anderson's excellent ETECH presentation on The Long Tail, but this bit actually made me gasp "Wow," relating as it does to so many arguments I've had with sf writers who are really upset about Amazon selling used books alongside of their new books.
On Amazon, a used book and a new book are the same number of clicks away. The market for used cars means you can charge more for new cars, because of the resale value. Is this true of books? It's true of text-books in that you'll pay more for a textbook because you know you can sell it back at the end of the term. Will it be true of all books?
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Cory Doctorow

Upcoming appearances

* Feb 9, 2012, DeKalb, IL: Day of Doctorow, NIU
* Feb 10-12, 2012, Chicago, IL: Capricon 32
* Feb 13, 2012, Arlington, TX: UT Arlington College of Engineering Distinguished Speaker Series
* Feb 16, 2012, Victoria, BC: 13th Annual Privacy and Security Conference

Recent books:
* Context (essays)
* With a Little Help (short stories)
* For the Win (YA novel)
* Makers (adult novel)

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