COPYCENSE

“The Internet is a bargain hunter’s paradise. Ebay is an easy example, but there are many places for deals on used goods, including Amazon.com.

“While Amazon is best known for selling new products, an estimated 23 percent of its sales are from used goods, many of them secondhand books. In 2002, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers sent an open letter to Jeff Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon.com, which has a market for used books in addition to selling new copies. “If your aggressive promotion of used book sales becomes popular among Amazon’s customers,” the letter said, “this service will cut significantly into sales of new titles, directly harming authors and publishers.

“But does it?”

Hal R. Varian. Reading Between the Lines of Used Book Sales. The New York Times. July 28, 2005.

See also:

Anindya Ghose, et al. Internet Exchanges for Used Books: An Empirical Analysis of Product Cannibalization and Welfare Impact. SSRN. August 1, 2005.