(Guest Post by Ali Yesofp)
The Benefits of Buying Used Books
Among many other things that are good about buying second-hand books is that they come to you from another avid reader. Used books have also been read by other people and it’s nice to know that the book has given pleasure to someone before you. If you believe that it is precious to be reading used books simply because you can connect to the previous readers and enjoy turning already turned pages, you’ll enjoy being a part of the greater good that comes with buying second-hand books.
Environmental Benefits of buying used books
If you are someone who is seeking environment-friendly purchasing and a fond reader as well, it’ll not be a surprise for you to know that buying used books can be a good for the planet. The printing of new books leads to raw material from the printing business and eventually more environmental hazards as well.
If you buy second-hand books you’ll be contributing towards one of the many active movements to save the earth and feel good in the process!
Small businesses and used books.
Now many small businesses such as West Cove UK support the same cause and not only endorse and facilitate buying used books but also support charities in the process. Small businesses are the backbone of the economy and supporting a small business means supporting your community as well. Remember also that when you finish your book many small businesses or charity shops will take your used books from you and resell, it adding to the good you already did by buying it in the first place.
Maybe someone else is desperately looking for the book you don’t need anymore. Maybe someone cannot afford a new book and your old book can satisfy the bookworm in them. If you have just finished a course or qualified at something you should pass on your textbooks to charities or small business. Maybe someone else out there cannot afford the books and would benefit from your good deed. And again your helping the environment by reducing the number of new books.
Saving money
The benefits of buying used books are not limited to just saving the environment. We spend so much on buying a book that is newly printed and all we do is read it and shelve it. How about you get the same book, same edition, the same ISBN but only slightly used for a fraction of the price? What would be the better option? Of course, most would say buying the slightly used one, at a lower rate! Save your money buy used, a lot of the used books have often never been even been read. Look for ‘Like New’ condition, so many people buy books and never read them.
Rare books
Obviously out of print books are only available as used books, you cant buy them any other way, a massive percentage of the estimated 130 Million printed books are no longer in print. No one has ever been able to work out exact numbers, even with today’s computer driven technology. Remember out of print also refers to editions to so it’s likely that at any one time 85% of the worlds books cannot be bought new and are second-hand! Only a small percentage of the books ever printed have an ISBN number (Whats an ISBN?) there are likely hundreds of thousands of books that have disappeared because no one was very interested in them and they have been forgotten about. So what actually makes a book rare? It’s mainly down to the numbers that were printed of a certain edition and most importantly how many people now want a copy. By far the best way of finding these books is online. Websites such as West Cove UK have powerful search capabilities that can find a book in seconds, and if they don’t have it you can search website’s like Abe Books who have thousands of books in their data base or you could always try Amazon Search.
One way or the other it’s always better to buy a second-hand book instead of a new one. There isn’t any major disadvantage of buying a used book and, yes there are plenty of advantages.
