Here’s an interesting article in Fortune written by someone who’s just discovered the book-sharing site BookMooch but is concerned that booksellers like us are taking advantage of it. It’s a new twist on the age-old question of whether it’s ethical to resell books from thrift shops, etc.
I fear Internet entrepreneurs may be taking advantage of Bookmooch… After all, there are hundreds, maybe thousands of people these days using the Internet to sell used books for cash. And once the idea of resale outside the system is introduced, Bookmooch’s point scheme becomes close to irrelevant; booksellers would have no problem giving away hundreds of books they can’t sell in order to acquire books they can.
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I have mooched books to resell. Not many. Mostly, I have mooched books to use for my family’s home education, and for personal reading.
It is not so easy to disregard the BookMooch points “scheme.” You need to maintain a certain ratio of books given to books received. Also, it is not as easy to “give away hundreds of books” I can’t sell. Usually, if a book is a penny at Amazon, there are lots of them available to mooch, and they don’t move.
Books are personal property, and as such sellers are free to acquire them in any legal way, and to dispose of them also. So, yes, I think sellers can honestly look for the rare gem amongst the free books, and profit from it if they can.
I agree completely with the mab’s final paragraph. I think it’s perfectly ethical to purchase books from thrift shops to resell (or trade with bookmooch). All the booksellers in my city do it. Some of those booksellers, however, have an “arrangement” with employees of these thrift shops to go through the books BEFORE they are put out in the shop. This is where it starts to become unethical, in my opinion.
It’s unethical until you yourself establish a relationship with a thrift store employee…. Jealous much?
I agree that at many thrift stores now the really valuable merchandise often does not make it to the floor. Goodwill now has a national auction program for it’s stores, where valuable stuff can be auctioned online. Also, staff and management often take the best stuff, even though there may be policies to limit the amount an employee may take. At one store I used to frequent, the manager was an ebay powerseller, so I got the message loud and clear that it was no longer worth my while to go there.
I think employees or volunteers who abuse thrift store policies are the unethical ones.
Here’s what John Buckman, founder of BookMooch, says on his blog: “Furthermore, I’ve come out on my blog and other places pretty strongly in support of allowing bookstores, if they want to, to participate in BookMooch. The reason, simply, is that bookstores need to send out books other moochers want in order to earn their points, so they’re “playing fair”. And besides, I like small independent used book stores, and want them to survive.”
In response to “back garage”, I have an even better arrangement. People bring me all the books they want to sell right to the store. I get to choose the ones I want to buy, they take the rest to thrift shops. I get first pick! And I don’t have to go anywhere!
Great for pointing that out restutes… Buckman — who is not only the founder of BookMooch but a serial entrepreneur — likes small businesses, including booksellers. He blogged about this issue a few months back… it was amazing to read some of the anti-bookseller, anti-business comments published by some of the folks who use the site. They don’t generally know how long used bookstores have survived through bartering… using the very structure that sustains Bookmooch!
Actually, the most interesting argument going on right now involves a book writer, Maria Langer, who has left Bookmooch because she wants control about who to give her free publicity copies to. Interesting.
I used to like Peerflix, a website that used this same business model for DVD’s, and it is no longer in business.