Thread

Japanese used bookstores see 5x sales surge as books are being bought by the ton

96 points · 130 comments · speckx

tsylba · 1790265354 · focus · HN ↗
Ah yes, the litteral destruction of culture and physical media for a centralised subscription service. I love the liberal world of techno enclosures of our new overlords, viva el free market economy.
1. Analemma_ · 1790265458 · focus · HN ↗
  What do you think happened to all these used books before the AI companies showed up?
  1. alightsoul · 1790266340 · focus · HN ↗
    They sat in boxes
    ghc · 1790266449 · focus · HN ↗
    Not quite:
    > But what happens when sales numbers don't meet projections? The book is discounted. Then, at the publisher's discretion, the bookstore will receive a directive to rip the covers off the books, recycle the remainder of the book to be "pulped" or turned into other forms of paper, such as notebook paper and toilet paper. The bookstore is expected to mail the book covers to the publisher as evidence that the book has been destroyed.
    <a href="https://www.offthebeatenshelf.com/blog/pulp-fiction-is-real" rel="nofollow">https://www.offthebeatenshelf.com/blog/pulp-fiction-is-real
    sebmellen · 1790267006 · focus · HN ↗
    TIL that's where the term "pulp fiction" comes from!
    alightsoul · 1790267777 · focus · HN ↗
    That's an American take. In Latin America they sit in boxes and you can see it, because the pages will have been discolored after so many years of sitting somewhere waiting to be sold. They're only recycled if they're given away at book exchange events and no one wants them.
    ChickeNES · 1790270763 · focus · HN ↗
    Where in Latin America?
    <a href="https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/ilustrada/2016/09/1818064-se-nao-forem-vendidos-ou-doados-livros-podem-virar-papel-higienico.shtml" rel="nofollow">https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/ilustrada/2016/09/1818064-se-n...
    <a href="https://www.jornada.com.mx/2005/05/25/index.php?article=a04n1cul&section=cultura" rel="nofollow">https://www.jornada.com.mx/2005/05/25/index.php?article=a04n...
    <a href="https://www.lanacion.com.ar/cultura/a-donde-van-libros-no-venden-entre-nid2172443/" rel="nofollow">https://www.lanacion.com.ar/cultura/a-donde-van-libros-no-ve...
    <a href="https://revistadossier.udp.cl/dossier/destruir-con-permiso/" rel="nofollow">https://revistadossier.udp.cl/dossier/destruir-con-permiso/
    Looks to me, going by this reporting, that LATAM treats books identically to the US (The first headline, translated, is literally "If not sold or donated, books can become toilet paper")
    alightsoul · 1790272333 · focus · HN ↗
    In central America for example I went to Panama's book fair and you could see old books for sale. There's a lot of fear among booksellers that a book will not sell, because they purely resell them so any losses fall entirely on booksellers. They do not have any partnerships with publishers
    scottyah · 1790272603 · focus · HN ↗
    That only lasts 10-30yrs. They're cheap paper, they were never made to last.
  2. ghc · 1790266350 · focus · HN ↗
    "Once great literature—now great litter."
2. quickthrowman · 1790266695 · focus · HN ↗
  Feel free to buy books by the ton and preserve them yourself. The simple fact they’re being sold by weight implies they’re not rare or unique.
  1. mistercheph · 1790267715 · focus · HN ↗
    The simple fact that the AI labs are spending billions of dollars to acquire and scan them implies they are rare and unique.
    quickthrowman · 1790269979 · focus · HN ↗
    Please provide proof for the billions of dollars claim, thank you.
    mistercheph · 1790306804 · focus · HN ↗
    25 million books
    scanning+ocr: 0.05 per page * 300 pgs: 15/bk
    acquisition+disposal cost: 2.00/bk
    total acq+scan+dispose = 425M
    settlement value / bk: $3,000 [bartz v anthropic]
    settlement probability, let's say 1%: 0.01
    expected settlement / bk : $30
    expected settlement total: 750M [industry-wide this is certainly an underestimate]
    legal fees: 25% of settlement total: 187M
    total 1.36B
    + operations, engineering, storage

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