Extra SpaceI’ll admit I may sometimes stretch a point to relate happenings in some other industry to the e-book field. This is why it is so amusing for me to see the same thing happen in reverse from time to time.

On the blog of self storage company Extra Space, blogger Winnie Hsiu relates e-books to, what else, self storage:

Between the ebooks offered by Amazon and other booksellers, and the ebooks available through Google Books, the world of book publishing is about to go through a dramatic change. If you are currently choosing between getting rid of hardcover books that are in good condition, or putting them in a self storage unit, this may be the time to consider preserving those bound books — a few years from now, they may indeed have become collectors’ items. Paperback books are still outselling ebooks, for the moment — but the day is coming when paperbacks may be collectors’ items too.

Of course, nowhere in the blog post does it mention the need for good climate control if you want to keep books in good condition. I can’t imagine that storing paper books in the average self storage shed would be inclined to lead to finding them still “collectible” if you went back to them a few years later—especially if they weren’t printed on acid-free paper.

It also seems a little bit too optimistic about the possibility of books turning into collectors’ items simply because e-books came along. It reminds me of how the rise of the collectors’ markets in toys and comic books led to a sudden crash in the collectible value of toys and comic books because suddenly everyone was saving them now that they knew they could be worth money—which meant that it was a lot easier to find them in good condition. When something isn’t rare, it isn’t that valuable.

In a world where over half of the copies of every book printed come back for pulping or remaindering, how rare could any recently-printed book ever be?

(Found via EBookNewser.)

1 COMMENT

  1. I agree that we store a lot of books lately, but I don’t think this is because everybody prefers E-books nowadays. I for one prefer to have the real deal in my hands. Not only because I’m the person who always is low on batteries, but also because I just prefer the taste of having a real book in my hands.

    regards,

    Scott Manning

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