Here people even “steal” books from public bookcases and sell them.
For people who aren’t familiar, let me explain:
These public bookcases are a weatherproof shelf, old phone booth or something in the streets. The concept is you can take any book and leave any book. There are no written rules and you can keep a book if you like or just read it and put it back. In recent years people started to scan the barcodes and checked what books they can sell. There is a debate going on if people should mark these books or not, so they can’t be sold.
It’s more of an online market. eBay, Amazon to a certain extent, there’s loads of book specific ones and some that are for used items generally and allow books. And unless marked it’s not the black market at all. I mean obviously the book is stolen, but it’s just entering the used market as opposed to being sold through a fence or whatever
I live in SW Finland on the coast of the Baltic Sea. It’s wet and cold 90% of the year.
We still have this sort of book exchange in the entrance way to my local shop. A tiny bookshelf/night desk. Not too common though, I can’t think of any others right now.
But like the weather shouldn’t be the issue, that’s just an engineering problem at that point. I imagine like a glass doored fridge with some dehumidifiers placed inside should probably work in most places to protect books.
Here people even “steal” books from public bookcases and sell them.
For people who aren’t familiar, let me explain: These public bookcases are a weatherproof shelf, old phone booth or something in the streets. The concept is you can take any book and leave any book. There are no written rules and you can keep a book if you like or just read it and put it back. In recent years people started to scan the barcodes and checked what books they can sell. There is a debate going on if people should mark these books or not, so they can’t be sold.
Who tf is buying normal books from the local black market in 2025 is my real question here
It’s more of an online market. eBay, Amazon to a certain extent, there’s loads of book specific ones and some that are for used items generally and allow books. And unless marked it’s not the black market at all. I mean obviously the book is stolen, but it’s just entering the used market as opposed to being sold through a fence or whatever
The climate isn’t good enough for this where I live all the books would get ruined
I’m in the UK and these are all over the place, especially in more rural areas, and we’re famed for our lovely weather! 😂
I live in SW Finland on the coast of the Baltic Sea. It’s wet and cold 90% of the year.
We still have this sort of book exchange in the entrance way to my local shop. A tiny bookshelf/night desk. Not too common though, I can’t think of any others right now.
But like the weather shouldn’t be the issue, that’s just an engineering problem at that point. I imagine like a glass doored fridge with some dehumidifiers placed inside should probably work in most places to protect books.