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Secondhand book sales are booming. Is it because of AI?
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Overview
Secondhand book sales are experiencing a significant increase, with independent booksellers noting unusual bulk orders being shipped to distant warehouses. Stuart Manley from Barter Books reported a recent single order from a Canadian company that matched his typical weekly sales.
Summary from bbc.co.uk.
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Hacker News · bbc.co.uk
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Based on 5 sampled comments from this thread. Analyzed 2026-08-15.
- Praise: AI training is driving a resurgence in secondhand book sales, benefiting both bookstores and AI companies—it's a win-win scenario for all involved.
- Praise: The bulk orders for training materials indicate a healthy market for quality content, showing there's still valuable material to be mined from printed books.
- Concern: There's a growing outrage over AI companies destroying physical books to acquire training data, which many see as an offensive act against cultural heritage.
- Concern: The legal loopholes allowing the destruction of books for scanning purposes are viewed as morally questionable, raising serious ethical concerns about the future of intellectual property.