Well, that's not really a whole lot better than stealing IMO.

Why? There is nothing wrong with buy and selling used manga.

In the business world, used products are bad. If a company sells a manga to one customer, and that customer subsequently sells the manga as used to another customer, the manga has changed hands twice yet the company has only one unit sold in the books. If that manga makes it used to 100 unique readers, the company has still only sold one unit. If you buy something off your friend, unless he pays to replace that product, he'll just spend that money on something else, and the company will lose a sale, yet you've benefited from their service.

A recent example of this is EA and their take on the used video game market. With some of their upcoming sports titles, if you buy the game new (60 dollars) you'll be given a voucher allowing you to play online. If you buy the game used, there is not voucher, and you'll have to pay 15 dollars to get it (which could ultimately cost more than if you just bought the game new). This discourages people from buying used, because EA won't see the entire profit.

This is free-market politics. If I am the publisher, though, and if the new buyer A sells his manga to used buyer B in order to buy more new manga, then I am all for the manga to change hands.

What are the realistic chances a manga would be bought and sold 100 times? It would likely be very damaged goods by five exchanges.

It's the concept that it's fundamentally wrong for a manga/game publisher to expect multiple sales from one unit. Using that logic, every used car sale's revenue should go entirely to the car manufacturer and not the maker of the car.

Sure. But if buyer A is I guess 3rd party (not intending on re-buying, as most Ebay users are), then it would be a loss. This concept can only really see benefit if buyer A is in the business to repurchase new products (of which should be from the same publisher).

C'mon, you know 100 was a hyperbole. But even 5 would be detrimental.

But someone needs to buy it once before it can even appear on eBay. Resale is a part of life in any industry where the goods are not physically consumed. Whether it is books, DVDs, video games, cars, houses, etc. There are benefits to resale, like free advertising.

If I post a book I bought new on eBay, 1000 people might see that ad. If one of them is interested by the title and goes to buy it new, that "lost sale" is just restored.

Of course, we've already discussed the original sale.

But free advertising isn't always a benefit. If you post a new book on eBay, 1000 people might see that ad. If one of them buys it new, great. But 999 people now have the potential to head over to One Manga and see if that book is available. That's potentially 999 losses.

Not any more. :cool: