gapingvoid

In the very near future we may see individuals looking to convert their existing physical library into digital ones. With product offerings like the iPad and Kindle seeing phenomenal demand there is going to be a whole lot of dusty books laying around in  offices, homes, and libraries. I suspect this will leave a big gaping hole in the book market. Here’s my idea: setup a non-profit web service that buys individual’s physical books back that then sells / trades the physical books back to other markets .

For example, you could use http://www.amazon.com/tradein or simply broker bulk shipments to markets (like remote Nepal) where physical books are still in the demand. A portion of the  revenue generated goes to purchasing various e-Book platform gift cards (Kindle, iBook, etc.) and exchanging that back to the original book ‘seller’. Proceeds are reinvested back into the org or distributed to charities.

Essentially the organization would operate as book broker that trades physical books for e-Book-platform-agnostic dollars. We could service any individual—regardless of their device choice.

Let’s make this happen Hugh—I’d like some additional creative inspiration!

NB: Probably leverage Amazon infrastructure through every part of the value chain.

Note, my response is largely inspired by the uncertainty surrounding the changing book industry and market constraints for physical books in certain regions (ie, how the fuck do we get books to remote regions of Nepal for example?). 

[Note: this is one of the Cube Grenade entries. Share your story for a chance to win a commissioned piece of art.]