4 ms·
The use case that I did personally hit a couple of times is old, out of print books. They were relatively inexpensive (say, $10-$15 at publication 30 years ago)
by ptero 7y ago
The use case that I did personally hit a couple of times is old, out of print books. They were relatively inexpensive (say, $10-$15 at publication 30 years ago), but did not publish a lot of copies. Thus my choice is between getting free digital scans off hobbyist sites (I guess also known as those evil "pirates") or searching for an occasional seller on ebay asking $200 for a copy of unknown quality. Can I afford $200 for a copy? Yes. Will I pay it? Not so sure, sorry. My 2c.
- delecti 7y agoMaybe there's no clear line between the two, but there's a difference between pirating something out of print which has greatly appreciated in value due to rarity far beyond the typical asking price for media of that type, and being unable/unwilling to pay the typical retail price of a currently in-print item. I may have tried to tell myself otherwise, but when I was pirating blockbuster video games in college it was just because I didn't have $60 spare, not because there's anything inherently unreasonable about a $60 price tag for the game. Not least among the reasons why is that the original creator won't get any of your money for the out of print item.