# Thinking of selling Kindle - Can i sell my books as well?



## ckmommy (Jul 28, 2009)

I'm a total newbie to this board, so I apologize if I'm asking something that's already been asked.

I have a Kindle 1, and after seeing my Mother's Kindle 2, I really want to upgrade.  I would like to sell my K1 and use the proceeds toward the purchase of the K2.

My question is this - if I sell the K1 with the books that are on it, will they stay on it when the new owner re-registers it to their account?  I assume I will be able to get more money for it with the books on it, of course.  I have about $700 worth of books on it.

TIA for any help!


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## MamaProfCrash (Dec 16, 2008)

The book licenses will stay on it until the owner deletes them. You will loose that particular license for those books if you sell your K1 with the books on them. If you think you are going to share an account with someone at a late date you probably want to delete the books and keep track of the books you had on it so you can have those licenses removed if needed.


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## ckmommy (Jul 28, 2009)

So, If I sell the Kindle, with the books on it, and the new owner registers it to their account, the licences follow, and I will no longer have access to the books I purchased?


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## akpak (Mar 5, 2009)

No, the books stay with your account and your K1 will count toward the "6 devices" limit on each book. You can call Amazon CS to have them reset the book licenses though.

The books are tied to your Amazon account, NOT to any specific device. So unless you sell your Amazon account with it, the new owner will only have access to those books as long as he/she doesn't delete them.


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## Greg Banks (May 2, 2009)

The main thing is that the books are linked to your account. You can leave the books on, but technically you should delete them because as soon as that person registers the Kindle, they will lose access to those books. Remember, once you buy a Kindle book through the Kindle Store, you have access to the book forever, even if you delete it from your Kindle you can always download it again. The files on your Kindle are representative of that fact, and you aren't therefore supposed to pass those files on to someone else. In some way it's kind of bad, but it prevents people from taking their one file and freely sharing copies with the whole world, thus screwing the publishers and we lowly authors out of an income.

The other thing mentioned here is that apparently you are allowed to download any Kindle book you buy to up to 6 devices. Your K1 would count as one device, so therefore, no matter what you do with it, that leaves you with at most a license to download the ebooks to five more devices. It's suggested that when you get rid of an old Kindle (or even when you have to return a defective Kindle) that you call Kindle support to have that old device removed from your record, since you don't want the device you no longer own to count against your six Kindle limit.

I know it can be a bit confusing, but hopefully it kinda makes sense now?


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## pidgeon92 (Oct 27, 2008)

Another caveat.... Amazon is perfectly capable of removing a book from the Kindle any time WhisperNet is activated... Just because they haven't removed books from re-registered Kindles in the past doesn't mean they won't start doing it tomorrow.... Thus, if you are using the books on the Kindle as a selling point, you need to word it so that you are not guaranteeing that the books will be available for the next owner.


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## PaulGuy (Jul 9, 2009)

Simply put they're not your books so you can't sell them.
When you "buy" a book for a Kindle what you're really buying is the right to access that book's content on your Kindle.
That's it. You can't sell it, lend it, or donate it.
At least that's the current state of affairs in this infant field of DRM.


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## Lilly (Dec 14, 2008)

Greg Banks said:


> The main thing is that the books are linked to your account. You can leave the books on, but technically you should delete them because as soon as that person registers the Kindle, they will lose access to those books.


Only if they delete them from the home page menu. The new owner will be able to read all books on the Kindle but once delete it, there's no way to get it back since they can't re-download it.


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## Greg Banks (May 2, 2009)

You know, I thought that once the Kindle was registered under a new account (particularly if it is connected to Amazon via Whispernet), those ebooks would automatically be disabled or deleted altogether. That's not so bad if the books remain, although you still aren't supposed to do it.


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