US secondhand/thrift store marketUS self-published books per year
American thrift stores selling more, American authors self-publishing more, both lines climbing. The same household that found a vintage jacket at Goodwill is, statistically, also finishing a memoir on Amazon KDP. The 2010s rewarded resourcefulness in two registers.
US self-published titles per year climbed steadily through the 2010s and into the 2020s as Amazon KDP and falling production costs lowered the publishing barrier. US thrift and secondhand revenue roughly doubled across the same window as Gen Z secondhand culture, Depop, and the eco-label tailwind expanded the category. Both reflect the same disintermediation pattern: gatekeepers (publishers, retailers) lost their automatic stranglehold, and a wave of small entrants and second-life inventory filled the space. Different markets, same era of opening.
Two industries opened their doors during the same decade. The shelf and the cover both got more options.
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