Tomes that roam in the ether

New meets old - or at least slightly used - as trading used books online becomes all the rage

Shen Bing's first foray into secondhand book buying turned out to be a revelation. The book she bought, Tengxun Zhuan (The History of Tencent), was not only in good order, to her it seemed almost brand-new. In addition it had been autographed by the author and it cost her a little less than 18 yuan ($2.6), 30 percent of its original price.

Shen bought the book from Duo Zhua Yu, or Deja Vu, an online secondhand bookshop that buys secondhand books at between 20 percent and 40 percent of their original price and sells them at between 30 percent and 55 percent of their original price.