It fetches a high price? Enough to offset or at least defray the cost of liquidating the rest?
No - except that nobody (yet) is predicting the possible imminent liquidation or closing of Amazon/Kindle, nor the Apple store.
Mama Zappa’s experience is the most likely scenario - whoever buys them will give ongoing support to existing devices, but not expand the market. You will be able to continue using the device for a while until they get tired of supporting it, and pull the plug with some sort of possibly acceptable transition plan.
Or Plan B - someone trying to break into the market will be aggressively promoting the device and marketplace - less likely. After all, Amazon has a massive market share. One article I read suggested they could get to the point of giving away the readers to sell the files. It’s ludicrous, you pay more than paperback prices for a small computer file that you still need special configuration to open and pretty sure will disappear in a decade or so. I seriously doubt anywhere near 50% goes to the author. ePublishing is a license to print money for Amazon and the publisher.
Tthe “license to print money” part might encourage others with deep pockets to try to get into the game (how’s that going for you, Apple?). The current anti-trust actions over price fixing might help, especially if it makes “exclusive” deals illegal. However, I think the chance to win has passed, and Amazon won. A rival can only undercut on price - it’s the same product. trying to beat Amazon on price is something only someone like Apple or Microsoft can win at.
Microsoft has less of a reason - nobody’s going to run out and buy a Win8 tablet to read books, it’s not likely to drive market share; Apple has a reason - the iPad is a passable alternative to Kindle in most situations (except, maybe, direct sunlight) plus a myriad other features, so eliminate the “carry around an extra device” problem. Howevr, the Kindle app nullifies that advantage. So Apple tries to grab a share of any sales from the Kindle app; Amazon retaliated by moving sales off the app to the web browser. Touche.
If Apple tries to cut prices, Amazon will match - a “no win” situation… both have deep pockets.
It’s a standard business model called “take the money and run”… basically the opposite of long term planning.
The owner might be right. You can’t win against Amazon online, but maybe with Bricks and Mortar. There will always be a niche market for bookstores, just as there is for handmade pottery stores. Every big city might have a few, trying the specializing boutique model (Barnes’ Cookbooks) or the monster store model (“World’s Biggest Bookstore!”). The internet has not mastered the art of showrooming (yet).
As someone else said, you can indeed store local copies. However, I don’t know what would happen if the credit card used to purchase the book expired - would you still be able to read it? My experience from 2 years ago worries me, in that when my card expired, the Nook would no longer display my B&N purchases. I had to log on, update my payment information, and then redownload it all.
If B&N goes belly up, what happens when the card expires? Or if the Nook dies and must be replaced?
Or I get a new smartphone and want to redownload the Nook app? The Ereader.com app is no longer available at the Google Play store so I can’t read the books on that app any more (well, it’s still on my iPod Touch).
What happens if the vendor decides you’re persona non grata, or just realizes it sold you a book by accident?
I really believe that anyone purchasing ebooks these days would be foolish to not make sure their books are readable regardless of their hardware.
I’m not sure if that app was ever at the Google Play store. It’s apparently still available on the ereader.com website:
Link to direct download from your android browser
Their software page in general.
Hmmm - will have to check that out. I’m pretty sure I still have the original PDB files.
I’m 99% certain it was at Google Play when I got my smartphone, however.
Interesting. I remember not finding it on Google Play* when I got my Android (May of 2012?) because it was one of the first apps I installed off a third party website, and thinking that I couldn’t do that on my iPhone. 
*Which doesn’t necessarily mean it wasn’t on Google Play at the time.
For what it’s worth, the first B&N that opened in the New Orleans metro area (1996 IIRC) now has about 15-20% of it’s floor space dedicated to toys. Both toys for kids and “toys” for adult “kids” (e.g. uber-complex Lego sets, Doctor Who collectibles, etc.). Our local Borders were doing this, too, before they closed down.
Barnes & Noble, at least around here, is also a really good place to pass time with children. That’s an angle they might be able to play up somehow.