Comment Re:I fail to see the logic in this (Score 2, Interesting) 458
"A book with the cover ripped off" describes a very, very small part of the remainder business. You're also wrong about publishers suing, the illegality of selling remaindered books, and whether it's hard to spot a remaindered book. And both Amazon and Half.com sell a vast number of remaindered books every day.
A remaindered book is essentially "publisher's overstock" which is made up of unsold returns from retailers, books that have been damaged in shipping ("hurts") and books that were never sold from the publisher's warehouses in the first place. The publishers then liquidate those books by selling them to remainder dealers for pennies on the dollar. The remainder dealers are then free to resell them however they like. Where do you think B&N stores get the "bargain books" they sell in the front of all their stores nowadays?
Oftentimes, remaindered books are in NO WAY different than the original. Other times, publishers will put a remainder mark (a line drawn in black marker) on the bottom of the book to indicate it is a remainder. In cases where the value of the book is very small (mass market paperbacks are a good example) and the book has little resale value, retailers are asked to just rip the covers off the books and return the covers to save shipping costs.
A remaindered book is essentially "publisher's overstock" which is made up of unsold returns from retailers, books that have been damaged in shipping ("hurts") and books that were never sold from the publisher's warehouses in the first place. The publishers then liquidate those books by selling them to remainder dealers for pennies on the dollar. The remainder dealers are then free to resell them however they like. Where do you think B&N stores get the "bargain books" they sell in the front of all their stores nowadays?
Oftentimes, remaindered books are in NO WAY different than the original. Other times, publishers will put a remainder mark (a line drawn in black marker) on the bottom of the book to indicate it is a remainder. In cases where the value of the book is very small (mass market paperbacks are a good example) and the book has little resale value, retailers are asked to just rip the covers off the books and return the covers to save shipping costs.
