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Most books that are not sold can be returned to the vendor (publisher or distributor) for credit.
Mass-market paperbacks cost so little to make (the cost of the physical object not the total cost to produce a book) that no one wants to incur the costs of shipping them back. A large number of those paperbacks are going to be destroyed anyways.
So the publisher prints the barcode on the inside of the cover. That is all they need to apply the credit for the book. The book store strips the cover and sends that back to receive the credit.
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