Quote:
Originally Posted by Moejoe
Well one of the ones I bought without a cover was an ee cummings poetry book that someone had hand stitched along the edge. I find it very fetching, and it only cost 20p.
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If it seems like it is an older hard back, I doubt this applies. One of my first jobs was working in the returns warehouse of a publishing house. Hardback books are shipped back in their entirety and (judged by a couple people from receipt to pallet) if in resellable condition are re-added to stock. Paperbacks are not considered economically viable enough to be sent back, between their lower value and more easily damaged condition (which can occur in the store, in transit, intra- and inter-warehouse, and finally reshipping) as well as transit costs, agreements between the publishers/distributers and retailers exist whereby removing the cover as proof (And I believe the UPC code off magazines/periodicals) is enough to receive a refund. The agreement of course being that the remainder of the text is destroyed at that point.
An interesting side note is that hard backs that were autographed in store are also considered damaged and are recycled. I probably saw a few thousand signed texts destroyed while working there. (This didn't apply of course to signed texts which were done originally like limited editions)
-MJ