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Old 12-14-2008, 06:50 PM   #82
lilac_jive
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Quote:
Originally Posted by starrigger View Post
Mass market paperback returns are high, but not that high. I think the average nowadays is in the 50% range -- one book sold, one book stripped (cover returned for credit) and pulped.

Stores can't sell the stripped books in any form because that would be selling stolen property. Same with donating them. They are unsold copies for which the publisher has refunded the money, and neither the publisher nor author gets any money for it. They don't return the whole book because the cost of shipping, sorting, returning to storage, etc., is too great.
50% is still pretty high. Thanks for clearing that up for me though, I knew there was a good reason but I didn't know the details.

When I worked for B&N, they let us keep stripped copies (but not at Waldenbooks). Last I heard though they were phasing that out.
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