Originally Posted by
St. Troy
This, specifically, is what I wonder about - is there no agreement with the publisher concerning pricing? Or do the publishers go into it knowing that "anything goes" is the rule?
In my experience, sales to a retailer are "the same" as sales to any customer in that sense: the person who bought the book from the publisher can do with the book as they please in terms of keeping it, selling it, etc. Resell at retail, resell for less, resell for more, auction it off, bundle with other items for sale, store it away for future sale, etc.
That's why you see retailers offering their own slipcases, custom dust jackets, artist remarques, etc, for books they didn't publish. And, also, why a few select books end up being auctioned off by retailers instead of just going onto the "new releases" page for the original retail price.
I don't want to wade into what's right, what's fair, etc, but I did want to answer this question strictly from a "business policy/terms of agreement" standpoint.
Brian