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Can you expand on this? Do you mean a paperback copy of a book somehow competes with a later sale of the same book?

Yes - they don't want to flood the used book market with paperbacks, which would compete with future sales of the same title.

If you're a bookstore and a hardcover doesn't sell, you have to return the whole book to the publisher. If a paperback doesn't sell, you just have to rip off the front cover and return that to the publisher.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stripped_book

Supply and demand. If you decrease the supply, the small existing demand will pay more.

When suppliers destroy supply, it makes a good argument for piracy

I somewhat agree with you but I really do like some kind of curation, even if that curation is done by the market. There's nothing inherently good with a surplus of bad goods. I'd prefer a copy of "The Library of Babel" vs. all of the books inside of it.

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