Are you being snide, or just condescending?

I was speaking specifically of the popular fiction hardcover, which he was referring to having left over. This summer, I've sold roughly $300 of books (i.e. that's what they paid me for them) to used book stores, and not once have they taken a popular fiction hardcover book. The hardcovers they've taken have been a) children's books, or b) a rare title. Every book purchaser I've dealt with has said the same -- they don't sell if the paperback is also available. Obviously, my used book store may have different rules than yours, as well as different sales patterns.

Most of those books I've sold have come from garage sales, where we've picked them up at the end of the day, quite literally, for free. When we've been there at both the start and end of the garage sale, we've been able to see exactly what's selling -- for the most part, it's not the hardcover fiction.

So all those hardcover books, we've donated to a small non-profit bookstore that sells books to raise money for the local library. They do sell there, though it's very slowly -- the turnover rate on their hardcover bookshelves is not high. Thus demonstrating why other bookstores won't take them.