what does it mean when they say the book may have a remainder mark ?

Question

When you are checking the condition of a used book and you are told it has a remainder mark? What exactly is a remainder mark???

Answer 1

Some books sell, and others don't. If a publisher decides this one wouldn't, he might "remainder" it to be sold at a discount, so long as it was sufficiently marked to indicate that fact.

Answer 2

Well, so now you know what a remainder mark IS, but here's what most look like:

For the most part, remainder marks are usually only a line of marker that has been ran over one side of the pages, or perhaps on the back cover over the ISBN area. If the remainder mark was different in any major way-- IE, if someone had cut the ISBN out, I'm pretty sure the seller would note that in their listing.

If you're into a book for it's shiny newness, or collectability, you might not like it, but it defnitely doesn't hinder your reading of the book in any way. Usually I don't even notice remainder marks.

Answer 3

It means the publisher unloaded the books at a great discount; the mark is to indicate that this happened, so full price isn't charged.

You used to see this in record albums too - they'd cut out a little rectangle from the corner of the album, to show it was remaindered, so it couldn't be sold at full price or represented as such.