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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 5301634" data-attributes="member: 80487">TSR may have got cash for them before you got a chance to see them. In the game trade, it works like this:Publisher -> Distributor -> Retailer -> CustomerIt can even work like this:1) Publisher floats product ideas to distributor 2) Distributor solicits orders from retailers3) Distributor tells publisher what distributor wants4) Publisher creates products5) Distributor buys products from publisher6) Distributor sells products to retailers on credit7) Retailers try to sell products to customersIn the book trade (a separate distribution network, so, e.g., Barnes & Noble but probably not Joe's Comix & Hobbies) retailers traditionally have a right of return. It may (to save on shipping) entail sending back only the covers and reporting the books as unsold and destroyed.That usually does go back to the publisher, and so to the author (who is probably getting robbed of royalties when a book is sold without the cover).I don't know the usual window of opportunity for returns, or how the shift of ownership from TSR to WotC affected things. I suspect that the option had passed if you bought 2e books at a book store in the 3e era, that the store had already paid for and owned them. If prices were marked down, then I think that is especially likely.</blockquote>