Flipping through some back issues of Billboard at the amazing worldradiohistory.com site (which has back issues), and found a blurb from a 1972 A&M distributors meeting, in which Jerry Moss was decrying the practice of cut-outs (unsold inventory being sold to wholesalers who then would sell the album far below list price---often as low as 99 cents). Jerry's point was that you're far less likely to spend $5.98 for a new album if you know you can get overstock in a year for a buck or two.
Then, Jerry said A&M's practice was to buy back overstock (to the tune of $400,000 of unsold inventory in 1971) and destroy the albums.
If I had known that before, I'd forgotten it---and I don't know how long that was A&M's practice (I found a lot of the 1969 A&M/CTi product in cutout bins in 1970), but it explains why a lot of the lesser-selling LPs are difficult to find---because the overstock never made it into homes at discount prices.
Then, Jerry said A&M's practice was to buy back overstock (to the tune of $400,000 of unsold inventory in 1971) and destroy the albums.
If I had known that before, I'd forgotten it---and I don't know how long that was A&M's practice (I found a lot of the 1969 A&M/CTi product in cutout bins in 1970), but it explains why a lot of the lesser-selling LPs are difficult to find---because the overstock never made it into homes at discount prices.