True, but this designation is intended like the asterisk on a Baseball players record to note a significant factor that otherwise distorts the Best Seller report because a material number of sales are instead bulk orders placed through book stores rather than directly with the publisher.
You can purchase directly from the publisher in lots of as little as one case so someone purchasing bulk from a bookstore is doing so deliberately.
This reporting and the reason this is noted is that in the past it became a scandal because people were buying their way on to the list. The NYT responded not by removing the book from the list because who is to know why folks are buying this book or that.. but instead it is to note a caution that the book is being sold in bulk in an unusual fashion. The second dagger as I understand is meant to indicate very significant numbers being purchased in bulk through bookstores rather than directly from the publisher.
Ultimately you are going to give up a significant amount of your profit or funds raised by purchasing these books through a book reseller because they make a profit on the sale. If you are only planning to buy 10 copies, the book store may actually be able to give you a deal you can't possibly get from the publisher so you save. But at 10,000, the publisher is going to beat the price you pay at the bookstore even discounted by a significant margin.
Do you have information on what you term “significant”? I’m looking for factual references on what it means.