It’s possible they flew out of bookstores. Things are not always what they seem. While a little off topic to the fact that the party is trying to decide who the VP candidate will be so that the party doesn’t fracture, sales of books by political class should be seen with a jaundiced eye.
Former House speaker Jim Wright in 1988 was accused of benefiting improperly from speaking engagements related to his book “Reflections of a Public Man” - he resigned. The book was a collection of speeches. He had a deal where he would received 55% royalty on all copies sold. There were people who were buying in bulk. Jim’s farewell resignation speech - he admitted it was sold in bulk, even sold by members of his staff...for benevolent reasons of course because he is a demonkrap, those special people who never do anything wrong - even when they do.
He also said this as he resigned ...”... If monetary gain had been my primary interest, don’t you think I would have gone to one of the big Madison Avenue publications, the houses there that give you a big advance?”...
“And it is grievously hurtful to our society when vilification becomes an accepted form of political debate and negative campaigning becomes a full-time occupation; when members of each party become self-appointed vigilantes carrying out personal vendettas against members of the other party. In God’s name, that’s not what this institution is supposed to be all about. When vengeance becomes more desirable than vindication and harsh personal attacks upon one another’s motives and one another’s character drown out the quiet logic of serious debate on important issues, things that we ought to be involved ourselves in. Surely that’s unworthy of our institution and unworthy of our American political process. All of us in both political parties must resolve to bring this period of mindless cannibalism to an end!! We’ve done enough of it!
How political times have changed, not. I would not be surprised if it turns out that a significant number of m.obozo’s books were bulk purchases by party activists, at the minimum to ingratiate themselves with the obozos et al. We’re dealing with a former POTUS who at the end of his 2nd term put US assets in the form of currency on pallets and thought he was secretly flying it to Iran. Nothing is outside the limits.
Bulk purchases are classified as “special sales” and are of course at a lower price and are not counted in the retail sales. Often a company or other organization gives them away free, and of course takes some kind of tax writeoff for the expense. The bestseller lists are only from retail bookstores.
Still, I’m sure there were many people buying political favors and getting a nice tax break along with them with those bulk sales.