. . .I have no idea what a remaindered hardcover is, . . . .
Remainders are the leftover books that end up in bookstore bargain bins and in mail-order discount catalogs. (I'm sure you have seen them, even if not familiar with the terminology.) Often they have a black mark on the bottom of the pages or other indication that they are remainders. You can often get new (but remaindered) hardbacks of best sellers for six dollars or so, esp. when the paperback edition is released a year after the hardback. Sometimes they are marked down to a dollar or two just to get rid of them quickly and not have to pulp them. Barnes & Noble (our local one, at least) carries a large selection of remaindered books. Amazon also has a bargain book section that probably is largely made up of remainders. The remainder business is part of the system, and a reason why most books published in the standard way have short shelf lives. If not sold within a few months, they are remaindered to make way for new releases. Trade paperbacks are also found among the remainders, but not mass-market paperbacks. Those typically get pulped, as the covers are ripped off the unsold books and returned for credit.
I buy a lot of new books because for my (often obsessive) interests and purposes I often cannot (or prefer not to) wait for paperbacks (which might not be forthcoming anyway) or for remainders. Best sellers are often nearly half-price at Costco, so I'll buy those if by a handful of favorite authors. (But my household is far from typical, with maybe 10,000 books accumulated over 50 years or so, and two householders who are obsessive readers with wide interests.)
I certainly agree that for ordinary leisure reading, there is never a need to pay anything close to list price. Around here, libraries have racks and racks of donated books selling for fifty cents to two dollars, and the SPCA has massive semi-annual sales of donated books, cheap cheap cheap. Print-on-demand books are rarely going to be available that way (very few copies were ever printed), so there is little opportunity in those for bargain-hunters.
Sometimes overambitious first printings end up in the remainder bins for years. The first American edition of
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell has been available at my local B&N as a six dollar remainder year after year, for example. Sometimes it is second, third, or subsequent printings that did not sell out that are the remaindered books.
Sorry for information overload. And no, I was in no way, shape, or form "mocking" you. (As a biblioholic whose staircase serves as supplemental bookshelves,
I am a ripe target for mocking.)
--Ken