Some of them were huge hits in the past. I assume the overage for those was significant since the studios wouldn’t want to run out of copies while it was still hot.
Yep. There were only so many plants making mass quantities, and so the company had to order them well in advance. (Plus order extras like printing album covers, cd sleeves, etc.) So all ordered based on someone’s guess at how successfully this one is going to sell. Guess wrong, and you’re left with a whole lot of merchandise that isn’t selling, and that stores are sending back to you.
Re: the quality of mail order CDs, at least some Columbia House CDs were manufactured by Columbia House under license from the record label. They sometimes came with different art or missing liner notes. I can show you my Jane’s Addiction “Ritual de lo Habitual” CD that has a plain white label in lieu of the naked woman drawing from the regular cover. The CDs always played like regular CDs of ordinary quality.
Littleton Coin Company used to offer $5 silver dollars as a come on when the melt value was eight or nine bucks. I would buy one every six months or so and cancel my membership before I even received the coins. It was never too much hassle.
Vinyl LPs and also CDs usually even had slightly different artwork for the club issues. Some of these (Beatles) are quite collectable. I remember selling CDs to used stores, and they would NOT buy club issue CDs. Probably not because of the material, but rather them being common and therefor not saleable.