Maybe people already owned it.

Probably because everyone already owns it...

They probably already had it in their libraries.

20 million people own it already I doubt this matters

I think people already own it.

Everyone already bought it.

welp @ the tea being clocked only 1 post in

Not surprised.

21 and 25 are different, and with astronomical sales, she has a higher probability of returns than others.

Probably more returns than others have sales but let me not.

This usually happens with the biggest selling albums.

The backfire

Oh no, that means only a billion people have it instead of a billion plus thirty-two thousand.

If a CD is returned, does the album sale get subtracted from the artist?

They can still keep it for their collection or regift it. That's what I do when people give me CDs I already own.

Where's the evidence that those trading it in already owned a copy?

Right.
And 32K is a huge number.

Is it though? 32,000 copies of 25 were traded in while 25,000 copies of Purpose were traded in. Purpose sold orders of magnitude less, so a much higher % of the copies of Purpose were returned