Neither.
Distributors are not retailers
They need not be dropshipping. Probably would not. Cheaper to get consolidated shipments on a fixed day, then use Amazon Logistics to ship.
Amazon has always used dropshippers.
Dropship from Ingram Books for the early years of Amazon.
Dropship from manufacturers though out its history for bulky or heavy items.
Before they culled the vendors they dealt with Amazon relied on many of them to dropship.
What they have done before they can do again,
Easy enough for a bean counter who knows nothing about books to design a program to handle small press books without thinking to check the date, or a distributor to provide a report or feed which includes OOP books.
No one has ever said Amazon does not make mistakes.
So then… not neither, in fact very much yes.
The fact is that in your hypothetical scenario Amazon is doing something they have been heavily pressuring sellers not to do for years: listing something they don’t have at an elevated price so that if they do ever get a sale they will have charged so much they can afford to pay a premium from whatever source they can find to fill the order.
Locking sellers who actually have the item on hand out of a listing in order to do so is not only ethically objectionable, but also highly hypocritical.
Amazon has not pressured sellers not to drop ship. It has pressured sellers not to drop ship from retailers and not to have any information which implies the seller of record for the order is other than the Amazon seller.
It has never given sellers who have Ingram books drop ship their orders a hard time. And Ingram books was used by Amazon to drop ship.
Suggesting Amazon is opposed to all drop shipping is to fail to understand Amazon policy and motives, Usually a result of reading forum posts instead of policy.
IMO this issue with the title in the original post is derived from the condition. A 1999 NEW book creates issues for the bots, human and programmed. There are used copies of the book available on the page, and a used buy box.
This is a fundamental failing of Amazon grading. A problem which was created when Amazon used Powell’s as a model. Powell’s was a pioneer in selling both new and used books. But Powell’s only graded as NEW books obtained through distribution. The identical book obtained from a library, liquidation lot, or estate was never graded as NEW.
Those booksellers who did not buy from publishers or distribution used AB grading now called ABAA grading and topped out as As New,
Since Amazon has never been a bookseller in any true sense, the subtleties of the book business are missed.
This is one that I have:
0841902003
Amazon still claims to be able to sell it “New”. Printed once, in the 1970s. There are no “New” copies.
Except in Amazon’s imagination.
Or what if they are considering this as a revenue stream. Yes, I understand they will need to buy the rights to the IP for these books.
They did so for video, audio, eBooks, etc…
First, much of what we make we do on demand. So I get that market. We have started to look into publishing our own works, as in creating books. It feels like Amazon wants us to provide these for eBooks, and also on demand publishing.
Just thinking out of my little box here.