[Courtney Milan]

Author George R.R. Martin sold 298,000 copies of his new novel on his FIRST DAY. Ebook sales were 110K. Of course, of the 170K hardcovers, I imagine a substantial number may be returned, unless his sell-through is much higher than the industry average.

http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/george-r-r-martin-sells-298000-copies-of-a-dance-with-dragons-on-first-day_b34283

Those 170,000 hardcover sales are actual sales to customers, not sales to booksellers. I seriously doubt that GRRM only shipped 170K copies of the book.