Depending on the bike manufacturer- they have a lot of ways to get rid of last years frame. It may be this year's frame in another country...

Seriously this does happen with all sorts of manufactured products.

On bicycles though- some mfg'ers like American Bicycle Group have their own outlet online (www.preownedbikes.com if I remember right) others may use ebay under a subsidiary's name to not peeve their dealers. Others still may just sell the lot to a 3rd party like PricePoint or JensonUSA for disposal. These new owners have bought the frames/bikes as an investment. They are likely to wait until whever they think they can get top dollar to sell. I have a high school friend who's dad bought 4 of the last VW Bug convertibles made in Germany in the late 70's and still has them in storage as an investment. People do wierd things.

Look at all the '02 and '03 Jamis Nova frames still around when you can't get an '04 anywhere. Jamis over-corrected and stocked-out early this year on that bike.

If the bike is built- I don't think the mfg'er is going to pay to have the bike disassembled and then re-painted as mentioned in an earlier post. I work for a large consumer products company- this just doesn't make sense.