When they put the entire album on myspace and most people heard at least some of the songs in finished form that also led to people just not buying it.  Look at the corrosponding number of plays on the site the second half of the album has far less clicks/listens than the first half. 

It's an epic fail because there were alot of factors in their favor.  Reviews were generally positive--there were no real scathing reviews.  Old bands like Metallica and AC/Dc proved that you can move significant amounts of cds even in this economically challenged time we live in.  Yet GNR  with an extra two day advantage-album dropped on a Sunday--couldn't even get to #1 on the chart.  Metallica did 470,000 in 4 days and AC/DC sold close to 800,000 in their opening week.

This speaks to an erosion in the fanbase.  The old fans (87-93) have moved on for the most part and the new fans (2000-present) are becoming restless and disenchanted.  The end result with the silent years of 1994-2000 and 2003-2006 (honestly, its whenever the band did nothing) is that the band did not draw many new fans and what fans/market they had slowly eroded to the point where they wouldn't have made any difference whatsoever in sales.  If GNR is in fact a brand name then they need an injection of new ideas fast otherwise they will be suffering a slow and painful death.