Does it matter if a hardcover is a book club edition or not?

Only if the person has an RC stating they won't accept Book Club editions. Haven't seen that RC in a while though. Pat

I see that RC pretty regularly. But the only books I have that were book club editions are childen's series and our classics with gold-tooled covers that are 'keepers'.

It seems to depend on the book club, but "as a rule", bce's are a bit smaller and use less expensive materials.  The crime-and-mystery and romance ones generally fall into this category. 

Do BCE have a different ISBN? If so, shouldn't be an issue as we post by ISBNs.

many book club editions have no isbn.

Almost all BCE have the same ISBN as the regular hardcovers.

Sci-fi & Fantasy has tons of BCEs as well.

I wonder if the resurgence of Book of the Month Club will cause this RC to resurface.  The new BOMC offerings have its logo embossed on the cover and spine and some readers don't like that.

If there is no ISBN for a BCE, then I assume it has to be posted seperately as a non ISBN book. If it has the same ISBN, then it should not be an issue unless there is an RC indicating no BCE.  

The old Paperback Book Club had trade sized versions listed with the HB ISBN. So those books should have been listed without an ISBN.

This really depends on how the book club handles the ISBN. It varies by company. The SF one usually had double books with their own ISBN.

For more info about ISBN's goto ISBN.ORG 

The ISBN covers the title and publisher. They are 'sold' in lots of 10, 100, and 1000 - they cost money. The ISBN folks would like for each version of a book to have a different assigned ISBN (Harback, Paperback, Library version, Revised Version, etc - but - and this is a big but - that decission is up to the publisher - it's one of the reasons that we find Paperbacks with the same ISBN as a Hardback - the publisher went cheap and did not use a different ISBN for a different version of the same title. The ISBN is not a UPC (Universal Product Code). 

When I post a book on PBS and it is a Paperback and I put in the ISBN and it comes up as a paperback I just hit Ok and post - I do not dig deeper to make sure it has the same number of pages in it's PBS Library data fields, nor do I check to make sure it is from the same Printer, nor from the year originally printed, nor if it is Trade Sized or Mass Market (unless that info comes up as part of the Post It Data Fields)

Same if I post a Hardback by ISBN - if PBS says it's a Hardback and my book is a Hardback then I post it - does not matter if it is a Library version, Leather Bound Edition, has a Dust Jacket or no Dust Jacket - Hardback is a Hardback. But the book I post must have an ISBN on the rear cover as well as on the copyright page and must match by type what PBS says it is when it is posted.

All that being said - IF a requestor has Requestor Conditions (RC's) such as "No Book Of The Month Club" books then it is  your responsibility to completely check your version of the book to make sure it meets all the requestors conditions. A RC of" 'must have a Dust Jacket' means it must have a dust jacket - even if it never had a dust jacket - most folks who want books like this will usually also state 'unless it was published w/o a dust jacket - which gives you an out if the books hard cover has art work printed on the cover just like or similar to a dust jacket (some folks would call this a Library Edition).

It would be nice if everything was black & white here at PBS, but just like real life, everything is shades of gray....

Wow. Never had any idea of such complexity. Just always listed by ISBN with no further thought. 

I thought that most of these book clubs had gone the way of the dinosaur, but I get the occasional BCE, so I guess not.

I thought that most of these book clubs had gone the way of the dinosaur

Book of the Month Club is really popular right now.  They even have monthly Judges who select the books that will be offered each month.

Science Fiction Book Club hasn't gone anywhere either.

With the exception of specific genres (mystery, SF, religious) the numbers did go down for a while. Some are coming back.