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Topic: Three ISBNs on one book!

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EasyForTheEyes avatar
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Subject: Three ISBNs on one book!
Date Posted: 11/16/2008 6:59 PM ET
Member Since: 12/10/2005
Posts: 3,205
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Okay, I have a copy of Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden to post.  But it has a total of three differing ISBNs.

Back cover above the UPC- 0965084740  This one appears invaild so I won't use it.  Looks like a typo happened and it should read 0965084744.

The UPC code which works as ISBN-13- 9780965084741  This brings up a book that matches but has no cover image. (Yet.  I will probably submit a fix on that sometime today.)

And then the one inside the book, on the book details page- 0375400117  This is the one I'm going to use because it's a vaild ISBN, it has 'ISBN' next to it and is the easiest for other members to confirm as the correct one plus it already has a cover image.

I just find it really odd.  :-)

Poncer avatar
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Date Posted: 11/16/2008 7:06 PM ET
Member Since: 10/23/2005
Posts: 7,720
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Publisher! Either they use the same ISBN for 20 different editions, or they use (waste) 3 different ISBNs on the same book. My guess is they changed the cover just a wee bit, by adding a sentence about whatever best seller list they made, or the added a review to the back cover and then just used the same exact printing on the inside.

And just a BTW: I have seen more and more ISBN typos on the back covers of  MMPs in the last few months. This is what happens when they depend on spellcheck instead of human proof readers. The wrong number will never be discovered by a computer program that is checking for spelling.

donnatella avatar
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Date Posted: 11/16/2008 8:28 PM ET
Member Since: 6/26/2006
Posts: 6,633
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But ISBN numbers have check digits, so if it's a nonexistant ISBN, you'd think they'd be able to flag it as such before printing.  Hmm...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Check_digit



Last Edited on: 11/16/08 8:29 PM ET - Total times edited: 1