I have my account set up so that I DO receive emails if other versions of a WL book is available.  I do get emails if the paperback I have WL'ed is available in HC or audio.  But what I don't get is emails that they're available as paperbacks with a different ISBN?  Why is that?  I have to manually hunt through my WL to find these and order myself.  I just found six books this way.

There should be a way to couple the paperbacks the same way, shouldn't there?

The best thought I can offer you is to find every version you can of a WL book and add each version to your WL.  That will give you the best odds at getting a copy (if indeed you're willing to take a WL book in any binding).  If you just want HC, fine, just list that one, otherwise try the way I mentioned.  I recently added both the HC and PB version of a book I wanted.  The PB version came up and I took it.  I don't have it in my hot little hands yet, so I'm leaving the HC on my WL until it arrives.  Just in case it goes lost, I don't want to lose my place in line for the other version.

Also, from time to time, do an author search of the authors of your WL books.  You will often find other bindings or isbn copies that way.  Yesterday someone posted that they did author searches and were able to order 4 books from their WL just with different isbn's.

Perhaps someone else can chime in, but to directly answer your question, besides having your account set up as you do, to receive notifications of other versions, I think that, with what I suggested, is the only current way to get your WL books.

edited because I shouldn't type before I've had coffee

What happens is that some people post "foreign" versions of books (ie published in the UK or Australia, but still in English) and the ISBN doesn't work with the PBS database...so people have to enter it as a book without an ISBN. Each time that happens, a unique 5-digit ISBN is generated so those versions are not recognized by the system as "same book, different ISBN." That's why it's pointless to wishlist something with a 5-digit ISBN...those will NEVER come up again! They also do not always come up during a search for the Author, or by clicking on the author's name...so it's a good idea to do a manual search for Title and Author occasionally.

Even then, some still slip by. The reason being, that when people are hand-entering information about a book without an ISBN, if they make any spelling errors, transpose a couple of letters, etc. the book won't come up during a search if you've spelled everything correctly! I have found books that I had wishlisted purely by chance where a person hand-entering info had used the word "A" instead of "The" in the title...where they misspelled the author's last name or a word in the title. If you really are diligent in searching, you can find a lot of books on your wishlist. Another thing is to check out the thread in the Book Bazaar where people will list books on their shelves that are wishlisted under a different ISBN.

To me it seems weird that UK and Australian versions of books won't be recognized by the database....I mean, the "I" in ISBN actually stands for "International." HELLO! LOL

Cheryl

I wish I had the time to enter every paperback ISBN into my WL, as well as search around for different titles all the time, but I don't.  I guess I was looking for a shortcut that might not exist here.  I'm on another book swapping site, and when you WL a book you can select "all paperback editions" for it, and with that, I've received some books with different ISBNs that way.   I guess it's all about how the book industry supplies the data, and if different ISBN paperbacks can be "coupled" together.  PBS is far and away more technologically advanced than this other swapping site, so I guess I'm frustrated that the other site can do it but PBS doesn't! 

Then again, if others are on the WL for the other paperback ISBN, I guess I wouldn't be made aware of the book anyways.  It's confusing.

So Cheryl, if I go thru the process to post a book and get a PBS 5 digit ISBN, and someone wants it, say you want it, and I send it to you.  Then you finish reading it and are ready to pass it on to the next person.  Do you start the entire process over, or do you use the 5 digit isbn that was assigned to me? 

Julie -- you should be able to use the "repost" option from your TBR pile. That will reuse the same 5-digit ISBN.

Suzanne -- what's probably happening here is the books are not linked in the database. When you open up the book details there's a section for "other versions", similar to what you see on Amazon. If you ask for email notifications, you will find out about anything that appears in that list, be it paperback, hardback or audio. But sometimes there are other versions with completely legitimate ISBNs that are recognized by the database but aren't on that "other versions" list. Those are the ones you don't get any emails about. Usually the unlinked books have some slight variation in title or author, but I've also seen this where it's an older book that's been reissued by a different publisher.

Ok, so not trying to be arguementative.  I love all things spuddie.  If one can repost using the 5 digit isbn, then potentially it could come to someone's WL if for some odd reason they have it posted on their WL with that same 5 digit isbn.  Am I understanding that correctly?

Because Cheryl says  "That's why it's pointless to wishlist something with a 5-digit ISBN...those will NEVER come up again!"

Seriously not at all trying to start an arguement.  It is simply that I thought I understood something to be true, then Cheryl posted that and she's always right with her information, so I actually am not questioning her so much as I'm questioning myself, thinking I thought something was true when it's not.  (that was a mouthful)

I suppose if the book truly doesn't have an ISBN and gets reposted from the TBR pile reusing that same PBS# you could end up with it getting post to your WL.

LOL! Julie, I'm not always right with my information...so much has changed here at PBS lately that there's a lot of stuff I don't know anymore. 

I would imagine if you were to post a book with a PBS-generated unique ISBN directly from your TBR list, that ISBN would stay with that book. But I know that a lot of people do not use the TBR list here, so if the book went to someone who didn't use that feature and they went to just enter the ISBN on the book in the "post book" screen when they were done with it and it didn't work and they used the usual 'post without ISBN' procedure, a totally different number would be generated again for the same book. Which is why (to me anyway) it's a waste of a WL spot to list a 5-digit ISBN book that will VERY LIKELY NOT (a better choice of words than my previous "never"...when will I learn not to use 'always' and 'never?' LOL) come up again.

If you have the space on your WL, then I'd say go for it...for me, it would not be worth it to do so.

Cheryl

I agree.  It's not worth it for me either, but I was trying to demonstrate how very many ways there are to find a book and increase (albeit modestly) your odds of getting a book, so then I thought, great, I gave bad info.  Oh well, I doubt anyone will go to that trouble anyway.  I shoulda just left it out!  :>)