Book has Two different ISBNs on one copy

[Caitlin]

And no neither is an ISBN-13. On the back it has the ISBN of 0-439-45675-4 which doesn't lead to a book on goodreads, but if you look inside it has the ISBN of 0-439-43437-8 which leads you to the correct book. Should I just add a note in the description for anyone who is looking for the back ISBN and is there anything else that should be done?

[Vicky]

That's a new one!

Worldcat has BOTH ISBNs listed on the same entry: http://www.worldcat.org/title/keeping...

I would suspect that one of the two is a reprint ISBN, but who really knows.

I would probably create an edition with the edition that isn't currently on ISBN. I don't think a note in the description would help anyone find the edition - it's still not going to come up in search.

[Cait]

Sometimes you get publisher errors like that, where they print the wrong ISBN on the cover. In this case, neither ISBN seems to have been used for any other books, so there's no harm in using them both for two book records; if there were a conflict, the ISBN on the copyright page is usually considered definitive, I think.

[Banjomike]

There is a famous example of this type of error in the Tolkien universe. The book in question is the true first edition so no reprint complications.

http://web.archive.org/web/2007081706...

[Caitlin]

Thanks! I added another edition and added a note in both descriptions for anyone who notices the two different ISBNs.