Question re: ISBN conflict

[Drace]

Wanted to ask the librarians for their opinions on this before reaching out to support.

Dennis Cooper's novel The Sluts was originally published in 2004 as a limited edition hardcover from the indie publisher Void Books. That limited edition hardcover is on Goodreads here: The Sluts

The Goodreads edition has an ISBN assigned to it, but I'm not sure it should be there. In the process of writing up threads to clean up issues with various editions of The Sluts and point out invalid editions, I dug into the Wayback Machine for more information on the original limited edition hardcover. In an archived snapshot of the Void Books website from February 2005, just a few months after they published the book, they said that their edition of the book was "privately issued without ISBN number." Additionally, I found multiple copies of that original limited edition on eBay where the sellers helpfully provided photos of the copyright page and the back cover of the book; there's no ISBN present in either location.

The ISBNs assigned to the limited edition on Goodreads are also present on secondhand listings from Amazon and Abebooks, but I have no idea where exactly that ISBN came from. It never shows up on the publisher's website or anything.

As such, should I try to reach out to staff about removing the ISBN number, or should it just be left in place?

[Olga]

Sometimes a book is published without an ISBN, but then the publisher gives it an ISBN so that it can be sold in large stores (like Amazon). So the book may not have a number.
I don't see any reason to remove the ISBN.

[Drace]

Olga wrote: "Sometimes a book is published without an ISBN, but then the publisher gives it an ISBN so that it can be sold in large stores (like Amazon). So the book may not have a number."

I see where you're coming from there, but Void Books never actually put the book on Amazon or other bookseller websites at any point. Their special limited edition was only ever sold through their website, and a different publisher picked it up for the wide release.

[Olga]

We can't know. There could be other reasons to assign ISBN. This book is on Amazon now (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/097...). It may be from a secondhand bookseller, but ISBN couldn't appear out of thin air. It is valid. It is also on isbnsearch.org:
https://isbnsearch.org/isbn/0977799506

[Tal]

Drace wrote: "... but Void Books never actually put the book on Amazon or other bookseller websites at any point. Their special limited edition was only ever sold through their website, and a different publisher picked it up for the wide release."

They (Void Books) did actually sell the small amount of remaining limited edition/signed hardcover run on Amazon starting in 2007. That's when they added the ISBN. It was never printed in any of the 550 copies but it was associated with the Amazon listing. The books were originally sold through their website and at various author/publisher events (readings) in NYC and LA. They sold the remaining copies on Amazon at the same price ($50) until they were gone.