Removing Duplicate or retired copies

[Jessica]

What do you mean by retired? Are they out of print? If so they still stay in the catalog. Even if it's not available for purchase as new, someone might find a used copy and want to add it to their shelf.

[Beth]

When you say retired copies, I assume you mean out-of-print editions? Goodreads leaves those up, because people have them shelved, as books they've read, or books they own. The books are not all available for purchase.

Think of it as you can stop selling them, but you can't "un-write" them.