Wish: dealing with real duplicates

[White-Owl]

Not sure how to do it properly, so it is a "Wish" right now, not a "feature request". The problem is this: I have real duplicates - two copies of the same books. On my real bookshelves I just put them into a specially dedicated bookshelf for future sell/donations. Would like to have an ability to track the contents of this real-life bookshelf also. Right now the application does inform me that I am adding a duplicate but it is difficult to find such duplicates later - I have to manually scan the list in hope to notice the duplicates. And when I do notice them - I am not really sure is this a real duplicate or just my crooked fingers scanned the same book twice?

One possible solution I see is a field "number of copies" in book description and an ability to hide all single-copy books. This would show what I can suggest for trade during the book-club meetings.

Thoughts?

[Grunthos]

You can track the contents of a 'real' bookshelf by creating one in BC and putting books on it. Books can be on more than one shelf. I have 'To Buy', but no 'To Sell' since I am a hoarder wrt to books.

Also, I have several copies of some books and I want to keep them all, though for others I may be open to selling a specific copy. Best solution here would be to add a 'To Sell' shelf and decide which books you want to sell.

In terms of the "number of copies" field, it would be tricky to maintain...different editions may have different ISBN or even title. The best we might be able to do here is add a 'Related Books' tab to the book details. This might include:

• With the same name
• in the same series
• by the same author

The latter is not really a solution to your stated problem, but combined with a 'To Sell' shelf is probably better than a 'number of copies' field, I think.

[White-Owl]

no, no, no! If two books have different ISBN - these are two different books. No problems here. I was talking about two exactly the same books - same ISBN, same title, same image on the cover - completely real duplicate.

Bookshelf "To Sell" can help somewhat, but... all bookshelves look the same, and unless you are specifically looking it is easy to modify "all books" while thinking of modifying some "specialized" bookshelf and vice versa. I'll make another feature request about it...

[Grunthos]

In that case I am not entirely sure what you are after. In my case the ones I want to sell are different ISBNs (eg. US editions when I finally managed to get a UK edition, or vice verca).

Perhaps, in view of all this, you could re-specify the problem for me.

[White-Owl]

Basically, I would like an ability to keep track of several copies of the same book. Same book = same ISBN.

[simonpickering]

I also have this problem (less so now that I consult Book Catalogue before buying :) but I am given boxes of books from time to time and then duplicates accumulate) - perhaps a simple option under the Admin settings (where it doesn't get in the way for most people) which provides a list of potential duplicates and then presents a list showing both records for any duplicated books (so you can check whether both books are actually where they are supposed to be and remove one to donate, etc.).

The comment about different isbns for editions from different countries is an interesting one. I have a couple of these, but had forgotten about it. Again it might be added to the above or in the same way as above (out of the way and pretty much stand alone.)

I realise this is a low priority and low demand item though.