Bar Codes

[ShelleyCM]

Hey, guys!

I was at the FLGS the other day and, during the course of a conversation with one of the workers there, was told that all of the HERO books have something wrong with the bar codes on the back; since this store is very good at inventory control and uses those bar codes, it bugged them that they had to make new bar code stickers for all the HERO products. Apparently all the bar codes on the backs of the books are the same? Something like that. Anyway, I promised I would bring it to your attention. (And I apologize if it's already been discussed!)

That was their only issue with HERO books. They had a great selection of inventory, and they said the products were selling very well! They had them in a very nice, prominent location, too.

-Shelley

[TechnoViking]

My local game shop has the same compliant. I wonder if they are using the same inventory software, which may have some weird bug with Hero Games books.

Mike

[JohnOSpencer]

Yep, mine has that problem too. If anyone wants, I'm close with the owner(I sold him the store) and I could find out exactly whats wrong.

John Spencer

[beauxdeigh]

Yeah, when I bought USPD, the guy behind the counter mentioned (read: muttered) that all the HERO books had the same bar code as he punched in the relevant information. I notice that they're using the product code (ex. HERO101) to keep track of the product instead, which they've printed in big type on labels affixed over the errant bar code.

It is certianly possible that all of these stores are using the same software, and they've discovered a bug, but it seems equally possible that this is a problem with printing or production, and I'd think that those would both be easier to check.

... of course, having zero experience in the industry, what I think has a good chance of being wrong.

-Jonathan

[AndyM]

Hm. I though that this problem had been fixed ... crap. Could one of you be so kind to e-mail one of the phone numbers of your FLGS. That would be helpful.

Thanks,
Andy

andy@herogames.com.

[lemming]

Hmm, well I just looked at the Bar Codes:

Book; Bar Code; ISBN & Product
Hero System : 9-781583-660003 ; 1-58366-000-3 DOJHERO100
Hero System Bestiary : 9-781583-66002-3 : 1-58366-002-X DOJHERO0102
Champions: 9-781583-66046: 1-58366-004-6 DOJHERE200
Champions Universe : 9-781583-66046 : 1-58366-005-2 DOJHERO201
Ultimate Martial Artist: 9-781583-660011 : 1-58366-00101 DOJHERO101
Terran Empire: 9-78152-39901-6-19 : 1-58366-011-9 DOJHERO301

Ultimate Vehicle : 9-78158-36600-5-97 : 1-58366-009-7 DOJHERO104
Star Hero : 9-78158-36600-5-70 : 1-58366-007-0 DOJHERO300
Ninja Hero: 9-78158-36600-5-89 : 1-58366-008-9 DOJHERO400
CKC: 9-78158-36600-5-62 : 1-58366-2 DOJHERO202

Millennium City : 9-78158-36601-2-27 : 1-58366-012-7 DOJHERO203
USPD: 9-78158-36601-2-35 : 1-58366-013-5 DOJHERO204

I'm betting that the first five don't have a problem and that the other six do. The barcodes are the same up to a point (colored in red or orange) and then have the last bar code chunk as different. There's a larger gap between the first chunk and the purple chunk. Also note the first four books don't even have the last chunk. So that's my pet theory. :)

edit: Found my Champions book and it's code matches with Champions Universe exactly.

[zornwil]

The first 12 digits are the actual UPC which is (should be) the unique product identifier. The very last digit of that 12 is a check digit and is often not printed but is in the code. Because it's a check digit and helps prevent keying errors (as well as scanning errors) it really should be printed but I've seen it often unprinted - many retail systems just calc it and don't allow it to be keyed (which is pretty stupid if you ask me given it is after all a "check" digit).

Anyway, those 12 digits should not be duplicated unless the book industry is using some add-on scanning/coding I'm not familiar with. I think that's unlikely just given the universality of UPC codes in the States (elsewhere though they use "EANs" European Article Numbers which ironically are much more "universal" than the UPC codes) and the fact that you buy books in so many different venues. So yes it's a big problem that the 12 digits are duplicated as that means the products are not uniquely identified.

On a side note, UPC codes are running out which has created a host of problems. In a couple years or so everyone's supposed to switch to a 15 digit code (although there's also talk of entirely different coding schema succeeding that soon enough), and I THINK there is talk of merging UPC and EAN at that time (EAN is one more digit than UPC) but I'm not quite sure.

There's plenty of info generally useless to most of you...