Turner classic movies has just begun shipping a box set of film noirs that has the same UPC as a completely different box set of film noirs. The UPC in question is: 6 08866 79541 4
The two box sets are:  Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics III  and Dark Crimes: Film Noir Thrillers.

  The two box sets contain no movies that are common between them.  I own both box sets and noticed this when I tried to enter the UPC for the Dark Crimes into DVDProfiler and I got the error message that Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics was already a part of my collection.

  Has anything like this happened before, where two distinct products mistakenly have the same UPC ??

Quoting DoubleDownAgain:

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Quoting dicklaurent21:

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Turner classic movies has just begun shipping a box set of film noirs that has the same UPC as a completely different box set of film noirs. The UPC in question is: 6 08866 79541 4
The two box sets are:  Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics III  and Dark Crimes: Film Noir Thrillers.

  The two box sets contain no movies that are common between them.  I own both box sets and noticed this when I tried to enter the UPC for the Dark Crimes into DVDProfiler and I got the error message that Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics was already a part of my collection.

  Has anything like this happened before, where two distinct products mistakenly have the same UPC ??

Are they from the same locality? (country?)

    Yes, they're both from the U.S., both sets are distributed by Turner Classic Movies.

All too common. Yours is a tad unusual though. With the films in the set being the same it sounds like. I think Turner acquired the rights from Columbia and simply reprinted the package without changing the upc. Sadly in a case like this one, brcause its a box for a set it is not contributable. It already has been under Columbia.

Quoting Winston Smith:

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All too common. Yours is a tad unusual though. With the films in the set being the same...

Actually he said that all the films are different. 

Sucks on the UPC side though.

What you'll have to do is make a manual profile for the box locally.  Then you can add the films to it.  Even if they aren't in the db, you can add them by disc ID.

There's another piece to this story that might help resolve the issue.  I received my box a few of days ago and started profiling it and ran across the same problem.  I then noticed that the outer shrinkwrap had a sticker on it that was placed over the box UPC.  This sticker had a completely different UPC that actually aligns with the Universal/TCM series of numbers.  That number is 025192140242.  For my local, I have used this corrected UPC in my profile.  The issue of course is, when you remove the shrinkwrap, you remove the corrected UPC.  I've been reluctant to add it because I knew folks would lose their minds over it.  It certainly seems obvious to me that TCM figured out their mistake at the last minute and corrected it with the least amount of expense necessary.  It would seem to me that we can also correct the mistake as long as it gets documented in the notes somewhere.

Just to be clear, the original UPC points to a Columbia boxset of noir put out exclusively by TCM.  Now this second box set is made up of Universal noir put out exclusively by TCM.  If you look at the repeated UPC, it's clearly a Sony UPC, which means it belongs to the Columbia set.  The sticker with the corrected UPC that was attached to the Universal box is clearly a Universal UPC, regardless of the erroneous Sony UPC they accidentally printed on the box itself.

Quoting mdnitoil:

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It would seem to me that we can also correct the mistake as long as it gets documented in the notes somewhere.

Unfortunately we can't as stickers outside the shrink wrap can't be used according to Ken. Apparently not even an email from the distributor confirming the mistake is enough documentation.

Quoting mdnitoil:

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There's another piece to this story that might help resolve the issue.  I received my box a few of days ago and started profiling it and ran across the same problem.  I then noticed that the outer shrinkwrap had a sticker on it that was placed over the box UPC.  This sticker had a completely different UPC that actually aligns with the Universal/TCM series of numbers.  That number is 025192140242.  For my local, I have used this corrected UPC in my profile.  The issue of course is, when you remove the shrinkwrap, you remove the corrected UPC.  I've been reluctant to add it because I knew folks would lose their minds over it.  It certainly seems obvious to me that TCM figured out their mistake at the last minute and corrected it with the least amount of expense necessary.  It would seem to me that we can also correct the mistake as long as it gets documented in the notes somewhere.

Just to be clear, the original UPC points to a Columbia boxset of noir put out exclusively by TCM.  Now this second box set is made up of Universal noir put out exclusively by TCM.  If you look at the repeated UPC, it's clearly a Sony UPC, which means it belongs to the Columbia set.  The sticker with the corrected UPC that was attached to the Universal box is clearly a Universal UPC, regardless of the erroneous Sony UPC they accidentally printed on the box itself.

    Thanks for enlightening me on this issue. I never thought to check the shrinkwrap before entering the box set into DVDProfiler.  I'm sure if TCM issues a second printing of Dark Crimes: Film Noir Thrillers, they will more than likely replace the original UPC on the box with the one on the shrinkwrap. On the customer service side of the equation, I filled out a request for information on TCM's website giving essentially all the info I included in my first post in this thread. Here was their response:
 

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"Response Via Email(Briena) - 12/15/2012 03:38 PM
Dear Brian,

Thank you for your email. For further assistance regarding your inquiry, please contact info@tcm.com. Thank you. If you need any further assistance, please let us know.

Best regards,

Briena
Customer Care Center"

    She completely stonewalled my request for information; she didn't even acknowledge the issue I brought up.

Well, that is often also true

However, the situation was well documented and information was correct, i.e. not "anything".  I'd be happy to vote yes on a similar corrective contribution any day.