2nd Printings of the US B&L are already being sold in stores.

Heard back from Waterstones: "I can advise that the signed editions do have a different ISBN on the back on the cover but we have to also have the ISBN for the no signed edition. "

Not especially informative or eloquent but nice of them to respond!

I'm not surprised that B&L is on to its second printing. The book seemed to have been sold out at most (online) retailers in the very first week.

Earl wrote:
I'm not surprised that B&L is on to its second printing. The book seemed to have been sold out at most (online) retailers in the very first week.

That doesn't always imply additional impressions - The online retailers don't necessarily get huge stocks of a title, and these then get refreshed from the publisher's warehouse as required.

That said, in this case the book seems to have done quite well. From memory, CoH was up to 3 printings fairly rapidly.

Yesterday I was in one of those outlet bookstores that appear for a few moths and then disappear, (In Australia), and I was a little surprised to find a few first printings of B&L discounted already. Then I also found some 'Lay of A&I' there also. The latter were essentially in as new condition, while the B&L were a little scratch and dent they were acceptable, the one I got was 'Fine'. Admittedly the B&L does have that awful discounted book texter line on the base, but 'Lay of A&I' doesn't.
Unfortunately my days of perfectionist book collecting are over for now, while I am studying, but still, considering my local bookshops didn't have B&L stocked when I went to get it, I found the outlet bookstores stock reasonable considering they were only $5 AUD each.

loonka wrote:
Yesterday I was in one of those outlet bookstores that appear for a few moths and then disappear, (In Australia), and I was a little surprised to find a few first printings of B&L discounted already. Then I also found some 'Lay of A&I' there also. The latter were essentially in as new condition, while the B&L were a little scratch and dent they were acceptable, the one I got was 'Fine'. Admittedly the B&L does have that awful discounted book texter line on the base, but 'Lay of A&I' doesn't.
Unfortunately my days of perfectionist book collecting are over for now, while I am studying, but still, considering my local bookshops didn't have B&L stocked when I went to get it, I found the outlet bookstores stock reasonable considering they were only $5 AUD each.

I never quite understood quite why current books got remaindered in Oz, but I used to see it quite a lot, even though the book was still getting reprints in identical format.

Sounds like you got a bargain.

B&L is up to 4th Printings in the US.

Finally got my Deluxe B&L today after my original order apparently got lost in transit and the seller (Speedy Hen) being out of stock for a long while. Has the slipcase height been mentioned here? There's an 1/8 inch gap above the book which is quite a lot more than any other in the series. The first 10 volumes in their slipcases are more or less level as they sit on the shelf, but B&L stands noticeably taller. It's a small thing, sure, and I'm sure glad they went back to L.E.G.O. for this one. I just wish HC would take a bit more pride in its design and consistency. They fix one thing only to mess up another.

Karl wrote:
Finally got my Deluxe B&L today after my original order apparently got lost in transit and the seller (Speedy Hen) being out of stock for a long while. Has the slipcase height been mentioned here? There's an 1/8 inch gap above the book which is quite a lot more than any other in the series. The first 10 volumes in their slipcases are more or less level as they sit on the shelf, but B&L stands noticeably taller. It's a small thing, sure, and I'm sure glad they went back to L.E.G.O. for this one. I just wish HC would take a bit more pride in its design and consistency. They fix one thing only to mess up another.

The slipcase on my copy is the same height as all the other books (1st prints), which are actually all very uniform. The gap between the top of the book and the slipcase is about the same as LoTR. Some of the others have smaller gaps, or like FoA and Kullervo, no real gap.