The difficulty with being a completist with Tolkien is that you have to buy an awful lot of rubbish (assuming you want to be a completist that doesn't have a cut-off date about 30 years ago). I kind of understand the basic desire, but the product just doesn't justify it for me. There is so much Tolkien material that is just borderline tat for me (the Alan Lee sketchbooks and that kind of thing).

To me, personally, I'm boggled by those that own multiple copies of the same edition. I've seen a few Tolkien Libraries where I see the exact same 3-4 copies of The Silmarillion ,for instance. No offence meant if that applies to anyone here!

I can't think of anyone that would apply to here.

Well, “3-4 copies” definitely does not apply to you, Khamûl, I guess?

Khamûl is kind of a weirdo, of course.

The word to notice above, guys, is exact. "Exact same" 3-4 copies?! Nup, not in my collection.

insurrbution wrote:
To me, personally, I'm boggled by those that own multiple copies of the same edition. I've seen a few Tolkien Libraries where I see the exact same 3-4 copies of The Silmarillion ,for instance. No offence meant if that applies to anyone here!

Presumably not *exactly the same* -- I'd guess different printing or variants. Multiple copies of the exact same thing would definitely be strange.

That said, I do have three copies of the Super Deluxe CoH, but that was because we all thought they would be worth more than they cost one-day. That day never came, and I suspect never will (taking inflation into account).

Edit: Oh, Khamûl already beat me to it with "exact"

Well, if it's different printings of the same edition....the content is still the same all across the board. At least that's how I see it

Well, for Tolkien books into the 80’s that’s not really true. Minor changes show up from impression to impression

insurrbution wrote:
Well, if it's different printings of the same edition....the content is still the same all across the board. At least that's how I see it

It is just about the bibliographic differences (e.g. with early Hobbits the text on the dust jacket flaps varies hugely and the content varies somewhat between some printings within the same edition -- e.g. inclusion of specific illustrations, etc). But yeah, there isn't any real point to it beyond that.

One of these days I will do a super-high res poster of the first 25 Hobbit jackets for printing large.