Mr. Underhill wrote:

A beautiful set to be sure, although at this price point, it will take a while to sell out.

I thought it would take a long time to sell-out but at this rate, with less than 100 remaining, it could be tomorrow. I wonder if the Folio Society are always so successful with a book launch and in particular with it being such a high price. It took HC 10 years to sell 50% less editions of the Super Deluxe CoH.

Trotter wrote:

Mr. Underhill wrote:

A beautiful set to be sure, although at this price point, it will take a while to sell out.

I thought it would take a long time to sell-out but at this rate, with less than 100 remaining, it could be tomorrow. I wonder if the Folio Society are always so successful with a book launch and in particular with it being such a high price. It took HC 10 years to sell 50% less editions of the Super Deluxe CoH.

Their Limited Edition of The Haunting of Hill House sold out within a few hours, but that was a quarter of the edition size at a quarter of the price.

remy wrote:

remy wrote:

huan68 wrote:

I’ve never been in the position to buy a brand new limited collectors edition of the LotR. When people have shown pictures of them, they clearly don’t show or mention the original cost. With saying that, this is my question.
Is this the most costly brand new set that has been produced by some considerable way?

Yes. I think so. Can't think of any other set near this price (though some Tolkien related academic books have been priced over £1000). Most expensive that I can recall was the £350 for the COH & Sigurd Super Deluxe's.

Adjusting for inflation the 1992 3 Vol LOTR Deluxe would probably be more than £350 (think it listed at £250?)

And then the German 1 Vol was around 900 Euro.

Just checked the Inflation Adjusted price (UK) of the 1992 3 VOL LOTR Deluxe - The original £250 would be £572.50 in todays money (approx).

Real inflation is probably a bit higher than the official numbers each year (for various reasons), but that sounds about the right ballpark.

Trotter wrote:

Mr. Underhill wrote:

A beautiful set to be sure, although at this price point, it will take a while to sell out.

I thought it would take a long time to sell-out but at this rate, with less than 100 remaining, it could be tomorrow. I wonder if the Folio Society are always so successful with a book launch and in particular with it being such a high price. It took HC 10 years to sell 50% less editions of the Super Deluxe CoH.

I think it will be gone by the end of the week (which obviously I didn't think yesterday) and I think as Stu says, it is a reflection of the diminished value of money currently (governments handed it out hand over fist during the last two years & the labor market is hot with wage inflation). We are seeing this with all kinds of collectable goods (not just Tolkien) investors are looking for places to store their money as a hedge on inflation. Having large amounts of liquidity right now is not as good as having large amounts of other assets that they see holding a long term value. Whether that be tangible things like books or something like NFTs.

Many newer collectors are buying this though, I'm sure of it, as there is a lot of new money in Tolkien collecting looking to take part. And this is an easy way to take part.

While the sell rate of various editions is interesting, it doesn't change the fact that the SD CoH is an excellently made book. I'm not seeing anything to suggest this FS edition is at that level. If that doesn't matter to you, fair enough. If it does, I do question why you'd pay £1000 for this set...

Its soon gone. The last copies are dissapearing fast as we type. Would be interesting to know how many went to tolkien collectors and how many went to general FS collectors. The price has caused some strong opinions about the quality of a book none have inspected closely yet.

I have to admit though, quite a lot of the printed material looks very nice. The new borders, the two-colour throughout, the separate map portfolio thing; even the internally illustrated slipcase, while a bit gimmicky, is quite intriguing. Just the binding that's a bit of a let down. And I have no doubt this is just a case-binding too, which is always disappointing. Not really sure at what price-point this would honestly have tempted me; feels about double what it should be, even if that (~£500) is unrealistic.

northman wrote:

Its soon gone. The last copies are dissapearing fast as we type. Would be interesting to know how many went to tolkien collectors and how many went to general FS collectors. The price has caused some strong opinions about the quality of a book none have inspected closely yet.

It's objectively quarter-leather & has little other "fine binding" features of note. I don't personally need to see it to know that.

Khamûl wrote:

northman wrote:

Its soon gone. The last copies are dissapearing fast as we type. Would be interesting to know how many went to tolkien collectors and how many went to general FS collectors. The price has caused some strong opinions about the quality of a book none have inspected closely yet.

It's objectively quarter-leather & has little other "fine binding" features of note. I don't personally need to see it to know that.

It will look nice on the shelf, I think. Which I guess is where - like any book - it will spend most of its life.

Khamûl wrote:

northman wrote:

Its soon gone. The last copies are dissapearing fast as we type. Would be interesting to know how many went to tolkien collectors and how many went to general FS collectors. The price has caused some strong opinions about the quality of a book none have inspected closely yet.

It's objectively quarter-leather & has little other "fine binding" features of note. I don't personally need to see it to know that.

I agree Khamul, but quality of paper and illustrations, how text and art comes through in books of this size. These things need to be experienced also. Like Stu i suspect it will look nice on a shelf but I think it will be a treat to read as well and I certainly plan to do so.