New Tolkien Collector's Edition - HarperCollins vs William Morrow

Different books for different markets. I guess they determined that the US market would be willing to pay for the better version and UK market would only be willing to pay for the poorer version. Only HarperCollins could really explain the detailed mechanics of their decision. Historically the UK editions have tended to be better than their US counterparts, but perhaps the differences in the economies of the two countries may see a reversal? Who knows.

As a primarily UK-Hobbit collector, having seen the US edition is (somewhat) better than the UK edition, I've ordered one (which I would not have done if it had only been made to the same standard as the UK one). I'm not bothering with the other books in this style, but that's mainly due to my lack of interest in US books. I'd possibly have purchased UK editions of the others if they had been produced in this format (I passed on the similar UK ones - except for The Hobbit - because of the relatively poor quality).