The late Stu wrote:

Halbarad wrote:

Looks like some people are getting slip cases that are largely oversized, leaving gaps when all three books are inside:

https://www.reddit.com/r/tolkienbooks/s/O5FLiWByH8

That looks like one of the ones "leaked" early from Italy where the photo showed a much too large slipcase. Odd, as we know that WM ones have been delivered with correctly fitting slipcases.

My WM slipcase has a 6mm gap with all the books inserted. Is that excessive or on par with others' sets?

Edit: Mine looks similar to the one pictured on that Reddit post. I pre-ordered mine via Thriftbooks and just got it earlier this week.

ǽc ælf wrote:

The late Stu wrote:

Halbarad wrote:

Looks like some people are getting slip cases that are largely oversized, leaving gaps when all three books are inside:

https://www.reddit.com/r/tolkienbooks/s/O5FLiWByH8

That looks like one of the ones "leaked" early from Italy where the photo showed a much too large slipcase. Odd, as we know that WM ones have been delivered with correctly fitting slipcases.

My WM slipcase has a 6mm gap with all the books inserted. Is that excessive or on par with others' sets?

Edit: Mine looks similar to the one pictured on that Reddit post. I pre-ordered mine via Thriftbooks and just got it earlier this week.

6mm is definitely excessive in terms of it being a functional slipcase (if I made a custom slipcase that was 6mm too wide, I'd toss it in my wood-burner and make it again), but I'm not sure if is on par for the ones being delivered with this set. I thought I had seen pictures online of WM sets that appeared to fit more or less correctly. My HC slipcase is loose, but I feel is within tolerances for a mass-market product (again, wouldn't be acceptable for a custom slipcase, but only a couple of mm outside what would be OK).

ǽc ælf wrote:

My WM slipcase has a 6mm gap with all the books inserted. Is that excessive or on par with others’ sets?

Seems excessive compared to others’ input and pictures both on here and Reddit.

I think I’ll wait a year before I order mine to give Rotolito and HC time to sort out some of these issues.

My HC set has some issues. Cracked upper blue part of the slipcase, and crumpled corner - wasn't done in shipping, cardboard outer box is intact. Several faded pages, but this is minor. Several ink splodges all over all three books, some even mirrored on both pages - do they print this consecutive?

Bwaze wrote:

My HC set has some issues. Cracked upper blue part of the slipcase, and crumpled corner - wasn't done in shipping, cardboard outer box is intact. Several faded pages, but this is minor. Several ink splodges all over all three books, some even mirrored on both pages - do they print this consecutive?

Printed on large sheets then folded and cut (normal process). I'd guess the ink blotch was still wet when the pages were folded and cut, so it transferred. I couldn't see any ink blotches on mine, just the few faded pages in vol 1. I'm not entering the lottery with a return/swap, given no other issues (plus I really hate the waste -- for all the talk of making books shorter for environmental reasons, just printing them correctly first time around would seem a more friendly approach)!

Those with a gap in the slipcase can use it as a convenient place to store a printout of Scull and Hammond’s list of addenda and corrigenda:

<http://www.hammondandscull.com/addenda/collected_poems.html>

Think of it as a free bonus feature!

Thanks to James Tauber for some pictures of the HarperCollins (UK) edition and the William Morris (US) editions. You can see that the US slipcase is wider than the UK edition.

I have decided to return and exchange mine, just too many issues. Beside the crumpled slipcase, faded print in places, ink splotches one of the folds between cover and spine just cracked while I was trying to photograph other issues, and I haven't abused the book at all!

The issue shown on the last image (that crack) is exactly what I’ve gotten on two books out of four of the HOME book set 1.

Trotter wrote:

Thanks to James Tauber for some pictures of the HarperCollins (UK) edition and the William Morris (US) editions. You can see that the US slipcase is wider than the UK edition.

Honestly, that slipcase sizing is so far from being acceptable, it isn't funny. Those should never have left Rotolito. I still wonder if they are all like that - Mr. Underhill said his set was spectacular / 'no issues', and I don't think anyone with eyes could really look at the oversized slipcases shown here and not think it a pretty major production error worthy of mention (with the set as a whole).