Karl wrote:
I have the four- and five-book boxed sets, the latter of which has Hong Kong reprints for all but CoH. Anyone know if the recent China printings of LotR (or later Hong Kong printings for that matter) are an improvement on the vastly inferior initial Hong Kong printings?

Anecdotally I have not heard good things, but haven't seen any recent copies in person as bookshops here don't usually carry them.

Karl wrote:
I have the four- and five-book boxed sets, the latter of which has Hong Kong reprints for all but CoH.

Wasn't 'Tales..' also a 1st?

Berelach wrote:

Karl wrote:
I have the four- and five-book boxed sets, the latter of which has Hong Kong reprints for all but CoH.

Wasn't 'Tales..' also a 1st?

Yes, I think you're right. Don't have them handy at the moment. Hopefully HC will remember the proper spine spacing when they produce the forthcoming Father Christmas Letters.

If you are looking for a Fall of Arthur Deluxe, then this edition is worth avoiding, printed in China by RR Donnelley the 2nd Impression, hopefully, spine issues will be fixed in the 3rd impression.

Trotter wrote:
If you are looking for a Fall of Arthur Deluxe, then this edition is worth avoiding, printed in China by RR Donnelley the 2nd Impression, hopefully, spine issues will be fixed in the 3rd impression.

Do we know if this is really the 2nd impression or actually the 3rd (but marked as 2nd)? The first reprints have fairly consistently been incorrectly stated as "1".

Thanks emilien. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge. This is so very useful to know when looking for these books.

Karl wrote:

Berelach wrote:

Karl wrote:
I have the four- and five-book boxed sets, the latter of which has Hong Kong reprints for all but CoH.

Wasn't 'Tales..' also a 1st?

Yes, I think you're right. Don't have them handy at the moment. Hopefully HC will remember the proper spine spacing when they produce the forthcoming Father Christmas Letters.

And hopefully it won’t be printed in China or Hong Kong, and the slipcase will have a smooth curve

Additionnaly, you have one way to see what impression is at stake, just by looking carefully at the sheet paper if available:

This is the paper sheet of the last reprints (from 10th impression and higher) : look at the elvish text up and down, this will be important for the next comparisons). And you can see there is no price at the top of bar code

Then, this leaflet is the one for Hong Kong impressions (from 4rth impression to 9th).

You can see that the elvish text is not the same font at all.
There is still no price a the top of bar code.

Finally here is the leaf let from the first print run (Imperssions 1st, 2nd and 3rd), all printed in Italy by IEGO

You can see that elvish font is the same than for Hong Kong printings (ans different from China ones). But here you have the PRICE at the top of the bar code. This type of leaflet indicates you're having either a 1st, 2nd or 3rd print !