There’s one on eBay now (not in the best condition, however):

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Tolkien The Lord of the Rings 50th Anniversary Box Set with Reader's Companion

264439174095

Seller: em_kal

(349)

Ended Apr 1, 2020

This item ended more than 90 days ago

The 50th DJ’s are a thicker, more waxy (inside), and have the gold lettering, etc..
Nothing wrong with the 60th but you can feel it’s a thinner DJ and its printed lettering and not embossed like the 50th.
There are certain red letters inside the Fellowship that looks a better script in the 50th Than the 60th.
The amended text happened in 2014 as that’s noted by Hammond and Scull but I don’t know what impression that is? Mine are impressions 10, 11, 12 respectively.
The 50th was printed in Italy and my 60th in China.

Éarendel wrote:
There’s one on eBay now (not in the best condition, however):

This site uses affiliate links for which we may be compensated

Tolkien The Lord of the Rings 50th Anniversary Box Set with Reader's Companion

264439174095

Seller: em_kal

(349)

Ended Apr 1, 2020

This item ended more than 90 days ago

Yeah I just saw this but the conditions are really bad, plus the fact that the box should contain 1st printings, and here it has 2nd printings. I doubt that this boxes was issued with 2nd printings.

@Steve68 wrote:
The 50th DJ’s are a thicker, more waxy (inside), and have the gold lettering, etc..
Nothing wrong with the 60th but you can feel it’s a thinner DJ and its printed lettering and not embossed like the 50th.
There are certain red letters inside the Fellowship that looks a better script in the 50th Than the 60th.
The amended text happened in 2014 as that’s noted by Hammond and Scull but I don’t know what impression that is? Mine are impressions 10, 11, 12 respectively.
The 50th was printed in Italy and my 60th in China.

Thank you for these additioonal details Steve :)

Emilien wrote:

@Steve68 wrote:
The 50th DJ’s are a thicker, more waxy (inside), and have the gold lettering, etc..
Nothing wrong with the 60th but you can feel it’s a thinner DJ and its printed lettering and not embossed like the 50th.
There are certain red letters inside the Fellowship that looks a better script in the 50th Than the 60th.
The amended text happened in 2014 as that’s noted by Hammond and Scull but I don’t know what impression that is? Mine are impressions 10, 11, 12 respectively.
The 50th was printed in Italy and my 60th in China.

Thank you for these additioonal details Steve :)

The DJ on the 1st print of the 60th also had a more pixelated look to the colour than the solid colour on the 1st print of the 50th. Not sure if the print process was different or if the source was different. I noted it on a thread on here at the time. I don't recollect the books themselves being hugely different in quality (and my 50th set is boxed these days due to lack of shelf space / interest in these later editions, so can't immediately compare).

I wonder how many printings of the 60th set were done by LEGO before HC sent the job to China. I think I pre-ordered my 60th, or at least ordered early, and ended up with 6/6/5 printings. The dust jackets have the same coating (inside) as my 50th jackets (all first printings) and I see no pixilation as noted by Stu (which printings do you have?).

One little thing irks me with the 50th set, which I suspect was an oversight: the Reader's Companion is gilt on the spine except for the Tolkien monogram. All other books in the set and "series" have a shiny monogram atop the spine.

The impression number of the 60th Anniversary boxed set follows that of the 50th Anniversary boxed set, I learnt that from somewhere but I don't remember exactly where I saw that. I pre-ordered my 60th set and received a 6/6/5 set (printed in Italy), too. My three 50th copies were bought separately in 2013 and they have the impression number of 5/5/4, so I guess this might be a proof.

As late as the 8/7/7 set, the job was sent to China. The shape of the box was slightly changed, and Reader's Companion got thicker and purple.

and Reader's Companion got thicker and purple.

Sorry, I made a mistake. The dust jacket is still white.

Lawrence wrote:
The impression number of the 60th Anniversary boxed set follows that of the 50th Anniversary boxed set, I learnt that from somewhere but I don't remember exactly where I saw that. I pre-ordered my 60th set and received a 6/6/5 set (printed in Italy), too. My three 50th copies were bought separately in 2013 and they have the impression number of 5/5/4, so I guess this might be a proof.

As late as the 8/7/7 set, the job was sent to China. The shape of the box was slightly changed, and Reader's Companion got thicker and purple.

They also got squarer/flatter spines across the board - I think those recent copies look pretty poor compared to the earlier printings of the 60th.

I don't have the boxed set that was shown in your photo, so I bought three latest reprints of The Lord of the Rings (15/14/14) to compare with my 50th anniversary LEGO prints (5/5/4; alas, not first impressions) and 60th anniversary LEGO reprints (6/6/5).

Spine, from left to right: 60th Chinese reprints; 50th; 60th LEGO reprints.

Board, from top to bottom: 60th Chinese reprints; 50th; 60th LEGO reprints.

Headband, from left to right: 60th LEGO reprints; 50th; 60th Chinese reprints.

Honestly I don't think the latest reprints are "pretty poor". I guess the reason for the flatter spines might be that they are tightly packed in a slipcase, and the tight shrink wrap might have also caused that. I don't have this set so I don't know what they will look like if you unwrap the box.