Just to further, for the illustrated slipcased edition of Unfinished Tales, both Blackwell's and BookDepository have size dimensions of 149 x 228mm. Checking that with the other 'usual' style of slipcased editions, it matches. Again, according to them.

So it appears, as of now, that the design style will be based on the limited edition set of the sketchbooks, but maintain the traditional dimensions. Also explains why it looks to be quite thick(wide) looking at the product images.

Devil's advocate: Those retailers could also very easily just be yanking dimensions from pre-existing deluxe volumes to satisfy their inventory systems as placeholders.

That is, indeed, entirely possible! We'll see once it's out.....

I look forward to seeing photos once those who've ordered the slipcased edition edition receive it.

[Speculation removed -Admin]

Before I hit send, here is the official Tolkien facebook page's announcement of the slipcased edition. It doesn't exactly line up with the product description, but this is what they have to say about it from their July 23 post:

Featuring 18 stunning paintings and five pencil drawings from critically acclaimed Tolkien artists, Alan Lee, John Howe & Ted Nasmith, it celebrates the three Ages of Middle-earth like never before. This clothbound collector’s edition is printed in two colours on heavyweight acid-free paper, with a ribbon marker, and is housed in a custom-made, fully illustrated slipcase. It also includes not one but two removable foldout posters printed in full colour that are exclusive to this special edition. Limited to a worldwide first printing of just 4,000 copies, this will be an item to treasure and one which does full justice to J.R.R. Tolkien’s magical text so masterfully edited by his son, Christopher.

So this'll be my first time paying attention to a HarperCollins deluxe release. With £100 RRP and preorders at £75, I'm unlikely to buy in unless they're really stunning in the flesh–or if the price drops significantly.

My hope is that stores will undercut the preorder price. Not to invite speculation, but how did the market handle previous releases? For example, was there a meaningful difference between the preorder price for Gawain and the Green Knight and what stores were selling them for shortly after release?

I think it's as pricey as it is because it'll be limited to 4000 copies. At least that's my understanding from the part where they said it'd be limited.

insurrbution wrote:

I think it's as pricey as it is because it'll be limited to 4000 copies. At least that's my understanding from the part where they said it'd be limited.

The press release states "Limited to a worldwide first printing of just 4,000 copies", which to me means "buy quickly if you want a first printing, as we will go to second printing as soon as needed based on demand". This isn't a limited edition, it is a small-ish first printing size. Though, given the price, it may not be small.

Yeah: it might be limited to just one printing, period, of 4000 copies. I believe that it'll be a limited edition, though they didn't phrase it properly.

Urulókë wrote:

This isn't a limited edition, it is a small-ish first printing size. Though, given the price, it may not be small.

Do you mind clearing up what you mean by this? It makes sense to me that higher prices would correlate to lower print runs... unless you mean this isn't really a high price.

Only thing I could think of to utterly dwarf this in price would be the super deluxes; otherwise it seems like this one's fairly expensive.

Caudimordax wrote:

Urulókë wrote:

This isn't a limited edition, it is a small-ish first printing size. Though, given the price, it may not be small.

Do you mind clearing up what you mean by this? It makes sense to me that higher prices would correlate to lower print runs... unless you mean this isn't really a high price.

Only thing I could think of to utterly dwarf this in price would be the super deluxes; otherwise it seems like this one's fairly expensive.

Sorry for being unclear. What I am trying to say is that for this particular book at £100 "list price", 4000 copies may not be a small run - it might take a while to sell that many copies at this asking price.

I'm still happy with my pre-order at £75, for what I expect to get. I do think that multiple sellers will have temporary offers at razor-thin margins in the £60s and perhaps someone might go to £59, but I doubt it. Also, those razor thin margins are almost always offered in the UK only, so for international buyers like me, there are limited options, and I often hear complaints about the quality of packing materials used when there is essentially zero profit margin - a simple bubblewrap envelope is not uncommon, and to use that on a ~£70 book is horrifying to me.