I've never seen such a unique and beautiful item, anyone interested???

234 copies confirmed by HC.

BH

Khamûl wrote:
I don't think they got it so wrong to be honest. Looking at the set it's hardly some publishing/printing travesty. For me it's just too expensive for a set that's already been published as a standard boxset twice (& there's very little difference, as Stu points out); and which previously had a better deluxe treatment anyway. I mean, this is the sort of HC "half deluxe" anyway, so I'm not clear what people were expecting. The other matching "deluxe" copies are just decent hardbacks by historical standards. There's nothing very deluxe about them.

BH

I don't necessarily disagree. My position has always been that this set serves no purpose beyond increasing the price-point of a set that was already in print. Like you say, the current editions aren't really deluxe, but the quality gap from trade to "deluxe" on other volumes is much greater. For this edition there is no quality gap - it is just the standard edition with some mottled grey paper on the boards and £55 extra on the RRP. It is more "meh" than a catastrophe. I'd feel like a bit of a sucker if I purchased this just for the sake of completeness (and there is no other reason to buy it).

Here's hoping that the Middle-Earth Treasury will be more satisfying release.

Khamûl wrote:
I don't think they got it so wrong to be honest. Looking at the set it's hardly some publishing/printing travesty. For me it's just too expensive for a set that's already been published as a standard boxset twice (& there's very little difference, as Stu points out); and which previously had a better deluxe treatment anyway. I mean, this is the sort of HC "half deluxe" anyway, so I'm not clear what people were expecting. The other matching "deluxe" copies are just decent hardbacks by historical standards. There's nothing very deluxe about them.

BH

Well imo they got it wrong because it is a deluxe edition and, by any logic, should have complemented the rest of the deluxe editions. By that standard alone it's a fail.

Even if one argues that it was NOT meant to match the existing deluxe editions, then it's bacisally a less well-produced reprint of a much cheaper hardback set that's still freely available, by which standard it is also a fail.

Just imo though. I don't expect others to agree :)

I think you're splitting hairs here. All the other "deluxe" editions are totally ordinary; they're just normal hardbacks in slipcases. There are US publishers punting out cheap mass-produced "leather" editions for half the price HC have been selling these at. Sure, HC have taken a bit more care with their editions; these are nice looking books. But that's it. I understand you want them to match &/or be the same height for example. But all the black incarnation deluxe editions (from 1997-2001) had the same problems i.e. they weren't the same height either. This is nothing new.

To my mind, HC dropped the ball a long while ago in respect to uniformity of releases etc. Signed PR anyone? Has it's own individual ISBN but is just signed on the title page by Lee. What a load of nonsense. I'm looking at photos on here (generally) & I honestly don't see a massive amount of difference between these books. Same with the complaints about later impressions being printed & bound in Hong Kong, etc. The differences are minor; and they're in respect to editions that were never remarkable to begin with. It's interesting to note, obviously. I just don't see that it's worth getting worked up about...

...assuming you're worked up about this? I think I'm getting worked up about this!

BH

A book that I am interested in is the Middle-Earth Treasury, if anyone gets a copy can they kindly post some photos.

Thanks in advance

Trotter wrote:
A book that I am interested in is the Middle-Earth Treasury, if anyone gets a copy can they kindly post some photos.

Thanks in advance

I should receive mine on Monday so I will post some pics Trotter.

Don't get me wrong, I got my copy of HoME because as a Tolkien collector I want these books, because I don't have them, and this is, from my point of view, the edition that fits best the rest of my collection. Besides, I got a special offer from Amazon because of same "issues" we have had.

Is this edition disappointing? For me, yes, it is. I was expecting another format, but as I didn't have any edition of those, I'll just keep them. I got my copy at least than 160 euro sent home, which I think is a pretty good price for this size and weight shipped to the continental EU.

My regret is not getting a better quality, but well, for me, it's better than nothing.

I just hope this set doesn't end up being resold at ridiculous prices like that 2012 Collector's Edition set. Quality not so great, price way too high for the wrong reasons. Not that I would pay for it... it's just always kind of a drag to see that happening.

Khamûl wrote:

To my mind, HC dropped the ball a long while ago in respect to uniformity of releases etc. Signed PR anyone? Has it's own individual ISBN but is just signed on the title page by Lee. What a load of nonsense. I'm looking at photos on here (generally) & I honestly don't see a massive amount of difference between these books. Same with the complaints about later impressions being printed & bound in Hong Kong, etc. The differences are minor; and they're in respect to editions that were never remarkable to begin with. It's interesting to note, obviously. I just don't see that it's worth getting worked up about...


BH

I can't agree with you on the Chinese reprints. They take a product that is expensive, but average-at-best and turn it into total crap (but at the same price as the average-but-best). The product is the same basic shape, but the devil IS in the detail. There is a threshold where any vendor crosses the line from "pushing things a bit far" to "taking the piss", and HarperCollins does undoubtedly skirt that line quite closely sometimes. Kullervo Deluxe being a great example.

I agree it isn't worth getting worked up about. The set wasn't worth buying (for me), so I didn't buy it. This shouldn't stop anyone expressing disappointment that the product wasn't what they wanted.

You are right about the poor level of unifromatily on the black editions. Of course, we weren't subjected to 14 volumes of those (and counting)...