I will have to have a look at the cardboard box for my unopened Super Deluxe Children of Hurin but it either had a handwritten number or a printed label with a number on. That number is the number of the book.



Buy the paperback for a reading copy. It has the same pictures as the SuperDeluxe.

Ah, please excuse my stupidity and ignorance. I now see a small black sticker with a number on it.

Dear Trotter, i am afraid i do have a standad paperback edition, and a couple of normal hardcovers. I have my super deluxe edition to keep, but i need another to open, to smell and touch and read.
Mental i know,...its a problem

You might have noticed that I mentioned my unopened copy, I have two copies of the Super Deluxe book one which is open and one still in the box. I also have a paperback copy, a signed Trade Edition and a signed Deluxe Edition. Though I would always read the paperback copy.

Can you let us know the number of your book, we are trying to find out when HC may run out of these books for sale?

Andrew

Yeah sure.
Its number 341.
I wish it to be known that i am very ashamed for leaving it so long to purchase a copy but.....money

I would not feel ashamed about any books that you buy, Tolkien book collecting is not about feeling ashamed.

It is a very nice book, but very expensive, I bought on the first day without the discounts that you can now get

Harper Collins were very upset with the prices on eBay from the bookplates which they gave out for free in the Trade and Deluxe versions of the book at the release events for the book, as they did not get any direct benefit. Sadly we will not see this type of event again.

Instead we now get Super Deluxe Editions and Harper Collins are trying to maximize the revenue from the book by selling 500 limited copies at a high price (even with a discount a lot more than my signed Deluxe COH at Waterstones).

The Super Deluxe book is clearly still far too expensive, if you have copy 341 then 159 are still unsold. I would estimate 3-4 years before they all are sold, which again shows they are overpriced.

If you like this book, you also may want to get the Super Deluxe Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, though it is not as good a quality as COH.

Welcome to the tolkienguide.com forum as well, your description of "Mental I know,...it's a problem", is shared by a lot of members of this forum (including me)