Great photos, Trotter. Those give us a better idea of the actual color. These books tend to be real tricky to photograph. Flash really seems to make them look lighter than they are.

So, it looks like HC's marketing of this book must have worked fairly well. If Stu got #30 at 10:00AM, and Trotter got #73 at noon, then they were selling at a pretty decent pace. My order was placed at 2:00AM on the 21'st (due to the delay for U.S. ordering), so I am quite a way behind you guys. I think I will be quite lucky to get a number less than 120.

I know I was skeptical as to how many "pre-orders" were taken. However, it seems possible that they may have sold a couple hundred just in the first 2 days.

Anyone else get their copy yet?

Thanks for the pictures, Trotter. The ribbon attachment does look a bit daft. Seems like it more about show than function. Also, it's a pity they didn't manage to match the size of the books and traycases a little better (I really don't understand why getting the height of traycases, slipcases, etc to match seems so hard!)

Overall, not a bad looking book, but IMHO not a patch on the SD CoH (which I still think looks fantastic). I think it might have looked a little better with a second color on the front-cover foil stamping to break the monotony of 1970s brown a little.

Stu

> If Stu got #30 at 10:00AM, and Trotter got #73 at noon, then they were selling at a pretty decent pace.

Not guilty, it was Deagol that got number 30

I noticed another difference, the Tray Case for the Children of Hurin is Morocco (i.e. Goatskin leather), but for the Legend of Sigurd and Gudren it appears to be Cow leather, the grain is much bigger and if you look at my first photo at full resolution you will see the difference. Morocco is more expensive than Leather from Cows, so it looks like someone in HarperCollins was trying to save money on this book.

I am thinking about complaining to HarperCollins about the pull-out ribbon as the design on the Super Deluxe COH works perfectly, so if anyone can explain how the new desisgn works, then please post here (I believe that the ribbon needs to be longer to work from its attached position, it is below the book currently).

Andrew

Sorry, Stu. My mistake regarding #30. However, if I recall, you were fortunate enough to land #3 of the Super Deluxe Children of Hurin. Were you as lucky this time around?