Tolkien Collector's Guide
Sign In
Tolkien Collector's Guide
Important links:

Guide to Tolkien's Letters
-
Winner of the 2019 Tolkien Society award for Best Website

30 Jan, 2012
2012-1-30 6:44:16 PM UTC
Send an email to [email protected] and ask for delivery costs to the US. Though the site manages to hide it quite well, they do now deliver worldwide

http://www.tolkien.co.uk/Help/Pages/D ... y-and-Return-Details.aspx
30 Jan, 2012
2012-1-30 9:36:59 PM UTC
I bought this set too a while ago. My set was comprised of first editions of The Hobbit, The Silmarillion and The Children of Hurin. However The Lord of the Rings was a first edition/third impression. Ideally I would have liked a first impresson of LOTR too but it seems LOTR was already a second impression in the first sets that were sold. See http://www.tolkienbooks.net/php/details.php?reference=87680 for more info.

Just something to keep in mind when considering to buy the set from HarperCollins instead of from Ebay/Abebooks etc.
30 Jan, 2012
2012-1-30 10:12:25 PM UTC
I thought the shipping restriction to the US on this was lifted years ago, to be honest.

The set I got from HC three years back contains 1/1 (CoH), 1/1 (Sil) ,1/1 (Hobbit) ,1/2 (LOTR). The cost was GBP 140 (discounted by 40%) + GBP 5 standard international shipping (to Australia). i.e. All up GBP 145.

Originally this was claimed as a limited set of 500, but they subsequently dropped that claim, so who knows? The books themselves have always been marked as being "available for a limited time only" and for some of the books that limited time has now extended to 8 years and 4+ printings...

I wouldn't recommend paying 200 pounds these books, and to be honest, I wouldn't get too excited about the slipcase. The books look better without it, especially if you have the other two matching(ish) editions.

You could certainly pick them up cheaper on eBay given time (CoH, particularly, is basically worthless on the second hand market), but the postage might well be the killer if you had to get them separately.


Stu

Edit: http://www.tolkien.co.uk/Help/Pages/D ... y-and-Return-Details.aspx shows that delivery costs have not increased. 4.99 per book + 99p per additional. This counts as one book.
31 Jan, 2012
2012-1-31 5:28:03 AM UTC
I've sent HC an email about shipping to the US and a possible discount; I'm awaiting their reply. Stu - 145 GBP sounds like a good price for the set - do you think a similar discount is likely to happen again in the near future? Does anyone have experience asking HC for a discount on an item and getting one? I'd seen that they ship outside the UK, but when I try to purchase the item, I get the message: "Sorry but the following products are not available for sale to your country and will be removed from your basket." Thus I'm not so optimistic they'll ship to me.

So I've got some conflicting opinions: 200 GBP is too much Stu says; Beren could sell it to me for more. Anyone else want to weigh in?

Beren - what's your price?
31 Jan, 2012 (edited)
2012-1-31 6:34:30 AM UTC

Karl wrote:
I've sent HC an email about shipping to the US and a possible discount; I'm awaiting their reply. Stu - 145 GBP sounds like a good price for the set - do you think a similar discount is likely to happen again in the near future? Does anyone have experience asking HC for a discount on an item and getting one? I'd seen that they ship outside the UK, but when I try to purchase the item, I get the message: "Sorry but the following products are not available for sale to your country and will be removed from your basket." Thus I'm not so optimistic they'll ship to me.

So I've got some conflicting opinions: 200 GBP is too much Stu says; Beren could sell it to me for more. Anyone else want to weigh in?

Beren - what's your price?


Hi Karl,

It may be that HC didn't get the exemption that would allow them to sell the boxed set to the US. They certainly did get an agreement (with HMH presumably) that allowed them to sell the Super-deluxe volumes direct to the US.

HC used to periodically do fairly regular discounts across the board (usually 30 or 40 percent), but I'm no longer on their mailing list (as I changed email addresses and their website doesn't actually allow you to update your email address!). I'm not sure if they still do these routinely or if they just have occasional discounts on selected products or groups of products. Their website is crap and doesn't always even give you the advertised discount on a product!

With regards to Beren's price -- obviously he has paid to purchase the book up front (and may well have paid full retail in the hope the set would sell out and go up in value), so I imagine he would have to charge more than the 200 just to cover his sunk costs (although I can't speak for him -- this is purely supposition). Obviously you wouldn't pay the (speculative) 400 pounds that he has it advertised for unless you were a total loony.

[EDIT: Beren has corrected me that the price is GBP 330 - That'll teach me not to rely on my dubious memory! Sorry, Beren]

In terms of purchasing from HC, I am aware of people asking for (and being given) 30% discounts on the Super-Deluxe books, so it would not be unprecedented to be given a discount that was not advertised.

Cheers
Stu
31 Jan, 2012
2012-1-31 8:47:51 AM UTC
Hey Stu... I'm selling them for 330 GBP and there is always room for a reduction and free postal costs... I'm not listing in pounds but in euro!! Makes a big difference. And also the ones I'm selling are the first editions that were released (when there were still only 500 copies made). Back then there were no reductions and postal costs of tolkien.co.uk were sky high - think maybe do remember that time. I believe I ordered over 100 of those sets back then and have almost none left. My customers have been happy that I do ship to the US, Brazil, China, Japan, Australia, you name it. Always provide perfect packaging and follow up. Anyways... I don't like to use this site to promote my business. But at first I did just make it possible for people outside the UK to get hold of the sets. It was by the way very hard to get them to ship these outside the UK back then...
31 Jan, 2012
2012-1-31 9:04:10 AM UTC

Beren wrote:
Hey Stu... I'm selling them for 330 GBP and there is always room for a reduction and free postal costs... I'm not listing in pounds but in euro!! Makes a big difference. And also the ones I'm selling are the first editions that were released (when there were still only 500 copies made). Back then there were no reductions and postal costs of tolkien.co.uk were sky high - think maybe do remember that time. I believe I ordered over 100 of those sets back then and have almost none left. My customers have been happy that I do ship to the US, Brazil, China, Japan, Australia, you name it. Always provide perfect packaging and follow up. Anyways... I don't like to use this site to promote my business. But at first I did just make it possible for people outside the UK to get hold of the sets. It was by the way very hard to get them to ship these outside the UK back then...


Hi Beren,

Yes, I do indeed remember the early HC postage costs (I think my first SD CoH cost 45 pounds to ship to Australia!!), and understand that you gave a valuable route for people in the US to get their mitts on these books in the early days of the release.

Are those copies that you are selling the 1/1/1/2 editions (like mine), though? My understanding is that there were never any sets issued with 1/1/1/1 because the first print of LOTR was already sold out when the set was issued?

Also, are you aware if more than 500 sets were actually made or if they just stopped mentioning the 500 set limitation on the site? Also, if there were indeed more printed, what is the difference between the first 500 and the subsequent ones?

Cheers
Stu
31 Jan, 2012
2012-1-31 9:40:08 AM UTC
no indeed they are not 1/1/1/1 - some are 1/1/1/2 some 1/1/1/3 but since they are all closed in original boxes is hard to check. They originally made 500 sets, filling them up with the remainder of the deluxe editions. Since then another batch was made, so far I think that was again 500 but need to ask to be certain.

Difference will be probably that inside sit later impression - that must be it.
31 Jan, 2012
2012-1-31 9:47:33 AM UTC

Beren wrote:
no indeed they are not 1/1/1/1 - some are 1/1/1/2 some 1/1/1/3 but since they are all closed in original boxes is hard to check. They originally made 500 sets, filling them up with the remainder of the deluxe editions. Since then another batch was made, so far I think that was again 500 but need to ask to be certain.

Difference will be probably that inside sit later impression - that must be it.

Thanks for that - Gotta love HC with their limited editions that are only limited right up to them printing another batch. I guess that the only volumes that could be of later editions in the second batch would be LOTR and The Hobbit as IIRC CoH and Sil only have one printing thus far anyway.
2 Feb, 2012
2012-2-2 5:33:01 PM UTC
I'm still waiting to hear from HC - their customer service certainly isn't too hasty. If they won't ship to me, are there individuals or bookstores in the UK that might ship the item to me (either I could order it to them or they could order it) for a small fee (on top of the shipping costs). Obviously, I would want it to be secure on both sides and not get scammed.

Beren - I sent you an inquiry on your website and am still waiting to hear back...
Jump to Last
All original content ©2024 by the submitting authors. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | Contact Us