Mine looks like this one (taken from Tolkienbooks US)

Ahh, I see tolkienbooks.us claims it is a second state.

Berelach - How did you come to the conclusion that this was a second state, rather than a publisher's prototype or something else?

I bought mine from a 3rd party seller on Amazon a few years back.

I don't know how many of the second state were produced, but I haven't seen one for sale since then.

Mr. Underhill wrote:

I bought mine from a 3rd party seller on Amazon a few years back.

I don't know how many of the second state were produced, but I haven't seen one for sale since then.

I don't imagine it is common - I've only ever noticed the single one that David Miller was selling some time back (and now yours).

Stu wrote:

Ahh, I see tolkienbooks.us claims it is a second state.

Berelach - How did you come to the conclusion that this was a second state, rather than a publisher's prototype or something else?

I can't remember unfortunately but I guess it's just poorly worded. I used the term 'state' when it should have been something like 'variant' instead. And calling it 'second' makes it sound like priority is given when really I'm (probably) just saying that there are two different cases out there. I'll change that, and I apologize for the confusion. My biggest regret about that site is that I didn't keep notes on the source of each piece of info.

Berelach wrote:

Stu wrote:

Ahh, I see tolkienbooks.us claims it is a second state.

Berelach - How did you come to the conclusion that this was a second state, rather than a publisher's prototype or something else?

I can't remember unfortunately but I guess it's just poorly worded. I used the term 'state' when it should have been something like 'variant' instead. And calling it 'second' makes it sound like priority is given when really I'm (probably) just saying that there are two different cases out there. I'll change that, and I apologize for the confusion. My biggest regret about that site is that I didn't keep notes on the source of each piece of info.

No apology necessary. Ta for clearing that up (as much as possible, anyway). I'm not convinced these aren't pre-production copies, as I've never seen a slipcase go from having text to being blank, but have seen it the other way.

Stu wrote:

Berelach wrote:

Stu wrote:

Ahh, I see tolkienbooks.us claims it is a second state.

Berelach - How did you come to the conclusion that this was a second state, rather than a publisher's prototype or something else?

I can't remember unfortunately but I guess it's just poorly worded. I used the term 'state' when it should have been something like 'variant' instead. And calling it 'second' makes it sound like priority is given when really I'm (probably) just saying that there are two different cases out there. I'll change that, and I apologize for the confusion. My biggest regret about that site is that I didn't keep notes on the source of each piece of info.

No apology necessary. Ta for clearing that up (as much as possible, anyway). I'm not convinced these aren't pre-production copies, as I've never seen a slipcase go from having text to being blank, but have seen it the other way.

You could be right Stu, but it seems like the books themselves would be dummy copies or something if it was some sort of pre-production variant, no?