Has excluding shipping to the USA been a bit of an own goal sales wise ?

Gerontius Took wrote:

Has excluding shipping to the USA been a bit of an own goal sales wise ?

It is far too early for HC to know.

Trotter wrote:

Noah wrote:

Dear members,

I think I asked this before already, so excuse me if I repeat myself, but I have no idea anymore when this new edition will be shipped. I see on the website it says ''by 14 November'', which is confusing to me. Does ''by 14 November'' mean that they are going to ship all sold copies in one go on this day, or does ''by 14 November'' mean that they want to have shipped out all sold copies by this day, as a sort of deadline? The formulating of the sentence on the website makes me lean towards the latter, but I'm not sure. I have sent an email about this immediately after placing my order, but Harper Collins never responded to me.

Would love to hear anyone's ideas about this.

You did ask this at least twice and people including myself answered as best as we can.

Please, can I ask that you do not keep asking the same question?

Okay sorry.

Will you guys be doing an unboxing video for this set at all?

Trotter wrote:

Gerontius Took wrote:

Has excluding shipping to the USA been a bit of an own goal sales wise ?

It is far too early for HC to know.

I, for one, would think (more) seriously about purchasing this if it were a streamlined process to ship to the USA direct from HC.

The extra cost and hassle of getting it to the USA is enough of a barrier to keep me from moving on this desirable version.

Njen wrote:

I'd shell out a decent amount of cash for a Ted Nasmith deluxe illustrated edition...

The Holy Grail for me...

Tall Hobbit wrote:

Will you guys be doing an unboxing video for this set at all?

Don't know, no idea when it will be delivered and whether we are available to do an unboxing. But would like to do one.

EmilK wrote:

Now that we have gotten the signed limited edition of Lord of the Rings, it would be very interesting to see if they end up releasing an accompanying edition of the Hobbit.

The books in this clamshell set appear to have the same cloth binding (minus the leather on the spine) and cover design/art as the deluxe illustrated boxed set released in October 2024. I'm sure Trotter and Mr Underhill will compare them when they do their unboxing video. I wouldn't be surprised if they are effectively identical, modulo a few pages at the front.

If we're lucky, they'll release a signed version of The Hobbit next year, similarly based on the deluxe slipcased edition that's just come out.

Gerontius Took wrote:

Has excluding shipping to the USA been a bit of an own goal sales wise ?

I think this is an interesting question to consider. The US is likely one of the largest Tolkien markets in the world. If I understand it correctly, the decision to exclude the United States relates to the issue of tarrifs which would make the product considerably more expensive for the end consumer? One would also have to consider how many veteran Tolkien collectors would use forwarding services. Although I am sure those services work, it can feel a bit scary to use them because so much feels outside of your control. I have not kept up-to-date with the tarrifs (and there seem to be new statements about it every week making it difficult to keep track of the details), but I seem to recall that it was 10% for the UK on top of existing fees, duties etc.

From a purely selfish standpoint, I think that at least some collectors in the U.S would be willing to pay extra if HarperCollins had shipped directly to the United States and it may have made it harder to secure a copy for the average person outside the U.S. who did end up buying one. It would be interesting to know what proportion of Folio LEs went to the U.S.

I think the problem with US Shipping is not directly the tariffs, but the issue that the tariffs may not be legal, in which case it becomes very difficult for HarperCollins to get the money back and refund the amount that was taken for the tariffs. A lot easier to take the decision to not ship to that destination until the uncertainty is over. I have to think that HarperCollins were somewhat relying on selling to the US market, and this is a big setback for them.