The late Stu wrote:

I do wonder if they might turn to the Folio Society to sell these at some point. They did that with the last couple of hundred S&Gs that HC had not been able to shift for years, and Folio sold them fairly easily (albeit discounted) over a few weeks.

I guess that would have to be weighted against producing a standard size non-limited version of the limited set. Now those would likely sell very fast, especially if they used that as a way to refresh their standard lineup. Nah, not really a fair comparison. Just wishful thinking on my end. :)

I do wonder if discounts are months or years away. I mean, if the discount is big enough, I could go for a second set to actually read. You know, kind of like blowing your nose with a handful of £50 notes. Well, quite a number of such notes really.

Bergelmir wrote:

The late Stu wrote:

At the time HarperCollins took the "Number Sold" counter off the website (a couple of weeks after going on sale), the number sold was a little over 300 copies and sales had slowed to a trickle.

I would even say that sales were stuck between 320 and 330 ;)

I was watching it, and recording the number.

20:23 17 Nov - 332
08:17 18 Nov - 332
10:36 18 Nov - 333
19:32 19 Nov - 333
09:36 20 Nov - 333

The next time I checked, the counter had disappeared.

At last, after almost a month of back-and-forth, they finally conceded and will refund the refund postage value .This really sounded like an open-and-shut case, but everything has to be more complicated than it is with HC. They even went as far as to propose buying someone else in their store and having the value subtracted from the final price. Utter nonsense. Just glad this is going to be over soon.

Joaozin wrote:

At last, after almost a month of back-and-forth, they finally conceded and will refund the refund postage value .This really sounded like an open-and-shut case, but everything has to be more complicated than it is with HC. They even went as far as to propose buying someone else in their store and having the value subtracted from the final price. Utter nonsense. Just glad this is going to be over soon.

They may have had quite a few returns, so been trying to minimise the costs. Nonsense for a company of that size, really.

Hello,

Can anyone photograph the plate's paper? I'm curious how it looks up close. And apart from the plates does it have drawings?
I'm curious about the quality of the edition.

Thanks

Werner_Molders wrote:

Hello,

Can anyone photograph the plate's paper? I'm curious how it looks up close. And apart from the plates does it have drawings?
I'm curious about the quality of the edition.

Thanks

The books do not have drawings. They do have decorative chapter openers (some of which are repeated on multiple chapters), as per the normal deluxe edition of this set. The pages and paper are identical, with the exception of the limitation/signature. I can't comment on the paper the limitation/signature is printed on as I opted to stay well away from this edition. I do have the standard deluxe that it is essentially identical to, though. The quality of that edition is OK, assuming you get it heavily discounted (UK buyers can get it at half price from HarperCollins, essentially all the time).

The books do not have drawings. They do have decorative chapter openers (some of which are repeated on multiple chapters), as per the normal deluxe edition of this set. The pages and paper are identical, with the exception of the limitation/signature. I can't comment on the paper the limitation/signature is printed on as I opted to stay well away from this edition. I do have the standard deluxe that it is essentially identical to, though. The quality of that edition is OK, assuming you get it heavily discounted (UK buyers can get it at half price from HarperCollins, essentially all the time).

Thanks for the response. I'm curious if the illustrations are printed on matte or glossy paper.

Werner_Molders wrote:

The books do not have drawings. They do have decorative chapter openers (some of which are repeated on multiple chapters), as per the normal deluxe edition of this set. The pages and paper are identical, with the exception of the limitation/signature. I can't comment on the paper the limitation/signature is printed on as I opted to stay well away from this edition. I do have the standard deluxe that it is essentially identical to, though. The quality of that edition is OK, assuming you get it heavily discounted (UK buyers can get it at half price from HarperCollins, essentially all the time).

Thanks for the response. I'm curious if the illustrations are printed on matte or glossy paper.

The entire page blocks are printed on the same kind of paper using the same kind of printer. Illustration quality is mediocre, as with all recent HarperCollins Tolkien offerings that use this process.

The last Alan Lee LotR that used different paper for plates and text was the three volume from 1992, which IMHO remains the best edition (also a larger format).

Obviously there is the Folio LE with tipped-in illustrations, but other than that there are no recent offerings. The 2002 used glossy paper for everything.

The late Stu wrote:

Werner_Molders wrote:

The books do not have drawings. They do have decorative chapter openers (some of which are repeated on multiple chapters), as per the normal deluxe edition of this set. The pages and paper are identical, with the exception of the limitation/signature. I can't comment on the paper the limitation/signature is printed on as I opted to stay well away from this edition. I do have the standard deluxe that it is essentially identical to, though. The quality of that edition is OK, assuming you get it heavily discounted (UK buyers can get it at half price from HarperCollins, essentially all the time).

Thanks for the response. I'm curious if the illustrations are printed on matte or glossy paper.

The entire page blocks are printed on the same kind of paper using the same kind of printer. Illustration quality is mediocre, as with all recent HarperCollins Tolkien offerings that use this process.

The last Alan Lee LotR that used different paper for plates and text was the three volume from 1992, which IMHO remains the best edition (also a larger format).

Obviously there is the Folio LE with tipped-in illustrations, but other than that there are no recent offerings. The 2002 used glossy paper for everything.

By the 1992 set do you mean the set that comes in a blue box with white dust jacket spines and silver foil behind the runes on the front? (I think ISBN 0261102958). Thanks

zorg_2099 wrote:

The late Stu wrote:

Werner_Molders wrote:

The books do not have drawings. They do have decorative chapter openers (some of which are repeated on multiple chapters), as per the normal deluxe edition of this set. The pages and paper are identical, with the exception of the limitation/signature. I can't comment on the paper the limitation/signature is printed on as I opted to stay well away from this edition. I do have the standard deluxe that it is essentially identical to, though. The quality of that edition is OK, assuming you get it heavily discounted (UK buyers can get it at half price from HarperCollins, essentially all the time).

Thanks for the response. I'm curious if the illustrations are printed on matte or glossy paper.

The entire page blocks are printed on the same kind of paper using the same kind of printer. Illustration quality is mediocre, as with all recent HarperCollins Tolkien offerings that use this process.

The last Alan Lee LotR that used different paper for plates and text was the three volume from 1992, which IMHO remains the best edition (also a larger format).

Obviously there is the Folio LE with tipped-in illustrations, but other than that there are no recent offerings. The 2002 used glossy paper for everything.

By the 1992 set do you mean the set that comes in a blue box with white dust jacket spines and silver foil behind the runes on the front? (I think ISBN 0261102958). Thanks

Yep, those are the ones. Identical (bar the logo and colophon) versions from both HarperCollins and Houghton Mifflin. Note that these are much cheaper to acquire without the blue slipcase.