I have to say, rabidly defending poor production quality ("buy something else" / "don't buy it if it disappoints you") feels like a strange position.

How so? Vote with your wallet.

If a company makes a shoddy product, and no one buys, they’ll wonder why the item Is not selling. If many go: “ok, fine. Here. 💰” they’ll keep producing in a similar fashion

Eye_of_the_Black_Tower wrote:

How so? Vote with your wallet.

If a company makes a shoddy product, and no one buys, they’ll wonder why the item Is not selling. If many go: “ok, fine. Here. 💰” they’ll keep producing in a similar fashion

Sure, but not *every* copy is faulty. So you are saying the person you are replying to should not order a product based on the fact that it might be one of the faulty ones. That doesn't seem like a great solution, either. Leaving appropriate reviews on the major platforms is the best most people can do (and I note that Joselilio3 has already done that).

The late Stu wrote:

Eye_of_the_Black_Tower wrote:

How so? Vote with your wallet.

If a company makes a shoddy product, and no one buys, they’ll wonder why the item Is not selling. If many go: “ok, fine. Here. 💰” they’ll keep producing in a similar fashion

Sure, but not *every* copy is faulty. So you are saying the person you are replying to should not order a product based on the fact that it might be one of the faulty ones. That doesn't seem like a great solution, either. Leaving appropriate reviews on the major platforms is the best most people can do (and I note that Joselilio3 has already done that).

You also, quite frankly don’t know the first thing about how books get published and distributed. Taking the position that HC will “keep producing in a similar fashion” your words, Makes it seem like they are willfully doing this, and that they are publisher/printer/distributor /shipper/delivery…producing fault copies to fleece consumers out of money, Which is of course absurd.

Ok I’ll try again.

Example scenario:

Author Illustrated Editions.

The first one they make is a total disaster. Printing problems galore: smudges, not bound properly, the foil flakes off…..word of mouth gets around, and it sells poorly. Like, the book version of a flop. No one wants it. Since it sells poorly, they don’t re-print, and don’t continue the style with the other two titles. Boom: gone.

That’s if it sells poorly. If it sells well, they continue with the other two titles, unawares that there’s problems BECAUSE it’s generating revenue. “Hey, people are interested in this, and it’s selling well! Let’s crank out another 5,000!!”

That’s a very broad example, but was the point I was getting at.

Isn’t that part of the reason why they didn’t do limited-editions anymore, like Children of Hurin and Sigurd & Gudrun?? IF those did sell well, they’d have done a limited-edition Beren and Luthien and Fall of Gondolin, right?

Again, you have no idea what you’re talking about when it comes to book publishing on this scale. Titles are scheduled years in advance.

Your post is broad and full of faulty assumptions. Any further comments saying the same will not be helpful and will be taken down.

Eye_of_the_Black_Tower wrote:

Isn’t that part of the reason why they didn’t do limited-editions anymore, like Children of Hurin and Sigurd & Gudrun?? IF those did sell well, they’d have done a limited-edition Beren and Luthien and Fall of Gondolin, right?

Honestly, those were produced at a very different time at a price point that was fairly unprecedented for the time. There were also specific issues that hurt those titles (IMHO) -- particularly to sell only via tolkien.co.uk. I think many people simply never encountered them until much later.

If they produced an edition like CoH today (which would be more expensive, of course, due to inflation), I would imagine they would sell like hot cakes. At £600 I personally think an unillustrated version of LoTR in the style of the SD CoH would sell at full price in a day. I think the window for editions like that has probably passed, though. I'm curious as to where the price-point will end up for the new AL 1000 copy deluxe. That doesn't scratch any itch I have, but perhaps if it sells out right away they will attempt another "proper" leather deluxe edition at some point.

The late Stu wrote:

Eye_of_the_Black_Tower wrote:

Isn’t that part of the reason why they didn’t do limited-editions anymore, like Children of Hurin and Sigurd & Gudrun?? IF those did sell well, they’d have done a limited-edition Beren and Luthien and Fall of Gondolin, right?

Honestly, those were produced at a very different time at a price point that was fairly unprecedented for the time. There were also specific issues that hurt those titles (IMHO) -- particularly to sell only via tolkien.co.uk. I think many people simply never encountered them until much later.

If they produced an edition like CoH today (which would be more expensive, of course, due to inflation), I would imagine they would sell like hot cakes. At £600 I personally think an unillustrated version of LoTR in the style of the SD CoH would sell at full price in a day. I think the window for editions like that has probably passed, though. I'm curious as to where the price-point will end up for the new AL 1000 copy deluxe. That doesn't scratch any itch I have, but perhaps if it sells out right away they will attempt another "proper" leather deluxe edition at some point.

Ya, inflation over the last 20 yrs has been high, esp in the last 5. If something like this were produced today it would probably cost the in the £700-£800 range.

I was just asking for a decent(er) quality - free of damage product 😄😄😄
The example of Realms of Round table is good, im reading it now and the book is lovely in every aspect AND not too expensive (30Eur).

Things tend to escalate quickly in online forums, and TCG is no different. I'm a very new member but here are my two cents mainly related to this GT edition.

To me, this borders between a "mass market" and "mid-level" product. I am satisfied with the quality: text and image print quality, paper quality, dust jacket, book boards/cover, and case quality and sturdiness. Could it be nicer? Sure. Are the impression numbers perplexing, misleading, and even meaningless in some sense? Yes.

For a collector, this is a pain. But from the perspective of a curious Tolkien reader and fan, they are excellent editions for the price.

Clearly, HC (and WM) and their printers have had and still have some quality control issues. But my (again, very new to this world) impression these issues are decreasing overall as of 2025, at least -- that is likely due to HC/WM making appropriate adjustments in quality control and choice of publisher.

As others have stated, the demand for Tolkien publications is seemingly insatiable due essentially to the depth and quality of JRRT's (and CT's) work. Ultimately, this quality work has resulted in the recent (past couple decades) growth of an already massive Tolkien fan base. The age range and spending power of this fan base is only becoming more diverse. HC/WM will keep printing new editions of their exclusive titles because it makes business sense. Whether they are truly new editions or repackaged editions (isn't that what this is, based on impression numbers?), they will keep making them until the bubble bursts at some point.

This is a small thing, but I was happy to see this boxed set packaged with the extra cardboard protection while shipped. Maybe all the current boxed sets come like that now, but I had several other boxed sets (e.g. recently purchased 2014 boxed set of LOTR + Reader companion) that were not similarly packaged and arrived in terrible shape.

Again, HC/WM are not perfect but are making decent books for the price. When something arrives in poor quality, whether due to pre- or post-shipping issues, I will have no qualms returning or exchanging.