I wonder if that was the quality problem that necessitated the reprinting - excess glue?

That quote mentions "the d/w"...

BH

I'm still waiting. Today was supposed to be the delivery date.

Wayne and Christina report on their blog that this excess glue was the issue
: https://wayneandchristina.wordpress.com/2017/11/07/quality-control/

Also of note: "At the same time, however, HarperCollins have received orders for the boxed set far beyond the number they had predicted, and have taken the new Companion and Guide back to press."

Thanks for the information!

Had an email today from Speedyhen about my order.

Good afternoon,

I chased the publisher to find out when this will be published but I am afraid they still do not have a publication date. I wanted to make you aware of this and will of course keep you updated if there are any changes.

Kind regards,

Customer Service

They seem to think it has not been published yet, though it has, and it looks like they got no copies, only Amazon appear to have got them on the 2nd of November.

I have pointed out that it has been published and perhaps they might want to have a chat with HarperCollins about why they got no copies but Amazon did last week

They sent me an email today, but are still in denial that it has been published but it has.

Dear Trotter
Thank you for your response. Unfortunately the publication of this item has been pushed back due to errors with the item and the publishers have not yet advised a new publication date. Please be assured that our stock controllers are in close contact with Harper Collins and will be kept informed on when this item will be available. Amazon currently do not have stock and are showing an estimate of 1 to 2 months.
As advised, we do not currently have a date but will let you know any updates we receive. I hope this information helps.
Regards,
Customer Service

I am not going to use Speedyhen in the future, for preorders, Amazon seem to be a better bet, as they get stock.

Trotter wrote:
They sent me an email today, but are still in denial that it has been published but it has.

Dear Trotter
Thank you for your response. Unfortunately the publication of this item has been pushed back due to errors with the item and the publishers have not yet advised a new publication date. Please be assured that our stock controllers are in close contact with Harper Collins and will be kept informed on when this item will be available. Amazon currently do not have stock and are showing an estimate of 1 to 2 months.
As advised, we do not currently have a date but will let you know any updates we receive. I hope this information helps.
Regards,
Customer Service

I am not going to use Speedyhen in the future, for preorders, Amazon seem to be a better bet, as they get stock.

But surely we know why they didn't get stock, as this has been explained by HarperCollins, right? There were only limited copies that were undamaged, and these went out. If the numbers were really quite limited, not surprising they would just send them all to Amazon, rather than send a small handful to each retailer.

This doesn't seem like Speedyhen's fault, especially if HC are telling them that they pushed it back (given HC can't supply any copies).

My Middle-Earth Treasury came through, finally, from Book Depository. Surprisingly, it was amazingly well packaged (undamaged, and packaged in a box four times as large and tightly surrounded by layers of very durable bubble wrap)

Quality-wise, my copies were much better than onthetrail's (IIRC) horrible set. The 11th impression Hobbit is definitely nothing like the other 11th impression I have seen, so impression numbers on those are clearly nonsense at this stage. It does suffer from the annoying loss of map in the gutter of the binding, but otherwise, the boards appear to be same size as each other. It has some small dots which appear to be white glue on the front board. It is by no means a good book, but it IS passable.

Edit: The small dots are loss of the paper covering, which can't be more than a micron thick. And the front and back boards are NOT the same sixe, but they are much better than onthetrail's copy.

The box is very solid, but not particularly well printed. There are little white dots in some of the grey areas of the mountains, which appear to be some kind of digital artifacts.

Edit: These appear on all copies; Not sure how no one has commented on that so far, as it is blatant sloppy digital work.

The books are needlessly fat. They are all thicker than their full size first edition counterparts, and even taking into account the addition of appendices, it is a bit absurd, and says much about how inappropriate this format is. The aspect ratio of the various dimensions just looks wrong.

I definitely think it is a bit of a pointless edition, and it is worrying that there is such variance between a "good-ish" example of the set and a truly awful example. I doubt there are any really good examples.

I wouldn't buy it again, but it is passable (just). Feels like a missed opportunity, more than anything. It is a low-end gift set (rather than a quality set of books), and I guess one has to have that firmly in mind.

As an aside, I suspect the scan of my copy of the Two Towers (I supplied all three to HC when they were first talking about doing a 1st edition styled release) was probably the source of all the cover motifs. Can't be sure, but it shares a couple of very tiny and distinct defects, which my copy has (assuming all copies of the TT are not perfectly identical).

In what has to be the fastest I've ever received something from Amazon.co.uk my Revised J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide arrived today. I'll try and grab some pics tomorrow, will need to dig out my original (Houghton Mifflin version) for comparison as well.

Had one volume that didn't want to slide out when I simply tipped the slipcase. Just a little bit of manual effort it and it was out, a small amount of white paper from the inside on the slipcase on the dust jacket though I think it'll remove easy enough.

Very minor slipcase damage, which considering the state of the flimsy Amazon box it came it (and barely wrapped in brown packaging paper) I was bracing for much worse. First impressions of the slipcase, it seems a little thinner than the one from my HM set. Though that set has been in storage for a year or so now so I may be mis-remembering.

Books are shocker, printed and bound in China. Paper is pretty thin as well.
I'll be giving it a closer inspection in the morning. Was about to head off to bed when looking at expected deliveries in USPS and noticed I apparently had a package delivered today and realized nobody had got our mail today yet.

Stu wrote:

But surely we know why they didn't get stock, as this has been explained by HarperCollins, right? There were only limited copies that were undamaged, and these went out. If the numbers were really quite limited, not surprising they would just send them all to Amazon, rather than send a small handful to each retailer.

This doesn't seem like Speedyhen's fault, especially if HC are telling them that they pushed it back (given HC can't supply any copies).

Yes, and this was my point, Speedyhen are not at fault here, but are much lower in the pecking order than Amazon, if I had pre-ordered from Amazon, I would probably have the book by now.

I also expect Amazon to get priority for the next set of copies that HC release to distributors.

As I said I will now be placing pre-orders only with Amazon as they get preferential treatment, which is a shame as they are more expensive.