Limited Edition Books Going Forward

[aa.logan]

AKA “A Separate Thread to Complain About LE Nonsense”

 

I’m as guilty, if not more so than most here- in the last 12 months, I’m pretty sure that more of my posts here have been about the difficulties in obtaining books rather than the content of them and I don’t like that. The ‘Upcoming Releases’ thread is going to be even more clogged with complaints as the year goes on, so why not collate them here instead? That way that thread can be reserved for it’s true purpose, complaining about the paucity of releases…

 

I’ve just been sat looking at my shelves, wondering why I bought them. With a couple of exceptions (Aurelian for starting the whole collection, obviously…), I’m glad I did- and as a result I’m not sure I that I want to go through with my previously stated complete walking away from buying more. I know this is going to invite frustration and disappointment, but I like pretty books and early access to stories. For now, anyway. My completionist days are over, honest.

 

With the BL Celebration LE books being delayed, how do the think GW are going to deal with them from now on?

 

 

 

 

[Felix Antipodes]

Imho the celebration books have been delayed deliberately, while GW tries to come up with a solution to the scalpers.  Not sure if there is one though, especially if they can’t fix their website issue.  The scalpers just waltzing through the queue was laughable.

 

I’ve stated elsewhere that I’m also gone off chasing the limited editions and will stick to that.  I will still be picking up the ‘just’ HB/TP editions but it will have to be an especially pretty LE to entice me back.  Unfortunately, I will still have to run the gauntlet of their website for those, which makes it harder again even for the normal editions.  I will be sticking by my vow of no new models via the website though.

[Ubiquitous1984]

I'm 100% stopping collecting LE's now and will look to liquidate my full collection.  I'm going to focus on audiobooks and ebooks although I may pick up the occasional hardback.  

 

The buying process is now too stressful, and luck dependant.  I preferred it when there was a bit of 'skill' involved, whereby if you had your vouchers and alarm set correctly and operated fast enough you were pretty much guaranteed any book you wanted.  The introduction of the queue killed this and make it luck based (this may be fairer tbf - but it also alienated many collectors).

 

I'm not convinced that GW will be able to stop the scalper issue using any technical means on their website.  Scalpers will always be a step ahead if there is money to be made.  I believe the only way to stop the scalpers is to offer an initial 'signed' allocation, followed by a print-on-demand un-numbered/un-signed opportunity for collectors who missed out on the numbered versions.  

 

I also believe they need to increase the cover quality if they want to retain interest from collectors.  When I look at some of my LE books like Manflayer, The Emperor's Legion, Dante etc and then compare them to some of the lazy recent offerings, it makes me question how much effort is actually being put into the covers.  

[System Sound]

Stop. Buying. From. Scalpers.

 

Nothing is gonna change. But of dip:cuss:s will continue scalping them and reselling them and people with too much money than brain will keep buying them...

[skylerboodie]

1 hour ago, Ubiquitous1984 said:

I preferred it when there was a bit of 'skill' involved, whereby if you had your vouchers and alarm set correctly and operated fast enough you were pretty much guaranteed any book you wanted.  The introduction of the queue killed this and make it luck based.

 

...some of the lazy recent offerings, it makes me question how much effort is actually being put into the covers.  

 

100% wholeheartedly agree with these!

[Ubiquitous1984]

47 minutes ago, skylerboodie said:

 

100% wholeheartedly agree with these!

I feel like the poor sales of the DoF LE's are largely down to their boring, uninspired covers.  The content is almost irrelevant: collectors will always buy the book before knowing if the content is any good.  GW basically picked up the SoT LE and copied 95% of the design and rebranded it as DoF.  Boring.  No effort involved.  They look decent on the bookshelf but it was also a big missed opportunity IMO to introduce something new and exciting.  

[son of the forest]

I managed to get all the horus heresy limited novellas, all the siege of terra limiteds aside from the last,  I've got all the primarch limited, as well as the heresy character limiteds, plus some randoms. I'll be trying for the Horus primarch book whenever that is released, but that will be the last one. Doubt I'll be trying for Eidolon, I'll just wait for ebook or paperback. 

 

The handling of limiteds by GW has been so poor its put me off completely

[DukeLeto69]

Never bought one. Never will. Actually I had a go for the Fehervari Dark Coil but seeing I was over an hour in the “queue” and going backwards I thought it was pointless.

 

I still think it is possible to support real fans with a club membership unique reference number the restricts access to presales and one book per address. Won’t solve but would help?

[Ubiquitous1984]

10 minutes ago, DukeLeto69 said:

 Fehervari Dark Coil

Now *that* was an LE I have zero regrets buying.  A new author to the LE scene with books that have never featured before, and are very hard to get hold off otherwise.

 

The effort that PF put into bespoke signing the books, many (although not mine!) including cool unique quotes, made it very much a 'special' release.  Such a contrast from the usual uninspired dross.  

[theSpirea]

Book collecting, especially of limited/fancy editions, has grown in the past few years. With the explosion of YA fantasy, there are so many publishers pushing out limited editions. Often these editions are of cheap quality and only have "fancy" sprayed edges, immediately increasing the price. But there are also high-end editions (Grim Oak, Subterranean Press, etc).

 

I will praise BL for having pretty decent hardback quality (unless they have it printed in the UK, then the quality goes to **). The paper is thick and the binding is decent. It's a good value for the price, compared to Orbit, Tor, Zeus, and similar SFF publishers where the hardbacks are of really poor, glued binding quality for a similar price tag.

 

But BL needs to up their game when it comes to LEs/SEs (even BL/GW can't use their terminology correctly). Advertising an LE as having an afterword and ribbon as an extra was a joke 10 years ago. Afterwords should be included in all editions, including ebooks as well. LEs need more artwork - there's barely any. The trilogy box sets going for over $100 and there's absolutely no artwork? Even if it's already existing artwork, no need to commission new. I'd be happy with that.

 

My LE/physical books collecting times are slowly coming to an end. I'm running out of space. I have probably over 500 physical books. As someone who lives short and long-term in various countries (family/work reasons), my collection is now spread across three countries. I will still occasionally try to get BL LE (Infinite and Divine and please please Shira's trilogy box set) but I'm downsizing my collection and slowing down on purchases.

 

Here's a nice example how LEs can look within the BL LE price range.

Edited January 31 by theSpirea

[WrathOfTheLion]

I do like to get some of the Limited Editions, but series of them are not worth it really right now. I missed the first SoT book, and ended up just doing hardbacks, which has been quite nice for my life there. I think it's much better to look at one-offs, so that you either get it then or don't worry about it if you miss it. Then there's no overarching series there to have to try to complete. Or, you can just stick with the normal editions, like I did for SoT and probably will for any Scouring series.

[darkhorse0607]

32 minutes ago, WrathOfTheLion said:

I do like to get some of the Limited Editions, but series of them are not worth it really right now. I missed the first SoT book, and ended up just doing hardbacks, which has been quite nice for my life there. I think it's much better to look at one-offs, so that you either get it then or don't worry about it if you miss it. Then there's no overarching series there to have to try to complete. Or, you can just stick with the normal editions, like I did for SoT and probably will for any Scouring series.

 

This is where I'm at as well. I might get one or two if it's book that's near and dear to my heart, as I did with the LE for Storm of Iron, or if Black Legion 3 ever comes out then I'm sure I'll be sitting in the queue for that one (or if they ever do another hardback release of the Forgeworld books). But I am not going to try another series again. It just isn't worth it at this point to me, I can appreciate the LEs that come out and many of them are quite nice.

 

But not nice enough to have to deal with the stress and emotional fatigue of trying to collect a series, particularly from GW with its current webstore issues. I don't want them that badly. I'll just continue to grow my audible library

[Taliesin]

6 hours ago, theSpirea said:

 

 

I will praise BL for having pretty decent hardback quality (unless they have it printed in the UK, then the quality goes to **). The paper is thick and the binding is decent. It's a good value for the price, compared to Orbit, Tor, Zeus, and similar SFF publishers where the hardbacks are of really poor, glued binding quality for a similar price tag.

 

But BL needs to up their game when it comes to LEs/SEs (even BL/GW can't use their terminology correctly). Advertising an LE as having an afterword and ribbon as an extra was a joke 10 years ago. Afterwords should be included in all editions, including ebooks as well. LEs need more artwork - there's barely any. The trilogy box sets going for over $100 and there's absolutely no artwork? Even if it's already existing artwork, no need to commission new. I'd be happy with that.

 

 

2 things to say:

 

1) I totally agree on the limited editions, they need artwork and if they are going for such prices they need to have art and better quality. But certainly artwork is where BL is very much lacking. The only LE's where I actually can see why they cost a lot is the Siege of Terra limited editions, or the ones for Talon of Horus.

 

But I'm sorry, I am not paying 60 EURO for a book that just a a ribbon and different cover. Make more of an effort.

 

2) Also agree that the print quality of BL hardbacks is good and I am pleased with it. The solution to your problem with other publishers is to always opt for the US version and not buy the poor quality UK hardbacks,. I do this all the time, I do not buy any UK hardcovers for the last 10 years anyore, quality difference in paper *and* binding with the US editions is huge.

Edited January 31 by Taliesin

[aa.logan]

The points about quality are interesting; the initial HH novellas were, retrospectively, of poor quality; yes there were the colour plates but the paper wasn’t the best. Most of my reading is done with an e-reader, but I’m surprised by what a difference that paper quality makes to my enjoyment. The difference between the first and second Night Lords collections is stark and noticeable.
 

The first Fabius Bile book and The Lords of Silence are probably my favourite LEs; inventive design *and* good quality paper and binding. Since the high point of these two, the creativity, outside of the (stupidly-named) Mega Editions has gone, yet the prices have increased and so has the demand. I still like the quality of the paper, but the binding is increasingly hit-and-miss.

 

It’s also noticeable how the design has changed- I think that Dark Imperium was the first book to introduce the style of book that lasted a good few years- no idea what you call the (faux) leather with the horizontal ridges binding but I think that is going to fully go away when DoF ends. These books certainly look special and fancy, but more recent LEs have moved away from this design- presumably it’s getting too expensive. It’s pretty difficult to distinguish, at a glance, the difference between special and regular hardbacks now, which I suppose also diminishes their appeal.

 

The additional stories included are also less and less exclusive than they were, often eshorts previously available, which really renders these editions as less desirable, for me at least. 

 

This drop in quality, however defined, combined with the anecdotal alienation of so many previously loyal/ gullible customers leaves me wondering how long the scalper’s market will hold for, regardless of what preventive measures GW put in place. 

[Noserenda]

I stopped picking up Limited/special editions when they started the disgusting practice of releasing them early, and you know what? I havent missed them. Though they were a nice nestegg to help me in the gap between being disabled and getting benefits to help, its the stories themselves that i enjoy rather than a barely noticed bit of fancier spine on a bookshelf that is completely overshadowed by an extremely battered collection of (cheap) paperbacks i have an actual connection with.

Its also nice to not have the looming shadow of anxiety for extended periods when a new release comes up! 

[Krelious]

I think the solution should be to only let people order the limited editions at GW stores, 1 per person. Make it mandatory for  potential buyers to answer a quiz of lore testing questions and bring Warhammer products to the store with them to prove they arent scalpers.  If you live far away from stores that's your problem, I think this is the only real solution to the scalping problem is to remove the internet element and home delivery. Its then up to the discretion of store managers if you are a legitimate customer. 

 

After the initial point of say three in person purchases and proof of fandom you can then move onto a mailing list where they call you and ask if you want to order certain products including limited editions. This would provide security and proper prevention of scalping to basically create an ID network of all buyers as well as store managers personally knowing who you are. Basically I think there needs to be an in person gate keeping situation going on to ensure the right people are getting the products.  Those who get first dibs on limited editions should be part of a special club thats determined by merit and intent. After say the initial orders in store/long standing mailing list if there are undesired leftovers those should go up for sale on the website in a public sale which is FFA. I think this makes the most sense as if they are still going to do limited editions and people want to collect, then it makes sense that if say theres a vol 1,2,3 or 10 book series of something then someone who starts collecting book 1 should have the automatic right to purchase book 2 and so on in order to complete the collection. If they want to pass on a book that's their choice.  

 

If anything I think the demand for books online and insane prices people are willing to pay scalpers is proof that this system would work since people have the money to pay 5-10 times the base price, I think the motivation is there for people to jump through hoops in order to get what they want.  

[theSpirea]

Fans not having a GW store in their country or the closest one being 8+ hours away is "that's your problem"? That's a horrible solution for both fans and the company when it comes to additional manual work. Probably the worst idea I've read.

How do you distribute LEs per store? 5 books per store?  Proof of fandom, answering lore questions? Elitism approach... 

A mailing list where GW will be contacting customers whether they are interested in this and that product? That's an insane amount of workload for the company.

[Nagashsnee]

31 minutes ago, Krelious said:

I think the solution should be to only let people order the limited editions at GW stores, 1 per person. Make it mandatory for  potential buyers to answer a quiz of lore testing questions and bring Warhammer products to the store with them to prove they arent scalpers.  If you live far away from stores that's your problem, I think this is the only real solution to the scalping problem is to remove the internet element and home delivery. Its then up to the discretion of store managers if you are a legitimate customer. 

 

After the initial point of say three in person purchases and proof of fandom you can then move onto a mailing list where they call you and ask if you want to order certain products including limited editions. This would provide security and proper prevention of scalping to basically create an ID network of all buyers as well as store managers personally knowing who you are. Basically I think there needs to be an in person gate keeping situation going on to ensure the right people are getting the products.  Those who get first dibs on limited editions should be part of a special club thats determined by merit and intent. After say the initial orders in store/long standing mailing list if there are undesired leftovers those should go up for sale on the website in a public sale which is FFA. I think this makes the most sense as if they are still going to do limited editions and people want to collect, then it makes sense that if say theres a vol 1,2,3 or 10 book series of something then someone who starts collecting book 1 should have the automatic right to purchase book 2 and so on in order to complete the collection. If they want to pass on a book that's their choice.  

 

If anything I think the demand for books online and insane prices people are willing to pay scalpers is proof that this system would work since people have the money to pay 5-10 times the base price, I think the motivation is there for people to jump through hoops in order to get what they want.  

 

 

I would go further, special badges or pins for said 'special club' members, this way they wont have to suffer the indignities of being treated like some pleb normal customer .  Perhaps the use of secret handshakes so club members friends and family can be able to pick up deliveries?  While it may be tricky legally speaking anti scalping/re-sale blood oaths could be employed if we really really want to combat scalping. Maybe third party stores and location could be issues with 'sucks to be you' posters?  and online purchases could have little postcards 'second class post second class customer'? Of course people who bought VOL 1 should be able to pass along the right to futher books to their legal heirs, tho it could get tricky with multiple kids. 

 

This whole thing gave me a much needed full body laugh that was much needed and i thank you for it.

 

The only sure thing is that this all much much easier and saner then just increasing the print run for popular series/authors.  

Edited February 5 by Nagashsnee

[Subtleknife]

The only way to solve this is how ever many months prior to release GW do a 24hr pre order window. They then print as many as have been ordered. 

 

No way to scalp a book if everyone who wants it get it. The only thing that would probably have to stop is signatures.

 

They are still limited edition as there is only a limited amount made. 

[Ubiquitous1984]

It's laughable that BL/GW have decided to launch a 'limited edition' £42.50 HH covers artbook with a print run of 6500.  Meanwhile SoT was restricted to 2500.  6500 TEATD LE's would have solved a lot of issues.

[aa.logan]

Next week sees the first Special Edition in a while, French’s AoS Vampire novel.

 

No mention of any special measures in place, are they testing the water with a less desired title and just hoping the bot issue has gone away? The WarCom article makes no mention of numbers available- the usual slipshod copy or an intentional omission?

[EverythingIsGreat]

On 2/6/2024 at 12:06 PM, Ubiquitous1984 said:

It's laughable that BL/GW have decided to launch a 'limited edition' £42.50 HH covers artbook with a print run of 6500.  Meanwhile SoT was restricted to 2500.  6500 TEATD LE's would have solved a lot of issues.

 

Weren't all HH art books limited/special editions? The original 4 "visions" books, the "Visions" update and the "Illuminations" book I seem to remember as LEs only.

[DarkChaplain]

Collected Visions and the Visions of Heresy books all had general releases and were available through book retailers globally. Heck, I think one Visions got a reissue in January, according to Amazon.

[Felix Antipodes]

8 hours ago, aa.logan said:

Next week sees the first Special Edition in a while, French’s AoS Vampire novel.

 

No mention of any special measures in place, are they testing the water with a less desired title and just hoping the bot issue has gone away? The WarCom article makes no mention of numbers available- the usual slipshod copy or an intentional omission?

 

No offence to John French (ooo, it rhymes!) but it is 1 - AoS & 2 - a re-release, so I can’t see the scalpers DDOSing the GW site to get their hands on it.  It will still sell out, just to the normal crowd like us.

TBF, I’m not sure I will even try and get it.  I’ve gotten over my FOMO and OCD like collector mentality (for the most part  ) plus I already have the HB edition and this version isn’t all that special.  Something a lot of BL LE releases of late have in common.

Now, if this was the delayed extra special box (that was recently delayed) we might have gotten a clearer idea of whether the scalpers have moved on to fresh fields.

[EverythingIsGreat]

19 hours ago, DarkChaplain said:

Collected Visions and the Visions of Heresy books all had general releases and were available through book retailers globally. Heck, I think one Visions got a reissue in January, according to Amazon.

 

Thanks, I had to go into BL archived pages to refresh my memory. The four original Horus Heresy "Visions" books were indeed released as large format paperbacks (UK price: £15), but there was also a hardback "Collector's Edition" for each (£50.00). Most memorable is Volume I: Visions of War lore (by Alan Merrett 2004), coming as it was just a couple of years before Horus Rising. Though a part of the text and quite a few of the art pieces were previously published in the Horus Heresy Collectible Card Game in 2003.

 

Sorry for the detour, carry on.