January 2021 Sale

Asunto del tema original: Christmas / New Year sale - expectations?

CharlasFolio Society Devotees

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January 2021 Sale

1Yohannas
Nov 24, 2020, 8:26 pm

Hi all, so I discovered Folio this March, meaning the summer sale was my first experience of a Folio sale. I was quite impressed with the 50% discount and with the sheer number of books on offer. What can we expect from the upcoming Xmas / NY sale, is it normally smaller, larger, or does it not follow any particular pattern?

2Comatoes
Nov 24, 2020, 8:35 pm

I think smaller, all the older books are mostly sold out. Unless they put newer titles on sale to compensate.

3Chemren
Nov 24, 2020, 9:21 pm

Discounts vary in the NY sale, from as small as 15 or 20% to some truly great bargains (Tommy for $15 was a standout one year).

4wdripp
Editado: Nov 25, 2020, 9:55 am

>1 Yohannas: In the wiki you'll find a dropbox spreadsheet with a list of titles (and some prices) for past New Year's sales. As >3 Chemren: noted, the discounts have historically varied for this sale, while 50% off all titles has been standard for the Summer sale the past few years.

I agree with >2 Comatoes: that the sale might be smaller than average, as it seems like FS cleared out a lot of stock in the Summer sale and have been publishing fewer titles. Also, expect low stock, high discount titles to go fast, especially if it's a title that hasn't been on sale before.

5Yohannas
Nov 25, 2020, 4:37 am

>4 wdripp: Thanks so much. All we can do is wait I suppose!

6bookish_elf
Nov 25, 2020, 6:38 am

>5 Yohannas: A long wait till the end of December.

7sekhmet0108
Nov 25, 2020, 11:38 am

Pity that there is to be no Black Friday offer. I was really counting on either a set sale or a 5%(/10%) rebate to snag some titles that are most definitely not going to go on sale anytime soon.

The wait is going to be very long indeed till the end of December.

8boldface
Nov 25, 2020, 2:07 pm

>7 sekhmet0108:

So far, this seems to be Folio's take on Black Friday. . . .

https://explore-foliosociety.com/4EQH-YHJE-2C80F2BE692708481YJCGW71F8FF2C059C758...

Perhaps there's more to come?

9sekhmet0108
Nov 25, 2020, 4:56 pm

>8 boldface:

Ah, this was the charity thing they were mentioning. I doubt that there is to be anything more...at least that is what they said when i asked. Pity, but not a huge deal. Last year there was the free shipping on every order (along with £5 off, i think).

But i don't have very high expectations from the December sale either. There are hardly any older books remaining. God only knows what they will put on sale this year.

10warehouseisbare
Editado: Nov 25, 2020, 8:32 pm

I’d like some deals but more than anything I’d like to see a nice restock on some older books that are currently out of print like Lord of the Flies and some of the Agatha Christie books. If they don’t have many books to list it’d be nice if they’d have a nice free shipping with 3 books ordered or something nice like that. Even better in my opinion would be a site wide percentage off sale but I doubt any of this happens.

11bookish_elf
Nov 25, 2020, 10:32 pm

They might add some new titles to the sale as a hook to induce buying some of their full priced books.

12StrangerThing
Nov 27, 2020, 3:13 pm

I believe Folio maybe phasing out sales as they are publishing fewer volumes of each book so as not to have leftovers they usually put on sale. Last week I managed after two months of trying to get through and place an order. Jurassic Park was already sold out although more were promised in December. Good business practice but less fun for us.

13katielouise
Nov 27, 2020, 11:51 pm

>12 StrangerThing: I'm curious as to why you seem to place orders via phone rather than via the website?

14StrangerThing
Nov 28, 2020, 7:56 am

>13 katielouise: because. I forgot my password years ago which is tied to an email address which I no longer have and is disabled. And because I’m a technological idiot 😊

15NLNils
Nov 28, 2020, 8:27 am

>14 StrangerThing: It might be worthwhile to ask on your next call if the e-mail credentials can be reset manually. Surely they know it’s you by now. Ha!

16StrangerThing
Nov 28, 2020, 6:33 pm

>15 NLNils: thanks, I will.

17English-bookseller
Nov 30, 2020, 4:30 am

Why not just re-register opening a new account?

18SolerSystem
Dic 3, 2020, 11:37 am

What are the chances Italian Folktales appears in the sale?

19bookfair_e
Dic 3, 2020, 2:26 pm

>18 SolerSystem: What are the chances Italian Folktales appears in the sale?

Italian Folktales - I’d say there’s a good chance of it being in the New Year Sale because Folio have made a sneaky, stealthy price increase of £10 for this set (was £130, now £140) as well as quite a few other titles. It will make the percentage discounts appear more generous in a sale, so I think the titles Folio have stealthily price hiked will appear in the sale.

20sekhmet0108
Dic 3, 2020, 5:22 pm

>19 bookfair_e:
Very interesting!

Do you know which other titles they have increased the prices of?

21U_238
Dic 3, 2020, 7:40 pm

>19 bookfair_e: I have been keeping my eyes on this one, to go with the Japanese Tales, which is now sold out and a bit hard to find.

22coynedj
Dic 3, 2020, 10:28 pm

>19 bookfair_e: >21 U_238: - I'm watching it too. I already have the Japanese, Chinese, African and Native American folktale volumes. This would be a welcome addition, as part of an unofficial series and as a wonderful book on its own - maybe I can finally retire my old paperback copy!

23Redshirt
Dic 5, 2020, 7:11 pm

I’ve sent an updated Sales Spreadsheet to Warwick that he has uploaded to the Wiki. I’ve been using this spreadsheet to track sales since 2018. The spreadsheet focuses on non-LE books (with a few exceptions) and may be of interest to those looking to purchase in the upcoming sale.

The spreadsheet has six tabs. The first tab, at the top of the page, lists the 75 books that are still available for purchase that have previously been in sales and the prices at which the books were offered in those prior sales. Books that have sold out from 2018 to the present are on the bottom of the page. The second tab lists the 75 books that are still available by year of publication. The third tab lists the books that first appeared in each of the four sales since January 2019. The fourth tab lists the books that have sold out in each of the sales since January 2019 (in 2020, I started keeping track of the sale books that sold out after the sale). Finally, the fifth tab lists the non-LE books published in the years 2015-2020 and their status: (1) never on sale; (2) previously on sale and still available; and (3) sold out. These lists were built using the Wiki’s list of all the books published by Folio, which was created by wcarter and folio_books. We are all indebted to them and the others in this group who have made the wiki an endless source of useful information about Folio that is available to all.

As others have speculated, I too suspect this might not be a great sale in terms of the number of books offered. Since 2018, the number of Folio books offered in each sale has generally decreased, from 148 in June 2018 to just 91 in June 2020. Further, the inventory of Folio books has significantly decreased in recent years. For example, in 2020, 132 books offered in the January and June sales have sold out while only 42 new books were published. In 2019, 78 books sold out in the two sales and only 50 new books were published. Moreover, these numbers don’t include the books that sold out without ever going on sale.

Between 17-40 books have been offered for the first time in each of the last four sales. Given the low inventory I’d think the lower number seems more likely at this time. Last December, 21 titles were initially added to the sale with another 19 added weeks later. Most books find their way into a sale between two and five years of publication and new titles are likely to come mostly from books published between 2017-2019. Whether a specific title might appear in the upcoming sale is anybody’s guess. Happy hunting to all.

24NLNils
Dic 6, 2020, 5:20 am

>23 Redshirt: Thank you for your hard work and the sharing of your Excel file!

25UK_History_Fan
Dic 6, 2020, 6:10 am

>23 Redshirt:
Sounds like a wonderful resource. Do you have a link to the spreadsheet? I didn’t see it on the wiki but so much great info there I likely just missed it.

26CLWggg
Dic 6, 2020, 6:30 am

>25 UK_History_Fan: wcarter has provided a link to the spreadsheet in post 23 of https://www.librarything.com/topic/296381

27MillieWhitehouse
Dic 6, 2020, 6:47 am

Este usuario ha sido eliminado por spam.

28U_238
Dic 6, 2020, 9:18 am

>23 Redshirt: This is such an amazing effort of yours, it really is a huge contribution to the community. Well done. Looking forward to poring over it this evening.

29folio_books
Dic 14, 2020, 2:39 pm

Over on the Shelfie Facebook Group someone is claiming FS have stated the sale will begin before Christmas. I'll try to verify that but I'll not hear back before tomorrow.

30SF-72
Editado: Dic 14, 2020, 3:30 pm

>29 folio_books:

That would be great with regard to Brexit, but I doubt it. I don't think they'd mix free shipping and the sale.

31folio_books
Editado: Dic 15, 2020, 11:48 am

Okay, word from Folio. Fewer books in the sale, no catalogue, sale starts Christmas Eve. Warehouse and Customer Services re-open Tuesday 29th, aiming to get books out to Europe pre-Brexit.

Edited to correct warehouse/CS opening date.

32NLNils
Dic 15, 2020, 11:52 am

Good intel! Thanks.

33Redshirt
Dic 15, 2020, 11:56 am

>31 folio_books: Thanks for the information.

34SF-72
Editado: Dic 16, 2020, 9:00 am

>31 folio_books:

Thank you for that information. But for people from the EU: Customs are due from January 1st, so I don't see how they're going to manage that if they ship from the 29th. Even express isn't that fast. (I was surprised when I found out about that since Brexit as such is on January 31st, but from what I read the customs union ends 4 weeks before that. Which is weird, but what can you do.)

edited to add: The text in brackets is faulty and has been explained / corrected below.

35U_238
Dic 15, 2020, 1:13 pm

My wishlist:
1. Outlaws of the Marsh (to go with my copy of Three Kingdoms)
2. If Not, Winter
3. The Alchemist
4. Italian Tales - a bit undecided, as reviews seem to be mixed.

36SolerSystem
Dic 15, 2020, 3:34 pm

I'm hoping for:

1) Italian Folktales
2) Marco Polo's Travels
3) Working

37NLNils
Editado: Dic 15, 2020, 4:09 pm

It’s time to discount Defeat into Victory. I refuse to believe it’s the hot cake Folio is making it out to be and it does woo me.

I have my eye out for The Alchemist, really inspired production but a bit too rich for me at full price. Personally I gobble up the American History and Philosophy titles, so The Mayflower And 1776 would be most welcome at even a slight discount.

It will probably not happen, but discounts on the remaining SF titles would be appreciated. I have bought quite a lot of them, but have a few holes left to fill and prefer to do so by ordering direct from FS.

38RogerBlake
Dic 15, 2020, 4:51 pm

>34 SF-72: I was surprised when I found out about that since Brexit as such is on January 31st, but from what I read the customs union ends 4 weeks before that

I think you are getting the years mixed up. Brexit was 31st January 2020. It is the transition period that ends on 31st December hence why no customs union on 1st Jan 2021 (unless of course they manage the mythical deal by then)

39Jobasha
Dic 15, 2020, 5:16 pm

I'm looking for:

1) Left Hand of Darkness and/or Dispossessed
2) Montaigne Essays
3) Outlaws of the Marsh

40coynedj
Dic 15, 2020, 6:45 pm

>37 NLNils: If Defeat Into Victory gets a decent discount, it'll go straight into my basket and a quick order.

41warehouseisbare
Dic 15, 2020, 10:16 pm

>31 folio_books:
Thanks for posting.

42Yohannas
Dic 16, 2020, 6:53 am

>31 folio_books: Great info, thanks!

43SF-72
Dic 16, 2020, 8:59 am

>38 RogerBlake:

I think you're right. A British company wrote a kind if snippy email when I asked about delivery delays and told me that Brexit wasn't until January 31st, 2021, so I needn't worry. So I relaxed a bit until amazon UK sent an email warning me about pre-orders being affected by the end of the customs union on January 1st. When I googled the whole thing, I mixed up what that company wrote and the actual date earlier this year. Thanks for correcting this.

Still, the issue I referred to was that it's impossible for Folio Society to get books into the European Union before the end of the customs union if they wait until the 29th to ship books. Not that this is likely to be an issue for me, I bought everything I was interested in early enough that it will definitely be here before then. But it might affect others.

44Forthwith
Dic 16, 2020, 11:22 am

I hope that their digital "system" can manage any possible sellout of a book while they are away cheering the season or we could be ordering an already sold out book. From what I have read even some kind of literal last minute deal could be wanting from desperation.

45folio_books
Editado: Dic 22, 2020, 12:42 pm

Hot off the press, I've just had a message from Folio to say they're now looking at postponing the annual New Year Sale to - well, the New Year. I think it would be a sensible move in all the circumstances. More news if and when.

Edit :That appears to have been confirmed in a response to a query which has been posted on the Facebook group. It's now "January".

46NLNils
Dic 22, 2020, 12:42 pm

Seems the only plausible way forward with GB cordoned off.

47U_238
Dic 22, 2020, 12:56 pm

>45 folio_books: That's too bad, was looking forward to all of the photos on the Facebook group of the covers of everyone's new purchases! I kid :)

That's genuinely disappointing, but it's just a week or two. It's helpful that the Amaranthine book isn't temping to me, and Centipede Press' Dune is February at earliest. With this, I'll be able to postpone or eliminate some purchases altogether.

48Willoyd
Dic 22, 2020, 8:44 pm

>46 NLNils:
I doubt if that will make any difference: the only traffic stopped is that involving goods accompanied by a human. Most post travels differently, and won't be affected. Biggest issue I've had recently was internal anyway - 25 days for a parcel from a Bradford postcode to a Leeds postcode!!

49bookish_elf
Dic 22, 2020, 10:27 pm

I was looking forward to it on Christmas Eve. It would have been a pleasure to look at the books on sale, make a list of what you want, then trimming it and then adding some etc. Really disappointing!

50SolerSystem
Dic 23, 2020, 5:26 am

>49 bookish_elf: Agreed. Especially with normal holiday plans scrapped, it was really giving me something to look forward to this week.

51Conte_Mosca
Dic 23, 2020, 5:50 am

>47 U_238:

What you mean there there is a limit to how many times you can see photos of the Fairy Books, Dune, GoT, Gymnastic Pork (sorry Jurassic Park, yawn) and the Ray Bradbury and Robert Heinlein books?! I mentally filter them all out now, so I barely notice them ;-)

52NLNils
Editado: Dic 23, 2020, 6:37 am

Folio Society updated its FAQ. The new situation is stated below:

“THE FOLIO SOCIETY

EU DELIVERIES
Some EU deliveries may be subject to local tax and duty charges upon delivery from 1 January 2021. If applicable charges will be collected by the carrier.Customs policies vary by country. Please contact your local customs for further information.Our warehouse is now closed for the holidays. Orders placed after midday on 22nd December will not be despatched until the new year.”

I would have liked for Folio to apply the tax as now the carrier wil charge a handling fee on top of applying 9% VAT due on books outside of the EU according to customs in The Netherlands.

53joco30
Editado: Dic 23, 2020, 7:08 am

>48 Willoyd: "Most post travels differently, and won't be affected."

Surely they are affected. I made a last order 'in time to receive before Christmas' .
The only thing I received so far is a tracking mail from our local post service saying that they received 'a confirmation of preparation of a shipment'. And that's been a week ago now.
I guess I may be glad if I receive it before January 1st, but I don't expect to have it before that date.

>52 NLNils: I would have liked for Folio to apply the tax as now the carrier wil charge a handling fee on top of applying 9% VAT

Yeah, 18 euro tax plus 25 euro administration costs.
It will seriously have a negative impact on my Folio purchases.
On the plus side: most of their recent published books don't interest me at all anyhow, and the money I save I can use for other books.

54SF-72
Dic 23, 2020, 8:56 am

>52 NLNils:

Same here. Amazon have that kind of service where you pay the exact tax on purchase and the shipping companies just deliver to you. That saves their very generous charges for charging you personally for the tax. And a lot of the time, they calculate it wrongly on top that, always to the disadvantage of the buyer. I'm really not looking forward to that, and with FS's recently inferior packaging and the use of problematic shipping companies, I don't want to risk using a forwarding service that might be more customer friendly (and in the case of limited editions also cheaper) either.

55sekhmet0108
Editado: Dic 23, 2020, 10:44 am

I received my two orders (one shipped on 12th and one on 15th) today and i am very pleased. I was a bit worried regarding the customs hassle. Have been through it once and it was quite aggravating.

With these two orders, i have purchased all the books that interested me (at the current price points). So, the postponed sale, which is anyways supposed to be unspectacular, will be of little interest to me, unless Kavalier and Clay, Middlemarch, Europe: A History or something like that turns up in the sale.

I have only opened one of the packages, the other one being strictly for Christmas, and none of the books are at all damaged. Very pleased with that! However, they put the books one upon the other, with the thinner ones at the bottom and the heavier on top. I think it would have been better if all the books were on their sides. But i am just so relieved.

56abysswalker
Dic 23, 2020, 11:52 am

>52 NLNils: I’d be surprised if Folio was bureaucratically equipped to collect and remit the appropriate duties and fees. They’d probably need to pay substantial legal advice fees just to figure out the various jurisdictions.

My guess is some specialty brokers will spring up to handle this added complexity for small to midsize exporters if things ever settle down, but even so it will probably take a few months at best.

57emgcat
Dic 27, 2020, 5:44 pm

I just searched 'FS and sale' and a listing of sale books came up but not at sale prices. Not many books listed, only three pages worth. Interesting...

58bookish_elf
Dic 27, 2020, 7:25 pm

>57 emgcat: That link is up for more than a week now.

59bookish_elf
Dic 31, 2020, 8:18 pm

Any idea when the sale is happening? I feel like I'm waiting forever. Wednesday maybe?

60Mr.Fox
Ene 1, 2021, 4:41 am

Sounds like they are closed for the next several days. We can probably expect the sale when they resume shipping around the middle of next week.

61bookish_elf
Ene 1, 2021, 7:54 pm

>60 Mr.Fox: Thanks for the info.

62U_238
Ene 2, 2021, 10:21 pm

>60 Mr.Fox: Maybe there is something I am missing, but isn't the purpose of having a website to generate revenue for you while you're not at the till?

Couldn't the FS be generating (tens of?) thousands of pounds even though all of their offices are closed?

I also think the timing of the sale is quite odd - from my understanding January is the worst month for retailers as pocketbooks are exhausted from Christmas and Boxing Day sales.

63Charon49
Ene 3, 2021, 1:21 am

The warehouse is closed as well so all of those orders wouldn’t be processed very fast.

64HarpsichordKnight
Ene 3, 2021, 4:00 am

>62 U_238: At least in the UK, many retailers save their discounts til after Christmas, as people are likely to pay full price because they need to buy presents.

If people could combine their Christmas shopping with Folio's biggest discounts, it wouldn't help the company.

I'd guess the sale will start tomorrow when everything reopens.

65U_238
Editado: Ene 3, 2021, 8:13 am

>63 Charon49: I realize the warehouse is closed, understandably, I just don't understand why they can't accept orders in the meantime. I suppose it doesn't make a difference in the end - accept orders now and ship next week, or accept orders next week and ship next week.

It just seems incongruous to link your online sales channel to physical availability of staff.

>64 HarpsichordKnight: That's a good point.

66bookish_elf
Ene 3, 2021, 8:58 am

>65 U_238: With FS it is always wise to expect the unexpected. :-) No point scratching one's head for logic. I'm also quite impatient for the sale to start.

67warehouseisbare
Ene 3, 2021, 11:52 am

I’m getting impatient too. I wish they would start the sale. Really hoping it’s tomorrow or I’m likely just going to use the money I saved on something else. At least start giving people a firm date when the sale will be so the regulars aren’t checking nonstop for a week, getting more and more frustrated.

68RRCBS
Ene 3, 2021, 12:05 pm

I predict Wednesday, since it’s always on a Wednesday as far as I can remember. But would be happy for it to start tomorrow! Getting impatient too!

69treereader
Ene 3, 2021, 12:35 pm

I hope FS appreciates that I've held a tab of their site open in my browser for two weeks now, waiting patiently for their next sale.

70English-bookseller
Ene 3, 2021, 1:44 pm

Just for general information, over the years I have bought many thousands of pounds worth of books from The Folio Society.

I as a full time bookseller buying these Folio Society books for my business have never sought, and have never been given, any more favourable terms than an ordinary retail customer.

71folio_books
Ene 3, 2021, 2:10 pm

>68 RRCBS: I predict Wednesday, since it’s always on a Wednesday as far as I can remember.

Cool logic and reasoning speaking. There's very good reason to think it might be Wednesday. I'm hedging my bets and predicting Wednesday or Thursday.

72santiamen
Editado: Ene 3, 2021, 4:02 pm

My guess for some of what might get discounted would be The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Kindred, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, Middlemarch, Outlaws of the Marsh, Night by Elie Wiesel, Parade's End, Under Fire, Oryx and Crake, The Secret Agent, Sophie's World, Twelth Night and possibly Far from the Madding Crowd, Italian Folktales.

If the sales are in any way based on how slowly some items are selling, that is.

73katielouise
Ene 3, 2021, 4:52 pm

>65 U_238: given how many people I see online who are in other countries and upset that their order is taking more than a week, I can see why FS would like to have as little time as possible between when a bunch of orders are placed and when they are shipped out, to minimize customer dissatisfaction.

74adriano77
Ene 3, 2021, 5:00 pm

Still waiting on Stasiland to make a sale. It's actually received TWO price increases since I've been interested.

75Retronaut78
Ene 3, 2021, 5:26 pm

Stasiland's on my wishlist too adriano, as are Joan Of Arc, She-Wolves, Mayflower, The Prophet, Italian Renaissance, Aztecs (perhaps optimistically) and Shah of Shahs. Although the deferred sale is perhaps a blessing in disguise for me - in the last week I've learned I need £700ish of work doing on my house, and had the sale been at the usual time this bombshell would have come when I'd already parted with a wedge. My purchase this time round is going to be very limited sadly...

76Kerl
Ene 4, 2021, 4:24 am

>72 santiamen: Would love a discount on Oryx and Crake, Night or Middlemarch so that sounds perfect for me

77Charon49
Ene 4, 2021, 7:21 am

Saw a post from folio just now saying the sale will happen sometime later this week so I think the bets of Wednesday or Thursday are probably on the money.

78RRCBS
Ene 4, 2021, 9:52 am

My wish list includes The Yangtze Valley and Beyond (unlikely but will buy along with sale order), East of Eden and Life in an English Country House.

79ubiquitousuk
Editado: Ene 4, 2021, 10:15 am

My pie-in-the-sky wish would be the Madame Bovary LE (I can but dream).

More within the realm of reality, I'd love to see 1984, Handmaid's Tale, I Am Legend, and The Phantom of the Opera reduced. Planet of the Apes would also be good, but it's probably too soon; and I'd bite their hand off for a discounted copy of Dune, but I can't see it happening.

I am a bit worried that my ability to resit dumping a few hundred pounds into some private press books that I've discovered is rapidly diminishing and that might empty my coffers before the sale comes around.

80overthemoon
Ene 4, 2021, 10:53 am

At the moment, Royal Mail is not sending any printed matter (books, pictures, manuscripts, newspapers) to Switzerland, so I don't know if FS will find a way round this for the sale...

81Nicolas89
Ene 4, 2021, 11:13 am

I would love to see the Hitchhiker's collection on sale. I think there is a fair chance.

82Yssion
Ene 4, 2021, 11:24 am

>80 overthemoon: I made an order last week to Switzerland (sadly my new member voucher couldn't wait until the sale) and just received an email from Folio that it has been shipped via P2P. Hopefully this means we are all good for the sale.

Why does Royal Mail have a restriction on printed matter in particular?

83CarltonC
Ene 4, 2021, 12:45 pm

>80 overthemoon: I am also interested in whether Royal Mail has just started prohibiting books. Royal Mail website for Swiss prohibitions includes, amongst many other prohibitions, "Printed books, newspapers, pictures and other products of the printing industry; manuscripts, typescripts and plans".
Our son is in Switzerland and we have sent a few books to him, with books clearly marked on the customs declarations, but also marked as gifts, without a problem although we have been nervous of whether they would arrive. We have been sending below the customs threshold of around £60 (before the postage and customs duty).
Is this something new since Brexit on 1 January?
Thanks

84overthemoon
Ene 4, 2021, 2:17 pm

>82 Yssion:, 83 I have no idea! I was trying to order something from bookdepository this morning and the message came up in red that they could not mail to Switzerland. So I followed up on the Royal Mail site and saw the message quoted by CarltonC. I presume that "no pictures" incudes postcards, birthday cards and the like.
No idea if it is something to do with Brexit or Covid... and I hope it changes soon. I can't see any logical reason for it.

85santiamen
Editado: Ene 4, 2021, 2:45 pm

>81 Nicolas89: I would think almost none - the third book is already in the Last chance to buy, and the others have about 140, 200 and 280 copies left. The only exception is the first one with 500 copies but they'll all get sold out soon regardless of the sale so I don't think FS would have much incentive to do that.

I'd love to be wrong though.

86Mujaddadi
Ene 4, 2021, 2:57 pm

I wouldn't order any book from Folio Society without the tracking. Specially during this pandemic situation. It's a bit expensive but it saves a lot of hassle.

87stopsurfing
Ene 4, 2021, 4:13 pm

>84 overthemoon: I’m guessing it’s because of the ban of flights from the UK, they just don’t have the freight capacity. We tried to send gifts to New Zealand from Germany before Christmas and we couldn’t send anything except postcards and letters, no printed material (eg family calendar) was allowed. Flights to New Zealand are of course greatly reduced at the the moment, as there are great restrictions on who can enter the country...

88Nicolas89
Editado: Ene 4, 2021, 5:44 pm

>85 santiamen: Ohh you're right! I had not seen that the third book is almost gone.. The page used to have a "last chance to buy" section which I cannot seem to find anymore.

I'll keep my fingers crossed but you have a point.

I would bet my money on "The Illustrated Man" to be in the sale.

90RogerBlake
Editado: Ene 4, 2021, 7:51 pm

I just emailed the Folio Society asking about the sale date. Despite it now being 00:40am GMT (i.e. well after midnight) they replied immediately and said:

"This year, the Folio Society New Year Sale commences online from the 7th January 2021."

Now that is real customer service !

So Great News! ... or maybe not - depending on the state of one's bank account :-)

91Mister_Fox
Ene 4, 2021, 7:58 pm

Hah, I'm as impatient as the rest of you. Got money put aside for the sale whenever it decides to pop up on website. Any day now.

92CarltonC
Ene 4, 2021, 8:09 pm

>84 overthemoon: I think this may be an issue for Book Depository, as they have a Covid and Brexit delivery update: “ All European Countries (excluding the United Kingdom and Ireland)
Please be aware that we had to temporarily cease accepting new orders to all European countries (excluding the United Kingdom and Ireland). If you have placed a recent order with us, your order is on its way, please allow 5-10 extra business days for delivery. Please be assured that we are working with our carriers to get orders to our customers as soon as possible. If we are unable to deliver your order, we will refund you and notify you by email.”

So I tried to send a £9 book using Blackwells, and they charged 22p tax and free delivery to Switzerland.
I don’t know what this means for the Folio Society!

93Mister_Fox
Ene 4, 2021, 8:12 pm

>90 RogerBlake: Great to hear!

94overthemoon
Ene 5, 2021, 3:40 am

>92 CarltonC: ah, I'll try Blackwells, thank you!

95overthemoon
Editado: Ene 5, 2021, 3:46 am

>92 CarltonC: It worked like a charm! They charged 24p tax and free delivery, came to £10 in all. Now let's see how long it takes to arrive... (and whether I have to pay tax at this end).

96Metrobolist
Ene 5, 2021, 9:19 am

>90 RogerBlake: Thanks for the post - I have been eagerly awaiting the next sale catalogue to come through the post. I shall be checking out the site on Thursday to see what's on offer. I might even be able to spend a little more this time, as we are "locked down" here, I can't go anywhere, so will be staying at home and catching up on my reading.

97Betelgeuse
Ene 5, 2021, 9:30 am

The sale is all well and good, but I'm curious as to when they'll get a slate of new books.

98Mr.Fox
Ene 5, 2021, 9:56 am

>97 Betelgeuse: Probably in March.

99Mpe1610
Ene 5, 2021, 10:24 am

Este usuario ha sido eliminado por spam.

100folio_books
Ene 5, 2021, 10:31 am

>96 Metrobolist: I have been eagerly awaiting the next sale catalogue to come through the post.

See >31 folio_books: Fewer books in the sale, no catalogue,

Thst information direct from Folio.

101Betelgeuse
Ene 5, 2021, 12:00 pm

>98 Mr.Fox: Thank you!

102bookish_elf
Ene 6, 2021, 8:35 am

Any idea at what time the sale will start tomorrow?

103CLWggg
Ene 6, 2021, 9:02 am

>102 bookish_elf: Although it's impossible to predict what time the sale will start, last year's Christmas sale was certainly launched before midday - I placed an order on Christmas Eve (the day the sale began), and received an order confirmation at 11:46 GMT.

104bookish_elf
Ene 6, 2021, 9:06 am

>103 CLWggg: Thanks for the info. I'm running out of patience. :-)

105NLNils
Ene 6, 2021, 10:26 am

>102 bookish_elf: They historically soft launch at 10:00 GMT, when they open shop. A few hours later the banner goes up on the website. I’m curious in what form the Sale will be launched. With no catalog, it is a new day and one which I think will surprise. If the Sale is just a site wide discount, I’m in danger!

106bookish_elf
Ene 6, 2021, 8:08 pm

>105 NLNils: Thanks for the info. If there is a site wide discount I'll be in book heaven. I think someone mentioned that there will be less books on sale this year. Also usually New Year sale has some loss leaders (books at 80% off, just enough to tempt you to shop :-) ) and other books with only 20% off. So lets see how thinks unfold today.

107stumc
Ene 7, 2021, 4:23 am

looks like sale is live, although not on main page of the site

108RogerBlake
Editado: Ene 7, 2021, 4:51 am

Sale page is available but currently slim pickings - and over a page of "sold out" and "out of stock items".
I am hoping this is not the actual sale but an old page - will check again in 35 minutes ...

Edit: also checked sale books in other pages and sale prices are showing there for in-stock items ...

Another Edit: I couldn't wait until 10:00. Been through the entire catalogues - nothing for me here
which might be just as well. Books I would have liked are still not discounted. A few distant possibilities
have mean discounts and the rest I already have. There are a few good discounts "Parades End" (?) but
"Tommy" has certainly been much cheaper in previous sales. I was hoping for the Arthur Rackham LE but still no luck, ditto "Defeat Into Victory". "Berlin" is 50% off, "Empire" at 40% off is tempting. "Outlaws of the Marsh" at
20% off might be also tempting ... hmm maybe something after all ...

109EuanM
Ene 7, 2021, 4:26 am

I wonder if it isn't complete - that sale tab still has full price items in it?

110cameronm75
Ene 7, 2021, 4:26 am

I’m seeing a sale tab on the header of the main page. 72 items, but most aren’t reduced in price yet. Nothing too exciting either

111bookish_elf
Ene 7, 2021, 4:28 am

I hope this is not the complete list. Very slim pickings.

112Levin40
Editado: Ene 7, 2021, 4:33 am

The 'sale' page is not complete yet. For example, I searched for 'South Polar Times', which does not appear on that page but has a discount, though not a great one. But first thought is: I don't think this will be a great sale.

Best to just scroll though the 'fiction' and 'non fiction' pages, rather than the sale one.

113ubiquitousuk
Ene 7, 2021, 4:33 am

I think the sale page might still be the list from the last sale, but indeed the discount prices are starting to appear.

114Levin40
Ene 7, 2021, 4:51 am

Several of the books I was interested in are actually on sale: South Polar Times, Yangtze Valley, Marco Polo and Guns, Germs and Steel. But the discounts are only 20-25%, not a patch on some of the bargins from last year. If this sale had been before Brexit I might have jumped, but as it is I'll probably sit it out.

115Mujaddadi
Ene 7, 2021, 4:55 am

So far that doesn't look promising.

116SolerSystem
Ene 7, 2021, 4:58 am

Pretty disappointing sale if this is it.

117santiamen
Editado: Ene 7, 2021, 5:05 am

Seems to be updated now. Is that common, that the New Year Sale is a sadder version of the summer one? There seem to be a lot of the same books discounted as were in summer, except they were 50% off and then the prices of all books went up in the autumn. So with that knowledge it's not much of a discount, really.

118Jobasha
Ene 7, 2021, 5:08 am

There are a lot of books of interest here but the discounts are pretty lousy. Outlaws of the marsh is 20% off, as is the South Polar Times and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.

Considering they have raised the prices by a similar amount recently it doesn't seem impressive.

119folio_books
Ene 7, 2021, 5:09 am

Looks to me like they're still adding titles. Quite a few included are showing full price. I can't believe that's it, but if it is it's very poor and would mean another "nothing" sale for me, which would be four in a row. I'll get some breakfast and see how it looks then.

120RRCBS
Ene 7, 2021, 5:09 am

I want The Yangtze Valley and Van Gogh letters, but will wait and see if the sale page changes. Right now there are a few books on there that have been sold out for a while.

121Levin40
Ene 7, 2021, 5:09 am

>117 santiamen: Is that common, that the New Year Sale is a sadder version of the summer one?

No. Just looking at my confirmation email from a year ago I can see that I picked up The Martian Chronicles for £15.95, Mani and Roumeli for £19.95 (!), Heart of Darkness for £5.95 (!!) and Behind the Wall for £7.95. Of these, the only one still available is Behind the Wall, which is now going with a discount for £25.75 - which pretty much sums up this sale. Can't really blame FS; I guess they spoilt us.

122wcarter
Ene 7, 2021, 5:14 am

Wilfred Owens poems LE at 45% off is the only one of interest to me.

123Mujaddadi
Ene 7, 2021, 5:15 am

>117 santiamen: You can check the last new year sale here https://www.dropbox.com/s/zmcrbnu9tno1frs/NY%20Sale-S.pdf?dl=0. Last year sale was better then even last summer sale, with discounts up to 80%. I am hopping that the discount displayed at the moment is not final otherwise it will be pretty disappointing sale.

124santiamen
Ene 7, 2021, 5:19 am

>121 Levin40: Wow, that's extreme discount. I didn't even think of such prices, even paperbacks in the UK cost more than that. I was simply hoping for a few books at perhaps a 50%. Ideally the ones I want. :)

125hiphopopotamus
Editado: Ene 7, 2021, 5:24 am

Even conceding that the last few sales haven't been particularly great, if no more/only a few more are added to this one in the coming hours, to me this still appears to be quite a significant departure from the sales of the past few years. There are relatively very few deep discounts compared to usual, and titles that have had huge discounts previously are now mostly a fair bit higher.

In all honesty it's not really surprising to me given:
1) Covid and its impacts
2) Ridiculous over-pricing that I've seen in recent months on ebay/facebook for out of print titles
3) The fact that the Folio sales previously offered some of the best value/discounts from any sale anywhere (e.g. see >121 Levin40:)

Still can't help but feel a little disappointed though - it's likely to be a nothing sale for me this year - for the first time in the last 4 years.

126U_238
Ene 7, 2021, 5:24 am

Twelfth Night is down to just $25CAD, from $99CAD. Thought of picking it up as I’m pretty sure it’s the leftover leaves from the Letterpress Shakespeare, right?

The Selected Poems LEs are also on sale, as someone else mentioned.

But anaemic overall.

127RRCBS
Ene 7, 2021, 5:24 am

Any enablement for The Yangtze Valley or the Van Gogh letters?

128santiamen
Ene 7, 2021, 5:27 am

>123 Mujaddadi: I can't believe they'd sell some of those titles for that little, given the production value. It feels unlikely to happen now, there are not that many titles (in fiction at least) that have been moving slowly and as far as I can see they already put those up with a pretty low discount (Kavalier & Clay, Outlaws of the Marsh). They have a lot of fantasy and sci-fi titles which are very popular and sell quickly anyway.

Do publishers use sales to lure in new customers? Would people unaware of the FS somehow hear about the sale with popular titles discounted?

129ubiquitousuk
Editado: Ene 7, 2021, 5:37 am

>126 U_238: it's either spare letterpress sheets or a digital reproduction of the letterpress (and the latter doesn't make much sense, so I'd bet on the former). That being the case, you'd be looking at the same high rag content Zerkall paper and nice crisp type as the LE, which would make the book a bit of a bargain in my opinion. I'm tempted to buy it even though I already have the LE, just because the Balbusso frontispiece is probably worth close to £12 on its own.

If you go to 7:39 in this video you can see a comparison between the pictures on the website and my letterpress edition of the book: https://youtu.be/aEXI3FRytso

130mnmcdwl
Ene 7, 2021, 5:31 am

>127 RRCBS: The Yangtze Valley is great. I picked it up at full price and thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Isabella Bird was truly an adventurous maverick for her time. If only Folio would publish more of her writings. The silk binding is a bit too fragile for my taste (like all silk bindings) but this was a thoughtful, well produced volume.

131cronshaw
Ene 7, 2021, 6:12 am

>127 RRCBS: The Yangtze Valley to my eye is one of the best Folio editions of the past decade, if not the best. It's worth getting for the quality of the photographs alone (far superior to those of any other edition I'm away of) let alone the superb presentation with the charming binding and removable folded map. It's a unique record of 19th century China from the viewpoint of a truly remarkable individual. Although the discount isn't deep, I think it's a bargain even at the RRP.

132David_Mauduit
Ene 7, 2021, 6:20 am

The sale banner is up on the main page so I guess we should not expect extra books to be added to the list.
Very disappointing... only 83 titles with mostly minimal discounts.
My wallet is safe.

133EuanM
Ene 7, 2021, 6:22 am

Just The Yangtze Valley for me - whilst it's a disappointing sale, hopefully that is a result of the various troubles in the UK and beyond and not a sign of a shift in business model.
That said, not having multiple books attracting me let me justify the greater expense on Yangtze, so I'm not unhappy.

134mnmcdwl
Ene 7, 2021, 6:43 am

Fortunately there isn’t much of interest in this sale for me either—most of those I’d be interested in I’ve already acquired at one point or another. That said, I’m thinking of picking up Plants of the Americas and maybe Empire. At the same time, I noticed in the low stock thread that the (not discounted) Journals of Captain Cook and Notebooks of Leonardo are getting low. To save on shipping for Empire, I was thinking of picking up one of these, but probably not both. Any recommendations one way or the other?

135DMulvee
Ene 7, 2021, 6:48 am

Disappointing sale but I think this was to be expected given how many books had sold out.
I decided to get a few full price items, and choose some away from my normal comfort zone (The Dispossessed, Strangers in a Strange Land, Rendezvous with Rama) and then decided to add Amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay at the last second. Fingers crossed I enjoy them!

136folio_books
Ene 7, 2021, 6:55 am

For the fourth sale in a row there is nothing for me. "Disappointed" is an understatement.

137cronshaw
Ene 7, 2021, 6:57 am

>136 folio_books: it's the thinnest, least enticing Folio sale I've ever seen.

138folio_books
Ene 7, 2021, 6:59 am

>137 cronshaw:

Indeed. I was hopeful of three, maybe four of the older titles, but no.

139HarpsichordKnight
Ene 7, 2021, 7:05 am

Does anyone know what the deal is with the 2021 Diary?

In past years it would automatically get added to orders when you went to check out, but that doesn't seem the case this time, unless I'm doing something wrong? Surely we're not being asked to pay for it? :D

140Charon49
Editado: Ene 7, 2021, 7:17 am

>139 HarpsichordKnight: no free diaries with purchase as the sale is later this year was only included for the pre Christmas purchases which is a bit sad.

141NLNils
Editado: Ene 7, 2021, 7:19 am

>139 HarpsichordKnight: I've got a few spare ones. Send me a message if interested.

142warehouseisbare
Ene 7, 2021, 7:23 am

This sale is pretty awful. Well I guess it saves me the money. Just not worth paying the shipping and taxes even. I wish they could have at least thrown in a free shipping at x spent to make it more enticing to order something.

143Joshbooks1
Ene 7, 2021, 7:43 am

Ya what a bummer. I was so excited to wake up this morning only to find an extremely disappointing sale. I will probably buy Plants of the Americas but other than that really unsure. Travels of the Marsh, South Polar Times, The Yangtze Valley all were under my radar but the discounts compared to other sales are so minuscule that if or when I really want them I might as well wait and purchase them at full price.

My biggest concern is that if sales continue to be ones such as these, will this make secondary prices even higher? If gone are the days that most books were 50% off during sales, I can only imagine ebay asking prices in the near future.

144HarpsichordKnight
Ene 7, 2021, 7:46 am

>140 Charon49: Aha, that explains it, good point.

>141 NLNils: That is extremely generous, but I'm actually in China for at least the first half of this year, so don't think I can take you up on that. Thanks though.

Overall, not quite the sale I was dreaming of, but I think I will join the (surprisingly large) group of people who are finally pulling the trigger on the Yangtze Valley.

145U_238
Ene 7, 2021, 8:16 am

I have two diaries if anyone is interested, probably best to ship within Canada. If you’d pay postal cost, it’s yours.

Would a bubble wrap mailer envelope be sufficient? I will not be accepting returns for bumped corners!

146RogerBlake
Editado: Ene 7, 2021, 8:22 am

>129 ubiquitousuk: I think this sold for even less in a previous sale (£5.95 or similar.)
Unfortunately it ran out before I bagged a copy although I have an unnumbered LE version.

147c_schelle
Ene 7, 2021, 8:36 am

The sale is not as amazing as it was in the last years. The only book I'm tempted by is London & New York. Let's see if they add any more books to the sale. I wanted to buy some full priced books, but the sale doesn't entice me to place an order yet.

148CLWggg
Ene 7, 2021, 8:36 am

>129 ubiquitousuk: The FS website's description of this title refers to it as "the first of a new Folio series". Presumably any plans for such a series came to nothing?

149Charon49
Ene 7, 2021, 8:47 am

I made an order but no sale items funnily enough.

A Wizard of Earthsea
The Left Hand of Darkness

As they will sell out soon and I threw in Jurassic Park for a fun read in these interesting times of ours.

150NLNils
Ene 7, 2021, 8:51 am

>148 CLWggg: Correct. And so the new Twelfth Night has become sale fodder. Beautiful sale fodder I hastily add!

151santiamen
Ene 7, 2021, 8:56 am

>147 c_schelle: Do they usually add things even to New Year sales? And if so, when? Weeks later?

152Charon49
Ene 7, 2021, 9:02 am

>151 santiamen:

They said on Instagram they won’t be adding any more titles to the sale.

153santiamen
Ene 7, 2021, 9:09 am

154sekhmet0108
Ene 7, 2021, 9:10 am

Extremely disappointing sale. I expected there to be fewer books, but the rebate per book was the most surprising to me. Even Kavalier and Clay, which i did end up buying, is only €16 lesser than the original price. I also picked up Berlin, Humphery Clinker and a few non-sale books.

Still worried that buying anything might have been a mistake, considering the customs, VAT or whatever will be charged now. Oh well, it's done now.

155UK_History_Fan
Ene 7, 2021, 9:18 am

Agree with most of the sentiment on here. The sale is a disappointment in terms of selection, and with relatively thin discounts relative to increased costs for US sales tax and higher shipping, makes even a handful of temptations easy to resist. For example, I have had Letters of Vincent Van Gogh on my wish list but at a lower priority as my interest does not justify its $80 base price. Even with the sale discount, the price delivered is $81.95, and I just don't have sufficient interest at that price to purchase. I was most hopeful for an offer of free shipping with the purchase of a fixed dollar amount or number of books so I could add some full priced selections I have been holding off on to bundle the shipping costs. But alas, it was not to be. I have such a backlogged TBR pile that I should not add to the library anyway.

156HarpsichordKnight
Ene 7, 2021, 9:20 am

They also said they won't be adding more titles on Twitter, so with that in mind, placed my order.

Non-sale books:

A Wizard of Earthsea
The Left Hand of Darkness

I've had my eye on these a long time, and while I'd imagine they'll eventually restock, I doubt they'll ever be discounted. The first is about to sell out.

Sale books:

Empire. Seems a perfect book for Folio treatment. When I read it on the Kindle I enjoyed it but wished it had maps. This version allegedly has nine.

The Yangtze Valley and Beyond. The main book I was hoping for in the sale. Not a huge discount, but I'm excited about it, and it is a good year for some vicarious travelling.

The Singing Sands. I've been meaning to get into Tey for a while, and this is the first time I remember seeing anything of hers discounted, though I could be mistaken.

157jangles69
Ene 7, 2021, 9:23 am

Terrible sale. Very disappointed. Waited forever for this!? The Yoshitoshi book is a deal but not much else. Had only a few items and then added Doctor Zhivago (a beautiful 2 vol set) but then canceled out because the express shipping to US is $52 and there is a new tax of $19 (because of stupid Brexit). The shipping and tax means I would have paid full price for everything. Not much point in that given this was supposed to be a sale.

158SolerSystem
Ene 7, 2021, 9:41 am

What a dud. Only sale item I'm interested in is Marco Polo, and the discount makes it more like getting free shipping. I'll hold out for the summer sale, and hope this sale isn't indicative of future sales.

On the plus side that's more funds for the Centipede Press Dune...

159Metrobolist
Ene 7, 2021, 10:08 am

Very poor sale as far as I am concerned. I will stick to looking for items of interest on from the second hand market & some items that I am currently watching on ebay.

160overthemoon
Ene 7, 2021, 10:17 am

Maybe there's a word for it, the strange feeling that you've already bought everything you want and you realise you haven't read them all yet.

Only King Leopold might have tempted me, but not at that price.

As for diaries, I missed out on this year's but as I didn't use 2020 I'm keeping it on my desk and will jot things down on that if need be. It doesn't matter if the days are wrong, I never know what day it is anyway.

161RRCBS
Ene 7, 2021, 10:21 am

Definites for me are Yangtze, Van Gogh Letters and the horror stories (not on sale). Will wait a bit in case I decide to buy another volume (anthologies are not usually my thing but considering the poetry one...)

162vmb443
Ene 7, 2021, 10:22 am

Only one book on my wishlist is on sale and that has about a $10.00 discount - I have also been thinking of ordering the Cinderella/Sleeping Beauty LE, but held off until I saw what was in the sale. Not sure that I am going to order anything, mainly because of the shipping costs - Yangtze looks interesting, but I honestly wouldn't have considered it had it not been on sale and the discount doesn't seem sufficient to make me want to place an order just to take advantage of it being on sale. So, now I have to decide if I spend the money on C/SB LE or just sit and wait.

163santiamen
Ene 7, 2021, 10:22 am

>156 HarpsichordKnight: The Left Hand of Darkness will sell out very soon as well - only 140 of them left.

I ordered it too. Basically, I ordered items on my wishlist, at full price, because they are about to sell out. They might as well not even call it a sale if a year ago they offered books for as low as £5. I'm extremely envious of everyone who was around for that. :)

164sdg_e
Ene 7, 2021, 10:25 am

There are five books on my wish list in the sale:

- Homage to Catalonia
- The Best of Dorothy Parker
- Guns, Germs, and Steel
- Outlaws of the Marsh
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

But I'll wait to pull the lever on any of them until later in the sale to see if anything else on my wish list starts to get low-stock, and I'll probably only grab a few of those above because some of them look to have quite a bit left in stock according to the spreadsheet in the other thread and might be discounted more favorably at a later date and because I'd like to limit how much I spend after dropping a few grand in the first sale I've been a part of during the summer.

165joco30
Ene 7, 2021, 10:26 am

>156 HarpsichordKnight: The Singing Sands. I've been meaning to get into Tey for a while, and this is the first time I remember seeing anything of hers discounted, though I could be mistaken.

It was in the 2019 summer sale and could be had then for 17,95 GBP

166Kainzow
Ene 7, 2021, 10:34 am

After my previous order comprising Diary of Anne Frank, Empire of the Sun and a few others got lost, I was pretty happy to see them back on sale. I'd have gone for them easily, but not at that price!

It hardly looks like a sale when you look at the prices you're paying. Besides there is the risk of not ever getting your books, even though I was considering a parcel forwarding service.

Anyway, I guess I will sit this one out. Hopefully when everything is back to normal, I'll go back to being a Folio devotee again. :)

167HarpsichordKnight
Ene 7, 2021, 10:46 am

>165 joco30: Haha, shocking, I even placed an order then and somehow missed it.

168NLNils
Editado: Ene 7, 2021, 2:24 pm

When the sale dropped this morning I found it a dud. After some tightening up by Folio of the actual titles in the sale, I went through my wishlist. Of the 50 books, 6 were discounted. So, still not that hot. I then proceded with checking the lowest price fiction and non-fiction by category. There the magic started happening again in finding you had an interest in books you forgotten about, or hadn't before. Over to here to find the very useful post by JamesMcMinn about the current stock of all titles. That led me to seriously consider Cook's Journals and the selling out Hornblower Set 1. Put them in the basket, but removed also. They are just to rich for my blood, a regret in the making for sure. I went back to the sale page and started looking at discounts of 40% and upwards. It's a sale after all. I finally settled on five titles from my wishlist I'd like to own, all priced in the £20 range. Three on sale and two just priced right (in my eyes). The assorted list:

-Brideshead Revisited
-Memoirs from Beyond the Tomb
-Reach for the Sky
-Of Mice and Men
-Night

A better outcome then at first expected!

169adriano77
Ene 7, 2021, 11:00 am

Poor effort. Bring on the summer sale.

170CJR93
Ene 7, 2021, 11:55 am

Happy to order a few sale books I’ve been waiting on: 😎
- The Secret Agent
- Homage to Catalonia
- Under Fire

I also added:
- East of Eden
- The Illustrated Man
- 1984

171elladan0891
Editado: Ene 7, 2021, 1:27 pm

>157 jangles69: US sales tax has nothing to do with Brexit. That's due to your state - among many others - enacting new laws to slap local sales taxes on out of state internet purchases (dubious at best and in my opinion unconstitutional when it comes to international purchases). Most foreign sellers happily ignore these laws, but FS chose to be proactive and comply...

172treereader
Ene 7, 2021, 12:09 pm

Did anyone else notice that the Standard shipping to the US now mentions the word “tracked”?

For as much as standard shipping costs, this seems like it should have always been present, but it’s certainly reassuring to see now, given all of the delivery troubles caused by the pandemic. With a couple of books in their basket, it’s a $22 savings for anyone who was going to upgrade to Express shipping just for the tracking.

173affle
Ene 7, 2021, 12:13 pm

>157 jangles69:

You joined LT today just to give us the benefit of this opinion?

174Willoyd
Ene 7, 2021, 12:16 pm

I've gone for three books in the sale - my biggest purchase from FS in a very long while. The discounts aren't great, but they are books that I've had on my wishlist for a while - that'll at least now guarantee them at better prices for everybody else in the summer!
They are:

- Yangtze Valley and Beyond
- Guns, Germs and Steel
- Humphrey Clinker

175folio_books
Ene 7, 2021, 12:26 pm

>173 affle:

There's always one, Alan.

176wdripp
Editado: Ene 7, 2021, 12:41 pm

As FS had already announced it would be a smaller sale, I didn't get my hopes up and wasn't disappointed. I still found some books on my wishlist and just placed an order for:

Get Shorty
She-Wolves
The Yangtze Valley and Beyond
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

There are a couple of other books from my wishlist on sale, but as everything I wanted was just 20% off I am going to wait on the other titles.

I also purchased at full price two Le Guin titles, although Earthsea was down to 1 copy according to their website, so I think there's a good chance it might be canceled. I did spring for express shipping. For an extra $20 it's worth getting my books several weeks earlier than they usually arrive with standard shipping.

177elladan0891
Editado: Ene 7, 2021, 1:29 pm

Well, thanks to this group I set my expectations low so is not disappointed as well. Even before >31 folio_books: passed the word from FS that this is going to be a smaller sale with fewer titles and no catalogue, people were rightfully suspecting that this sale won't be on par with the usual ones as so many titles sold out during previous sales. >31 folio_books: sealed it. No catalogue - must not be a big deal then, I thought.

Quick glance shows that there is no need for an immediate purchase (no heavily discounted title I want that is close to selling out), so I'll take my time to sift through the sale and see if I get anything.

Looks like there are only two stands out in this sale: the Balbusso-illustrated Twelfth Night, which definitely has the Letterpress Shakespeare sheets with trimmed edges. I own it, I paid more for it, it's the bargain of the sale.

The Gastronomical Me, which I purchased in one of previous sales with similarly large discount, is a nice, well-done book, that I see is selling rapidly and is about to be gone. Nice binding of full two-tone shimmering cloth a-la In Perenthesis/Cthulhu. Flimsy slipcase. Great value.

178Frank_Zwolinski
Ene 7, 2021, 1:42 pm

EXTREMELY Disappointing for a Folio Society Sale! Sorry I waited.

179Nicolas89
Editado: Ene 7, 2021, 1:55 pm

Disappointed with the sale. I decided instead to buy Hornblower set 2 with the money I had saved.

180Joshbooks1
Ene 7, 2021, 2:05 pm

Any recommendations from owners of London & New York? What's the general consensus of this limited edition? I was looking at prior posts and it seems inconclusive. Worth the buy at half off ? Although $80 shipping is quite steep.

181skubrick2899
Ene 7, 2021, 2:37 pm

>172 treereader:

Yes, they've used tracking for standard shipping for at least a few months. It seems to be faster too, about two weeks total (it used to take three to four for me). I think that may be due to the service, which is not Royal Mail. It goes to P2P, which is a FedEx company, and then arrives in the US to be delivered by FedEx. At least, that's been my experience thus far with a few orders.

182dyhtstriyk
Ene 7, 2021, 2:58 pm

Though it was not unexpected, the sparse selection and the low discounts feel like a bummer. The only ones I'd be tempted to buy are the Tey mysteries, but they only have two with discount.

183wwfield
Ene 7, 2021, 3:35 pm

The only books I purchased on sale were Empire and The Travels. Decided to grab a few others I knew I would be disappointed if I were to miss out on, so my basket ended up being:

Empire
The Travels
Stasiland
Night
If Not, Winter
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

If I didn't already have them, I probably would have grabbed the Hardy books.

184stumc
Ene 7, 2021, 3:38 pm

this is the first sale I've been underwhelmed with, last year I remember picking up books like Heart of Darkness, Richard III and Prince in Splendour all under £10 each.
that said I think ill probably get Hangman's Holiday, even though the discount isn't great, and maybe World Turned Upside Down and Twelth Night.
Or I might just get Captain Cook voyages now I know there aren't that many left

185Jeremy53
Ene 7, 2021, 3:48 pm

Agree with many, this is not like the sales of yore. I haven’t bought direct from Folio for almost two years after regular purchases for quite a few years. Although this is a combination of things, the recent sales are a prominent reason - however I’m hoping it’s because Folio is doing well, rather than the opposite.

I’m tempted by two titles:
- Parade’s End
- An Omelette and a Glass of Wine (I have two other books of hers)

Any opinions of those two titles?

Also, anyone here recently ordered from Australia? Any problems with shipping / higher costs?

186abysswalker
Ene 7, 2021, 4:13 pm

I was/am tempted by Outlaws of the Marsh, but the 20% savings ($48 CAD) doesn't quite even cover the cost of a tracking number (as the difference in cost between standard/untracked and express/tracked to Canada is $51 CAD for 2+ books).

Granted the international shipping situation is suboptimal, but this still seems weak in comparison to recent experience on eBay, both buying and selling (including from Europe). I would think a company operating at scale would be able to offer better rates than individuals manually taking parcels to the post office.

187MobyRichard
Editado: Ene 7, 2021, 4:26 pm

>186 abysswalker:

Doesn't sound that bad to me. I used to ship internationally quite regularly and the Folio Society shipping is heavily subsidized, trust me. Ebay also heavily subsidizes shipping or negotiates discounts on behalf of the seller. For example: just today I sold and sent something by UPS 2 Day and got a 55% Ebay seller shipping discount. That's huge. I know the listed discount % is legit b/c I've also sent things as an individual with UPS 2 Day. So you can't use Ebay as an example of what an individual would pay. FS is tiny in comparison to Ebay. I seriously doubt FS can negotiate those kind of rates or afford to subsidize to that degree.

Or you can just go to usps.com, ups.com, fedex.com and get a quote. Then add handling costs, packaging costs, padding costs, labor costs, third-party insurance. You'll see immediately that virtually every seller you buy from is subsidizing shipping costs in some way or they just roll it into the total price and offer "free shipping."

188RRCBS
Ene 7, 2021, 4:25 pm

Placed my order! Originally thought I would just get a couple of books, but decided to get a few that I’ve wanted for a while:

Van Gogh Letters
The Yangtze Valley and Beyond
Emily Dickinson Poems
Folio Poetry Anthology
Life in an English Country House
The World Turned Upside Down

I’m probably a sucker for buying most at full price, but. I wanted them and need the pick me up. The only one that was a random purchase was The World Turned Upside Down...$20 Canadian and looks interesting.

189treereader
Ene 7, 2021, 4:33 pm

>181 skubrick2899:

I don’t think I’ve ordered anything since June, so that explains why I only just noticed. I’m glad they’ve upgraded.

190kdweber
Ene 7, 2021, 4:53 pm

Sad sale, not ordering anything. Homage to Catalonia was my free mystery book back in May.

191vmb443
Ene 7, 2021, 4:57 pm

>180 Joshbooks1: I purchased them the last time they were on sale - I like them very much, I don’t think I’d have ever paid full price but at the discount I haven’t once regretted the decision - I know it seems as if they couldn’t be worth the cost given the fact that they are rather thin books with no real text, but I find them to be fascinating. One thing to know is that they are tall books so keep that in mind, but I would recommend them to anyone who likes vintage photography (well photogravure in this case), they truly seem to capture a moment in time and bring it to life again. I guess I consider them truly a luxury, you won’t die if you don’t own them, but you’re richer if you do.

192LesMiserables
Ene 7, 2021, 5:07 pm

I've never seen a sale as bad as this one.

193SF-72
Ene 7, 2021, 5:08 pm

>187 MobyRichard:

Ebay don't do that where I live, you get at best a few cents discount and none whatsoever for international shipping. With their global shipping system, you often pay more than you would with shipping directly from sellers.

>186 abysswalker:

Yes, I've had cases like that, too. There are options that are cheaper even for a private sender. In some cases the problem is the shipping company FS choose, in others they seem to add to the actual cost of shipping. I assume that people with smaller orders co-finance the larger packages, same for people in near-by countries and far-away ones. But I'm also sure that part of the shipping in general is covered in the cost of the actual books.

194overthemoon
Ene 7, 2021, 5:26 pm

>185 Jeremy53: I would grab the Omelette and a glass of wine, at that price you can't go wrong. It's well written and interesting.

195Joshbooks1
Ene 7, 2021, 5:28 pm

>191 vmb443: "I guess I consider them truly a luxury, you won’t die if you don’t own them, but you’re richer if you do." Well that sentence just cost me $400! Thanks for the response. It's funny, for over a year i've been looking at it and my first response was what a waste of money, rubbish. But every now and then when I see it on sale I'll look at the video and I now can see the beauty of it. Cheers!

196Mooch360
Ene 7, 2021, 6:17 pm

Do they still have free shipping if you spend a certain amount?

197whytewolf1
Ene 7, 2021, 6:31 pm

>196 Mooch360: They do not. Earlier in the fall, they had free shipping when purchasing 5 books or more, but no longer.

198venkysuniverse
Ene 7, 2021, 6:40 pm

This sale has been disappointing and ended up only ordering:
- Twelfth Night (Excellent price in the sale)
- The Dispossessed (Full price)
- The Left Hand of Darkness (Full price)

199bookofcalm
Ene 7, 2021, 6:46 pm

wow- the first time I've ever joined in on the complaining here- but it's the least generous sale I've seen since I started to collect Folio. Yangtze Valley and Outlaws of the Marsh both great books on sale but not at the sort of discounts we're used to... I think about 20%. I'll wait til summer I guess!

200Lady19thC
Ene 7, 2021, 7:10 pm

Nothing at all for me. I would have loved to pick up The Diary of Anne Frank, but that one is not available for sale in the US. A pity, because if I had bought something from the sale, I would have bought a few other full price books I have my eye on. Shipping w/tracking is too expensive. Will have to wait until the spring release to see if it is worth purchasing a group of books.

201Mooch360
Editado: Ene 7, 2021, 7:50 pm

I ordered Marco Polo, The Yangtze Valley and Beyond, all the Teys (6), Rendezvous with Rama and Jurassic Park. A big haul! Four sale items, not too bad. Not huge discounts unfortunately, but I'm worried that some might sell out before the summer sale.

202bookish_elf
Ene 7, 2021, 7:51 pm

It was the worst sales ever.But then I'm sure FS would have sold a lot of books last year due to the pandemic. Anyway I did not care much for the books on sale this time and just bought whatever I have been wanting to buy. With 52 pounds for shipping plus customs this is becoming a really expensive habit of mine. I'm intending to read a lot more this year as I have resolved to stop watching movies, serials etc, so it might be a good investment after all. This is the list of books I bought.

East of Eden
A Tale of Two Cities
Far from the Madding Crowd
Grimm’s Fairy Tales
South Polar Times
The Time Machine & The Island of Doctor Moreau
The Oxford Shakespeare: Julius Caesar
The Oxford Shakespeare: As You Like It
Homage to Catalonia
Shakespeare’s Sonnets
American Gods
Anansi Boys
Manhattan ’45
The Phantom of the Opera
Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales
The Farseer Trilogy

203Frank_Zwolinski
Ene 7, 2021, 8:01 pm

>177 elladan0891: HI,

From the description, it looks like there is only the color frontispiece and no other illustrations. Since you have it, am I wrong?

204abysswalker
Ene 7, 2021, 8:16 pm

>187 MobyRichard: well, normal/untracked shipping to Canada is 30-something CAD and express/tracked shipping to Canada is 80-something CAD. I get that this is not really a fair comparison, as you’re also getting “express”—whatever that means. But I just want a tracking number.

(When I sell things on eBay I walk them to the post office and totally ignore whatever eBay wants me to do with their interface defaults because the system annoys me. This works just fine, by the way: you can just add the tracking number manually to the order and it then shows up as shipped. So I, at least, am not getting any eBay discounts when I pay to ship things. It’s also true that I don’t do this professionally, basically just the equivalent of the occasional yard sale, and I don’t send many items outside of North America—but I have sent a few recently, and $80 CAD still seems high.)

Anyways, not really complaining—just idly musing about how it’s not really a great deal for me this time around, which seems to be not uncommon based on the other comments.

205kcshankd
Ene 7, 2021, 8:56 pm

I've three recent books I am interested in, didn't think they would be in the sale, and they weren't.

I will likely buy two of them at full price shortly, and wait for a sale (hopefully) for Babar.

206skubrick2899
Editado: Ene 7, 2021, 9:03 pm

>189 treereader:

I felt the same way when I placed my order in October. I starting using express about two years ago for my large orders to avoid the long waits and expected damage to the books. Though, tracking is also a factor and when I ordered one of the new titles from the Winter collection I decided on spending $16 rather than $38 when I saw it includes tracking. I'm pleased with the results because the carrier now is quicker than the previous one for standard shipping. Even though it costs more than in the past it's way better, thus far.

207elladan0891
Ene 7, 2021, 9:42 pm

>203 Frank_Zwolinski: Description is correct. The only illustrations are the one on the front cover and the frontispiece. The text blocks are basically the extra unused sheets of the Letterpress Shakespeare LE after they decided to reduce the limitation. The only difference with the LE is they trimmed the deckled edges. The Letterpress Shakespeare series of LEs have no illustrations, and I think that works very well, leaving the text to shine.

208cronshaw
Ene 8, 2021, 1:58 am

>202 bookish_elf: Though I entirely agree with your sentiment, you did cause my breakfast tea to slightly spill when I read your reference to the 'worst sale ever' followed by the list of the 16 volumes you ordered nonetheless. That's solid FAD that is, bravo!

Wishing you many months of reading contentment :)

209bookish_elf
Ene 8, 2021, 7:52 am

>208 cronshaw: Thank you for the wishes. :-) Just got tired of waiting on the sidelines wishing to see the books I want magically appear on sales. Before my motto with regard to the sales was "Patience is rewarded." now it is more like "If it is too good to be true, then it is too good to be true."

210Jason461
Ene 8, 2021, 8:08 am

I agree that this sale is kind of meh, but that also might mean folio is doing a better job at figuring out how to function as a company.

If you have to rely on steep discounts to move product, you're probably doing something wrong. Which isn't to say I'd be upset by some interesting books 50% off or more. I've gotten some interesting stuff that way.

211joco30
Ene 8, 2021, 8:49 am

>210 Jason461: but that also might mean folio is doing a better job at figuring out how to function as a company.

Or it might mean that due to the corona crisis business was very bad last year which leaves not much margin for large discounts this year.

212whytewolf1
Ene 8, 2021, 8:50 am

>210 Jason461: "I agree that this sale is kind of meh, but that also might mean folio is doing a better job at figuring out how to function as a company."

Exactly. Though everyone loves a sale (including me), I think we'd all rather that Folio continue producing books well into the future, so I think this bodes well for their financial footing.

213RRCBS
Ene 8, 2021, 9:31 am

>212 whytewolf1: Same. Makes sense to me that if you want a company to succeed (and therefore produce a lot of content), you need to be willing to buy the books at regular price.

214santiamen
Editado: Ene 8, 2021, 9:46 am

The crazy part though is the pricing of the books outside of the sales. I wouldn't need a discount but it's rough to see the old catalogues where some of the same books that are still around were less than half the current price only a few years back. They are beautifully made of course but the cheapest ones (standard edition) are still insanely expensive compared to other publishers.

I suppose I'm influenced by the fact that in the Czech Republic it's absolutely common to get a smyth-sewn hardback (and in case of children's books with beautiful illustrations included) for £10. My parents' bookcase has zero paperbacks and they certainly didn't go out of their way to find some obscure fancy publishers that would provide the luxury, it's just what most books look like here. The real issue is the overabundance of crappy paperbacks in the UK, at least, because that makes hardbacks rare enough to hike up the prices.

215RRCBS
Ene 8, 2021, 12:10 pm

>214 santiamen: it is hard for sure. The secondary prices for more recent books are crazy and current prices buying from FS are expensive. Personally, I’m happy with LOA type books for the most part, but buy a lot of FS and EP books because I want specific books with smyth sewn bindings. If there was a cheaper, simpler source I would go for it!

216Timper
Ene 8, 2021, 12:17 pm

Unsure where to post this but FS just announced on Twitter that The Lord of the Rings, The Vikings, and The Celts are all back in stock.

217ubiquitousuk
Ene 8, 2021, 12:37 pm

Sales are often a way for sellers to price discriminate: selling at full price to the impatient or those not savvy enough to wait for the sale, while also capturing as much demand as possible from the more price sensitive and informed consumers who will only buy if the price is right. The key is to make sure these groups are being cleanly separated and that the sale isn't cannibalising too much revenue from people who would otherwise have bought at full price. I wonder whether that cannibalisation effect is playing a role here. Perhaps, but I suspect it's mostly a result of FS having run down the stock of old books quite a lot in recent months and needing to replenish with new editions before another bonanza sale is possible.

218GardenOfForkingPaths
Ene 8, 2021, 12:59 pm

Does anyone own or have any thoughts on the current edition of Ghost Stories by M.R James, or know where it was printed?

I know the earlier edition from 2007 (illustrated by Francis Mosley) is a favourite but is generally quite expensive, and there's the 1970s edition (Charles Keeping) too. I'm aware that the current edition has the original illustrations, which look good, albeit there are only 4 due to the illustrator dying before he completed the work.

219jroger1
Ene 8, 2021, 1:52 pm

>218 GardenOfForkingPaths:
The 2017 edition contains this note in the James McBryde bio: “He died a month later after post-operative complications, with only four illustrations completed and one unfinished. The publisher suggested another illustrator, but M. R. James was adamant that no one could replace McBryde and that the book should be published with only the four illustrations, as a tribute to his friend.”

The book was printed and bound in Germany.

220stumc
Ene 8, 2021, 2:07 pm

>218 GardenOfForkingPaths: I am also looking at getting this, I am a huge fan of MR James, and have the collected stories albeit in a small Collectors Library edition.
my only concern is that this only contains a selection of his stories so is perhaps not as good as previous Folio editions.
what are peoples thoughts? this in the sale or an earlier collection from ebay

221Willoyd
Ene 8, 2021, 6:02 pm

>214 santiamen:

but it's rough to see the old catalogues where some of the same books that are still around were less than half the current price only a few years back.
That's interesting. The 3 books I bought in the sale don't seem to have moved much at all, so which books have actually doubled in price?

222santiamen
Ene 8, 2021, 7:37 pm

>221 Willoyd: I might have been too dramatic :), I suppose some doubled or are getting there but it worries me more because the trend is obvious and if it continues and summer/New Year sales won't be much to speak of, as some people suggest here, I won't really be able to buy the books I'd like.

I know inflation has to be taken into account but it still smarts looking at the catalogues from the last decade with prices creeping up bit by bit each year, knowing how much I could have had some books for if I wasn't oblivious to the existence of FS.

I don't follow what has been happening with non-fiction much but for example: The Hobbit from £23 to £45 currently, The Silmarillion from £33 to £50, The Wind in the Willows from £33 to £50, The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy from £23 to £40, His Dark Materials from £100 to £155 (it was £140 in summer and £150 this week right before it sold out so that's already an increase ready for the next batch).
And there seem to have been quite a lot of books for around £20, while now there are a few books left with prices around £30-£35 but so scarce that the lowest starting amount is predominantly £40 for standard edition. I just dread another tiny jump before summer and then in autumn again and soon I can forget getting every book I like and only keep this as a luxury treat, getting perhaps one book for my birthday.

So it's just me regretting discovering it all too late. If only it was at least cheaper second hand. :)

223wdripp
Editado: Ene 8, 2021, 8:14 pm

>222 santiamen: I agree about the price creep. Especially with the lack of discount offered for new releases these days. But the vast majority of FS books lose value and it is considerably cheaper to buy them second hand. If you are willing to wait a few years after release the back catalog, with few exceptions, can be found for a real bargain on ebay, abebooks, etc.

224Charon49
Ene 8, 2021, 10:38 pm

>223 wdripp:. I hope that remains the case but with the surge in popularity from Facebook and other groups is seeming to create some crazy price increases on eBay.

225DMulvee
Editado: Ene 9, 2021, 3:36 am

>224 Charon49: I think it is worth saying that there is a surge in popularity for certain books. If there are books you love then you would be wise to buy them from Folio as soon as you can. If others are nice but not essential this is where the secondary market can help.
I bought 4 fiction books from Folio this week. However I looked at non-fiction and decided that there were no essentials from the current catalogue and so saved money by going to the secondary market and bought the 3 volume Campaigns of Wellington (£26 inc delivery) and 2 volume Citizens by Simon Schama (£18.50 inc delivery). If you want any of Folios fantasy or sci fi books then I think these will have a premium as they are only publishing works that have huge number of fans, and the FS isn’t well known to this group

226NLNils
Ene 9, 2021, 4:18 am

>225 DMulvee: You got exceptional deals on both titles. I never seen them listed at those prices.

227cronshaw
Editado: Ene 9, 2021, 10:09 am

>223 wdripp:

The vast majority of FS books lose value.

That certainly used to be the case but I believe it's less true now than it used to be. Less popular books or those printed in too high a number will of course continue to lose value in proportion to supply and demand on the secondary market, but what has struck me has been the effect of Folio's mid-2010s change of strategy, necessary as they were losing too much money subsidising generous joining and re-joining offers; I learned from staff in the members' room one day that it took Folio around 3 years to recoup the cost of a member's joining offer. FS made a conscious move towards greater 'added value', and thus higher pricing, with no more loss-making joining and re-joining offers, shallower discounting, and lower print runs i.e. creating a more premium product that would sustain greater profitability generally. The achievement of lower print runs is key to sustaining higher secondary market prices and a perception of long-term value, and we have seen the effects of this: in recent years it has become noticeably more common for recently OOP Folio volumes to cost more on eBay and abebooks than even the original RRP. Several OOP titles are now priced like limited editions. This doesn't apply to reprints, and people who buy Thomas Hardy novels for example new from Folio aren't getting a bargain when you look at the price of first printing copies on eBay, but in general I believe there's been a significant shift such that those who await a steep discount in a sale or hope for a cheap copy to appear on eBay run a greater risk of disappointment than previously.

228Willoyd
Ene 9, 2021, 8:01 am

>222 santiamen:

There's no doubt been price risies, especially in fiction, but when are you taking your baselines for some of these books from? Some of those baseline prices are a fair while ago. Of course prices will rise, and above inflation as well given the company has to move back into profit. They will obviously target the books that are likely to sell well at the higher prices, thus those titles you identify above. Some books do seem to have had sudden hikes at one time, quite a few round about end 2017, beginning 2018.

By way of comparison the three books I bought in the sale have moved as follows:
Guns, Germs and Steel - first issued Xmas 2017 at £50, still at that price presale
Yangtze and Beyond - first issued Summer 2018 at £75, now at £80 presale
Humphrey Clinker - reissued Spring 2018 at £35, now £40 presale. This was originally issued at 22/6d in 1955. On a general inflation basis alone (based on CPI), the price should therefore be about £30, all other things being equal.

229santiamen
Ene 9, 2021, 9:13 am

>228 Willoyd: I'm not doing some official chart to slander FS for hiking up prices. My baseline is what the prices were like when I left high school and therefore could have already bought some of what I liked back when it was more affordable and closer to what hardbacks cost where I come from. Had I known of FS existence, that is.

I do think that the prices as they currently stand are pretty steep even with the obvious care that goes into the products so I worry about how much more they might rise and whether no big sales are coming anymore to soften the blow.

Last summer, I found a small antique shop in Northern England with some second hand books and maybe a hundred FS books - an unexpected discovery - but they were all non-fiction. My favourite genres are children's literature, fantasy, sci-fi and specific authors of modern and classical fiction. As far as I can see, those don't tend to get lower in price second hand, if they appear at all. So, as it gets pointed out here, the only sure way to get what I like is straight from FS at full price, but that won't be doable if prices keep rising and I don't change fields to something more lucrative.

That being said, the only reason I worry about something that really isn't exactly a priority in life, is obviously because I like the FS books in the first place and if it wasn't for the pricing I'd buy out half of their fiction within a day. :) I do want them to succeed as a company given that hardly anyone seems to bother with printing sewn hardbacks in the English speaking world, sadly.

230Bibliogasm
Ene 9, 2021, 9:23 am

Ugh. Horrible sale. Last White Rose now at 94 bucks for Australia regular price albeit discounted in the sale. They're having a laugh. I used to collect art until one fateful year I run out of reddies and couldn't participate in the art grab. Following year I simply lost interest. I'd got out of the habit. Same here. First 12 months I haven't purchased anything from FS in several years. Rapidly losing interest in direct proportion to the price creep.

231Willoyd
Editado: Ene 9, 2021, 10:53 am

>229 santiamen:
I'm not doing some official chart to slander FS for hiking up prices.
No, I appreciate you're not, and I wasnt trying to back you into any sort of corner, simply wanting to clarify precisely what sort of increases we were actually talking about. In fact, I sympathise: the whole nature of FS has changed, and, for me at least, not really for the better - others will think otherwise - and one of those things I think has got worse is this pricing 'everyman' out of the market.

My favourite genres are children's literature, fantasy, sci-fi and specific authors of modern and classical fiction. As far as I can see, those don't tend to get lower in price second hand, if they appear at all. So, as it gets pointed out here, the only sure way to get what I like is straight from FS at full price, but that won't be doable if prices keep rising and I don't change fields to something more lucrative.

Sadly, aside from the last genre then, yes, I'm afraid your interests lie in areas where books tend to keep their value better, not least because the vast bulk of those genres are areas really only developed by FS in recent years - even the children's lit is mostly a relatively recent phenomenon. After some fairly extensive recent thinning down (perhaps half of my collection) I still have a fair amount of fiction - around 200 volumes - predominantly classical, which I've mostly bought fairly cheaply on the secondary market. Most of these are at least 30 years old. The rest of my collection (the bulk) is non-fiction....

Even then, I now largely look elsewhere for my fiction: whilst selling off a fair number of my Folio books, I have recently expanded my stock of Library of America, Everyman and Slightly Foxed collections, along with those like Little Toller and Persephone. Far more bang (reading!) for my bucks, but still thoroughly enjoyable as physical books too. I still buy FS, but mostly older volumes in the secondary arena.

232wdripp
Ene 9, 2021, 12:25 pm

>227 cronshaw: Time will tell. I acknowledge my perspective is influenced by being a relatively long term customer, and having bought a lot of books from the back catalog second hand quite cheaply (including the Hardy set and Dickens I).

I do think the FB group has had a malign influence and helped to create a bit of a frenzy/bubble, although there have been books with high prices prior to that group's existence. If I recall, the highest prices for standard editions have been for volumes needed to complete sets, so that's another factor affecting prices.

I certainly agree that it is best to purchase from FS if you would be really sad to miss out on a title, and I try to follow my own advice.

233ultrarightist
Ene 9, 2021, 1:08 pm

I picked up Ferguson's Empire and An Omelet and a Glass of Wine.

234GardenOfForkingPaths
Editado: Ene 9, 2021, 3:07 pm

>219 jroger1: Thank you!

>220 stumc: You've probably already seen this but there is an old thread about the 2007 and 1970s editions of Ghost Stories, with photos of both. Based on the size of the books it does seem that the 2007 edition might include a larger selection of stories.

http://www.librarything.com/topic/160952

edit: here's another thread with more details on the contents of each of the earlier editions:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/83053#1752200

235warehouseisbare
Ene 9, 2021, 3:27 pm

>218 GardenOfForkingPaths:

I would go to eBay and purchase the 2007 Collected Ghost Stories by MR James. The new edition has nice illustrations but there are SO few that I don’t think it’s worth it to purchase the current edition. Just my opinion. I have a copy in nice condition of the 2007 version that I’d consider trading depending on if you have anything to trade but I do like my copy so I’m not dying to get rid of it.

I had a coupon code so I went ahead and purchased Atlas Shrugged, The Daughter of Time, and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. I’m very excited for all of these but a little worried that Atlas Shrugged could have production problems. I’ve seen copies with issues and it makes me worried. Can anyone relieve me of my fears?

Also side note: I had these shipped to my parents house in a neighboring state and sales tax wasn’t charged. That saved me almost $20. Just something to think about.

236GardenOfForkingPaths
Ene 9, 2021, 3:52 pm

>235 warehouseisbare: I agree. I think the 2007 is indeed the one to hold out for. I do appreciate the offer of a trade, but I'm in the UK (plus I can't think of anything I have to trade at the moment). Nonetheless, thank you and I hope you enjoy your new books - may they arrive quickly and safely!

237DMulvee
Ene 9, 2021, 4:10 pm

>235 warehouseisbare: The red on the front cover of one of the volumes (V2 or V3) bleached in my copy of Atlas Shrugged. I can live with this happening so didn’t contact the FS, but I recommend reading it sooner rather than later, that way if this also happens to you, you could contact the FS whilst they still have copies in stock

238warehouseisbare
Ene 9, 2021, 4:26 pm

>237 DMulvee: Thank you for the feedback...other than that I assume the paper and binding was ok on your copy? I respect you for not contacting. I would have had a very hard time in that situation considering it’s a $200 set. Kudos to you.

239ubiquitousuk
Ene 9, 2021, 5:18 pm

>235 warehouseisbare: my Atlas Shrugged is perfect. Just put it in some Mylar dust jackets and you can be sure it will stay that way.

240DMulvee
Ene 9, 2021, 5:29 pm

>238 warehouseisbare: The paper and binding were perfect and the bleaching isn’t on the spine only on one part of the front cover, where the red ran (as I guess I held the book here). So it does look perfect on a book shelf as you only see the spine. Dust jackets or using a book cushion should keep it in perfect condition

241wdripp
Ene 9, 2021, 6:18 pm

Happily I received a shipping notice from my sale order yesterday, and included in the order was the copy of Earthsea I worried might have been out of stock, so either I got lucky or they are doing better with keeping track of inventory.

242Redshirt
Ene 9, 2021, 6:30 pm

A few numbers for those interested in comparing this sale to prior sales. On the positive side, 19 books made their first appearance in this sale. This number is generally consistent with past sales that I’ve tracked. For example, the January 2019 sale marked the debut of 17 titles, there were 19 new titles in the June 2020 sale, and 21 new titles at the outset of the January 2020 sale (more were added later). Of the 19 books making their debut in this sale, they were all published in the last three years: 2017 (3), 2018 (11), and 2019 (5). I can add the titles of the books debuting in this sale if anyone is interested.

That said, the sense of general disappointment is supported by other numbers. This sale includes 62 regular FS editions. By way of comparison, the January 2018 sale included 160 regular FS editions. That total has been trending down ever since: June 2018 (148), January 2019 (124) and June 2020 (91).

This sale also looks particularly bad in comparison to the June 2019 and January 2020 sales, which were high points for bargain hunters. In June 2019, 40 titles made their debut in the sale and all of those titles were 50% off (consistent with the recent pattern of FS sales). In many ways, the January 2020 sale was even better as the original list of 21 new titles was supplemented mid-sale with 19 additional titles. Moreover, 46 books were offered at their all-time lowest price in the January 2020 sale, with discounts for those books ranging between 50%-80% off. In the current sale, only 2 books are being offered at their lowest price ever and discounts above 20% are much less common.

Finally, I think this sale was also disappointing to many because it lacked the one or two “wow” discounts that often excite much of this group. For example, in June 2019, the discount offered on “Ulysses” created a lot of buzz as did the discount on “Mani and Roumeli” in the January 2020 sale.

As for what this sale portends for future sales, we can only guess. As I stated in earlier posts, the combination of highly successful recent sales (leading to many sell-outs) and the relatively low number of new titles (no doubt impacted by Covid in 2020) left FS with a lower inventory of books than in recent years. Further, as others have speculated, my general sense is that Folio is doing a better job of managing its inventory and not over-ordering books that then have to be discounted to sell off. So now we get to look forward to the Spring offering of new titles.

243vmb443
Ene 9, 2021, 7:28 pm

>195 Joshbooks1: I hope you like them as much as I do! I’ll be interested in hearing your thoughts once they arrive!

244fiascoborelli
Ene 10, 2021, 6:20 am

>218 GardenOfForkingPaths: I purchased the 2017 volume to sit alongside my copy of the 2007 version. I enjoy them both.

The 2017 release is lovely. It was originally intended to be released as part of the Collectibles series, before those were axed. I'd argue it contains his greatest and most well-known stories (all of those from his first two collections 'Ghost Stories of an Antiquary' and 'More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary', plus the story 'A Warning to the Curious'). There are sixteen stories in all. James and McBryde had an interesting friendship and it's nice to have a volume with the original illustrations. I don't know if McBryde's draft illustration for 'Count Magus' has been published previously?

The 2007 version is wonderful if you're a completist or a fan of James' work (there are thirty stories in all). I do think some of his later stories can become a little formulaic. It also has a seven-page Introduction by Penelope Fitzgerald.

Fans of M R James may find the excellent Nunkie Productions website interesting. Robert has been streaming online performances during the pandemic, some of them for free. https://www.nunkie.co.uk

245GardenOfForkingPaths
Ene 10, 2021, 6:48 am

>244 fiascoborelli: Brilliant. I agree, the friendship between author and artist certainly adds an element of interest. Many thanks for your thoughts!

246stumc
Ene 10, 2021, 2:15 pm

>234 GardenOfForkingPaths: thanks for responding, I have the full collected stories but in the small collectors library
both the 1970 and 2007 editions look great, especially the illustrations in the latter. very hard to choose

247warehouseisbare
Ene 10, 2021, 6:08 pm

Rather than start a new thread I have a question I thought someone could answer quickly here...are Folio society books produced on acid free paper? I had someone ask me and I wasn’t sure. I searched acid free but couldn’t find anything. Sorry for the dumb question, I just didn’t know.

248Charon49
Ene 10, 2021, 6:28 pm

>247 warehouseisbare:

Yeah pretty much every Folio Society edition I’ve come across has had acid free paper but I’m sure there’s the exception for some editions.

249elladan0891
Ene 10, 2021, 7:28 pm

>248 Charon49: Actually, I'd be surprised if there are any. Folios have always been printed on good paper, you don't need to worry about Folio text blocks yellowing and disintegrating with time like your Penguin paperbacks. My Folios go back to about 1960, perhaps late 50s, but I bet even Folios printed during the post-war shortage in the 40s are holding up just fine (and the paper is likely better than the currently ubiquitous Abbey Wove, let alone the Chinese Yu Long Pure) - I'm sure devotees with the earliest Folios will be happy to confirm.

>247 warehouseisbare: Yes.

250cronshaw
Ene 11, 2021, 1:37 am

>248 Charon49: Like Ellandan I'd be amazed if there were any exception. As a fond collector of the earliest Folios I can confirm all appear to be printed on acid-free paper.

251sekhmet0108
Ene 11, 2021, 7:03 am

While we are at it, i have a question too... is it possible that there is a comprehensive list of where the FS books are printed? When i asked customer care, they said that they don't have this information, even regarding specific books.

Not to start the whole bashing of chinese products, but at this point, i do genuinely feel that the ones being made in China are not quite as good quality-wise as the ones being printed in, say, Italy.

One of the most recent examples for me was the difference between the two regular novels by Agatha Christie and the Miss Marple Short Story collection. Five Little Pigs and Murder of Roger Ackroyd are fine, but the quality is most definitely worse than the beautiful MMSS collection.

I have also noticed the slightly sloppy printing of the red lettered title of Handmaid's Tale on the spine. There are other small issues too, but i don't find them on the books printed in Italy/Germany/etc. I am also not a fan of the very white Yu Long paper.

None of these are huge things, but i find myself taking a look at every new FS book that i acquire and guessing if it was produced in China or not. Most of the times, i am right.

It isn't as if i will stop purchasing the ones made in China, but now (with a chance that sales are going to become more and more rare, the books are going to keep increasing in price, and the VAT/customs to Europe), i do need to be more circumspect with my purchases.

Also, a more specific question - is the Humphery Clinker one made in China?

252Willoyd
Ene 11, 2021, 7:46 am

>251 sekhmet0108:

Also, a more specific question - is the Humphery Clinker one made in China?
Yes it is. Interestingly, in the light of your comments, it arrived this morning, and as soon as I opened it, I guessed that it was. Nothing specific, but there was a smell and a feel that I've not come across on previous purchases (I've not bought much recently, and that's the first with a Chinese provenance). I've compared it with the very similar 2008 reissue of Tom Jones, produced in the UK, and, objectively, I can't really tell any difference.

253Willoyd
Editado: Ene 11, 2021, 7:58 am

As implied in >252 Willoyd:, I've just received my order, place on the evening of the 7th with standard delivery - pretty good going!

Not often I'm blown away, but have to say that The Yangtze Valley and Beyond is an absolute stonker of a production, one of the best I've seen from them, especially at this price. And this from someone who has regularly commented on the recent prices of Folio books. Slight concern (very slight) about a marginally tight slipcase, but I really am picking holes.

Really like the other two books (Guns Germs and Steel, Humphry Clinker) also. That 1950s design for the latter (it's a reissue of 1955 edition) has aged really well IMO.

254folio_books
Ene 11, 2021, 8:44 am

>253 Willoyd: That 1950s design for the latter (it's a reissue of 1955 edition) has aged really well IMO.

Agreed. I have the 1955 edition, wood engravings (including the cover) by Derrick Harris, a true master of his craft. He also provided the engravings for Folio's Tom Jones (1958, 1973) "These are some of Harris's finest engravings and, sadly, his swan song." (Folio 60).

255santiamen
Ene 11, 2021, 9:55 am

>253 Willoyd: Sorry for OT - are there tricks you'd apply to loosen a tight slipcase? I have one book (The Wizard of Oz) with this issue, it's a real struggle to fish it out, but I only had a chance to inspect the books a month after they arrived so there was no way to ask for a replacement. Otherwise, both the book and the case are perfect, I just don't want to destroy the book pulling it out too often and wondered if there were any ways to fix it (like breaking in new shoes, sort of).

256CLWggg
Ene 11, 2021, 10:08 am

>255 santiamen: I had this issue with The Wizard of Oz, too. I find the best way is to sit down and hold the book with the spine pointing down towards your lap. Then give a few sharp downward jerks, and the book should begin to ease its way out of the slipcase. That way, you're using gravity rather than risking causing damage to the book or the slipcase.

257wdripp
Ene 11, 2021, 11:37 am

>251 sekhmet0108: No, to my knowledge there isn’t a complete list. There was a thread started which contains useful information in post #1 and scattered throughout the thread, but you’ll have to wade through a lot of less helpful posts. It is here: http://www.librarything.com/topic/271581

It is certainly info FS has, and other customers have gotten replies regarding certain titles, so it might be worth asking again.

I would also encourage you to report those printing defects (even if not asking for a replacement).

I too noticed the decline in quality with the Christie series. I did request a replacement for Five Little Pigs as my 1st copy had a strong odor and a thick, tacky feel on the binding. The replacement had no odor but I still find the feel of the binding unpleasant.

258santiamen
Ene 11, 2021, 12:33 pm

>256 CLWggg: Thank you, I'll give it a try. Although I have a suspicion it's so jammed in no amount of shaking will make it budge. But fingers crossed. :)

259adriano77
Ene 11, 2021, 1:23 pm

>251 sekhmet0108:

Wait, what? They said they don't have this information? That's either a mistake by an individual or new policy since so many began asking. Previously I've asked the printing location of at least fifteen titles (probably more) and was always given an answer promptly and politely.

260vmb443
Ene 11, 2021, 1:26 pm

Ended up placing an order, from the sale I picked up:

The Yangtze Valley
Bomber Command

In full-price books I picked up:

Jeeves and Wooster Set
Clicking for Cuthbert
The Celts

I am happy to add them to my library - not a great sale for what is on my wishlist, but I'm always happy to receive a box of new Folios.

261sekhmet0108
Ene 11, 2021, 2:15 pm

>259 adriano77: I had asked about a few books :

Howl's Moving Castle
His Dark Materials
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
I am Legend
The Illustrated Man
Fahrenheit 451
I, Robot
Oryx and Crake
Handmaid's Tale
A Clash of Kings
Brideshead Revisited
Three Men on a Bummel
Wizard of Oz
Ubik
East of Eden
Catch 22
Atlas Shrugged
2001: A Space Odyssey
Lord of the Flies

The response :

"Thank you for the email, and thanks for thinking of us.

Unfortunately, at present, we are still on lockdown away from the office and working from home, where possible. Normally, I would be happy to check with the books in our library and ascertain where they were printed (we use several different printers, mostly in mainland Europe) but we don't have access to the books at the moment.

As soon as we are back in (I don't have a date for that at the moment, unfortunately) I can look these up for you, but this might not be for a while I'm sorry to say."

This was in June. Maybe it is just a quarantine thing. However, i would think that they would have the list of books with places of origin and other details somewhere. I haven't asked since then, since the situation hasn't changed, has it.

262SolerSystem
Ene 11, 2021, 3:03 pm

Does anyone have any thoughts on Voyages to the Moon and the Sun? The production is nice but I'm wondering about the content.

263wdripp
Editado: Ene 11, 2021, 3:24 pm

>261 sekhmet0108: I guess that make sense although you would think it being 2021 they wouldn’t have to go check copies in the library. I can help with some of those:

His Dark Materials- Germany
I Am Legend- Italy (per earlier thread)
Fahrenheit 451- Italy
I, Robot- Germany (per earlier thread)
Handmaid's Tale- Germany
Three Men on a Bummel- China (per earlier thread)
Ubik- Italy
East of Eden- Slovakia (per earlier thread)
Catch-22- China (per earlier thread)
2001: A Space Odyssey- Italy
Lord of the Flies- Slovakia (per earlier thread)

If you do a search on the message board you may be able to find some of the others on your list as the topic comes up fairly often.

264sdg_e
Ene 11, 2021, 3:35 pm

>261 sekhmet0108:

Here are some additional ones I can contribute not mentioned by wdripp:

A Clash of Kings - Italy
Brideshead Revisited - Germany
Wizard of Oz - Slovakia
Atlas Shrugged - Slovakia

265jeremyjm
Ene 11, 2021, 4:02 pm

>261 sekhmet0108:

Oryx and Crake - Italy

266Willoyd
Ene 11, 2021, 4:29 pm

>254 folio_books:

Agreed. I have the 1955 edition, wood engravings (including the cover) by Derrick Harris, a true master of his craft. He also provided the engravings for Folio's Tom Jones (1958, 1973) "These are some of Harris's finest engravings and, sadly, his swan song." (Folio 60).

Yes, I love the Tom Jones - perfect style of illustration. One of the early highlights. I'm sure I remember there was a box set of Henry Fieldings all in the same style.

267skubrick2899
Ene 11, 2021, 4:33 pm

>263 wdripp:

And two more:

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Germany
The Illustrated Man - Italy

268Jobasha
Ene 11, 2021, 5:12 pm

Does anyone know where Outlaws of the Marsh is printed?

269affle
Ene 11, 2021, 6:05 pm

270Jobasha
Ene 11, 2021, 7:26 pm

271boldface
Ene 11, 2021, 10:19 pm

>261 sekhmet0108:

As regards the China issue I have, for example, both the Jerome K. Jerome titles in that series. The production details of my copies (both in fine condition) are:

THREE MEN IN A BOAT (TMIAB)
1992; reprinted 1998 in
ENGLAND by
Jarrold Book Printing, Thetford, on
Fineblade Cartridge Paper and
bound by them in full
cloth printed and blocked (in dark red and gilt) with a design by Paul Cox.
Typeface:
Bembo with unnamed display font.

THREE MEN ON THE BUMMEL (TMOTB)
Printed 2018 in
CHINA by
C & C Offset Printing Co. Ltd, on
Mori silk paper and
bound by them in (full)
cloth printed and blocked (in black and gilt) with a design by the artist (i.e. Paul Cox).
Typeface:
Bembo with Sackers Open Antique display.

And now a few notes of quality/qualities comparison:

• Print quality of both text and display, and also of the colour illustrations, is identical in both books to my eye. The unnamed display font in TMIAB is not identical to the Sackers of TMOTB, but you wouldn't notice unless you compared each letter closely.

• The two different slightly glossy cartridge papers are well matched. The Fineblade of the England-printed TMIAB is a micro-tad glossier/reflective if you shine the same light on both together but this is negligible to me. Both papers are fully opaque, with neither type nor colour illustrations showing through. The Chinese paper is a quarter-shade whiter than the British, but the latter is itself quite white already.

• The cream cloth of TMIAB is very slightly courser and duller than the green, slightly silkier cloth of TMOTB. The gilt is brighter on the Chinese book but that may be because it's newer by twenty years. One big difference is that the earlier book (TMIAB) has a second Cox design on the back board, while TMOTB has no illustration on the back, just plain green cloth. This, I imagine, has nothing to do with countries of origin, and everything to do with cost cutting twenty years on.

• The slight differences in materials and fonts, etc., are really differences in detail only. Discounting the lack of an illustration on the rear board, I should say that overall quality has been maintained in these editions.

________________________________________

However, I was less happy with the Chinese-produced Locked Room Mysteries of 2017, but that's another story.

272wdripp
Ene 12, 2021, 2:56 am

My order arrived today, 3 or 4 days after they shipped it with expedited shipping. All books arrived without damage. The one I’m most surprised by and impressed with is She-Wolves, which is quite striking and lovely. I recommend it to anyone interested in the topic and plan to get Joan of Arc at some point which I think matches it.

273Staurt101
Ene 12, 2021, 2:59 am

Este usuario ha sido eliminado por spam.

274sekhmet0108
Ene 12, 2021, 4:23 am

Thank you, everyone, for the very useful information! Really appreciate it!

I had checked the previous thread back then, in an effort to find these details. I found it for some but not the others. Having already bought quite a few of these titles, i do know now where they are printed. But i am very pleased to see that Kavalier and Clay is from Germany itself. Just bought it in the sale after resisting for a long time and now can't wait to get it. I wonder why they shifted the printing of the ASOIAF books from Germany to Italy...

Also excited about Humphery Clinker, since i love the Henry Fielding set. I got it last year for €25 (including shipping) and it's in perfect (unread) condition. The slipcase is rather tight so i try not to take it out too often.

It has been interesting reading all the experiences with the chinese made FS books. Subconsciously, i seem to have avoided them and own only a couple, which i had no way of knowing beforehand.

On a different note, if someone from the EU has received there orders, do please update us regading customs (charges/hassle).

275English-bookseller
Editado: Ene 12, 2021, 6:10 am

An important caveat here - my career in taxation where I was in a position to advise business is well and truly over. So I am not up to date with the law and practice on Customs duties on international trade.

As a bookseller in dealing with an export of a book to somewhere outside the UK, I usually need to complete a Customs declaration to stick onto the packed book. This declaration requires me inter alia to state the country of production of the book.

Claiming (I hope correctly) that Folio Society books are produced in the UK allows me to assume that the provisions of a free trade agreement between the UK and the country of the customer do apply.

But these free trade treaties - generally - are for goods produced within one of the parties to the Agreement and like the UK-EU agreement are not for example for books printed and bound in, say, China.

Just for this reason, and as most of our small bookshop's sales are non-UK, it would be helpful if The Folio Society sought to have their books produced in the UK.

This same important legal point applies I assume even more to The Folio Society.

I would expect that no overseas country is going to go on the legal warpath with me as an individual bookseller if I make an innocent and insignificant error on a Customs declaration.

But if The Folio Society is attesting that its direct exports say to the EU or the US are of UK produced books and in reality they are Chinese-made books, they might be heading for troublesome legal challenges.

The UK and the USA do not currently have a Trade Agreement but as the US believes that it has a trade surplus with the UK, it might under the new Administration wish to pursue one with the UK and this issue might then become very relevant to the Society.

Trying to be helpful here...

276bookish_elf
Ene 12, 2021, 8:02 am

>251 sekhmet0108: I also had an issue with Five Little Pigs. The dye on the cover was breaking and the color on the binding is really dull, a marked difference compared to Miss Marple.

Another disappointing purchase is The Clicking of Cuthbert, also printed in China. The slipcase is very rough and the printing is slanted!!

277dyhtstriyk
Ene 12, 2021, 10:21 am

>249 elladan0891: The only copy I have from the shortage period is El Zarco, which I think was printed in the late 40s and is definitely not on acid-free. Paper has gone almost brown. Aside from that, I have later Folios (like Charterhouse of Parma) which hold perfectly.

278elladan0891
Ene 12, 2021, 10:29 am

>277 dyhtstriyk: Interesting, so I guess the 40s are the only exception.

279stopsurfing
Ene 12, 2021, 10:37 am

>274 sekhmet0108: “I wonder why they shifted the printing of the ASOIAF books from Germany to Italy...”
Can’t answer regarding printing, but it might be of interest to you all to know that Lachenmaier in Reutlingen is now defunct, so the Folio Society will be sourcing their binding services from another company from now on. I’d be interested to know who, and where. And maybe this is at least partially responsible for the delay for the autumn releases (speculation alert)

280cronshaw
Editado: Ene 12, 2021, 11:12 am

>277 dyhtstriyk: >278 elladan0891: El Zarco was first published by FS in 1957. I have almost all the early Folios from the first decade that were issued in dust-jackets, acquired from multiple different secondary market sources, and none shows any sign of yellowing of the page edges. Perhaps I've been lucky. Conversely, I don't think I've ever seen a Penguin paperback from that period the pages of which haven't turned autumnal at the edges.

>279 stopsurfing: I'm sorry to hear about Lachenmaier, that's a big loss for bibliophiles.

281skubrick2899
Ene 12, 2021, 11:11 am

>274 sekhmet0108:

You should be more than pleased with FS's Kavalier and Clay especially if you're already a fan of the book. I think the artist nailed the style, which suits the setting and time of the story. There are plenty of FS books that have great illustrations but I can't recall a better marriage between both mediums in another volume (IMO, of course). Plus, the feel of the coated paper cover is unusual but in a good way. Not like any other FS books I own.

282elladan0891
Editado: Ene 12, 2021, 11:51 am

>280 cronshaw: Glad to hear, and that was my expectation too - that even the earliest of Folios should be holding up.
>277 dyhtstriyk: Perhaps that one is an exception. Or perhaps it was once placed into an oven by a germaphobe previous owner? :)

283elladan0891
Ene 12, 2021, 11:43 am

After taking my time I finally placed an order to get a couple of editions that will go OOP soon.

- Letters of Vincent van Gogh: the unexpected hit of the sale. Despite a relatively modest discount it's been selling like hot cakes, so I had to get it before it sells out in the next few days.

A few titles from the wish list with decent discounts:
- Berlin
- Reach for the Sky
- Brideshead Revisited

And a couple of titles at full price:
- Mostly Harmless: getting the last volume of the series before it sells out
- Alice In Wonderland: getting it for my 7-year-old now, as chances of it ever getting a significant discount are extremely low, I think

P.S. Not LT website changes again! Why or why people like messing with things that ain't broken? Not only the look and feel changes make the site uglier, but this time functionality also took a hit. So now clicking on the number of unread messages in a thread doesn't take you straight to the first unread message, but to the beginning of the thread, where now there is an additional button you can click to finally get there. "Upgrade", woot-woot!

Btw, web design in general has been in an absolute crisis over the past few years. Almost every website is worse now than it was 10 or even 15 years ago. Best websites are the ones that don't indulge much in the common itch to constantly redesign and "improve", i.e. ebay, but even they introduced some bugs, I mean features, and look-and-feel inconsistencies here and there. Even websites of multibillion-dollar companies with gazillions of daily users are crap. Weather.com, owned by no other than a Tech giant IBM, has been an overbloated, slow hog of a mess for years, and it looks like a side project of student in the 90s. This would have been unacceptable 20 years ago. And it's probably one of the few sites that actually improved in the last year or so, but that's because it was borderline unusable in the previous few years. It's so bad it's comical. I don't know what's going, perhaps years of "negative" selection are to blame - best computer science graduates never go into web design and development, which are looked down upon. Sorry for the rant.

284Jayked
Ene 12, 2021, 11:51 am

>277 dyhtstriyk:
My copy of El Zarco, bought new, is slightly brown on the edges, and a little off-colour inside. That's typical of most Folio and trade publications of the period. Exposure to light, cigarette smoke etc hastens the process. You can hardly blame Folio for not using acid-free paper then, because it didn't exist. Alkaline sizing, which made the process possible, wasn't produced until the 1950s, and acid-free standards were sought for library collections rather than for general use. It took until the 1980s for ANSI to come up with a feasible universal standard for paper guaranteed for a long period of time, and even now there are different levels of protection guaranteed by ANSI codes. Meeting minimum requirements won't do for valuable material.

285folio_books
Ene 12, 2021, 11:53 am

>280 cronshaw: >277 dyhtstriyk: >279 stopsurfing: El Zarco was first published by FS in 1957.

I can endorse the words of the learned cronshaw. I have all the earlier volumes too and none has been afflicted with the yellowing I associate with contemporary paperbacks. I cannot imagine what has gone wrong with >277 dyhtstriyk: s copy.

286elladan0891
Ene 12, 2021, 12:06 pm

>284 Jayked: Right, although some old papers can still be quite safely assumed not to be acidic. For example, all-rag papers used by various Private Presses made from ph-neutral cotton, linen, etc. There are century-old books with paper that is holding up just fine. Of course, early Folios weren't printed on all-rag expensive paper, so variations are possible.

287witkin
Ene 12, 2021, 12:35 pm

Hello everyone, this is my first posting after several years of silent reading. I come back to the suggestion to post experiences regarding additional taxes and in this regard I can report the following as a customer based in Germany. In this sale I have ordered the following books: The Yangtze Valley and Beyond, Letters of Vincent van Gogh, Twelfth Night (both versions), Coriolanus and the Folio Anthology of Poetry, all by express. That made a combined total of about 192 pounds. Today I was asked by DHL Express to pay additional customs fees of around 27 euros before delivery. I was offered to use paypal and so I expect the delivery for tomorrow. I had placed the order on Friday, so all in all it was an absolutely smooth affair, leaving out the additional charges.

288SF-72
Ene 12, 2021, 1:29 pm

>287 witkin:

What makes me angry about that is that only half of this sum is the actual tax, the rest is DHL charging extra for something they know will be required, but still isn't included in their already steep shipping fees - actually taking the package across the border and into Germany / through customs.

289treereader
Ene 12, 2021, 2:02 pm

>283 elladan0891: Regarding websites...I think a large part of the trend your seeing regarding the decline of website performance, layout, design, etc... is due to a shift in priorities: many companies/entities are putting 3rd party scripting/tracking functionalities ahead of basic business functionality. Case in point, Folio's current website seems to be basically subservient to TrustPilot, whom they now depend on, probably exclusively, for their electronic marketing. Overall, it's an extension of the "why do something for yourself when you can outsource it?" trend taking over everywhere.

>287 witkin: I think if this happened to me I would simply ignore the DHL communications indefinitely. Let the books be returned to sender. Separately, or out-of-sync from that process, I'd inquire with Folio why my books haven't arrived. Feigned ignorance. I wonder how much success that would have?

Yikes! Apparently, I seem to have woken up on the cynical side of the bed today! ha

290folio_books
Ene 12, 2021, 2:50 pm

>289 treereader: Yikes! Apparently, I seem to have woken up on the cynical side of the bed today!

Just as well Folio Customer Services never read FSD.

Oh, wait ...

291foldout_chair
Ene 12, 2021, 3:22 pm

>288 SF-72: While I generally agree with the thrust of your sentiment, I'd argue it is not as bad as it could be or has been. For one, you apparently do not have to pay in cash any longer, huzza! I remember some 10ish years ago I received an expensive, unannounced gift from the US and was supposed to have a large amount in exact change to cover handling, VAT, and duties -- did not even receive a warning. And no, they neither had change, nor a card reader.

For another, unless I am missing something here, the €27 don't seem too bad. VAT due should be something like £161*.07 (books) + £31*0.19 (shipping) = £17.16. That is about €19-20, so depending on where you live, 7ish euros for not having to go a customs office might well be worth it.

Personally, I am rather put off by DHL Express not delivering to your actual door. Officially, they only deliver to the entrance door of your building – and I've had multiple drivers insist on leaving it there. How any time is saved by me coming downstairs to sign (pre-Covid) as opposed to them coming up like any other package delivery service is beyond me. But what do I know?

292dyhtstriyk
Ene 12, 2021, 3:27 pm

>285 folio_books: you're right... the book was printed in 1957. The book looks much worse on the edges, but as you mention not as bad as a contemporary paperback. It is markedly yellow compared to all my other folios.

The other one I have with issues is the early-2000s reprint of Tess of D'Urbervilles, the one that did not feature the corn dolly on the cover. It is badly, badly foxed though the paper is pristinely white. That one, which I bought secondhand, was probably kept in a high heat, high humidity place.

293Willoyd
Ene 12, 2021, 3:29 pm

>271 boldface:
Your comments on the differences between Chinese and British production are relevant to the Tom Jones (English)-Humphry Clinker (Chinese) pair too: Chinese paper is slightly whiter than the British, whilst their cloth is slightly smoother, almost silkier. Gilt is brighter too, but again time may make a difference. There is also an extra Harris design on the back board of the earlier British volume! Fonts etc are different in this pair, but that's partly I suspect because Tom Jones is so much longer, and would be unhandleable if produced with the same font and white space as Humphry Clinker. Both suit well, although personally I do slightly prefer the thicker width font used in Tom Jones, but that's just personal preference.
As you say, differences in detail only. I do marginally prefer the feel of Tom Jones, but it is marginal and not a reflection on the quality. At this point, there's no discernible difference on that to me - time, as always, will tell. I'm very content with both as they stand.

294dyhtstriyk
Ene 12, 2021, 3:32 pm

>291 foldout_chair: when I pay the expensive delivery DHL ships my books DDU (duties unpaid) as opposed to all Amazon Europe packages arriving DDP. In my country thankfully the tariff for books is at 1%, but DHL charges additional $8 for handling and the like.

295folio_books
Ene 12, 2021, 4:01 pm

>292 dyhtstriyk: you're right... the book was printed in 1957. The book looks much worse on the edges, but as you mention not as bad as a contemporary paperback. It is markedly yellow compared to all my other folios.

If I may I'd refer you to the venerable >284 Jayked: I like his argument re acid-free.

296dyhtstriyk
Ene 12, 2021, 4:15 pm

297Mujaddadi
Ene 12, 2021, 5:38 pm

>283 elladan0891: Not sure why you think every website is worse than what it was 10 or 15 years ago. There are 2 billion websites on the internet and it’s not possible for any person to visit them all. I have been in technology for 20 years now and it is constantly improving. The web of 20 years ago was infant compared to what we have today, in terms of number of users and functionality. Although I agree LT new UI look amateurish

298sekhmet0108
Ene 13, 2021, 2:39 am

>287 witkin: Yikes, i am going to be hit with some hefty customs, i guess.

I think that my days of willy nilly buying tons of FS are more or less done, unless they produce some stunning editions of literature fiction. They really should have considered keeping the shipping free since the sale was a bit of a bummer. With shipping and customs, i might just have bought the books full price back in Nov-Dec.

If the trend towards Fantasy/Sci-fi/genre fiction continues, i might have to say goodbye to FS. For me, it's not worth it to buy something like Jurassic Park for £40 (+shipping+customs+paypal transactional fee).

It is saddening that i found out about FS only in 2019, and now so much is changing. Lesser number of books, shoddy sales and a catalogue inclined towards books not quite to my taste. Pity.

299PeterFitzGerald
Ene 13, 2021, 7:10 am

>283 elladan0891: "Not only the look and feel changes make the site uglier, but this time functionality also took a hit. So now clicking on the number of unread messages in a thread doesn't take you straight to the first unread message, but to the beginning of the thread, where now there is an additional button you can click to finally get there. "Upgrade", woot-woot!"

There is one advantage to this: previously, I'd often find that the link would take me to the first unread post, but then images further up would load and I'd be shunted much further up the thread. With the new system, I can wait for the whole thread to load before clicking on the "jump to first unread" link, and avoid this happening.

300joco30
Ene 13, 2021, 7:10 am

>291 foldout_chair: For another, unless I am missing something here, the €27 don't seem too bad. VAT due should be something like £161*.07 (books) + £31*0.19 (shipping) = £17.16. That is about €19-20, so depending on where you live, 7ish euros for not having to go a customs office might well be worth it.

Here in Belgium, with DHL Express, the minimum amount DHL charges for customs services is 14,50 EUR. I assume it's probably the same in Germany, so that would make around 12,50 EUR for VAT and 14,50 EUR for DHL, which makes sense:

161 GBP x 0.07 = 11.27 GB ~ 12,67 EUR

You don't have to pay VAT on shipping costs.

For completion: the extra cost DHL charges with DHL Express is 2.75% on the (VAT+duties) amount, with a minimum of 14,50 EUR. That is for Belgium. I assume rest of Europe should be comparable.

301JamesMcMinn
Ene 13, 2021, 7:45 am

An expensive few days for me, and whist I was quite disappointed with sale, a few of books I wanted did come up so I bought:
- Guns, Germs and Steel (£10 off)
- Voyages to the Moon and the Sun (£40)
- The Folio Book of Science (£15)

A saving of £65 compared to non-sale prices. Not too bad, if less of a discount than I had expected based on previous sales.

The reason for the disappointment was mostly the small number of discounted books. I had already decided that I was going to get quite a few books, having moved earlier this year and finally having enough space to expand my collection, so I splurged on:
- A Wizard of Earthsea (now sold out)
- The Left Hand of Darkness (to compliment the above - I already have The Dispossessed)
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
- The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
- Life, the Universe and Everything (almost sold out, although I'd assume another print run is coming?)
- So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
- Mostly Harmless
- The Lord of the Rings
- The Hobbit
- The Silmarillion

Whilst I was waiting for the sale, people are always going to buy some items that were not discounted and FS will know this too from previous years, so I suspect this at least partially explains the rather lacklustre sale this year. None the less, I'm hoping, for my bank accounts sake, that upcoming sales are slightly better! I've now bought the majority of the fiction books that I'm interested in (with the exception of some out of stock items), however my wish list is still quite long and mostly non-fiction that I'll pick up if they ever go on sale (or, more likely, during the next sale despite them not being on sale...).

302NLNils
Ene 13, 2021, 7:59 am

>299 PeterFitzGerald: What irritates me in this new design is topics are all shown as unread, even if you just did. No more blue/purple division.

303Joshbooks1
Ene 13, 2021, 8:11 am

>298 sekhmet0108: Unfortunately I'm with you on future folio books. Luckily there are a lot of great literary fiction they published in the past which is nice for me since I only started collecting a few years back. But if you look at the Facebook Folio site nearly everyone wants Sci-fi/fantasy/popular literature. And why would folio change course since those books are selling nearly as fast as they can print them. I have to get around selling my Foundation Trilogy on ebay. I mean the Foundation Trilogy is okay but people paying over $500 usd on the second hand market? It's insane.

This certainly won't happen now, but how about they branch off from mainly British and American literature? There are so many wonderful authors out there. Give me some Cortazar, Bolano, Mutis, more Marquez, White, Oe, Mishima (Sea of Fertility tetralogy would be amazing,) Andric, Selimovic, Kis, Hrabral, Kertesz (his Holocaust trilogy is some of the best literature ever produced,) Pamuk, Mahfouz, Kazantzakis, Gordimer, Thiong'o (Wizard of the Crow would be brilliant), etc ,etc - that's not even touching the tip of the iceberg. One can wish! Instead we get literary works like the Godfather and Jurassic Park. But that's what people want... I just hope they produce a little of everything. Hopefully...

304joco30
Ene 13, 2021, 8:16 am

>302 NLNils: What irritates me in this new design is topics are all shown as unread

That must be a bug. The class of the element remains "body unread". If it would change to "body read" it would look like this:

305FreyaAshton
Ene 13, 2021, 8:34 am

Este usuario ha sido eliminado por spam.

306NLNils
Ene 13, 2021, 8:56 am

>304 joco30: I have to specify. The topics are correctly presented, but the unread messages stay blue and don’t turn purple after you read the last messages of a topic and you return to the homepage.

307CarltonC
Ene 13, 2021, 11:49 am

>301 JamesMcMinn: welcome to the group and FAD. Looks like a good haul, which should start filling up your bookcases nicely.

For myself, there were no sale items that were on my list, but prompted by comments on this thread, I have ordered The Yangtze Valley and Beyond, and picked up The Dispossessed at the same time.

308sekhmet0108
Ene 13, 2021, 12:50 pm

>303 Joshbooks1:

I agree with you. Branching out from american and british literature would be nice. That is why i have been scouring their previous catalogues and finding some good things in them, like India, A History by John Keay, Shakuntala, etc. Haven't managed to acquire these yet. Had planned to buy it from aldersley, but delayed it too much and now will have to pay customs, something i am really hating at the moment.

Even in the current catalogue, i was very interested in Iron Kongdom and Europe, a History. However, i will not be getting them unless they go on (significant) sale, which they are unlikely to do for a long time, if ever.

I also don't love the extreme emphasis on children's books. It is a bit bizarre. If i had children, i don't think i would let them casually read the Fairy something LE that came out, or even the Fairytales series, which are bought and sold, as if they were made of gold! The only children's books i would be interested in would be something by Enid Blyton. I have a had a few bad experiences with reading children's books as an adult, which i didn't end up reading as a child first. (Looking at you, Alice!)

As for their rapidly expanding popular fiction section, i haven't bought any of them except for GoT, which was basically because i was super new to FS and abolutely love the book (and TV series, except for the last season). So, i ended up preordering it. But as time went on, i started really disliking the illustrations and ended up selling it unopened. I am not on FB, but just on Instagram, i can see just how many people have bought Jurassic Park, GoT (and sequels), Dune, etc. It is very remarkable.

Now, i need something that i don't already own and have wanted for ages to condone purchasing from FS again. Paying about €70 in customs is going to be the bitter medicine, which might cure me of my far too short-lived, but acute as hell, Folio Fever.(Hopefully!)

309Jobasha
Ene 13, 2021, 3:43 pm

>308 sekhmet0108:

I think, for the most part, that folio's children's books are not for children.

310wdripp
Editado: Ene 13, 2021, 3:58 pm

>308 sekhmet0108: I know there are many adults out there who enjoy children’s books, myself included. I hope to share them with my nieces when they are a bit older, and I think they are appropriate for careful children. I borrowed fairly fragile 1st edition Oz books from my grandmother and read them as a child.

I purchase most of the children’s books published by FS, and I don’t see a heavy emphasis on them. A lot of their children’s catalog is comprised of reprints, and I feel lucky to get a single new children’s book in each season’s release.

311sekhmet0108
Ene 14, 2021, 2:13 pm

>310 wdripp: It must be a case of confirmation bias in my side, then. I am not on FB, but on Insta there are a lot of people with the same Fairy books, etc. and maybe seeing them over and over again causes me to feel a bit jaded towards them (and the nursery rhymes book, etc.) .

Your nieces are lucky.

312RRCBS
Ene 14, 2021, 2:35 pm

>311 sekhmet0108: I feel like the Fairy books are overrated. I have a few of them and no desire to finish them even at regular price. I like the ones I have though. And I love that FS produces beautiful children’s novels and own quite a few. There’s way more to FS children’s lot than the fairy books.

313witkin
Editado: Ene 14, 2021, 6:15 pm

Yesterday the books were delivered, and after paying the customs fees via DHL/paypal a contactless deposit at the desired location was possible again. A first impression: The Yangtze Valley and Beyond: Beautiful, elegant and even more delicate than "Japanese Tales", which appears quite rough in comparison, which I would not have thought possible, as beautiful as it is. The binding is fine linen, and you could indeed mistake it for silk (as has been said here, but in fact the imprint says "cloth"). It seems to me to be a similar linen to the current edition of "Middlemarch". It is also almost indistinguishable from the silk cover of my edition of "Walden" (2009). The book is as large as and heavier than, say, "Japanese Tales" (which I use for comparison because of size and color scheme), but seems decidedly understated. Gorgeous. The paper is Arctic Volume Ivory, so it smells accordingly (like "Candide" fine edition; pleasant for me) and contrasts nicely with the filigree cover due to its heaviness and thickness, though you don't notice the contrast until you've held the book in your hands. Letters of Vincent van Gogh: The color scheme of the cover is a bit darker „in natura“ than in the photos on the respective site, but still strong and contrasting, the paper inside is Modigliani Insize throughout (I love that smell). Here the binding doesn't pull any threads. I might have liked the book to be a bit larger, then the pictures inside might have shown up a bit better, but at least this way the book is nice and compact in the hand. I am deeply satisfied.

Edited for size correction.

314wdripp
Ene 14, 2021, 5:35 pm

>311 sekhmet0108: I can totally understand that. I get annoyed at the Fairy Books chatter as well, and I love the books. I do have sympathy for those trying to hunt them down. I’m sure it is tremendously frustrating.

315Willoyd
Ene 14, 2021, 8:25 pm

>311 sekhmet0108: >314 wdripp:
I sold my set off before Christmas. No regrets.

316amp123
Ene 15, 2021, 12:54 pm

Those who want to enlarge their FS collection at a heavily discounted price
might consider checking out an auction scheduled for January 20 at the UK auction house Dominic Winter Auctions. They have a few bulk lots of FS books. One is for 78 books with an estimate of 300 to 400 pounds. That amounts to about 5 per book. Some of the books appear to be still in shrink wrap. I know nothing about this house, so I can't vouch for them, but it might be worthwhile to explore.

317jranstead
Ene 15, 2021, 2:26 pm

>316 amp123: Shhh! Yes, there are several very interesting lots, although by the time I add fees (and VAT on the fees) and delivery - and exclude the books I already have - the cost per volume is a lot higher. But certainly worth looking at!

319Juniper_tree
Editado: Ene 16, 2021, 6:20 am

They often undervalue their FS books, thankfully for the seller (although not for me) the auctions I had been interested in, all went for a lot more.

320ubiquitousuk
Ene 16, 2021, 9:13 am

For anyone on the fence, I now have a review of Atlas Shrugged on my blog at https://wp.me/pc0a8G-AU

321warehouseisbare
Ene 16, 2021, 10:00 am

>320 ubiquitousuk:

Thank you for sharing this. Incredible work on your part. Though it’s an expensive set those illustrations really are my preferred style. I love them for dystopian genre books. The Handmaids Tale illustrations are just perfect as well. I went ahead and purchased this because I doubt it will ever be cheaper and I have my doubts that they’ll reprint it for awhile once it sells out.

322l.gallagher
Ene 16, 2021, 8:51 pm

The only sale book I picked up was Voyages to the Moon and Sun. As I mostly read fiction for pleasure there just wasn’t much in this for me, like many people have mentioned. I would have been tempted by Ghost Stories if it were more heavily discounted, but instead I picked up a couple of books on EBay I’ve had my eye on.

323mnmcdwl
Ene 17, 2021, 7:28 am

It took me some time to come to any decision, but fear of missing out prompted me to pick up the Letters of Vincent Van Gogh, Empire, Empire of the Sun, and the not-on-sale Journals of Captain Cook. It’s not the best sale in the world, but these four will keep me busy for a while.

324Jason461
Ene 17, 2021, 9:47 am

Can anyone comment on South Polar Times? I've been on the fence about it several times. I quite enjoy reading about south polar exploration, but something has caused me to hold off on The South Polar Times.

325ubiquitousuk
Editado: Ene 17, 2021, 2:42 pm

>324 Jason461: At this risk of being accused of excessive self-promotion, my thoughts on SPT are on my blog here: https://ubiquitousbooks.wordpress.com/2020/06/04/south-polar-times/

I see it as more of a book to browse/dip in to rather than one to read from cover to cover. But viewed in that light, it's really a beautiful book and, I think, generously priced given what you get (nice binding, large format, full colour throughout, heavy duty printed slipcase). The best parts for me are the disarmingly human and mundane anecdotes of life at the pole—it really helps to build a connection with those guys across space and time.

One other point: in the video on my blog, I am pretty much randomly opening pages in the book. It doesn't matter; it's virtually impossible to find a page in this (large) book that doesn't look visually interesting.

Edit: I just looked back at that blog post and can't believe how many errors of spelling and grammar I found. Mental note: proof read your stuff!

326Yssion
Ene 17, 2021, 11:46 am

>325 ubiquitousuk: I had just about made up my mind to forego South Polar Times in favour of the Captain Cook Journals but your blog has cast me back to indecision. Can anyone comment on the latter as well?

327katielouise
Ene 17, 2021, 1:44 pm

>324 Jason461: I was not at all interested in South Polar Times before people started posting pics of it on the facebook group... and then it became the first book from the sale I put in my cart! As ubiquitousuk's blog shows, it just seems jam-packed full of interesting things and looks like a good book to pick up and read a bit of and then set back down and you can always be assured you'll find something interesting.

328CantileverStout
Ene 17, 2021, 6:06 pm

>320 ubiquitousuk: Nice blog. Thanks!

329SF-72
Ene 18, 2021, 5:04 am

>326 Yssion:

A friend of mine got it and loves it. It's beautifully made and full of interesting information, but also humour, art, ... She's very happy with her purchase.

330Jason461
Ene 18, 2021, 9:31 am

>325 ubiquitousuk:

That's EXTREMELY helpful. Thank you! Folio needs some videos like that so we can see the books better. Gorgeous volume. Gonna have to get it.

331cronshaw
Ene 18, 2021, 2:33 pm

Does anyone know when this sale ends?

332whytewolf1
Editado: Ene 18, 2021, 2:37 pm

>320 ubiquitousuk: Damn your teeth, sir! Watching your video review forced me to go back to Folio's site and order that beautiful edition of Atlas Shrugged while it was still on sale (I've come to adore the artwork of the Balusso sisters!).

Seriously, though, enjoyed the video and very much like your channel overall. :)

333ubiquitousuk
Ene 18, 2021, 2:43 pm

>332 whytewolf1: thanks, happy to be an enabler. I hope you enjoy the book!

334sdg_e
Ene 18, 2021, 2:48 pm

>331 cronshaw:

"*Sale ends midnight Thursday 28 January, or while stock lasts."

335cronshaw
Ene 18, 2021, 2:51 pm

>334 sdg_e: thank you :)

336stumc
Ene 20, 2021, 5:18 pm

so after complaining about the sale, I eventually spent nearly £200! on:
Voyage to the moon and sun
Parades End
Twelth Night (letterpress for just over a tenner, I couldn't resist!)
Memoirs from the Tomb
Homage to Catalonia
Spring Anthology (i love these anthologies so bought one a gift)

I waited too long and missed World Turned Upside Down, and was also tempted by London and New York at 50% off as I really like the Coburn photogravures in The Door in the Wall

337coynedj
Ene 20, 2021, 9:21 pm

For the first time in years, I will be buying nothing from the New Year Sale. Which might be a sign that the Society is getting better at judging the demand for their books, and are not blowing out inventory at a loss. Though, I did like buying some of those low-price books.

338wcarter
Editado: Ene 27, 2021, 9:33 pm

Sale extended by one week and will now end on 4 February.

339LesMiserables
Ene 28, 2021, 5:02 am

The sale has been distended for another week.

Snort.

340Joshbooks1
Ene 28, 2021, 10:56 am

>191 vmb443: I just received my copy of London & New York and I am extremely happy with my purchase. I'm with you in that at full price I would not have purchased it but after opening it up and looking at the workmanship I would have paid $600 in hindsight. It's beautiful and at $300 it's a bargain. I'm not sure if it's for someone who does not have a strong affiliation to either city but if so I wouldn't hesitate to purchase a copy. I know NYC very well but my only problem with London is that although I've been there more than a handful of times, all I seem to remember are the pubs. Oh the pubs, something the British have perfected. A Folio Society pub would almost be heaven to me.

341boldface
Ene 28, 2021, 12:40 pm

>340 Joshbooks1: "A Folio Society pub would almost be heaven to me."

The old Members' Room at Christmas was very similar, but with added books and a Naughty Trolley thrown in.

342SolerSystem
Feb 1, 2021, 9:26 am

Does FS still send out birthday coupons?

343Hrodberht
Feb 1, 2021, 9:52 am

>342 SolerSystem:
Yes, at least as of late December 2020.

344Jayked
Feb 1, 2021, 12:11 pm

>342 SolerSystem:
Whether or not you get one is a crapshoot. I've never received one in umpteen years as a "member."

345SolerSystem
Feb 1, 2021, 12:39 pm

>344 Jayked: Ah, that's a bummer. I've gotten one every year since I made my first purchase a couple years back, but I didn't realize it wasn't really a consistent thing. Guess I won't get my hopes up lol.

346agitationalporcelain
Feb 1, 2021, 12:50 pm

>344 Jayked: >345 SolerSystem: I thought they weren't going to going to send me a birthday code last year, as it hadn't received anything by the time of my birthday (if I recall correctly, it arrived the day before my birthday in 2019), but about 3 weeks later I was sent a "reminder" email that I had only 7 more days to use my birthday discount, despite not having received the original email. Fortunately the reminder email included the voucher code! It made me wonder whether perhaps it's simply a case of some sort of IT glitch on occasions where the vouchers fail to arrive. In any case, should anyone else be unfortunate enough not to receive their birthday voucher, I suggest giving it three weeks in case the reminder email should still arrive.

347Hrodberht
Feb 1, 2021, 1:03 pm

>344 Jayked: Make sure that you have "By email" selected as a contact method in the Preference Centre on your Folio account. I think some FSDs have recommended this in the past.

>346 agitationalporcelain: I received an email with code on my birthday and also a seven day reminder about three weeks later. Your suggestion of waiting three weeks is probably a wise one.

348Willoyd
Feb 1, 2021, 5:10 pm

>347 Hrodberht:
Make sure that you have "By email" selected as a contact method in the Preference Centre on your Folio account.
I've had that set ever since started on line, but still never received a birthday code.

349coynedj
Feb 1, 2021, 5:43 pm

>348 Willoyd: - Same here. No birthday codes for me!

350Retronaut78
Feb 1, 2021, 7:00 pm

Does having a birthday that falls within a sale period affect anything? I have an early January birthday and (if this counts for anything as I've only been with Folio 3 years) have never had a voucher. I could picture Folio not wanting to stack a discount on a discount.

351Jayked
Feb 1, 2021, 8:03 pm

IIRC Last year Glenn persuaded his caged mole to admit that birthday vouchers were handed out on a whim, regardless of merit.

352Ivytree
Feb 2, 2021, 2:48 am

>350 Retronaut78: I have a birthday in early January, and received a voucher code. I used it towards my sale order, which also contained some non-sale books.

353folio_books
Feb 2, 2021, 7:11 am

>351 Jayked:

Yeah, something like that. I know that, having moaned about it to them, I got my first ever birthday voucher last year (October). I was so overwhelmed I bought two books.

354Willoyd
Feb 2, 2021, 9:50 am

>353 folio_books:
TBH, I'm not sure that a birthday code would reduce price sufficiently to persuade me on its own anyway, so have never really been bothered.

355U_238
Feb 2, 2021, 10:11 am

What is the magnitude of the discount granted by a birthday code?

356folio_books
Feb 2, 2021, 10:50 am

>354 Willoyd:

Oh, I agree. It was just the element of surprise caught me off guard. IIRC the code covered the shipping of the books and the order was in the region of £90. No bargain at all, really. I'll not be as hasty next time, assuming there is a next time

>355 U_238:

I think it was for £10.

357indianabones
Feb 3, 2021, 1:48 am

>355 U_238: My birthday code was for a $20 discount for a purchase of $40 or more. I should note that the fine print excluded Limited Editions.

358vmb443
Feb 3, 2021, 6:25 am

>340 Joshbooks1: I’m so glad you like them! Selfishly glad too that I don’t have to carry a weight of guilt if you ended up hating them (haha). I think they’re marvelous - not ever something I would have predicted I’d be enamored with and yet I am - I suppose that’s one of the many beauties of the Folio Society and it’s diverse publications - like ordering an unknown dish off a menu and discovering it’s one of your new favorite meals.

359laotzu225
Feb 13, 2021, 11:50 pm

I just want to report that I bought ONE book at the Folio sale (Although an old-time FS "member", I do not any longer buy many new FS books due to cost and design dislikes.) However, I did purchase at $100 USD Travels of Marco Polo.
Quite a handsome book, one I would put into Fine Edition class (Folio does sometimes refer to certain books as being Fine Editions). Interestingly, in light of several comments in this thread, I noticed it was printed and bound in China-natural enough given the subject (!). I detected nothing inferior about the production.
I felt it was an excellent buy and recommend the title overall.