New DLE Count of Monte Cristo...

hidden on the website... http://www.eastonpress.com/prod/6FD/THE-COUNT-OF-MONTE-CRISTO_2787

The picture covers are a bit naff.

Set was sold a few years earlier, Easton Press sold out the first batch and printed more volumes.

>3 EastonQuality:

Was the original substantially different? I don't have much trust in the limitedness of limited editions (as publishers can easily make a minor tweak) and reprint, whilst not technically lying about the limitation.

I am unsure if this is even a DLE. It comes up in an odd way...but no directly under the category. It has no features beyond a standard volume.

>5 cu29640:

Agreed. It just looks like regular EP fare. Also seems like a pretty normal EP print run.

It is a deluxe edition. Well, it appears to be so anyway.

http://www.eastonpress.com/cat/Deluxe-Editions-414_1-459

Usually if it's hand-numbered it's a DLE. However, I would like to know what other features make it "deluxe"? I'm guessing mostly the size (decent size) and illustrations.

ps I have no idea what "Deluxe Editions 414" means? Glad it's not 451, that would have been disturbing :)

>4 Studedoo: Studedoo

As for printing, good chance they printed half of them in one run and started on the second half.

> 7

"Deluxe" doesn't mean anything, really. Anything can be deluxe if you label it so. It's classic marketing gimmickry, to incentivise you into buying something. :-)

In EP's case, they at least add some sort of differentiating feature before calling a book deluxe. In The Count's case, though, it's probably enough to say that the main difference is the number of volumes, not special features or quality improvements over the standard product.

There was a 4-volume LEC edition of The Count - is this EP edition derived from that one? Did Heritage Press issue a multi-volume set?

9: Almost certainly not. The LEC and HP typically used original illustrations. These illustrations are from 1887.

Most disturbing. I contacted EP to get this set last week and they said it was all sold out. Thus I had to buy it from a book dealer new at a higher price. Yet the flyer web link says they are taking orders and that it will be available June 2015. We are only in April. This set was supposed to be limited to 800 numbered copies.

11: Really? Online it says it's in stock.

Call again, as a guess they may have sold half and are in progress of printing the second run of 800.

I see that it is not on their DLE page but still on its own page per link above. I have an April 7 email from EP that it is all sold out. If it is not I will try to recoupe the additional $$ from them for what I paid (which was not terribly more than retail.....but annoying if it is still available). I suspect web page is not updated since I see the DLE Don Quixote is shown as available but again customer service says it is sold out.

I hate to say this but it appears the 1887 set was printed and sold out more than a year ago. I bought one unopened on eBay. You can see another opened set showing it is the 1887 Routledge set. Yet Easton tells me they NEVER printed the set and it will not be available until June. Are they lying? I sent them a picture of the previous set which exactly resembles the newer one. Most troubling, meaning they reserve the right to reprint DLEs meaning the limited number of 500 or 800 means nothing.

More info. The previous set sold is 1888 Routledge. Easton gets around the DLE by printing the 1887 set. How much you want to bet they simply reprinted the whole set but only swapped the front page saying 1887 permitting a whole new cycle of DLEs to be sold. Seems deceptive to me. Very bothersome. So when they say "we never sold this set"....that is true but I think unethical on their part.

14-16: I'm a bit confused by what you're trying to say? Easton Press has certainly printed a number of different editions of the CoMC. It's a very popular book and has had many different editions and different illustrators. I don't recall them every releasing a DLE of this edition? Am I missing something, if so could you please include a link. Thanks.

>16 HugoDumas:
Easton frequently publishes DLEs that are very much like one of their previous editions - Don Quixote and The Tempest, for example. Often the two editions contain the same art with the same translations, but something will be different, perhaps the size or the edition being photocopied. While not really unethical, this practice can confuse the purchaser and even Customer Service - one rep who says Monte Cristo is sold out is referring to the first set, while another rep who says it isn't printed yet is referring to the second. And needless to say, purchasing on the secondary market requires special vigilance.

More recently, the 1611 King James Bible was offered as a heavy, huge DLE, and after it was sold out it was offered in a much smaller edition - again, not exactly unethical, but you have to know what you are buying.

Easton Press has been walking on the edge of respectability for the last 2 or 3 years. Several of their marketing emails have been false or misleading. I own 20 of their DLEs and am happy with most of them, but I seldom do business with the company anymore.

18: I think the same can be said of the Folio Society. The FS published a limited edition Wind in the Willows, and then after it sold out published a much smaller edition but with the same illustrations. They did the same thing with Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám only this time it was published as a much finer edition, albeit not limited. Now the FS is publishing a "fine" edition of Paradise Lost with the same illustrations as the EP DLE! They're both about the same price, but apparently the FS edition is not limited. Still, I don't consider any of this unethical. Companies do need to make money and they do need to keep their costumers happy. That said, some FS devotees have not been so happy about this. I guess I can understand, but do keep in mind that while a typical EP DLE costs say $300-400 a FS LE costs closer to $800-900.

>19 astropi:
You're right about Folio and probably other publishers as well. It is only unethical if the publisher's intent is to con the buyer into thinking he is getting something he is not, and I don't think either Easton or Folio does that. Nevertheless, it can be confusing. I own just one Folio LE because of the high cost and relatively high printing limitations.

Correction. They published the 1888 version and remarketed as 1887 commemorative ; both copyright 1887. Just got it today. Here is my letter to EP. I will have my attorney contact them for fraudulent marketing practices.

Dear Easton Press,

I have been your customer for probably 30 years and have close to 500 EP books.

I am shocked and disappointed that you are selling the 1887 5-Volume Count of Monte Cristo as a hand numbered DLE set at 800 copies. I just received your 1888 DLE hand numbered set copyrighted 1887 by the Routledge company which I bought on eBay new as an out-of-print set. That's all you did is copy the front page "1887" and reprinted a set which is identical. So instead of 800 DLE copies out there, we will now have 1,600 in effect dramatically reducing the market value of our hand numbered sets.

I also just purchased your 1887 Les Miserables set, which is flawed as stated in a previous communication. I am aware that there is an 1886 original (which I have seen) and I am concerned a couple years from now you will re-issue the 1886 version as a unique DLE set hand numbered and limited to 600. How many DLE sets will you re-issue simply by finding reprinted sets?

I personally do not understand how you can be so dishonest and so disrespectful to your loyal customers. I think this type of deceptive perhaps fraudulent marketing could warrant a class-action suit on behalf of EP customers.

I would appreciate a response from someone higher than a customer service representative.

Sincerely yours,

Dr. Sergei Kochkin
Deerfield, IL 60015

I don't see you getting much mileage out of EP. Unfortunately this kind of thing is genuinely common practice in the publishing world. My collection is mostly Tolkien, so my examples are from that domain, but examples would be: 1997 HarperCollins Quarter Leather LOTR limited to 1000 copies (and stated as such). Three subsequent essentially identical prints without the limitation (adding another 4000 or so). Same with 1999 Hobbit limited to 2,500 (and stated limited). Guess what, minor change to slipcase and another 2,500 copies (not stated limited). I can think of several other examples, including their entire "available for a limited time only" deluxe range that has been available now for 11 years, with at least 8 printings of the first book!

Quite frankly, anyone who thinks that EP definitely won't reprint further rounds of their DLEs with minor adjustments (subsequently marketed as DLEs or otherwise) has a lot more faith in EP than I do. I think they will start re-issuing DLE variants in a few years once they have tapped out the DLE market (which isn't going to keep on buying forever at the current rate of production). I guess the key is to buy them because you like them and because you think the value is good (at NO limitation), and you will be happy. Don't buy because you think they are limited as that scarcity is VERY artificial and removable at a whim.

That said, I think this particular example IS thoroughly dirty behaviour by EP (especially if they just did a page swap to change the date) -- just not unique dirty behaviour, nor behaviour that is likely to be limited to this set.

Genuinely scarce books were printed a long time ago in either small numbers or have suffered losses over time. You can't manufacture scarcity in a modern book - at least not in a way that should be taken at all seriously. Think Beany Babies - lots of variants with artificial scarcity...

Skochkin said:

"If it is not I will try to recoupe the additional $$ from them for what I paid (which was not terribly more than retail.....but annoying if it is still available)."

While I understand your frustration here, I do not understand at all why EP should refund the difference that you purchased from an Ebay seller. If I understand correctly you bought the earlier DLE from a third party (not fromEP) for more than what the current DLE is selling for. EP was not part of this transaction, so why should they pay the difference?

I guess I am in agreement with others that you are welcome to boycott EP, and tell others of this experience if you feel this was unethical. But lawyers would be a waste of money.

-Shawn

Sdawson.....after fully understanding what they did, it is to get them to stop deceptive DLE marketing....it's no longer the price difference but real market value. Really rotten of them reprinting a set and changing just one page to get around their DLE promise. Driven by Pure greed! I never would have bought the set at that price if I knew they would reprint it. I feel ripped off and need to do something about it. I have a grievance and it needs to be resolved. I have indeed contacted my attorney to see if this is fraud. I think it is since both sets 2 years apart have the same copyright date of 1887. I might simply be naive...that this is just "clever" marketing....or the American way.

It's like that classic "New and improved" slogan! How can anything be both "new" and "improved"?

I'm not at surprised that EP has started reprinting what were originally limited print runs, changing only the slightest detail to distinguish two nearly-identical print runs.

I'm on the fence about this behavior. On the one hand, it's borderline unethical (given that they are indeed making some sort of change to institute a uniqueness, you couldn't say it's absolutely unethical) and on the other hand it gives me additional opportunities to obtain some of these nicer sets at a lower price, either directly from EP or from some reseller.

If I really wanted super scarce copies of everything, worth immeasurable amounts, I'd invent a time machine and pick up mint unread originals. I might even get a few signed by the authors, too! haha

Correction......Easton Press investigated my complaint. Here is their explanation. I assume they are being truthful; they assured me they would never duplicate a DLE by printing two runs with different dates as I interpreted from their ad. They printed 300 copies of the 1888 edition commemorating the 1887 edition; that indeed is the copyright on my set which you see being sold on Abe's books and eBay. It sold out in 2013. They are now printing the final 500 copies of this edition which will be available in June 2015 at the following link. It is a spectacular set. It is by the same company that did the Les Miserables 1887 set; Routledge and Sons.

http://www.eastonpress.com/prod/6FD/THE-COUNT-OF-MONTE-CRISTO_2787?cm_st=2&c...

26: Well, that is good to know.

They also changed their website to clear up any confusion, as follows:

(Note that the original set was dated 1888 on the title page and 1887 on the copyright page.)

Deluxe 414 is prob denoting a grouping of books presented for an April marketing promotion.

I had wondered if the 414 was actually just an error (HTTP Status code - URI too long), and that the website is supposed to be grabbing the correct title from somewhere else (via HTTP), but the request is malformed and is displaying the 414 instead.

April 2014 is probably more plausible, though.

Yeah...everything is there for someone to find but they probably change around the groupings that show up as suggestions...or for SEO use.

I will say the new EP and DM websites have been tweaked since the debut and they are pretty good. Now if we can only get the full online account features for EP like DM offers. You can see all shipments, order replacements, pay bills.