First time buyer - poor quality

Hi - long time lurker and now a first time buyer of Folio Society books and...a bit disappointed. Ordered:

Game of Thrones
Selected Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
LOTR
Hobbit
Silmarillion
Fall of Gondolin

And every one of them had quality issues (stains/marks on the back of illustration pages, flaking gold from the embossed covers, bashed cases, creased pages).

To be fair, they are all being replaced no problem at all but have I just been unlucky? Is the quality normally this bad?

I've been buying Folio books for 30 years now, and have had maybe three or four quality issues sufficiently noticeable to ask for a replacement. Though I did buy one book early on that has an upside-down title page, which somehow eluded my notice for some years!

>1 Billy_Young:

I would have thought as a long-time lurker you'd have seen similar discussions a few times on these pages.

Cut to the chase - you've been unlucky. But, as you've found out, replacement is never an issue.

>1 Billy_Young:

Folio Society books occasionally have quality issues, mainly related to handling and improper packing, especially when boxes are placed within the dreaded white plastic sack for mail personnel to toss about, resulting in damaged slipcases and (rarely) books. A few quirky bindings made with non-standard materials also have had problems. However, over many decades of purchasing FS books I have never encountered "stains/marks on the back of illustration pages" or "creased pages". Never.

Frankly, I do not believe you and your claims are not credible.

>1 Billy_Young:

The Fall of Gondolin is not strictly speaking a FS book; it is published by HarperCollins and resold by FS. Besides that you are either extremely unlucky or overly critical. I only ever returned one FS book because of a quality issue.

Fairly poor response to a genuine question - I’ve already stated I have no issue with the customer service, just genuinely surprised at the issues I’ve had . Seems that some here allow the brand to blind them, oh well 😀

>6 Billy_Young: Many of us in this forum have purchased hundreds of Folio books, and while issues do come up, the odds of every book in your order being defective (when the defects are not the same and the result of a crushed box or something) are extraordinarily low. Consequently, you’re going to find a lot of us skeptical about your claim.

I have about 370 Folios, but I've never seen creased pages or "stains/marks on the back of illustration pages" - not even once.

I asked for replacement only twice: paste paper wasn't glued correctly to the binding of the Edward Thomas LE resulting in air bubbles, and spines of The Tale of Genji were creased (production defect). There is one more book that I would have asked to replace if I bought it myself, and it's one of the books from your list - The Silmarillion. The gold on the ship and its reflection on the front board was stamped poorly. Is it the problem with your Silmarillion too? I got it as a gift though, so I won't be bothering the gift-giver with returns, of course. So that's 3 out of 370.

Sure, one of the responses wasn't particularly amiable, but what did you expect asking the "Is the quality normally this bad?" question? "Oh yes, normally the quality is absolutely terrible. We own hundreds of Folios, and every single one has quality issues. That's normal and expected, welcome to the club"? :) Perhaps if you post pictures of the defects, people would have some basis for judgement.

Sounds like you were extremely unlucky. Hope you will be satisfied with the replacements.
To be honest though, the Tolkiens are not Folio's best, in my opinion. Not something I would select as a good introduction to the Folio Society. But I hope you'll enjoy them anyway.

The only time I've asked for replacements was when the books came bruised because the boxes themselves had been bumped. As for the quality of the books, I've never had any issues.

I remember way back, I had some issues with Mrs Dalloway. The cover (made on some buckram) rubbed on the interior of the slipcase and as a result would appear somewhat paler than it was supposed to. Of course, Folio offered me replacements. I learned too that you shouldn't be overly critical; in some cases, there are things that cannot be avoided. Anyway, maybe you have been unlucky. This forum wouldn't have so many members, and the Folio Society itself wouldn't have survived, if it made books of such low standards.

I had an unlucky phase with limited editions once, several in a short time frame were unsatisfactory, which was an unpleasant surprise. One had scratched / scuffed leather, another had deep scratches on some pages, and one had a creased quarter-binding which affected the gold stamping. I guess these kinds of things can happen, but they're not the norm.

I also had problems with some of my LEs. It seems I'm quite unlucky in that regard. As for regular editions out of the 150 or so I ordered from FS directly I only had a few I for which I asked for a replacement, but that was due to poor packaging/rough handling.

Sounds like you're spectacularly unlucky. I've bought around 50 books new from the FS and none of them have had even so much as a hole in the shrink wrapping. They've all been pretty much pristine inside.

Books are organic material so very small blemishes to the paper and slip cases is natural, but nothing so noticeable that would make me think twice.

FSD-ers:

>1 Billy_Young: is your basic internet troll, someone who craves attention and invades various websites making false and controversial remarks to stir the sh*tpot and attract attention to himself/herself.

Basic internet rule: Please don't feed the troll, i.e., do not respond to these posts or engage the troll in any manner. Eventually, he/she will leave the website, find another one, and do the same thing. Wash, rinse, repeat.

>13 dlphcoracl: I see Emily's offspring has hatched.

Thanks for the tip, dlphcoracl.

https://www.librarything.com/pic/7292383

https://www.librarything.com/pic/7292378

https://www.librarything.com/pic/7292386

https://www.librarything.com/pic/7292387

I’ve clearly been unlucky - replacements en route

Thanks for the pictures. I think you were right to return these books. Don't be discouraged to buy more FS books in the future; it can only get better from now on.

Seems like you have been very unlucky. I haven’t ever needed to ask for a replacement, but can see why you would be concerned given the photos you have uploaded. I hope your replacements are perfect!

The first book I ever purchased direct from the Folio Society had a detached page (page ripped diagonally straight across) about 2/3 the way through the volume. It was a copy of Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy. Emily at FS was great, and had a replacement shipped free of charge.

Since then, I've purchased approx. 10 other Folio books new from the Folio Society and all have been perfect. Just a one time thing....sometimes it happens. FS always makes you whole.

Cheers

I’ve had two books from Folio with creased pages, both replaced immediately.

Riddley Walker LE:



The Diversity of Life:

>15 Billy_Young:

Mea culpa. My apology.

In many decades of collecting FS books I have never encountered the number and number of different type of defects exhibited in your photos, especially within one shipment. It is as if someone decided to clear out the defective copies and include them in one order to an FS newbie. Fortunately, FS does indeed replace defective copies promptly and without complaint or hassle.

The good news? Your next FS order will inevitably be better than this one.

Thank you - I’ve clearly just been unlucky. Fingers crossed the replacements are ok and apologies if I have created any discord in the group, it was never my intention.

>21 Billy_Young:

Any discord was clearly my doing with a false accusation. Truly, I have never encountered the specific type of defects you have described (and photographed) in your shipment.

>21 Billy_Young: Were they shrink wrapped? The shrink-wrap does - to a certain degree - provide a minimal level of protection as to avoid any creasing of interior pages. Very odd.

Not doubting you, of course. Just curious, as the shrink-wrap is more or less sturdy on Folios.

They were all shrink wrapped which made it even more confusing as it suggested a QA issue at the point of printing

>24 Billy_Young: Or returns which had been shrink wrapped and send back out again - just because it is shrink wrapped, there is no guarantee that the book was never opened... It should not happen but someone in the warehouse may be doing something weird during the Sale... Or someone picked books from the wrong pile - they do have the "last copies sale" occasionally (or used to) which are mostly scratch and dent copies (I have a few of those from a sale 6-7 years ago and I knew they come with various weird issues on them but they were 90% or so off so...)

Good luck with your replacements. I've had problems with a single book in the last 12 years or so (deliveries to two different countries) so this is... surprising.

>15 Billy_Young:
While not required to obtain a no cost replacement I certainly hope you shared your pics with the FS so they have documentation of the rare quality miss and can address internally.

>1 Billy_Young: The creased pages are the result of sheet mis-feeds at the printer. It happens more often than you would think. Binding errors occur more often than we would like. I once received a copy of a book (not FS) that was bound upside down. Bookseller replaced it and returned it to publisher.

>27 Glacierman: I also received an upside down copy of a book once. The replacement had the textblock not correctly aligned between the covers. The third book I received was finally up to standard.

So, some bad news and some good news...bad news is that the replacement copies of The Hobbit and LOTR still have the same gold flaking issues and the Folio Society are now carrying out a warehouse check to see if they have received a bad batch.

The good news is that a) my replacement copy of the Silmarillion is spot on and b) my second order from the folio society of 22 books turned up today and every single one is top notch in terms of quality - phew!

Now looking forward to working my way through them - going to start with Dune I think before moving on to American Gods.

>1 Billy_Young:

I have purchased over 250 volumes directly from the FS now. In the past, my flaw rate was approx 5%. Now it's approx 30% (I keep rudimentary statistics). The quality is getting worse and it's noticeable with or without mathematics. Many will tell you otherwise, but this is my opinion. As someone who owns over 700 Folio Society volumes, I can tell you that I know the publisher very well, but it's up to each person to judge whether or not they believe me or think I'm a liar.

The incidence of shipping damage has increased dramatically after the warehousing/shipping was moved to Spain, but this transition is till in it's infancy.

I will also state that if you remove shipping considerations, the amount of flaws/damage I'm seeing that have come PRIOR to shipping, is increasing by multiples that 5 years ago I would never have dreamed of. The definition of a flaw is different for everyone, so there is a bit of art in the standardization of numbers inherent in the process of coming up with averaged values across all purchasers (on LT or otherwise).

>30 EclecticIndulgence: I've had the opposite results. I've bought over 300 volumes directly from the FS so I have a reasonable sample size as well. The number of books damaged in shipping has plummeted since they switched to Spain. I'm guessing the reason is due to the elimination of the infamous Royal Mail sling bag which too often resulted in 100% of my books being damaged.

>31 kdweber:

Mine from Spain still come with the slingbag. Instead of a black plastic clamp around the bag, i now have a yellow one that states that the bag ships from Spain.

>30 EclecticIndulgence: EclecticIndulgence I completely agree with you. I have never had a shipment without either production issues or damage due to transit. The packaging can definitely be improved. Most of my books have dent in the spine and the slipcase. As for production issues sometimes the dye bleeds over, sometimes there are glue marks on the end papers, sometimes the paper itself has stains. I still buy them because they are well designed and there are no other alternatives. I also wish they had more illustrations.

I won't be beating the dead horse again, just want to note that FS did not switch to Spain. Rather, some orders go through there. I did receive an order from Spain once last year, but my last couple of orders, including the latest one from the New Year Sale, came from the UK. I'm in the US.

I would quickly like to add that I always choose express shipping for my orders, regardless of quantity, and as of yet (been collecting since 2017), with over 70+ volumes, I have absolutely had no title suffer damage what so ever.

>35 RATBAG.: Interesting

>32 EclecticIndulgence:
>34 elladan0891:

Examine the shipping labels closely. The boxes transit through Jersey, and are then sent to Spain where they are put into the Spanish Mail bags. That has been my experience.

>37 drasvola:

My last two or three shipments, as best my recollection allows, hopped from Jamaica to New York, then to me in the midwest. I find the Jamaica hop curious, as in, is that really the most efficient path? Regardless, I am pleased wth the change because it's a stark difference compared to the white rucksack sling bag out of Spain that lead to so many damaged books, both firsts and replacements. I don't necessarily think any/all damage was done in Spain, though; their white sling bags gave everyone downstream a license to toss.

>29 Billy_Young: my copies of The Hobbit, etc have the same issue with the gold as your picture, and I’ve had them for 15 years. So that’s nothing new, unfortunately.

>38 treereader:

Think not only of efficiencies but also volumes. If there is no space on the New York boat and the boxes will need to be warehoused for a few more days in UK/Europe, it is more efficient and cheaper to put them on the boat that leaves for Jamaica to cross the ocean. With shipping, the shortest possible path is not always the fastest and warehousing packages is expensive.

>40 AnnieMod:

I hadn't thought of that, good point.

>38 treereader: I'm fairly certain that your books did not make a detour to the Caribbean. Kennedy Airport is in the NYC borough of Queens. The FedEx facility in the airport would likely use the address of Jamaica, Queens. So the books only went about two hundred yards from the plane to the FedEx facility.

It is perhaps worth noting that most parcels sent by Royal Mail will spend most of their time in slingbags; usually, however, these bags are emptied by the recipient postal service, and by the time they are finally delivered there is no sign that they spent most of their journey in a bag. It is only the M-Bags that are delivered bag 'n' all to the final customer.

I have 269 FS books in my library and have had only a few quality issues but quite often slipcases have been damaged in transit. Having said that I do have a major problem with the durability of a large percentage of my Folio volumes. The composition of the material used in some of the bindings is highly susceptible to fungal attack. Recently after several consecutive days of high humidity 65 of my FS books had mould forming along the spines, some even extending to the covers inside the slipcases. Some are affected more extensively and frequently than others, but the problem is exclusive to my FS books. I have hundreds of other hardcover books and do not have the mould problem with any of them. Treating the affected area with a light wipe of a cloth dampened with mentholated spirits removes the mould but it usually reappears, sometimes months or years later. Unfortunately each cleaning has an accumulative detrimental effect on the cover. Is it just me, or has anyone else had this issue?

The main thing that distinguishes Folio books from others is that they have slipcases and no dustcovers. I've found that early Folios with dustcovers have few problems with fading due to light, and with peeling of leather. I don't experience fungus because I have central air-conditioning.

>44 snowman:

It is just you.

Folio Society books do not have an unusual susceptibility to fungus or mold if excessive humidity is avoided.

>44 snowman:
Recently we had two back-to-back cyclones in Mauritius.
My house was pretty humid, and I was quite surprised to see a white cloud of mould on the spines of some Folio books. I brushed it off with my hand. I hope it doesn't happen again.

>42 Redshirt:

That makes so much more sense. The label isn't exactly forthcoming with detail, so I could only assume that it was the real Jamaica. Thanks for the clarification!

I think we should inform the good people of Jamaica, Queens that they have been relegated to the standing of fake Jamaica.

>49 Green_krkr:

:-)

>37 drasvola:
As I mentioned before, one of my orders did go through Spain last year. But others did not. For the New Year sale order, tracking was actually included for my standard shipping order - for the first time ever. It was shipped via TrakPak, a shipping consolidator that outsources to a range of companies/delivery methods. Although I placed my order on the 24th of Dec, it looks like it departed FS warehouse only on the 30th, at least that's the start of trackable history at TrakPak. It reached the next stop, Basildon, UK, only on Jan 6. I'm guessing it was waiting for consolidation with other shipments going overseas. 2 days later it cleared customs in NY and was passed on to FedEx SmartPost in Jamaica, NY. FedEx shipped it to Atlanta and handed it over to USPS for the actual delivery.

In regards to the flaking gold or the faded colors on the cover of the hobbit, does anyone have any ideas on how i can touch this up? Its just a small part of the dragons fire breath.

Not sure how to post pictures so here's the one in my gallery of the cover:

https://pics.cdn.librarything.com//picsizes/b4/c9/b4c9b66e9081f5c636c37707677434...

>15 Billy_Young: >13 dlphcoracl: Perhaps Billy is not a troll. He did take the time and trouble to send examples which show genuine defects..

>29 Billy_Young: You were certainly willing to give them another chance 22 , in fact. Good luck.
As a long time Folio member, then buyer, although less so now , my principal problem with FS books in recent years have been related to book choices, design and illustrations. But their best stuff is very good. (I more often buy them second hand now if I can find a US seller.)

I had similar issues ten years ago or more, with a patch of the gold having flaked off the front of The Silmarillion by the time I received it. I didn't actually do anything about it but I think I would nowadays, especially as prices have gone up so much in recent years.

>55 boldface: I didn't actually do anything about it but I think I would nowadays, especially as prices have gone up so much in recent years.

I'll happily endorse that. In the last two/three years I've been much more likely to return a book with a minor, almost nitpicking defect (the last one was the Tristram Shandy LE) simply because for that kind of money one expects perfection. To be fair, that's what I get, the vast majority of the time.

Interesting how people are replying to the long dead thread like it’s just started. Even probably Billy young is not aware about it.

I recently acquired all fifteen Graham Greene titles that the society has published with the intention to read them in chronological order.

When I came to the middle of the fourth book, The Confidential Agent, Greene wrote that the main character shaved his moustache off in the hope that he wouldn't be so easily recognized, but the illustrator continued in four "plates" to show him with the moustache intact.

Obviously, the illustrator didn't bother to read the work he was supposed to illustrate, and nobody at the society noticed the mistakes, or, if they noticed, cared about it.

---

Earlier this year, I bought Italian Folktales new from the society. After just a couple of days reading the books, I noticed that the black colour on the cover was easily rubbed off, it was enough to take the books out of the slipcase a couple of times to note this defect. The society replaced the books, but the second set had the same fault. I then returned both sets and was reimbursed. However, the society continues to sell these books on their website without telling their customers about the defect.

>58 cupidum:
Inaccurate illustrations seem to be endemic, not just to FS, which is one reason I can do without them. For example, the heavily illustrated Wodehouse series shows one character, said to be wearing an ulster, dressed in a suit with a check so violent that no self-respecting bookmaker would be seen wearing it in Tattersall's. Kes gives detailed descriptions of locales that aren't matched by the detailed drawings -- and on and on. If you don't learn to treat them for what they're worth they'll spoil many books for you.

>58 cupidum: - I recall coming across a similar example in the FS edition of Lorna Doone. The text clearly stated that the hero, John Ridd, had a full beard, but an illustration opposite that description showed him clean-shaven.