Book Quality

[shouit]

This is actually inspired by another thread on the board about thick books, but I was wondering about the quality of the bindings and such. I still have my original 1st edition PHB and that still holds up, but I have almost reached end of life for my 3rd edition book and it is only a couple years old. I was wondering if publishers test the quality of their bindings or does the companies that make the book?

I have had to exchange two books because of the pages were falling out when I got them. Also I have been getting "warped" books as well and I was wondering how common is that?

 

[Furn_Darkside]

but I have almost reached end of life for my 3rd edition book and it is only a couple years old.

Wow, the one I bought the day 3rd edition was available is still in good condition. That is a shame you either got hit with a turkey, or just abuse the book too much.

I have not had any problems I can think of with binding of the books I have bought.

Except perhaps those darn pdf's..

FD

 

[Crothian]

I have a wide variety of RPG books, and so far my d20 stuff is holding up perfectly except for one book. And that book is a binding problem, but not one where the binding is falling apart and pages are falling out.

My older D&D books are not doing so well. Most of them were just glued together and that is not a long lasting process. Especially when the books get left somewhere hot.

 

[KnowTheToe]

No issues with mine, but one of the guys I game with had his binding fall apart. I could be a bad run or just a handful of bad bindings.

I bought a second book before the prices went up to safeguard buying a higher cost book later. It works out well because I can lend it to people and still have a book at home.

 

[Breakdaddy]

All my D20 books are in great condition (I bought the three core all on the days they hit the shelves), but my old copy of unearthed arcana and my old 1E PHB bit the dust within a few years of purchase (the UA was DOA after only a year, the binding was crap).

 

[EverSoar]

My PHB is warped

 

[Hejdun]

Well, I haven't had a problem with any bindings at all. My PHB has a few ripped pages from flipping through it too fast, though. And my DMG has a set of nice cat scratches right down the front. Other than that, my hardbound books are in perfect condition.

I think it all depends on how much stress you put on them. I've careful that I don't abuse them, and so do all of my friends, and all our books are fine.

 

[Holy Bovine]

All the d20 books I have bought have held very well. Grnated it has only been a couple of years and I expect to get many, many more years out of these. The only books that I ever had trouble with were 1E Unearthed Arcana (pretty much every copy I have ever come across has a completely crap binding - pages fall out and eventually (read: less than 2 years after purchase) the cover sperates completely from the rest of the book

Also my first copy of 1E Oriental Adventures started falling apart about 2-3 years after I bought it. Very surprising as I hardly ever used it (unlike UE which got a lot of use, careful use by me but use nonetheless). I recently found a nearly pristine replacement for my original OA and sold my original for $15 on eBay (and I went to great lengths to describe the damage and overall condition of it - I honestly didn't think it would sell, the guy who bought it was very pleased however). Ani't life grand

Oh one strange thing tha did happen is that a piece of thin cardboard came out of the spine of my Relics & Rituals book. It seemed to have no effect on the quality of the binding however and I am unsure if it counts as a poor quality binding or not as it seems as secure as ever.

 

[Tewligan]

Oh one strange thing tha did happen is that a piece of thin cardboard came out of the spine of my Relics & Rituals book. It seemed to have no effect on the quality of the binding however and I am unsure if it counts as a poor quality binding or not as it seems as secure as ever.

You're lucky. You apparently purchased a pregnant Relics & Rituals. If you put the book larva (or "thin cardboard", as you so naively called it) into a shoebox lined with old rags and keep it in a warm, dry place, you should have a healthy copy of Relics & Rituals 2 in about a month and a half. Congratulations!

 

[the Jester]

My 2e PH fell apart quicker than my first relationship, and UA did too... most of my other books have stood the test of time well. I also had the R&R larva pop out but unfortunately it didn't get enough water and subsequently died.