How are your 3E PHBs, DMGs and MMs holding up?

[BiggusGeekus@Work]

They're holding up too well. I want them to disintigrate so I'll have a good reason to buy the revised books. As it is, I'll just be being prey to crass consumerism.

 

[diaglo]

EDIT - Merric reminded me of something. My unearthed Arcana had a terrible binding, and fell apart within a year. Most of my other books, Oriental Adventures, Dungeon Survival Guide, Etc. - stayed together well. I have a first and second printing first edition AD&D PHB on my shelf - and both are looking better than some of my 3rd edition books.

1ed stuff my UA is fine. my DDG, however, is the pits. my PHB, DMG, MM, et al. are here to stay forever.

 

[coyote6]

My 3e books seem fine. Covers are a little worn, from being carried about quite a bit, and some of the pages in the MM or DMG (I forget which) look like they are close to coming out -- but I think they just look that way. I've dropped 'em, and they've seen probably a couple of thousand miles of travel, but they're holding out. OTOH, I don't go out of my way to crack the spine (bending the covers back, etc.) or anything, so . . .

My original 1e books were crippled sometime in the mid-80s. The DMG spine fell apart, while the PHB's spine simply broke; I think the MM's spine broke, too, but it held out longer. My DDG is in great shape, and my Fiend Folio was when I sold it (somebody offered me $60 or $70 for it several years ago; I kind of regret selling it, though the money was handy at the time). My OA 1e had spinal problems almost immediately, and UA is still barely holding together -- about half the pages seem on the verge of falling out, though, so I only ever handle it very carefully.

Fortunately, I 'inherited' a couple of other copies of the 1e PH, DMG, & MM, so I could play AD&D 1e with no problem, should I for some reason want to.

And my first copy of GURPS Basic 3e (2nd or 3rd printing, IIRC) fell apart long ago. The cover's held together with duct tape & functions as a glorified folder for the loose pages. But that book saw a lot of (ab)use.

I guess I take fairly good care of my books, though. I do store them wrong -- stacks. I need more bookshelves...

 

[Painfully]

Considering my PH gets about 5x the use and abuse of my DMG and MM, I think my books are holding up great! Even though I've finally bought a 2nd printing PH, my old one feels much better because it opens to all the right pages all by itself Not to mention the extra time I've put into it by handprinting most of the errata, and adding page tabs.

My 2nd printing PH still sits on my shelf practically unused.

 

[HellHound]

Henry - I'm impressed.

My 1e PHB is actually in pieces. Spineless, coverless, a mangled mishappen pile of random papers, some of them still glued together by that same Asmodeus-purchased binding glue.

 

[Kraedin]

The cover has fallen off the PHB, and it's beginning to on the MM.

Although, I have to say, a paperback PHB is actually easier to search through.

 

[Olive]

i lent my phb to some one, and when i got it back, it was falling off its binding, but the others are fine. i dropped my R&R on its bottom left corner a while back, and the shock started its seperating as well...

 

[Celebrim]

I'm happy with the quality of my 3rd ed. products - my books are still intact. Though, it sounds like they have the same problem that 1st ed. had - highly variable quality depending on the print run. My 1st ed. DMG's cover and spine are still in very good shape (I'm very careful with it), but after nearly two decades of being flipped through, its coming apart from the inside out as the glue gives just gives up in dispair.

 

[Berk]

For the 2+ years that I've owned each book they are doing great. Got all first prints the day they were released. Use them about 3 times a day on average, sometimes more, sometimes less though. The PHB deffinately has gone through the worst treatment being opened the most and tossed around and thrown an dropped but it's still in almost perfect condition. Don't know what some people do to their books to make them fall apart so quickly. =op

 

[Drommon]

Binding? What binding? I cut mine off and scanned the pages into my laptop. Did that for all the WoTC products I bought and with the Dragon magazines. Its nice to have my entire collection with me wherever I go and lightly!

Drommon