Lords of Madness binding and. . . piracy?

[jdrakeh]

I ordered some new copes of a few D&D 3.5 books from an Amazon reseller and while they arrived safely and are, in fact, new. . . the Lords of Madness book has a horrible binding job. Specifically, the cardboard insert in the spine is loose and the pages seem to have been cut unevenly on the spine side, which has resulted in the pages in the last half of the book not being fully held in place by the binder's glue.

Now, before anybody thinks I'm posting about this just to complain, I should mention that the book has a small red ink dot (from a marker) on the bottom edge of the book (i.e., on the pages). I worked for a commercial book bindery for a brief period of time in the late 1990s and, to me, this looks like the kind of mark that we applied to defective stock prior to destruction (and, given, the condition of this book, I'd certainly say that it qualifies).

Is it possible that somebody has been selling pirated WotC stock to retailers and other resellers? I know nothing about WotC's printing process or how they handle the destruction of defective stock, though I can certainly see a bindery employee sneaking home a box or two of defective stock for gifts and/or personal use and later getting the not-so-bright idea to sell them. Anybody else see anything like this before?

 

[Kristian Serrano]

I ordered some new copes of a few D&D 3.5 books from an Amazon reseller and while they arrived safely and are, in fact, new. . . the Lords of Madness book has a horrible binding job. Specifically, the cardboard insert in the spine is loose and the pages seem to have been cut unevenly on the spine side, which has resulted in the pages in the last half of the book not being fully held in place by the binder's glue.

Now, before anybody thinks I'm posting about this just to complain, I should mention that the book has a small red ink dot (from a marker) on the bottom edge of the book (i.e., on the pages). I worked for a commercial book bindery for a brief period of time in the late 1990s and, to me, this looks like the kind of mark that we applied to defective stock prior to destruction (and, given, the condition of this book, I'd certainly say that it qualifies).

Is it possible that somebody has been selling pirated WotC stock to retailers and other resellers? I know nothing about WotC's printing process or how they handle the destruction of defective stock, though I can certainly see a bindery employee sneaking home a box or two of defective stock for gifts and/or personal use and later getting the not-so-bright idea to sell them. Anybody else see anything like this before?

If you contact WotC's customer service, they typically ask you to mail the defective books to them and they will send you replacement copies.

 

[Oryan77]

I've bought from an Amazon seller that sells books with the dot on the pages. It's called a "remainder mark".

A book is marked with a dot or a line on the pages like that to identify it as a book that was returned due to printing too many copies or due to a retailer ordering too many copies. The books are then resold at discounted prices. They mark the books so customers can't buy it at a discounted price and then return it for full price.

I don't think it's supposed to have anything to do with damages. I worked in a book distributing company and I handled damaged books. We would rip the covers off to save the barcode and then throw the damaged book away. We never marked them.

Just contact the seller and let them know that the book is heavily damaged. I'm sure they'll refund or swap it out if the damage wasn't mentioned in the listing.

 

[jdrakeh]

If you contact WotC's customer service, they typically ask you to mail the defective books to them and they will send you replacement copies.

Thanks for that, though that's not really why I started the thread. It was the other concern that piqued by interest. I'm aware that defective/counterfeit stock of stuff like the Harry Potter novels has been publically (and illegally) available, though I don't think that I've ever seen or heard about a 'black market' physical RPG book before. And that may not be what this is. But that is what it appears to be. Is D&D mainstream now?

 

[jdrakeh]

I don't think it's supposed to have anything to do with damages. I worked in a book distributing company and I handled damaged books. We would rip the covers off to save the barcode and then throw the damaged book away. We never marked them.

Yeah, we ripped covers off of books at the bindery, too -- but that was a secondary process that took place in another area of the warehouse after a given shipment was culled for defects (defects were marked to avoid getting mixed back in with the regular stock). The thing about "remainder" marks also makes sense, though. I don't know much about the retail side of books, just the manufacture of them.

 

[werk]

We would rip the covers off to save the barcode and then throw the damaged book away.

This is the method I am familiar with as well.


My guess is that the red dot signifies 'B-stock' or manufacturing defects, but that's a guess.

Your remainder mark makes a lot of sense...I didn't even know they did this.
"REMAINDER MARK A mark (rubber stamp, felt marker stroke, or spray, often on a book's bottom edge) signifying that the book was returned to publisher as unsold, and then offered for sale again later at a much lower price. Considered to be a defect by collectors. "

 

[smootrk]

I have done some repair work on many books that I acquired used (and sometimes well beaten). This little website can show you how to do some repairs very effectively.

http://www.philobiblon.com/bkrepair/BookRepair.html

Also, you are in Colorado Springs, so if you wanted, I could see about helping you out to make these repairs, since I have done so previously.

 

[Vorput]

jdrakeh, put up a sign in the local tavern advertising you have a job.

When the adventurers show up- offer them 100 gp each to track down the smugglers and pirates.

Problem solved.

 

[frankthedm]

http://www.philobiblon.com/bkrepair/BookRepair.html

Elmer's glue down the inner spine works for me.

 

[TarionzCousin]

It's ironic that you should mention pirates, 'cause you've obviously been given The Red Spot!