Hi, I’m not sure if I had a vivid dream or if the post was deleted. Did Eternal Embers make a post about cutting slipcases and internal character art? The ‘post’ isn’t there anymore and i’m not sure if I’m misremembering or if it didn’t happen completely.
How do you deal with the regret of skipping a book that ends up being highly sought after? I skipped OC This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me literally right before renewal because I was being indecisive and liked but didn't *love* the excerpt I read. And now it's going for like over $200 / getting people their DISOs in trades. I try really hard to beat the FOMO and not get books that I'm not certain I'll enjoy or can easily sell/trade, but that's hard after a regretful skip like this 😅
Hello lovely book collectors!
I wanted to share another update on https://www.rarebindings.net, the site I built to help keep track of all the special editions being released these days.
Have you ever wondered what would happen if your collection was damaged, lost, or stolen? Could you actually prove to an insurer what you owned and what it was worth? I recently added insurance records to help with exactly that.
For each book in your collection, you can now create an insurance record with:
- Condition grades for the book and dust jacket, plus any flaws and condition notes
- A replacement value, with optional appraisal details
- Purchase source, copy identifier (e.g. your number in a numbered edition), and provenance notes
- Photos of the book itself, such as the front, back, spine, signature page, number line, edges, and slipcase
- Documents like receipts and appraisals
Each record gets a unique reference number, and when you need it, you can export everything as a CSV, a formatted PDF report, or a full evidence ZIP that bundles the report together with all your photos and documents, ready to hand to your insurer or keep as a backup somewhere safe.
This pairs nicely with the collection valuations feature from my last post: the estimated value from recent eBay sales data is a good starting point when deciding on a replacement value for each book.
The site also supports saved searches and stock alerts, so you can keep an eye on specific books, authors, publishers, stores, or features without manually checking everything all the time.
RareBindings now supports:
- The Broken Binding
- OwlCrate
- Folio Society
- Subterranean Press
- Suntup Editions
- Grim Oak Press
- LitJoy
- Goldsboro Books
- Dragonsteel Books
- Moonlight Book Box
- The Locked Library
- The Bookish Shop
- Arcane Society
- Lit Escalates
- Waterstones
- Easton Press
- Centipede Press
- The Signed Page
- Conversation Tree Press
- Curious King
- MidWorld Press
- Page & Wick
- Bewitched Pages
- Fairyloot
- Smut & Sip
With more to come! As always, I'm building this as a collector myself, so feedback, bug reports, and store suggestions are very welcome.
Thank you!
Got an e-mail this morning saying my Plated Prisoners order was cancelled. When I asked the customer service for the reason, they said that they will no longer ship to the EU due to the new rules. I am sad :( The PP SE was supposed to be my birthday gift
I had skipped my YA with items Owlcrate box because of the uncertainty of the situation with EU taxes. But now that they announced that they would cover those costs (at least before they find a more permanent solution), I’m wondering if I should get the July box, and now that they’ve announced August’s theme, I really want it.
So I guess I’m wondering what other EU residents are doing, their opinions and if anyone is getting their boxes.
I’m too indecisive to decide for myself 🤭
So tell me everything :)
I was wondering if you‘re getting rid of special editions that you find really beautiful but didn‘t enjoy reading??
I have fairyloot‘s edition of direbound and preordered furybound but actually I rated them like 2 stars. And I think about selling it and cancelling maybe, but I just think its so pretty to look at!
How do you deal with this?
Full dust jacket in the last slide. I love this design so much, the book is gorgeous.
Prefacing to say: not intending this to be a post dragging Arcane, just a genuine query to try and manage my expectations from them moving forward.
TL;DR: My first Arcane box is over a month delayed with no proactive updates. Is this unusual or just something to get used to?
——
I got off the Arcane waitlist in April and paid for my first box (Jasmine Mas) due to ship end of May/start of June.
When the books didn’t arrive and with no email update, I ended up finding a post on their private facebook group about a delay with publishers.
Other comments pointed towards the website updates page which was helpful to find - but that’s not been updated since the start of June either.
Is this a normal kind of delay and lack of comms to get used to from the Arcane sub? I was disappointed to see the way they handled the EU shipping comms recently; but I’ve heard SUCH good things about their book quality and rumours of some great upcoming picks.
So I guess would be good to know if this is an unusual delay - or something to just get used to with them?
Hello
I’ve just finished light wielder and it was a slog!! Terrible book - such a shame as I like metal slinger a lot. But this book has taken me three whole weeks to read and I NEED my next read to be captivating or I’ll go into a full slump.
I don’t mind a standalone or a series
My top fave books of the past year are the knight and the moth, road of bones series and the ballad of falling dragons.
I love strong world building. I’m a bit tired of enemies to lovers tropes unless it’s a particularly good one.
I don’t really read Romantasy for the spice so I don’t care about spice rating but I do love me some yearning and slow build romance. I care more about the character plot and world building than the romance. I often guess twists and reveals so I’m interested in books where people really didn’t see the twist coming.
I’m interested in books that are popular so I’ve got spaces to discuss them rather than books no ones heard of.
I’ve not asked for book rec on here before so thanks so much in advance for your help!!
I have both and I’m thinking of selling one, probably the IC. They’re both great on the outside, but the IC ones are really stiff and it really bothers me that they don’t have the 2nd epilogues.
With so many book box and special edition companies out there, and even more popping up all the time, I’m curious what companies y’all have “black listed.” Whether it’s because of delays, poor quality, bad customer service, etc. Who do you refuse (or are weary) to purchase from, and why?
This will help me make a list on companies to avoid, no matter how pretty their editions.
Cover and sprayed edges reveal!
I immediately added to cart because I loved this book, although I wish the edges were giving more. What does everyone think?
I’ve been seeing loads of people cancelling FairyLoot recently and I get some of the reasons, but not all of them??
For example, if you don’t want to support an author because of their views, I completely understand that. If *that* author turned up in my subscription, I’d probably skip the book too (and by probably, I mean definitely lmao)
But I guess what I don’t really understand is all the talk about “fake scarcity”?? Cause maybe I’ve just been lucky, but I’ve never actually struggled to get a FairyLoot edition I wanted. And from what I understand, publishers only license a certain number of copies anyway (but this could be wrong)!!) so FairyLoot can’t just keep printing indefinitely from my understanding
The only other thing I’ve really noticed is people complaining that big//popular releases are ending up in general sales instead of the subscription, and saying that’s unfair. But… isn’t that actually more fair?
Cause from my understanding is if a huge release is sold separately, anyone has a chance to buy it. If it’s locked behind the subscription, then only subscribers do…
I also wonder if part of that aspect of the backlash is that special editions just aren’t as exclusive anymore?? A few years ago (or even months tbf) they felt almost impossible to get, so they were really hyped especially on TikTok but now a lot more publishers are doing special editions and FairyLoot are putting those more sought after books into general sales, they’re easier to get
And for me I think that’s a good thing as I’d rather more readers have access than everything end up being impossible to buy unless you’re paying reseller prices
Am I missing something here? Is there another reason people are cancelling that I’m overlooking?
I am so happy with this set! They are so stunning in person. 😍
I'm visiting London for a week (yay!), and I was wondering if there are any bookstores that people here recommend? I'd love to check out any place that might have special editions, but happy to visit any bookstore really :) Thanks in advance!
I really like these ☺️
I haven’t heard of this series before the announcement but I am really curious about the story - will start reading soon 🥰
Hi! This is probably an odd question but I’ve been thinking of canceling my YA subscription (with items) because I don’t read YA books and the books that have been getting in the boxes are uninteresting to me anyway.
The problem is that I subbed mostly for the items 😭 this is probably a backwards way of thinking but I really like the items in the box over the books. The bookish items have been my favorite.
Are there any other subs or sub boxes that have bookish exclusive items with the range like Fairyloot? Not just stickers but more substantial items? I like that Fairyloot offers tumblers and even a tote bag and I feel like they have great items despite the fact that their books haven’t really interested me much.
Thanks so much for the help!
Thoughts?? I haven’t read the book but thought the turquoise seemed like an odd choice. Nevertheless I took a chance and renewed. I’m glad the slip case doesn’t have the turquoise (and this is coming from someone whose favorite color is turquoise lol). I like the endpapers fine and I like that they went with the faux leather on the slip case. The hard case design is just not it .
So I got both the bookish box and the darkly sub, but I'm in europe and it's kind of expensive for me. I want to cancel my Darkly sub, but was wondering whether I will still have ea for the heated rivalry sale? I know they say ea is for bookish box and darkly subscribers, but heated rivalry is a Darkly special edition and they have separate shop categories for Darkly and bookish box editions, so I'm a bit confused