Lukas says:
"We are going ahead with a second edition of the blue box that will be IDENTICAL to the first except for the fact that the book will notate (somewhere) that it is the second printing. There will be 3,000 copies in this second run. We are pressing it immediately and hope to have it in stock so that there is no interruption in the set's availability -- but we can't guarantee that. The first edition continues to sell lightning-fast and we have probably sold around 2,400 of the 3,000 copies.
"We have heard of collectors having issues with the binding of their books. We specifically (and expensively) ordered the high-end book binding in which pages are sewn (not glued) together -- however, there is some gluing involved and evidently somewhere in the first edition of 3,000 sets there were some books that were not correctly bound.
"I think I saw a message board post from someone saying, 'I think I'll wait for the second edition that doesn't have this problem.' Folks, it doesn't work like that. These things run on an assembly line -- a metaphorical one if not a literal one. Along the way of the 3,000 books being printed and bound you might have a period of time where a machine is misaligned or someone does his job lazily -- this is all out of our control as it happens at the plant or is sometimes outsourced to yet a different plant. The copies that were printed/bound/whatever during that time are the ones that are problematic. And rest assured we have complained about these problems to our vendor. But it doesn't mean the first edition copies are all one way and the second edition copies all another way. There is an element of Murphy's Law in all of this.
"If you think this is a nightmare for you, think of what it is like for us: we asked for the best kind of binding, we were told we were getting it, we can't visually inspect 3,000 books, and now we get these reports. We do monitor customer feedback on various message boards, and it is not a good feeling to see posts of how exciting it is to hear all this wonderful music get overtaken by frets (which are legitimate) of whether someone's binding might be one of the questionable ones. (I could probably post somewhere that my CD release of such-and-such had a dead fly in it, and then have 30 posts follow it from people worried that they might also get a dead-fly copy. THERE IS NO DEAD FLY COPY OF ANYTHING. IT'S AN EXAMPLE.)
"Here is what we are doing: We are having additional books printed (at the manufacturer's expense) as part of the second run and combined with some overrun on the first edition we will have more than enough books on hand to replace defective books. If your book is defective, email SAE at info@screenarchives.com.
"However, we ask collectors, sincerely, to contact us only if the book is ACTUALLY coming apart. Not if you are afraid it is coming apart, or think you breathed on it funny, or your dog ate it, or you want a second one for reading purposes.
"There have been some requests for us to publish a pdf of the book. Sorry, but we can't, because we licensed the Superman images contained in the book from DC Comics for the hardcopy only and do not have download rights. And, in all honesty, it doesn't make business sense for us to give away for free one of the box set's main attractions -- and even if we emailed these privately, they would end up archived at websites in short order.
"The one thing that we can control is our customer service which we aim to make second-to-none. If you have a defective copy of any FSM CD, you can get it replaced. That goes for all of our stuff, Blue Box included. Think of it as the SAE insurance: we know you want your collectibles to be in perfect condition, and we'll work with you to that end. But there is an element of the honor system to this: the "insurance" breaks down if people abuse this principle (forcing us to be more discriminating in fulfilling requests) and in some cases there are things that are beyond our control that you will have to live with -- like the discs becoming loose in transit within the sealed Blue Box. Just stick them back on the spokes and if they aren't scratched, who cares? Ah, I remember the old days where we had (for example) every copy of The Prodigal have a slightly crinkled booklet because a heavier stock of paper was used by the printer. EVERY SINGLE COPY had the same crinkle in the same place but there was one poor guy who raked me over the coals and I remember opening box after box trying to find a "clean" one -- to no avail. And that's when I called my friend Craig Spaulding and offered him the FSM catalog to distribute.
"Thanks and good night...and if you call or email SAE, ask them for whatever you need to, but be nice. Pretend you're Superman. He's a good guy..."
-Lukas Kendall
4 comments:
Several years ago, I spilled coffee on my THX-1138 booklet, and asked Lukas if I could purchase a replacement booklet. He sent me one free of charge.
A few years before that, I got one of the last Towering Inferno CDs, assembled from the scraps in the FSM offices.
I haven't seen any issues with my Superman book yet and don't expect to, but even with Screen Archives handling orders now, Lukas' customer service skills are unsurpassed.
The collection is fine. The book is fine. The music is great. Let's not be so picky and spread the news about this superb, limited collection.
Great job Lukas!!!
I will be waiting for Supergirl release too! :)
FSM always has good customer service when it comes to the little things. So far, my book is still holding together, but then again, I've been very careful. I only wonder what the "best" binding means. How many page turns before failure occurs? How much weight can it withstand before it snaps? One piece of string holding together a bunch of thick pages can only last so long.
I could probably post somewhere that my CD release of such-and-such had a dead fly in it, and then have 30 posts follow it from people worried that they might also get a dead-fly copy.
Excuse me, waiter, but there's a fly in my Supe.
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