So after a number of threads awhile back about PHBs falling apart (which really was a legitimate problem for some people), I'm curious about how many people here have had PHBs that have held up well vs. those that haven't. Even though there were some legitimate problems, I suspect that the actual problematic book percentage is/was low compared to the overall book sales.
After reading so many threads about the problem early on and seeing pictures of failing bindings, I still get a little voice in my head telling me to be careful everytime I open up my PHB, even though its still holding up fine.
So now that it's 6 months later, out of curiousity, how is your book doing? When did you buy it, and have you had sections fall out, or has your book been just fine?
I got mine on the WPN early release date (I believe it was July 3rd if I'm remembering correctly), and it's still in great shape.
Bought one on the early release date. It's alway been slightly crooked (the spine isn't at a 90 degree angle when closed and laying on a table), but has not had any pages come loose, or suffered any damage at all beyond a singular smudge of ink that - to my complete surprise and confusion - didn't actually affect the readability of the text in the area of the smudge, just smeared a bit of black ink around in a faint fingerprint pattern where I rested a finger while jotting down some class feature description or another. This book has been our primary copy, referenced frequently (at least 3 sessions every week since getting it), and also travels back and forth from my home to the location a friend of mine plays with some other friends of his, stuffed in a backpack full of Magic cards (in deck boxes, of course).
Bought a second copy 3 weeks ago which had no damage, defect, or deformity to it until Wednesday of last week when my wife accidentally made a tiny tear at the bottom of a page somewhere in the barbarian class. This book has only seen about 4 sessions use as table reference so far.
Mine is doing fine.
Six at my table on Mondays and two more owned by my boys; all of them have seen a lot of miles so far and they look great (although I tore a page somewhere in the equipment section of mine).
Bought mine first day of early release from a FLGS. Heavy use. Still going strong.
My first one is mostly destroyed (pp. 219-285 are completely separated from the rest of the book). Amazon replaced it, but as much as possible I still use the shredded one to delay as long as possible putting wear on the new one. My monster manual is also now starting to fall apart, but I'm hoping to fix it with glue -- I'm far outside the window in which Amazon would replace it I think. DMG still looks good, though it gets the least wear. This is really my only real complaint against 5e: I have 2e books that I've had for 20 years that are holding up better than books I bought 6 months ago. It is infuriating.
I should note that I didn't put any special wear on these books. I haven't taken them anywhere from my house. I did have those pages in the phb open for quite some time as I spent a weekend typing every single spell into my maptool 5e framework, but having the book open shouldn't break the book in my opinion.
I bought each of my books the day they were released on Amazon.
Same here, bought mine on early release date and its still in great shape. I bought a second copy for my players on amazon which I had to exchange because it had stuck/glued pages and ink smudges on some pages, but both are currently in great shape. They get heavy use, but I generally take good care of my books, so thats probably why (I dont leave the in my car in 115 degree heat or outside). For quick rules reference though I use the Basic Rules pdf which I carry in my iPad (and which is heavily annotated by me). I think this preserves the life of my books. Hopefully we'll be getting digital releases of the Holy Trinity so that will make my books last even longer.
Anecdotally, it seems as though the "bad binding" occurances largely came from people who bought from Amazon. I know it is as such in my area at least. And from the sounds of it here online as well.
Coincidence?... If not, what might the reason be for such a thing?...
Bought mine first day at the FLGS. It fell apart at about the 3 month mark with the first half of the book falling out. I pulled it apart completely after Christmas and rebound it into three parts using a comb binder I got for Christmas. At least now I have my very own spell book.
While the answers so far still make up a very, very small sampling, the majority so far seem to be holding up in good shape or have minor damage caused by accidentally tearing pages or something similar, with a few that were affected by bad binding.
ChrisCarlson wrote:
I admit I thought people were just bellyaching.
After a couple of months of gentle use, 40 pages came out. I just sent it in for a replacement. I had purchased it early at a FLGS
All books doing good, here! On my newly acquired DMG, I thought I saw a book thread coming out of the inside cover where the pages connect. Turns out it was a white cat hair...
And I also printed the spell list from the basic PHB and used a comb-binder (from work) to make my own spell book, as well. Saves SO much time at the table. Someone made that suggestion to me in October (they went to a Fed-Ex Kinkos after their book fell apart, I think), and boy is it awesome. Sure the Basic PHB doesn't have all the spells, but that's what the actual book is for. But if someone wants to look up "Web" while someone else is looking up what their feat/class ability does? No problemo! This was/is super-clutch back when players (and myself) were new to the system
Got mine from a FLGS (not sure about the friendly bit...) last August, seems fine, though, I do tend to treat my books with care, regardless.
Still annoyed that when I lent my 2nd Ed Drow of the Underdark to a buddy of mine, it was returned dog-eared, never lend anything to him again.
ChrisCarlson wrote:
Satyrn wrote:
alienux wrote:
Timborama wrote:
Satyrn wrote:
ChrisCarlson wrote:
My PHB is starting to fall apart and I bought mine at the local game store.
I preordered mine from Amazon. Thus far, it's still holding up well.
Purchased my PHB on first day of early release at premier FLGS and the binding has failed from credits through page 143.
The content is now in five separate pieces.
No heavy use. No misuse. Simply laying it open for reference caused the separation.
(Not for nothing, I'm a library professional—I know how to treat a book!)
You can get a free replacement from WotC. Mine was a signed copy so I kept mine. I've heard good things from people who reglued their books. Should be easy for a library professional.
I got mine from Amazon preorder and it has had no problems. Usage has been normal for an RPG book.
More recent purchase and doing fine. Glad to hear WoTC books were printed in America for similar price as the paizo stuff that's printed overseas.
Just curious; for those who have had books that did fall apart, did you try to get a replacement from WotC, or just decided to keep it as is. As has been mentioned, I've heard that they've been very good about replacing them.
alienux wrote:
Bought my PHB during the early release, at my FLGS; it's held up fine, ther are two other copies among our group and they're fine too (we play bi-weekly).
Haven't had any problems with the MM or DMG either. MM was purchased during early release at my FLGS as well; I held off on the DMG and received it for Christmas, from one of my players.
alienux wrote:
Mine's falling apart after a few weeks of light to moderate use. In Australia so not a lot of point trying to return it. I'm considering getting it wire bound in two parts.
I've purchased all of my books on early release and they're all holding up well despite how often I hand them out to the players at my tables and the fact that I keep them in my trunk (freezing or otherwise). A baby got a hold of my PHB and put a small rip in about 10 pages of the races, though.
My friends ordered their copy from Amazon, if memory serves, and theirs has a full chunk of pages that have become detached. Something in the realm of 10-15 pages being used as a bookmark now. Unsure if this was the result of rough treatment or bad binding.
My PHB was purchased at our local game store the first day it was available for purchase. Book is starting to see some wear, damaged spine and some pages are starting to come apart but none have fallen out yet. My copy has seen quite a bit of use. As DM, I loan it out in three separate groups, often having it passed around to various players, This past weekend I had to stop letting players use my book. It's going to eat it otherwise. Almost considering getting a second copy, but more so, a bit peeved that only one other player in my main group has a PHB.
That said, a friend of mine who also games at the same game store, his PHB has come apart. Loose pages and all.
Bought mine from a Barnes & Noble on release day. No issues.
I bought mine from my FLGS the day it became available; a few days prior to the official release. I am a pretty careful dude, but the book definitely looks "loved". The cover and outer spine are still in good-as-new condition. I never press it flat or set things on top of it while open. The basics.
Unfortunately, there is a rather sizeable chunk of pages which has pulled free of the glue in the binding. It's effectively split down the middle now. I am obviously a little frustrated about this, but I don't think I really have any recourse. The book is still 100% useful for me.
That said... it should be noted that none of the other gamers at my table, some of whom treat their books quite unkindly, are having the same problem.
It looks to me like there is some variability in their binding process that only affects a small percentage of the books.
I don't want my FLGS to have to take a hit on this. Do you think WotC would replace it?
No issue on the PHB, or any of the other books. Though the two Tiamat adventure books have seen very little use.
I've bought all my books from the Book Depository (free international shipping for the win!). Physically they're all holding up just fine. In terms of the printing, though, the PHB and MM both have a bit of faded and/or blurry text. The DMG was fine until I spent a bit of time using the custom monster guidelines - now part of the Monster Stats by CR table is a bit smudged from my having kept my thumb there as I flipped back and forth through the section several times.
IIRC, the Book Depository gave me a partial refund for the PHB due to the amount of faded/burry text in it. WotC did offer to replace it for me, but it would've meant mailing my book to them, which would've cost quite a lot - and rather than reimburse me for the shipping, they were going to send me some unidentified miscellaneous items supposedly worth the same as the cost of shipping. They also couldn't guarantee that the replacement wouldn't have the same problem (if not an even worse problem, like poor binding), so I opted not to take them up on their offer. Instead, I've decided I'm not going to replace my books until they do errata'd second printings or whatever.
DaveDash wrote:
So far, I'm counting about 31 that are ok and about 9 that aren't, so based on the small sampling of this group at least, just under 1/4th. That's by no means accurate based on total sales, but more than I would have thought in a small sample like this.
alienux wrote:
nesbit wrote:
There prices a a little higher than Amazon but I bought a few books form them as well. Amazon is etter if you can get free shipping to Aussie/NZ but they have not offered that for a while and last time they did I bought 13 books off them.
Mightyape in NZ can be cheap but most of the time the bookdepository is still cheaper.
alienux wrote:
Is there any sort of website with instructions on how to fix this sort of book and issue with glue?
Ordered from amazon mid November, book started falling apart a week after receiving it.
Didn't realize I could return it, took a que from someone in this thread and contacted live chat at amazon an hour ago, the replacement book will be here within three days and they asked that I send back the old one at their expense.
All in all really impressed with the amazon customer service.
Let's hope this one isn't glued together by a toddler with a glue stick like the last one.
Hooray for Amazon! Glad to hear they are taking care of it for you.
I have two - bought as early as possible from one of the shops on WotC list - both have seen regular use and are fine.
One thing about the glue on modern books - if it is exposed to particularly cold and damp conditions, it can change chemically and become brittle and weak.
So I suspect the container that particular batch were in were exposed to bad weather on the container ship from China.
It could literally be that simple.
Caliburn wrote:
PHB has been fine. The table I play at has six copies and there have been no issues. I also have the DMG, MM, HotDQ and RoT. The binding has cracked on the second page of HotDQ but the pages continue to adhere to the binding. Given the I am DMing HotDQ, this book has seen the heaviest use. Given the issues that have been reported, I have been more gentle with the books than I might otherwise.
5 PHB's at the table, one pre-ordered from Amazon, the rest from FLGS. So far all books are holding together fine with normal use.
alienux wrote:
Well, mine is okay; but I don't use it much. I made a copy of it for my computer and use that version most of the time.
There are 4ish others at my table, and they seem to be holding up just fine.
i've had mine since the amazon release date and i've run two games with it every week since in addition to referencing it a lot in between. my copy has held up fine and shows no signs of falling apart.
Mine from a FLGS is fine as are my tables (so at least 3, I can't remember who does and doesn't have a PHB).
AaronOfBarbaria wrote: