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Lets try this again, apparently my first attempt, although 100% clean was not acceptable, so I'll revise a bit....
I'm giving this 5 stars because the book is absolutely worth it and poor shipping (see below) should not effect the review of the actual book. Flipping through the books pages brings back so many memories and it was really nice seeing clean images of classic art. I've mostly only skimmed though cover to cover focusing on the art, but I definitely did stop to read some of the entries as well. Next I'll go through reading everything... except maybe the 4e abomination section lol.
Bottom line, if you are a long time player or even a short timer who likes current and prior edition art, along with some info about it, then this is a book for you!
Now about the issues... I just received my second book. First one arrive two days ago and I was excited to look it over that evening. That is until I opened the shipping box and found it sitting face down on the bare cardboard with 4 bubble packs, two of which were completely flat, protecting it. The book, assuming that it was like new when packaged was allowed to slide around inside the box. As a result both covers were scratched up and all the corners were smashed in. To be honest, it looked more like someone kicked it around on the floor before chucking it into the box.
I called Amazon the next morning and the seemingly annoyed service rep (passing judgement on the product line perhaps?) excepted my return request and issued a replacement shipped next day. Big plus, and I was once again excited to get a great new book full of D&D art!
The replacement arrived today, and upon opening I found that it was packaged the same way, except this time all four bubble packs had air in them. But since it was still shipped in a (slightly) oversized box without proper padding taking up the space, it was allowed to slide around on the cardboard. I have bought books elsewhere and the packaging far better than this.
Over all the second one is in better shape but the face of the cover is scratched up more than should reasonably be expectable for a new book. There is also a crease across the entire binding passing through the U and N and a gouge on the front cover below "Newman."
Simply placing the book in a plastic bag or wrapping it in a soft foam will prevent the scratching. Not to mentioned that this is a very heavy book, 4 little plastic air bubbles do not take up the dead space in the box, nor are they sufficient to make it through shipping companies with something this heavy constantly pounding against them. I've always had great experiences with Amazon so I wrote the first one off as a fluke, but twice, in a row, on the same product??
Lessons learned I guess, this book is worth the asking price IMO, next time I decide to buy a book full of pretty pictures, that also has a really nice cover, I'll do so in a walk in, where I can physically see it before handing over my money.
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