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RE: Will POD continue to expand?

Jackbus — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 12:19:10 GMT

Incidentally, you weren't tempted to produce some POD Hebrides or Warblers in advance to meet demand in those titles?

RE: Will POD continue to expand?

Collins — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 12:18:15 GMT

Yes you will be able to buy directly through this site.

Alex
Collins

RE: Will POD continue to expand?

PaulMead — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 21:10:02 GMT

excellent idea for the calendar, will we be able to buy through this site.

RE: Will POD continue to expand?

Collins — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 15:59:47 GMT

To offer some insight on this, yes the scanning is a high one off cost, but in addition we still incur costs for every book we produce as print on demand, in fact they are higher print costs than if we ran a high volume print run per title. The reason we use print on demand model is that we don't have to pay to store excess stock and we were unsure of the demand for the NN backlist. Happily it has been successful, prompting us to start scanning the NN Monographs for a similar initiative for early 2011. While I am writing we are also producing a NN calendar for 2011 using archive artwork - more details follow!

Alex
Collins

RE: Will POD continue to expand?

Brendan — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 15:26:17 GMT

I suspect that Collins will see that as pretty sensitive info, but you raise an interesting point about the price vs. originals. I'm probably not the most experienced collector of the books, but it seems like there are a lot of books beyond the silver and gold sequences which are pretty consistently in the £80-£120 range for a good/fine copy with a dust jacket - e.g. Weeds & Aliens, Grass & Grasslands. Below £40 I'd definitely buy the original, above £60 I'd definitely buy the POD (the freshness compensating for the slight differences in production) - £40 to £60 is probably a grey area. In practice, I find I'm picking off the silver/gold ranges with POD, the £10-£30 price ranged originals, and leaving all the middle ground for later!

Since Collins doesn't hold any stock with POD, the only cost for offering each individual title is that of scanning in the original, so it might be that they only need to sell a dozen or so to break even per volume. I'm also quite glad that they decided to offer the full series at once, rather than second-guessing which ones are going to be big sellers!

RE: Will POD continue to expand?

PaulMead — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 12:36:25 GMT

what are the sales like for POD, they seem extremely expensive when you can buy most of the 1st edtions (apart from golden 13 & silver 3) in reasonable dw for considerably less.

RE: Will POD continue to expand?

Collins — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 14:10:55 GMT

We have now introduced 99 Gower and 100 Woodlands as print on demand titles, expanding the full set of POD to 100 titles.

RE: Will POD continue to expand?

Hengus — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 14:02:57 GMT

[quote][b]DanSalter (15/04/2010)[/b][hr]Hi Collins folks.

As im not fussed about 1st eds or rarity (im a countryside officer by trade and view the collection as a resource/reference). I plan on collecting (slowly) the entire set on POD...

Now...as they differ slightly in cover design/texture and markings...i wonder if the POD thing will expand past the current 98 books or whatever it is?...so that as the newer titles go out of print they then join the POD list yes?...for example...WOODLANDS...will it end up as a POD

Im a bit anal/completest so want (as backwards as this will sound for die hard collectors) ALL of my books to be POD...not POD up to 98 or so ...then original 1st Eds...from 98 onwards?...I realise it will be a long time till the newer titles make the list so i plan to start at the earlier end

P.s. Also looking forward to the monograph POD's

Dan[/quote]

I'm always impressed when I hear about equally anal and completist individuals obsessively collecting things which to me seem entirely baffling (just as my obsessions no doubt sound entirely baffling to others)!

Respect, Dan. I believe you've just made my day.

:-)

RE: Will POD continue to expand?

Collins — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 09:53:08 GMT

Hi Dan

Yes as the main titles go out of print they will be made available as POD. We are in fact just proofing POD editions of Gower and Woodlands, meaning there will shortly be the first 100 editions available as POD.

Best

Alex
Collins

Will POD continue to expand?

DanSalter — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 19:17:59 GMT

Hi Collins folks.

As im not fussed about 1st eds or rarity (im a countryside officer by trade and view the collection as a resource/reference). I plan on collecting (slowly) the entire set on POD...

Now...as they differ slightly in cover design/texture and markings...i wonder if the POD thing will expand past the current 98 books or whatever it is?...so that as the newer titles go out of print they then join the POD list yes?...for example...WOODLANDS...will it end up as a POD

Im a bit anal/completest so want (as backwards as this will sound for die hard collectors) ALL of my books to be POD...not POD up to 98 or so ...then original 1st Eds...from 98 onwards?...I realise it will be a long time till the newer titles make the list so i plan to start at the earlier end

P.s. Also looking forward to the monograph POD's

Dan