I bought the original first and second printings of the Core Rulebook and over time (a very short time actually) I noticed that they were accumulating a lot of wear, particularly with the spine. I quickly realized the quality of the materials used in the first few hardbacks was kind of... low... as I noted the same problem with the first Bestiary. It seemed like just supporting the weight of the pages was already quite hard on the spine in the Core Rulebook and after opening the Bestiary a few times, it began to fall apart. However, after the Gamemastery Guide, everything seems to have gotten a lot better (or maybe I just haven't opened them enough).
Well, what I'm getting to, is that I'm wondering, are the new printings of the Core Rulebook and Bestiary any better than the old ones? Despite managing to repair this damage, I'd like to buy a new copy of the Core Rulebook and possibly the Bestiary (you can never have too many Core Rulebooks at the game table). I've managed to repair my core rulebooks by pouring some Elmer's School Glue into the crack between the spine and the cover and securing the spine in place. Has anyone else had to repair their books? If so, what did you do to repair them?
We have 7 people in our game group and we each have a copy of the core book, APG, etc. We meet once a week and other then taking off Christmas and what not have been going solid since the books first came out. We have zero issues with any of the books falling apart.
The core book is a large book and you should be a little more carefully with that then a magazine or something but I do not see a problem with the print quality of the books in our little gaming corner of the world.
All of that being said I have taken books apart at the spine in the past and hit them with a hole punch and put them in a binder if the book starts to look more like a stack of paper then a book.
Well, I guess my luck is just bad. Generally, I take good care of my books, heck, my 3.5 books are still largely in pristine condition, but my core rulebook seems to have taken more of a beating than my other books. I mean the words print quality don't really describe what I'm talking about so much as I would like. Really, I'm talking more about binding quality.
Believe me I get it. I have had some books fall apart in the past for sure. I just am not seeing a trend... but maybe our group got a "good batch" or whatever. The books have seen some use but no loose pages or anything as of yet.
Good luck binding the one you got, or on the next book if you get another copy.
I currently have on my shelf:
Core Rulebook:
(2) 1st Printing
(1) 2nd Printing
(1) 3rd Printing
Bestiary:
(1) 1st Printing
(1) 2nd Printing
Depsite claims to the contrary, there is most definitely a difference in binding quality of the 1st/2nd printing of the CRB vs. the 3rd, and the 1st printing of the Bestiary vs. the 2nd.
Paizo has made statements on multiple occasions to the effect of these being isolated incidents, flukes and what have you, however, it's interesting to note that there seem to be no binding complaints about the 3rd/4th printing of the CRB, or 2nd of the Bestiary.
While there may not have been a problem endemic to the entire print run of the 1st and 2nd printings, it definitely seems that there were problems with specific batches of these printings.
I've found the same issue with 1st/2nd prints of the CRB at 3 different game stores, and a report here details that, upon dissection, the book was missing a mull.
I'm making a point to be extra-careful with my earlier copies, and if any critical failure begins to happen, I'll look into having it rebound similar to the link above (dig that lizardskin vinyl!), but I think it's clear, even if the number of complaints are far less than 1% of all copies, that there's a significant number of copies that do have problems, and I don't believe it's due to climate-affected glue.
Chief Technical Officer
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We did change printers after the second printing of the Core Rulebook and the first printing of the Bestiary. I think it's still a little bit too early to say definitively that the new printer is producing a higher-quality binding, but it does seem as though that might be a possibility.
(To be clear, the original printer did the first and second printings of the Core Rulebook and the first printing of the Bestiary; the new printer has done the third and fourth printings of the Core Rulebook, the second printing of the Bestiary, and the first and second printings of both the GMG and the APG.)
i had the same problem with mine but i bought mine over seas and thought that the deployment just had taken its toll on my pathfinder books because i used them more.i had be thanking of re-buy the core rule book as well
My CRB 3rd printing and Bestiary 2nd printing are definitely sturdier than their earlier versions, so whatever the new printer is doing different, it's working.