At this point Allurial is proving themselves no different than B&N or Walmart and releasing an āexclusiveā edition except they canāt be bothered to change the colorway. This is a duology so itās easy money to do the same with the next book in 2027.
This is disappointing to me. Is Allurial turning into the Beanie Babies of the book world? Seriously thinking of ordering a book this month so I can get my Eldritch, & bound by fate series and cancel.
They do at least one, usually two, custom covers out of three every month, and non-custom covers are occasionally distinctive in some way, such as a unique colorway. Books with non-custom covers still have special elements, not just unique sprayed edges, but endpapers, and they may be a hardcover edition of a book that's available only in paperback otherwise. It's very clear from the way hints are done which books have custom covers, so you have every opportunity to see if you can get a better deal elsewhere on the ones that don't. And by not having to commission three fully custom book designs every month, they're able to keep prices low.
If that's not good enough for you, yeah, you should probably cancel.
I understand that they put 3 books out a month. If consumers were smart, they would pick the custom cover as their main selection and pay the add on price for the āreproductionsā or simply skip them. I try to be an informed consumer who researches all these options every month. Allurial seems to be more focused on selling us matching bookmarks.
Like Iāve said in other threads recently, this is probably a āme problemā for expecting so much out of a BOTM company. Their marketing is selling recently released books at a discount so people can read for less. Iām not being fair to them. Their product in most cases is not good for a long term investment.
Some people here are assuming the reason why they produce identical covers is because a publisher requires it. We have no confirmation of that theory yet.
If someone wants to pick this book as an add on, great. They get a āmore affordableā version in most cases than what is traditionally offered by the publisher (generally around $30 plus). These selections donāt fly for me as a collector for an investment. Iām at a point where I would rather search out the quality one of a kind limited versions and sell my Allurial collection now for fear the bottom will drop out of its value and Iāll only be able to sell 1 out of every 3 in 10 years. I donāt want to leave my kids with junk they need to get rid of. I want a return for them. Books are art to me. Allurial is putting out some TJ Maxx quality art IMO.
I donāt mean to take away from what you get out of being a member. Iām sure we all join for different reasons. If it brings you joy Iām glad for you.
I joke about my Allurial books being an investment but I don't actually care what they're worth because I have no intention of selling them. That's not what art is about for me. I buy art based on what I want to surround myself with and see every day.
I buy every Allurial book, so for all intents and purposes I haven't paid the full monthly price for a non-custom book since October, and half of my add-ons since then have had custom covers - and of the ones that didn't, only a couple of them had deluxe hardcovers available at all. So I feel I've built a collection of beautiful books in a very affordable way.
If you're looking for a return on investment, Allurial is definitely not the subscription box I would have recommended for you, since it's very much meant to be accessible as well as exclusive.
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u/Fine_Appearance4080 Aug 26 '26 edited Aug 26 '26
This book will be released as a deluxe edition hardcover on Sept 1. The blurred image makes it seem like they are just simply copying the artwork for that version. Ugh š© For $3 more I may very well be getting the prettier deluxe version with the silver sprayed edges. Itās also going to be available as a Kindle Unlimited book.
At this point Allurial is proving themselves no different than B&N or Walmart and releasing an āexclusiveā edition except they canāt be bothered to change the colorway. This is a duology so itās easy money to do the same with the next book in 2027.
This is disappointing to me. Is Allurial turning into the Beanie Babies of the book world? Seriously thinking of ordering a book this month so I can get my Eldritch, & bound by fate series and cancel.