Taschen 2021 -July 8–11 - Display Copy Sale 25%-75% Off *

New to the forums here but wanted to share my experience with the Taschen sale(s) for anyone stumbling across this during their next sale (like I did!)

Backstory: I'm an artbook collector so the condition of the book is important to me. Doesn't need to be 100% flawless, but I don't want the corners to be crushed in, pages bent or "wavy", etc.. As long as the book gets here and is in good condition, I'm happy.

Asking Taschen about it, they said most are display copies or ones with minor cosmetic damage (partially missing/damaged shrink wrap, missing shrink wrap completely, or minor damage to the book corners/edges, nothing major)

I took a chance with this sale to pick up some of their larger books. I might have just had bad luck, or maybe it was their bad packaging job (they shipped about 25 pounds worth of books in a box with a single piece of bubblewrap at the top of it, none elsewhere in the box) but I had 3 books completely missing shrinkwrap (no big deal) and a bit banged up on the dustjacket corners and general wear to the front/back covers (not ideal, but not a dealbreaker - especially for the price). 2 books looked brand new and 2 others were pretty rough around the corners (crunched inwards, very obvious/visible damage, but not reaching to the pages of the books).

Taschen support is very slow to respond (almost 2 weeks) and there are no exchanges; You can mail the book back (at your cost, it seems?) for a refund.

I'll probably end up keeping them all since the prices were very good, I'll also order again next time for the same reason. But YMMV on them coming in mint condition. I think next time I'll split the books up into multiple orders rather than a single one. They really do seem to throw as many books as they can into each package.

 

I appreciate this response. I'm kind of a collector of sorts (I think we all are here in one way or another!) and my wife was like "you really want to gamble on this?" haha. I think if it was something I absolutely HAD to have in mint condition, then ok - I'll pay full price, but some of the stuff I'm on the fence about, maybe take a chance in the future & save some bucks.

Good tip on splitting up the orders too if ordering a few!