Catalog 196
July / August 1998

Jack Vance's 'PORTS OF CALL' - If you think the above was frustrating
[slipcases for McCaffrey's limited edition of 'DRAGONFLIGHT'], this one
goes one better.  The limited edition of the new Jack Vance was ordered
by us when first announced in early 1997.  Publication was delayed until
April this year.  Our credit card was charged on April 6th and we got a
note from Underwood Books to say the books, along with some stock items
was being shipped in the following few days.  We received a big shipment
from our consolidator in New York at the end of April - but no books
from Underwood.  We didn't worry - it was obvious the boxes had missed
the connections.  The next shipment from the USA yielded one box
containing some of the stock items.  When the next shipment yielded
nothing, we contacted Tim Underwood.  His eventual explanation was...

Apparently, the book was advertised as limited to 350 copies, but the
printer screwed up and although they received the full quota of 350
insides, only about 260 were bound.  So Tim Underwood instructed the
people who were shipping the book for him to send only to private
collectors and ignore all orders from bookshops *except for us*
[underlined], as we were their main outlet in Europe and we were paying
up front.  So Tim charged our credit card thinking that the books were
being sent.  But he has now learned that our copies were ignored, along
with every other bookshop order.  To correct this enormous cock-up, Tim
has refunded our money and is having sufficient copies to fill our order
bound up *with the exact same binding* [underlined] as the previous
260-odd copies.  Still well within the limitation of 350 claimed.  We
are now waiting on Tim Underwood to supply these copies - we expect them
early in August.