Binding defect in Roger Stern Spiderman Omnibus

[themonkey]

Hi all

I joined this forum to seek some advice regarding a binding defect (described below) in the Roger Stern Spiderman omnibus and would be extremely grateful for any opinions, particularly from people who own this omnibus.

I should also say that this defect is straight out of the box and that I opened the omnibus following the instructions for opening a heavy book and am not an omnibus virgin.

I live in the UK and his defect has now been apparent on 3 separate copies that I have bought - I bought 2 copies from Amazon and have returned these and today had a copy arrive from a separate seller (SpeedyHen) with the same defect.

The defect is that the textblock has started to tear away from the solid back cover. This would probably be only apparent if you are a bit paranoid like me and are looking for it, but I think this is a potentially serious defect that could worsen (ie. the textblock will eventually tear out of the cover).

I would therefore really appreciate it if any other owner's of the book could let me know if the same defect is apparent on their copy.

I have included a photo to show the defect:


stern_zpsb767670a.jpg

To make the defect most apparent, the book is lying flat on a desk on its front cover, and then opened from the back to approximately page 1100. The view is then looking at the top of the spine, as if from above.
I have put some arrows on the picture as follows: Red arrow points to the area of exposed back cover which should be stuck to the textblock, green arrow shows glue / paper that has torn, blue shows the exposed back of the textblock spine which looks like it is made out of some sort of mesh.

You can "feel" there is something wrong with these books as soon as you open them using the recommended method. The front cover falls to the desk very slowly under tension, while the back cover falls straight away with no resistance.

I am reluctant to send a 3rd book back as this process is getting tiresome.

Is this just something I should forget and put up with or should I try and glue it myself? Is this a UK pheomenon? Is the book just meant to be like this?

Many thanks in anticipation of any replies.

[Penultimate Warrior]

Good question, but you should post this in Forum Comics Classics: Collected Marvel Collected Editions.

[NZ_InFerno]

Definitely defective, there is bookbinders glue available and has been reccomended in the past but mostly if the blue and white ribbon starts falling off.

That looks quite bad, there has been a lot of book damage complaints but that is actually "proper" damage. I'm guessing the glue they've used in the factory is not up to scratch for holding the the block to the hardcover. On a new book too

Do you have a photo of the other side for comparison, is that coming away as well?

You should send it back, even if it is the third time that's broken and looks like all the way down one side too.

[themonkey]

Definitely defective, there is bookbinders glue available and has been reccomended in the past but mostly if the blue and white ribbon starts falling off.

That looks quite bad, there has been a lot of book damage complaints but that is actually "proper" damage. I'm guessing the glue they've used in the factory is not up to scratch for holding the the block to the hardcover. On a new book too

Do you have a photo of the other side for comparison, is that coming away as well?

You should send it back, even if it is the third time that's broken and looks like all the way down one side too.

Thanks for the reply and confirming that this isn't in my head.
This gave me the confidence to contact the sellers, who are taking it seriously and going to check their stock to try and find a non-defective book.