We all want mint condition steelbooks, but I have ordered 64 unique steels so far from Zavvi, no duplicates, and only received one damage steel. Believe me I protested about that one steel like it would be my last order from their store if they don't make it right. I refused to get partial refund. In the end, they let me keep the damage one and sent new copy for free of charge. Mind you, I live in Canada. Don't you think the chances of me getting an unacceptable steel is higher than folks like yourself who live in England? They don't ship my steels as a group nor in a big box. I get my steelbooks from them individually, so i don't understand when you said it was "nightmare" to acquire a mint condition steel from Zavvi.
I've had at least 250 shipped from zavvi, bare in mind 2 people in the house collect steels, we've had to deal with damaged steels at least 90 times thats not including the number of times our replacement has turned up damaged (went through 5+ alan partridges) our order history including returns and replacements goes into 100+ pages.
let's be honest these things are a lottery. when play started doing uk steels, I bought every single one of them. NEVER received any damaged ones not even once, my brother who ordered the same ones, lives in the same house 3/5 came damaged. It's luck, tbh my streak of luck continued with zavvi's releases too, it was a good year before i started getting damaged ones. As for the odds of receiving damaged being higher for importers, possibly, but it's also possible those companies who deal with international orders are more careful than those dealing with them at home. My ratio of receiving damaged import items is insanely low and I buy imported stuff ALL the time. the last import item i recall coming damaged was 10 years ago. But i firmly believe its just luck.
though its also possible we're more strict then most when it comes to damage. /as i already know, my definition of immaculate differs from those on eBay and here.
another aspect in which it's a nightmare to obtain a mint steel, is how poorly they handle returns and replacements. you mention they sent you a free replacement, good for you
that won't happen to anyone in the uk. I've spent 1000s at zavvi, not just on steelbooks either. they would never send a replacement until they've received your damaged one back. hell half the time, I'll process for a replacement and they'll just refund me and what makes it worse, most my orders are done with discount codes, and they refuse to give me another steel for the price i originally paid. Imagine the reason they just sent a replacement is it's too big a hassle to deal with foreign returns, probably why most companies do that. these are some of the many reasons many of us will order duplicates.
