I am glad to see these, but that price is super steep. I can see the extra cost in the 1e reprints because of the donations, but even at amazons typical 30% off, these 2e prices are nuts. Good for collectors but if you want to actually use them.....
I just picked up a NM wotc last print Monstrous Manual for less than $11 shipped, and a good tight 1993 era print PHB for less than $6 shipped through amazon used booksellers.
My 2nd print DMG with a worn cover but tight binding and excellent interior I got last year for around 7 bucks.
Thats all well and good, but if the 1E books are anything to go by, these are PREMIUM reprints. That means really good cover bindings and good paper, silk book marks, etc.... Not standard run of the mill printings.
Plus, another factoir for me, is I want good print books 20 to 30 years down the road, because I plan on still being around and still gaming then. The 2E books are already 17+ years old, and they are not acid free, etc... and I know how books age just sitting on a shelf for 3, 4, 8 decades and more, let alone actually being used.
So these books will last at least 17 years longer than the originals just by virtue of being 17 years newer. Hopefully the "Premium" binding and paper will help them last a decade or two longer.
Sure, I could go out and buy books really cheap, but they are already 17 to 23 years old. I want brand new, with their biological clocks reset, and believe me, every single book has a biological clock, and will reach a point where it will simply start falling apart.
So thats why I am interested in these reprints. Especially with the modules. I just started running the "A" series about two months ago. I cannot use the physical mega module. Know why? Just by reading through it the pages started falling out. I can use the individual modules, but I have to be very careful because they have already become brittle, so I can easily damage them. The books will be like that too in just a decade or two. Especially the 1E books.
So bring on the reprints, I want them!