The Genesis Museum Collectors Exhibit Book FAQ

What is the difference between the 1st and 2nd edition?

We wanted to keep them similar enough so that no buyers would be missing out but different enough that some collectors may want both. So the number of pages is the same and about 80% of the text and interviews are the same, but about 80% of the photography and items are different.

What are the discounted books with minor damage or printing issues?

We only want to ship books that look their best and are free from damage, so we carefully examine each one before sending them out. However, problems can always happen and rather than discard them, we are selling them at a big discount, even though the issue may be so minor that most people wouldn't even notice it. These discounted books will only be available while supplies last.

How many books are you making?

The 1st edition and 2nd edition are strictly limited to 500 copies each

How many books can I buy?

We don’t currently know the demand, but if you email us, we can make arrangements for different quantities. However, we are not set up to send a large quantity to a distributor for example, and we do not want to create inflated resale prices.

When will my book ship?

We are personally numbering, signing, packing, and shipping each order individually but will do our best to keep up with all of them. We will also send out tracking numbers once each order ships. Normally books will be shipped within a few days and arrive within a few more days (US) or 10 days to 2 weeks (other countries).

How fast are you shipping the book, and can I choose a different shipping method?

Depending on the country, we ship through different services such as regular mail, UPS, DHL, or EMS. Seemingly small changes in the destination city, package dimensions, or day of the week seem to have large changes in the shipping cost. We will use what seems most reasonable at the time of shipment, sometimes paying a little more for a much faster service. But if you would like a particular service, or would like it sent in a particular way, just email us and we will do our best.

Can you separate my shipping and other costs? Why are all of the costs combined?

Shipping, taxes, fees, and customs can be complicated and change all the time. Shipping to a remote part of a country can cost twice what shipping to a centrally located part of the same country costs. Cheaper shipping sometimes means more expensive customs fees. The Genesis Museum is not a large business with an office full of employees, so we have to simplify these sorts of things. While we could hire an e-commerce team to handle details like these, it would only make the books more expensive. Instead we are selling them entirely at cost (no profits) with an averaged or "typical" cost for the destination.

My tracking information shows "Delivered" somewhere in the US, but I am in another country.

Similar to eBay's Global Shipping Program, many delivery services have consolidated their shipments at a central location, verifying paperwork, relabeling if necessary, and then forwarding the shipments to the correct country. This tracking information should say "At routing station" but unfortunately they sometimes say "Delivered". Rest assured that within usually a day or two, it will be through customs and on a plane, and the tracking will continue to you.

Can you ship this with a lower customs value?

If you request this when making the payment, this can be sent for whatever value you want. However, if something happens to the package, if it gets lost or damaged, we can only recover the customs value. So only do this if you are willing to take on the responsibility if a loss or damage occurs.

Is the text larger than normal?

Some other similarly styled books had text that seemed too small to me, and a bit difficult to read. So I used 11pt for most of the book, which is just a bit larger than standard, and maybe more similar to a magazine or concert program. I felt that as collectors of a band that is over 50 years old now, that we could all benefit from the larger type, to make everything as readable as possible. This is a fun book after all and shouldn't take extra effort to read.

Do you own all of the material in the book?

Most of the items in the book are part of The Genesis Museum collection, but there is no Genesis collection in the world that can stand entirely on its own, so in areas where I thought other people's collections could add to the book, other pieces from other collectors are included. Almost all items in the book are attributed to the collection where they belong or the copyright holders. These are high-quality images created exclusively for this book, not a collection of internet images.

Is your entire collection in the book?

No book would be large enough to display most collections. Not only does the museum (and many other collectors) have 10s of thousands of items, each item may have different parts, labels, pages, inserts, etc. that would make a book with "everything" not only impossible, but much less interesting to read. Instead I have included nice examples of different kinds of items, things that were more interesting for one reason or another, and covered them in greater detail.

There are so many Genesis collectors in the world, why didn't you include this person or that collector?

We have met hundreds of collectors over the years, many of whom have become close friends. And there are of course many collectors who we don't know at all. But there is no way to include everyone, and in fact, many of the stories in the book will seem familiar to many collectors out there. It would not be useful to include more people just to add more quantity. Instead we tried to include as many different kinds of collectors, each specializing in a certain type of collectible, or offering a unique perspective, rather than just more. And of course the book is already quite long and heavy.

I can see The Genesis Museum website, why do I need the book?

As with most things we do, there is some overlap, but they generally work together rather than duplicate. The Genesis Museum has around 5000 exhibits, which would be impossible to include in a book without sacrificing quality. In addition, a book full of internet images would be pointless. Instead I have included some items from the website in higher quality and with new background information — many items, photographs, and interviews that aren’t on the website — and entirely new concepts, ideas, and stories to make every page as interesting as possible.

Why are you selling the book at cost?

While there is nothing wrong with creating products for profit, in this case I was fortunate enough to have many contributors, all of whom contributed their time, collections, and photography for free. I don’t think it’s right to take these contributions and turn them into a profit machine. That said, coming up with a fair cost is difficult. There is not only the cost of the book and shipping, but there are also packaging materials, labeling, test versions, equipment, transaction fees, taxes, and so forth. Even inexpensive things can become expensive in large quantities. And there may be cases where due to shipping and material cost variations, the cost could be slightly less or slightly more on different days. But the idea is for it to all work out in the end, and allow as many people as possible to enjoy it at the cheapest possible cost.

Will you make an ebook or electronic version?

Although we considered this at one point, we have decided not to do this for several reasons. One of the obvious reasons is that we already have a website and a forum - which are in a way electronic books with pictures, interviews, and stories. But after working on this book for so long, it became obvious that the printed book quality is so much higher and clearer than on-screen, that we decided to design this solely for print where it looks its best.

There's something you should add/change or I found an error!

Although I have read the book many times and it has been edited by no less than four others, there are bound to be errors or things that could be better. On a website this would be a simple change, but because we are privately publishing this book it is still possible to fix. Although we have no plans to produce more books, if you find something that should change, please let us know so we can fix it in case there is another edition. Thank you!