I'm not going to lie - I was cursing your name a bit. You marked my gift as shipped but didn't provide a tracking number. I think in some countries that's considered torture.

Then I came home from work today to a nice book-sized envelope (to shreds, you say), and I apologize. I'm so sorry I ever doubted you. The envelope got ripped open in my excitement (to shreds, you say), your letter totally unnoticed (luckily avoiding the destruction), and found my gift.

I hyperventilated a bit. While I'm not totally hardcore about it, I am somewhat of a collector of older RPG books - mostly, I collect every one I've used, and I have several AD&D books I got ten or so years ago off of Craigslist. Now I can add to that with a copy of the 'Official Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Players Handbook'.

So happy. I immediately ripped out my collection to compare it to my AD&D 2nd Edition Players Handbook (from craigslist), and I couldn't help but marvel at the condition. I didn't expect it to be perfect; that actually would have been worse since I'm a collector/user, rather than a bubblewrapper. But man, is it nice. Very nice. I actually pulled out my entire collection to compare, and all of my First Edition books are in much better shape - a sign of TSR's declining quality? Or a sign that 2nd Edition was better and thus played more? Dunno.

No matter what, this is an amazing gift which gets a place of honor on my shelf, and may inspire a retro gaming night. Thank you so much!!!