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Well, I'd avoid the Houghton Mifflin 50th anniversary LotR deluxe edition. It looks very nice from a distance, but close up you can see the poor quality. The 'leather' binding is only a little thicker than tissue paper, & if you check out reviews of it you'll notice lots of complaints about damage. Worst part is the little blobs of rubber glue which they've used to hold the maps folded - its very difficult to open up the things up without leaving tiny surface tears. The Harper Collins one is a bit more solid, but about double the price - & the quarter binding is paper, which seems a bit cheap somehow. For preference (if I was going for something currently available that is) I'd go for the Harper Collins 3 volume H/B set - decent bindings & Tolkien's own cover designs. That said, probably the best edition in terms of quality is the Folio Society edition.
However, the old Allen & Unwin editions are still superior in every way. I recently got a 1966 first edition LotR hardback set & a '71 second edition TT & they're good quality work, designed to last, unlike most current hardback books. The older Harper Collins Tolkien hardbacks (published pre 2005 when this new edition started) were dreadful quality.
BTW, the History of the Hobbit 2 volume set has been out over here for a few months. I've read volume 1 & a chunk of volume 2. Very interesting stuff.
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