Far from beeing bad. In fact, you get much more for your money than any download and DVD can offer.
There are great effects in these books (not all 500 effects, of course, but some of them are killer stuff), and on top of it you´ll get a DVD.
Beyond secrets and some essays are also in the books and quality of the books is excellent (paper quality, cover, material, index, referencing etc.).
Why get another new (unfortunately often bad) Sankey effect if you can get his 'best of' in one, massive collection, for a ridiculous low price (for 500 effects) ?
I´m not a big Sankey fan. I especially dislike his aggressive marketing. His priority no.1 in life is his family. That`s not a bad thing. The bad thing is, that this is something reflected by his marketing strategy. He produces far too much crap nowadays. But nonetheless, his work is massive, and there are many gems in these books.
If Josh Jay and Andi Gladwin wouldn`t be the authors of the book, I don`t think I would have bought them.
Magic books are a dying species. Unfortunately, DVDs and downloads are selling much, MUCH better. Vanishing inc. are one of the few last shops that still publishes magic books. That`s something I will gladly support.