I have a “retired” set which is literally falling apart. I used that set to teach from 1980 to 2000. It is tattered, and has very little, if anything, marked or added to it. I keep that set in my desk drawer at work.
None of these sets have thumb-indexing on the pages. I HATE that stuff. It distracts me when I use the scriptures. Both of the first two sets were “Type A” sets which Deseret Book used to publish without thumb-indexing. You can’t get a “Type A” set like that anymore. I tried. Even talked with the management at Deseret Book. Can’t be done.
So I bought a “Type B” set, which is the same paper as a “Type A” but just not genuine leather bound. Much cheaper set. Then I took that set to Schafer Bindery in Salt Lake and had them bind it with a real leather cover. So I have a “Type A” set, without thumb indexing, and it only cost in total about $20 more than if Deseret Book made a proper set and sold them.
My mother in law did an object lesson with her new and old scriptures once. She placed her old thumbed through scriptures next her new crisp scriptures. When you looked at them side by side the old ones appeared larger than the new ones because of the wear on the pages. The new scriptures had crisp flat pages that still stuck together therefore the pages were held tightly close to one another so they appeared smaller. Then she said “As these scriptures have been read they have grown through the years. Just like them, you too will grow as you read them”. It was a cool visual that I won’t forget.
Tina