Hows the value of these items holding up?

mkman · Last edited by mkman on Mon Feb 07, 2011 11:07 am; edited 1 time in total

Hi all! Long time its been since I've even checked here or on the other site (acaeum).

Since I am out of the loop on this stuff for years now, hows the market for these holding up? Are rares like ST1 Up the Garden Path, Jade Hare, various Daystar stuff, etc still holding up in value OR have many dropped in value due to the economy?

Thanks and nice to see everyone! Hope all is well.
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tfm · Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 1:23 pm Post subject:

Hello, Mr. K! I hope life is treating you well. I would argue that the RPG market is generally down with D&D bearing the brunt of it. While some unique or near-unique items have done well, the mass-produced rares have not. The collectors who want them have them and since there is not a solidly collective effort to promote the hobby by those same collectors, those on the outside are much less likely to pony up $4000 for a 1st print woody in an economy that can go tits-up at any moment. It's not a good promotional strategy to welcome prospective collectors into the dialogue and then slit their throats when things get competitive.

Personally, the most fun I ever had was contributing to the Tome. I put about a quarter of what I have up here, but I just don't have the will power any more. The hobby owes a collective 'thank you' to ebay for creating the capacity for people to get things they would otherwise be unable to find. I really miss bidding against Lance (lofenloc). He was only one could outbid me when I was serious about something. Not many people have the resources we have and are willing to collect RPGs. I don't even know if he collects them anymore. I wonder is his garage looks like mine. :)
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mkman · Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 6:13 pm Post subject:

TFM, I'm doing good, glad to hear from you!

I've been out of this hobby for so long that I decided to do some quick ebay searches and wow you are correct! Things have dropped in value and even wargaming items are down. It used to be that I would see bids for some higher value items but even the higher value items are getting no bids and just sitting there unsold.

Definitely collecting early on was fun as lots of collectors gathered as a collective and helped each other out and uncover rare items. Some collector bases are much closer than others...........tolkien boardgame collectors in general aren't very helpful vs lets say D&D collectors. I was on my own pretty much when collecting lotr games and a lot of info I had to find by myself or with the help of Dave who helped me with that lotr website I made (and haven't checked or updated for a long long long time).
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mkman · Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 6:21 pm Post subject:

I am a great motivator.......ask Adam! I got him pumped up about creating this site after we chatted for a while about rare D&D and non tsr items. I think I can motivate you to take pics of everything you have :)

Any person wishing to collect now has it so easy! Back in this sites infancy and early on in the acaeum, a lot of stuff had to be uncovered and took a lot of work! I know I was scouring shops, ebay, etc to try and help find something obscure to contribute. It was fun as all the other collectors were doing the same thing, competition was fun.

I do know what you mean when the fire is gone and I hope that the new hobby that you have found is pumping you up Very Happy

I remember lofenloc, yeah tough competitor, didn't need to compete with him as everything he was bidding on, I already had Very Happy

I think I did compete with him on a few things and made him pay big money for and if I am correct the item wasn't even complete later when I asked him! lol
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mkman · Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 6:24 pm Post subject:

Your not collecting really anymore, what about all the others?

Is Adam still collecting?

What about Rhea Shelley? Did he ever get back into collecting or ?

How about blackdougal? (Forgot the name) but he was a nice guy, wonder if he is still collecting?

What about frank farris? Is he still collecting? He was a good competitor when collecting as he would dig up lots of neat stuff and pump me up to outdo him.

What about chromaticknight?

How about the burnie brothers? Didn't they sell off their stuff a long time ago?
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Mars · Posted: Tue Feb 01, 2011 11:30 pm Post subject:

I am still collecting but have definitely slowed down - finding rare small press stuff that I don't have has become harder. On the few times that I did go and out bid TFM or Lofenloc I felt quite satisfied but it was definitely tough to outbid both. A few months ago, I ended up outbidding stratochamp on a rare RPG and that was pretty satisfying but its not a weekly battle anymore.

I see that TFM is still tempted from time to time - I noticed the bid on the Vikings & Valkyrs. I should add those books to the tome sometime too :)

I can add some input to your questions:

What about Rhea Shelley? Did he ever get back into collecting or ?

* I don't think so. I think he is back to selling more stuff off. I just noticed yesterday his Ebay account was active on the selling front again:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280621437698

How about blackdougal? (Forgot the name) but he was a nice guy, wonder if he is still collecting?

* I think he still has stuff but his TSR Archive site is no longer up Sad

It has been archived on a couple of other websites though. He still pokes around. I think he goes to NTRPG con.

What about frank farris? Is he still collecting? He was a good competitor when collecting as he would dig up lots of neat stuff and pump me up to outdo him.

* I haven't heard from Frank in a while. He's sold off most of his collection a while back. I wonder what he is up to now too.

What about chromaticknight?

* Mike is definitely still around. We were just briefly discussing prints of the orange spine DMG :) Apparently at least 8 prints. He pops up here when needs be too.

How about the burnie brothers? Didn't they sell off their stuff a long time ago?

* I think they still have a ton of stuff but maybe have sold a bunch off too. They released a 1st Ed D&D module with Easley cover art, got crap for WotC and had to removed the TSR and D&D references from the cover making 1st prints collectible and have 2nd prints on the market.

http://tomeoftreasures.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4850

They have some pictures of their gaming dungeon room too.

tfm · Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 2:13 am Post subject:

Yeah, I put in a couple bids on gametool. They weren't serious, but I couldn't stand the thought of the two I bid on going for a song. I should not have won Meow, but I won't complain.

I've been listing stuff for a few months now and am very pleased with how things are moving. The whole market isn't in the toilet, it just takes longer to sell something which is a why a store is better than an auction. I sent 30 cases of games to nobleknight because I didn't want to deal with them. Now I'm down to the stuff that's fun for me. Making games available to people is a great way to promote the hobby and ebay gets more traffic than any RPG/wargame collecting site. Besides, there is some validity to the criticism that a game on the shelf isn't a game. I answer questions all of the time about the stuff I have listed, and I like that interaction with gamers who want to learn.

The Hibbs do have stuff for sale here: www.shop.diecastgamesinc.com
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scribe · Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 3:24 am Post subject:

Sup Mike! Ahhrrnold finally leaves office and you are ready to show back up!?

haha I haven't bought anything for years, and haven't sold any of the stuff that I amassed. I am waiting for the market to recover a bit and I'll start putting it up for sale. Not the art though, I still hold onto that and am waiting for the financial situation to improve before purchasing more.
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scribe · Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 3:27 am Post subject:

Mike. You on facebook? I tried looking you up and I think half of asia came up! Look me up if you are.
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mkman · Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 9:40 am Post subject:

30 cases of games to NKG? Wow thats a lot! Were they common items or fairly rare items?

Adam - pm me your last name so I can look you up on facebook. AHHAHAHA half of asia? hahahahaha Look through all of them and if you see the most handsome asian guy thats me :) :)
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tfm · Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2011 3:55 pm Post subject:

It was a bunch of different stuff; mostly common games, like ICE's MERP, magazines, and bulky games that I didn't want to pay shipping on, but there was some rares in there too, a lot of rare D&D and some rare mini-sets. I broke even and I was happy with that.
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bbarsh · Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 9:50 pm Post subject:

Time for me show my ugly mug after an extremely long absence...

grodog · Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2011 4:10 am Post subject: