Nice Ebay Score Came Today

[geneweigel]

I got mint copies of the original 5 hardcover's (PHB, DMG, MM, DEI&DEM and FF) for around $11 each with shipping. Thats cheaper than what I originally paid:



They're all shiny new except the FF has a major but superficial rip in the upper front right tip (seen above).

[Scott]

That is a nice score. I really need new copies of the PH and DMG.

[geneweigel]

oops, I meant $9 each with shipping came to $11 each.

[geneweigel]

I actually never owned the FF. I've been using my brother's copy all these years. Now I can give it back to him so he can sell it for a quick fix.

[geneweigel]

I do already have multiple DM's Guides, PHBs (5?), MMs, UAs and MMIIs. but these are fresh as hell.

[grodog]

Excellent find, Gene

[GT]

Sweet! I still need to get a mint-ish copy of Fiend Folio & Cthulhu/Melnibone Deities & Demigods to put away with my other "no-use" copies.

[GT]

BTW, Gene--did you score any Manuals of the Planes, Greyhawk Adventures or 2E slat books for your collection? JUST KIDDING!!!!! (copyright, Gene Weigel) ^__^

[geneweigel]

I might still have Greyhawk Adventures but I think I burned Manual of the Planes. I have two copies of Oriental Adventures that are off limits in play (everyone is recommended to the THE DRAGON, GDG&H, or DEI&DEM for their Oriental interests.) Also I prefer not to use the Oriental Dragons in FIEND FOLIO as written and use the gold dragon and dragon turtle to fill what I see as overwritten "pseudo-authenticism" in those creatures. My Orient is a parallel to the mentality of the D&D game and refuses to bend to that National Geographic type BS.

What was this thread about?

[GRWelsh]

I'm trying to resist the temptation to turn into a "mint" collector, myself... But I frequently look at 1e stuff on eBay that I already own -- it can't hurt to have back-ups. That's a good deal, Gene.

[geneweigel]

What really amazes me is the colors. They're so vibrant. I almost don't want to use them. BUT I WILL!

I've got bales of ripped open everything. I'm the worst "collector" on Earth! Action figure and comic book collector's cringe when they see how my old stuff is stored.

[Rhuvein]

Nice books, Gene.

I was glad to get the original covers a few years back in excellent condition.

[dcas]

You should see my sorry copy of the PHB -- the binding broke several years ago and now the cover is on the verge of falling off. I would three-hole punch it but I don't think the margins are big enough.

Of course, I have the 2e PHB lying around so I'll just use that from now on.




























Just kidding! ;-)

[geneweigel]

Thats weird I had the same thing happen to my old DMG. It actually isn't my original old DMG (which was stolen circa 1990 or thereabouts) but one I purchased used around the time of the realization that 2e was in fact not workable. Any way the binding appears strange inside of it. I never realized there was such a big void in there.

[dcas]

This is my original PHB so it is 20 years old, I think. (I got all the first edition hardbacks right before 2nd edition was released.) Actually I have a C&C PHB on the way so I will just use that going forward.











Just kidding again! ;-)

[geneweigel]

All kidding aside, it could be worse at least it isn't Palladium Fantasy....SHUDDER....Burn the memories! Burn the memories!

[geneweigel]

I just took some random pics in THE DUNGEON showing the beat up old secondhand DMG and its "void":











Is that a phylactery for charmed dice perhaps? You could fit a buick in there!

[grodog]

You could get that binding repaired Gene, by having a book binder (perhaps at a local library or university?) re-glue the binding.

[amalric]

I've still got my original PHB, DDG and Greyhawk Adventures and they're in mint condition. I bought a mint MM just last year on eBay, and am currently looking out for a mint DMG ~ I have an old softcover MM that's falling to bits, and the spine is coming off of my old DMG...

Not that either are actually mine ~ they once belonged to a guy who now writes for a national newspaper here in the UK, and came to me via his brother and assorted school friends years ago!

[geneweigel]

I wonder where my original DMG & PHB are now?

The first PHB that I had wasn't even mine. There was this guy who actually introduced me to D&D that let me borrow his PHB around 1979 but I didn't get around to really reading it until my brother bought me the basic set in 1981. In the meantime, this guy kept saying I could hold on to it. Everytime I saw him, he'd be telling me about the latest game and his "dwarf engineer" character. He was the nephew of my grandmother's friend and in his late thirties at the time. My grandmother told her friend that I read magazines with "swordsmen" all the time. After that he approached me about "D&D" and I didn't know what the fuck he was talking about. He showed me the books and this massive lead dragon that I have never seen one as big as since. My 10-11 year old mind couldn't figure out what the hell this game was about but he seemed awful enthusiastic about it. I kept wondering where the heck is the "board" at? On a vacation in Florida in 1981 in the Walt Disney World Village (an outdoor mall) there was this magic shop and it had hundreds of lead miniatures that said "Grenadier Dungeons & Dragons" and were in little baggies with yellow cardboard tags. Some were filled with figures. We got "stuck" in FLA for the whole Summer and I'd see those minis over and over again but I didn't want to waste my arcade money on "unpainted models". Of course, today I keep knocking myself in the head for not buying them. Shit, I wasted $30 in that same store on a Yoda mask for crying out loud! Anyway, that guy moved and I tried to give the book to his Aunt but she insisted that I hold onto it.

So in 1981, my bro bought me the basic boxed and I had my Great Aunt try to explain the rules to me and she "DMed" me through my first game. Then I still didn't "get it" and felt inferior to DM the game so I put it on the shelf. Later that year my now estranged older cousin visited and he saw all this D&D paraphenalia that I had sitting on the shelf. He wanted to try it. (I think he played it before). Everybody made characters (I already had one "Thog") and we fought a bunch of monsters in acave. He was big on caves. The most notable thing was he described hobgoblins as being little tiny gremlins. After he left that weekend, I never really saw him much anymore except at family parties and its been that way ever since. We used to be thick as thieves. Anyway, I got the gumption to throw together a D&D game after that. Then I couldn't stop. I remember getting as many minis as possible but I felt that I didn't need the DMs Guide but I bought the MONSTER MANUAL. I'd play cutting out of school in abandoned apartments, in the subway (where I got arrested playing D&D!), in an old pipe factory (I called the castle. It had a tower) upstate at the "country house" on rocks way up the mountain, or as Henry recalls playing on a log in Forest Park. Anyway, I did all that without a DMs guide. I got busted big time late in 1983. After a series of sordid revelations by my family: My Mom found my "funny cigarettes" and weapon collection, my brother saw me shatter the back of a bus window while kicking somebody's ass, I never was home or at school, the cops were asking around for me, I had graffiti all over my belongings, etc., etc., etc...I got shipped off to live in Connecticut in total isolation to live with my rich crippled godmother who had just bought a mansion. Thats when she gave me a pile of D&D crap that her ex-husband had bought which included a DM's Guide.

Last time I saw that PHB & DMG was 1987. I had so many people coming and going to CT and playing that there is no way I could narrow down who the thief was. But in all likelihood it was my brother. He was buying and selling antiques at sales and he probably unloaded it for a quick $5.

Well, that was a long winded story but thats when I got em and thats when I lost em....

Hmmm... does anybody know anybody who has a PHB or a DMG with my name on the inside cover?