Free RPG Day 2008-Saturday June 21

Posts: 3151 · Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 11:14 am

This I thought was a good post by Vic Wertz on the Paizo boards

Quote:

Every year, there are retailers who promote Free RPG Day and Free Comic Book Day for months ahead of time, with flyers and posters, and even local TV spots. They come up with additional reasons to bring people into the store, and keep them there, and make them feel that they're being treated well—demos, sales, food, appearances from local "people of note." They stock additional products for the occasion, especially from the manufacturers represented in the product kit, and they make sure that if you see something you like in the freebies, they're there to educate you about the related for-sale items. In short, they use it as an opportunity to promote themselves while putting on their best face. As a result, many of these guys do gangbuster sales and acquire new customers that will come back next month or the months after.

Also every year, there are the guys who spend money on a box of books and dump it on a table on Saturday morning, and then sit around wondering why they wasted their money.

As with Free Comic Book Day, most retailers will get out of it what they put into it.

ShaneG.

Posts: 1001 · Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 12:02 pm

Plaag wrote:

This I thought was a good post by Vic Wertz on the Paizo boards

True enough, but this is only the second year for Free RPG Day. Lazy retailers may get wiser for next year and advertise or promote it more. Customers will also remember this year's experience, which had to be better than last year's. Year One was dead as a doornail; Year Two was advertised on the store windows and had some games with players.

D&D Day also came before Free RPG Day this year, so stores and gamers were more informed or at least expected Free RPG Day.

Posts: 2269 · Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 12:14 pm

JohnGaunt wrote:

Year One was dead as a doornail; Year Two was advertised on the store windows and had some games with players.

Year Two also became more of an international thing. There ended up being a UK Free RPG day last year but other countries such as Canada didn't have one.

Posts: 107 · Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 10:52 pm

Treasure of Talon Pass (The WotC 4E Free RPG adventure) is going for upwards of $50 at auction (one was $69!), and Bins of $35 and $39 bucks are getting snapped up right away.

There have been at least a couple of these posted (on Ebay) every day, so it can't be that rare - is there any way these prices will sustain themselves, or is this a case of people being ridiculous?

Posts: 4449 · Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 12:22 am

Grug Greyskin wrote:

Treasure of Talon Pass (The WotC 4E Free RPG adventure) is going for upwards of $50 at auction (one was $69!), and Bins of $35 and $39 bucks are getting snapped up right away.

There have been at least a couple of these posted (on Ebay) every day, so it can't be that rare - is there any way these prices will sustain themselves, or is this a case of people being ridiculous?

Grug;

You are becoming very attuned to the ways of the Newbie Collector, young Jedi. You are just beginning to see the truth beyond the haze....just remember the words of our great leader, P.T. Barnum:

"There's a sucker born every minute...and he soon ends up on Ebay overpaying for items that have hype but no actual rarity."

Mike B.

Posts: 1001 · Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 8:56 pm

Badmike wrote:

"There's a sucker born every minute...and he soon ends up on Ebay overpaying for items that have hype but no actual rarity."

I am surprised to see the value holding after one week. Will the value hold until Gencon? Will GenCon push the price up (publicity, possibly more copies for eBay) or down (too many copies for eBay)?

Best buy them now before they are all gone!!! Wink

Three auctions with module/map/mini are closing tonight; maybe they will continue the trend.

Also, I saw that the Iron Heroes module is available as a free PDF from DriveThruRPG. Paizo has D1.5 as a free PDF or $5 print copy. Troll Lord has the first C&C Quickstart. How about other publishers?

Posts: 107 · Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 11:42 pm

Badmike wrote:

"There's a sucker born every minute...and he soon ends up on Ebay overpaying for items that have hype but no actual rarity."

Mike B.

And in the end, the value will be determined by what runs out first - the supply (which at the moment is not letting up) or the demand (which will dwindle as more 4E products come available).

Posts: 4449 · Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2008 12:55 am

Grug Greyskin wrote:

And in the end, the value will be determined by what runs out first - the supply (which at the moment is not letting up) or the demand (which will dwindle as more 4E products come available).

Bingo young Jedi.... Very Happy

I'm mostly influenced by the fact that some of the items ALREADY are available as free downloads; with many more to follow, I assume. I am going to predict Talon Pass will follow, or be given away at Gencon; Word is that Goodman Game's Punjar will be available as a download, or the same material available in a later sourcebok for the Punjar setting. So I'm not seeing a lot of value for these. To be truly collectible, said Free RPG Day item will have to be both hard to find, AND not available elsewhere. From last year only the Warhammer module, and the Game Mastery module (despite this one being available as a free download from Paizo) have shown any resale value for me. We won't know about this year's crop for awhile....but I'm going to predict Talon Pass won't be getting $35 a pop after Gencon, and more 4E stuff becomes commercially available....

Mike B.

Posts: 2269 · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 2:43 pm

For the discerning collector, any idea which of the Murder At Miskatonic's is rarer?

The normal version:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=380040906298

Or the misprinted cover with the extra righthand side border line:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110264696633

I picked up both locally at the same store so I'm really not sure.

Posts: 1001 · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 6:33 pm

Mars wrote:

For the discerning collector, any idea which of the Murder At Miskatonic's is rarer?

The normal version:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=380040906298

Or the misprinted cover with the extra righthand side border line:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110264696633

I picked up both locally at the same store so I'm really not sure.

I only saw the misprinted cover.

Posts: 1276 · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 6:45 pm

The ones I saw were primarily the misprinted cover as well... neat.

Posts: 4449 · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 8:11 pm

serleran wrote:

The ones I saw were primarily the misprinted cover as well... neat.

I have a feeling both are virtually worthless....there doesn't seem to be any shortage...

Mike b.

Posts: 1001 · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 9:11 pm

Noble Knight is having "Part Deux" of Free RPG Day on July 8. The terms are different this time around, so read carefully.

Quote:

Free RPG Day - Part Deux!!! - 7/1/2008
Due to canceled orders and an unexpected surplus of several items we will be posting a further selection of previously sold out FREE RPG DAY items Tuesday July 8th! Supply is quite limited although we do expect to have a decent amount of the most in demand items available again for a short time! Important note: Regular customers are top priority to us here at NKG!! If you are a regular customer who had previously asked for these items and were unable to get them you should email nobleknight@nobleknight.com AS SOON AS POSSIBLE - if you place an order that we can ship one of these with we will include an item from the list below in it for you at no charge (assuming you had not already gotten them...)! The rules for FRPGD this time out are a little different from last time to prevent chaos: Any order - 1 item your choice (limited to one time only). Want more then 1 item? For every $50 spent you can include an additional item (no duplicates at any time).

So here's what was popular:

Quote:

Items to be reposted include:

Columbia Games - Harn - Field of Daisies - Quickstart Rules w/Adventure
Fiery Dragon Productions - Iron Heroes - Bloodwood - Setting Guide
Exile Game Studio - Hollow Earth Expedition - Quickstart Rules w/Adventure
Goodman Games - Dungeon Crawl Classics (4th Edition) - Punjar - The Tarnished Jewel - Gazetteer
Green Ronin - A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying - Quickstart Rules w/Adventure
Troll Lord Games - Castles & Crusades - Dwarven Glory II - Quickstart Rules w/Adventure
Troll Lord Games - Starsiege: Event Horizon - Quick Start Rules
Wizards of the Coast - D&D 4th Edition - Treasure of Talon Pass - Module w/Mini & Tile
Margaret Weis Productions - Castlemourn - Cortex System Quickstart Rules
Paizo Publishing - Pathfinder Modules - Revenge of the Kobold King - Module

Based upon what I saw on Free RPG Day, I am not surprised to see that they have leftovers of the Heirs to Olympia, Traveller, and Hunter: The Vigil.

Quote:

And these items are still available - TAKE WHATEVER YOU'D LIKE! (limit quantity to max 2 each)

Countess Games - Heirs to Olympia - Quickstart Rules w/Adventure
Flying Buffalo - Tunnels & Trolls - Quickstart Rules w/Adventure
The Cabil - Cardstock Scenery Software - Terrain on the Spot - Fold-Up Scenery
Skirmisher Publishing - Cthulhu Live (3rd Edition) - Murder at Miskatonic - Scenario
Mongoose Publishing - Traveller - Book 0 - An Introduction to Traveller - Quickstart Rules
White Wolf Publishing - Hunter: The Vigil - Quickstart Rules w/Adventure

Posts: 1276 · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 9:17 pm

Quote:

So here's what was popular:

Troll Lord Games - Castles & Crusades - Dwarven Glory II - Quickstart Rules w/Adventure
Troll Lord Games - Starsiege: Event Horizon - Quick Start Rules

Sorry, that just makes me happy. Smile

It is interesting that Harn would be popular as I hear it is consistently loved and reviled. Maybe that's what makes it so cool? I didn't even know there was a Harn item. Sad

Anyone have one?

Posts: 2269 · Posted: Wed Jul 02, 2008 9:54 pm

serleran wrote:

I didn't even know there was a Harn item. Sad

Anyone have one?

I grabbed the Harn item. I think it was one of the items in which stores only received 3 copies. It is also one of the thickest items at about 50+ pages.

Posts: 2504 · Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 9:07 am

Mars wrote:

I grabbed the Harn item. I think it was one of the items in which stores only received 3 copies. It is also one of the thickest items at about 50+ pages.

I grabbed the Harn item as well. Seemed like a no-brainer considering most everything else was 8-12 pages and black and white. Wink

This seller is dumping all of his Free RPG Day items into one lot. It doesnt contain everything but about 75% of them. He also has two other lots with the mini and dungeon tiles.

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZdsb1070

Posts: 1001 · Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 7:23 pm

Kingofpain89 wrote:

This seller is dumping all of his Free RPG Day items into one lot. It doesnt contain everything but about 75% of them. He also has two other lots with the mini and dungeon tiles.

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZdsb1070

That's the evil bastich that has been selling the 4E Fre RPG Day items.

Posts: 1001 · Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2008 7:33 pm

The value of the Talon Pass Triad is dropping lower, though it is still not worthless:

03-AUG - Talon Pass + map tile + mini sold for $20.50 + $5.50 s/h:
. . . http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=370072681159

27-JUL - $33.00 + $5.00 s/h:
. . . http://cgi.ebay.com/D-D-TREASURE-OF-TALON-PASS-SEALED-With-Figure-Tile s_W0QQitemZ120287322736

27-JUL - 6 hours earlier at $40.00 + 5.50 s/h:
. . . http://cgi.ebay.com/D-D-TREASURE-OF-TALON-PASS-SEALED-With-Figure-Tile s_W0QQitemZ360072556201

(I may update this post with future auction results.)