The Arduin Grimoire's I, II & III

Posts: 676 · Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 1:17 am

I just came from a trip to the Half Price Bookstore in Tacoma, WA. These people are unbelievable. They have marked up ALL of there 1st Ed AD&D to 2x and even 3x the original selling price!! Shocked

I mean a DL7 for $18 and it was shelf worn to hell and back. But on the lowest shelf 3 little booklets were poking their spines out to see if somebody would by them. To my surprise they were the first 3 Arduin Grimoires. All 3 were in mint condition with no price listed. I took them up to the blonde sales lady and ask what the price would be on them and she looks them over, gives a little huff and says $3. I said sold and handed her $9. She looked at me, frowned and said $3 total!! Shocked

I about fell over laughing as I took the Grimoires and my $6 and started walking out the door. One of the other employees asked her what was wrong and when she told him he looked at what I bought and promptly started chewing her out. (Come to find out this was the guy that was marking up all the 1st ed AD&D, so he must have known what they were worth and just didn't get around to marking them up!!! Laughing

)

Anyway, does anybody out there in the forum have any kind of print info on these? It looks like the Skull Tower was actually signed by Dave Hargrave but I was wanting to know if this was normal or not and if it is a signature, is it the real thing. Plus, what is the current worth for these? Embarassed

Any help would be appreciative and I can provide scans if someone would be willing to post them....

Posts: 4716 · Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 2:13 am

The 1st book had 2 printings, first print had a specter hanging over some poor soul. The rest are all 1st prints. I know of no difference between later printings.
You should have at least kissed her after you did her up the can.........

Posts: 2938 · Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2004 11:08 pm

First print:
http://www.stud.uni-hamburg.de/users/afterglo/rpg/nontsr/grimoire/ag1a .jpg

Second print/reprints:
http://www.stud.uni-hamburg.de/users/afterglo/rpg/nontsr/grimoire/ag1b .jpg

Posts: 195 · Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 8:50 am

Actually there is another printing of the first book:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3178145833&category =2545

Posts: 2938 · Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2004 7:03 pm

Thanks for the clarification McDuff---I think your image is the 2nd print, and then the 3rd/reprints are the one that I listed as the 2nd print.

Posts: 676 · Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2004 7:24 pm

Thanks for the info Smile

. Appears that I have a 3rd print on the first book. The 2nd, Skull Tower has what appears to be a signature on it. Is there a clear scan out there so I can compare? Also, what is the current worth of these as a baseline?

Posts: 58 · Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2004 11:23 am

I have a copy of vols II and III (Runes of Doom and Skull Tower), but no copy of vol I.

However, I suspect that there were multiple printings of these two volumes as well, just no indication of printing number and no real change to the text or cover. But I'm not sure - can anyone look at their copies and maybe narrow this down a bit.

The reason I suspect more than one printing is:

Vol. II - Welcome to Skull Tower
"By: Dave Hargrave" 'signed' on the cover. Note to the poster above: This is not an autograph afaik, but is rather a part of the printed cover.

Inside Front Cover: Dedication. - David Hrgrave, a.k.a. Elric, Baron and Lord of the House of Dragon Tower
Inside Rear Cover, Top: Table of Contents
Inside Rear Cover, Bottom: Price List. Price for Individual Vol. I - III is $8.50. The Arduin Adventure [published in 1980] is listed for sale as boxed game or as rulebook only for 9.95/7.95.

Vol. III - The Runes of Doom
David Hargrave printed in same font as title on cover.

Inside Front Cover: Opening Comments - David Hargrave, Multiversal Trading Company.
Inside Rear Cover: Special Message to Fans of Arduin - David Hargrave, October 1978. In this message, David says "Due to Financial Considerations I have sold the rights to these three books (and only to someone I trust as a true friend). ... Look for my first new game sometime after March of 1979, with at least one other following shortly thereafter.
Inside Rear Cover: Price List shows individual volumes 1 - III all priced at $9.50. No Mention of The Arduin Adventure. Contact address is Grimoire Games in Berkeley.

Conclusion - vol. III is not a first printing (he self published the first copies and thus I would expect them to not include a reference to "Grimoire Games" - the party to whom he is likely referring to. But printed before March of 1979. Thus it is likely a second printing (???)

Vol. II is likewise not a true first printing, but rather was printed sometime after 1980. Which means it was printed after the non-1st printing of Vol. II. But this could make it a third printing or it could make it a second printing (or any other number).

Can others who own this book take a look at the inside covers of their copies? I suspect that the inside front cover is likely the same on all printings and that the only differences will be in the rear inside cover, especially the price list.

Or perhaps, despite the 1978 copyright dates, volumes II and III didn't come out until 1979 and 1980 - making these true first printings. But I don't think that is the case.

Comments?

(Of course - since I intend to sell, just ignoring all this and calling it a 'first printing' - which seems to be the standard - is tempting, but I'd rather try to be accurate).

Carl

Posts: 4544 · Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2004 5:08 pm

Kosh Vorlontay wrote:

I just came from a trip to the Half Price Bookstore in Tacoma, WA. These people are unbelievable. They have marked up ALL of there 1st Ed AD&D to 2x and even 3x the original selling price!! Shocked

I mean a DL7 for $18 and it was shelf worn to hell and back. But on the lowest shelf 3 little booklets were poking their spines out to see if somebody would by them. To my surprise they were the first 3 Arduin Grimoires. All 3 were in mint condition with no price listed. I took them up to the blonde sales lady and ask what the price would be on them and she looks them over, gives a little huff and says $3. I said sold and handed her $9. She looked at me, frowned and said $3 total!! Shocked

I about fell over laughing as I took the Grimoires and my $6 and started walking out the door. One of the other employees asked her what was wrong and when she told him he looked at what I bought and promptly started chewing her out. (Come to find out this was the guy that was marking up all the 1st ed AD&D, so he must have known what they were worth and just didn't get around to marking them up!!! Laughing

)

Anyway, does anybody out there in the forum have any kind of print info on these? It looks like the Skull Tower was actually signed by Dave Hargrave but I was wanting to know if this was normal or not and if it is a signature, is it the real thing. Plus, what is the current worth for these? Embarassed

Any help would be appreciative and I can provide scans if someone would be willing to post them....

I've found the Half Prices in Washington terribly overprice their used gaming stuff. The ones here in TX are more reasonable, but occassionally you get a overzealous employee that starts marking the stuff more than even EBay. I saw a collection of MERP sit in a Half Price for almost two years simply because the "game expert" there had priced everything double Ebay ($200 for Umbar and Ardor, stuff like that). Predictably, no one touched it, and a couple ofyears later I was able to get it really cheap by using a 50% off coupon after the "games expert" left and another guy took over his section and marked everything down to about $50 each....
But like the Arduin stuff, you can often get a good deal on non-D&D items, even Half Price employees that are game savvy often don't know what the stuff is worth.

Mike B.

Posts: 10 · Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2004 9:34 pm

In all my 3 volumes, inside back cover prices lists all volumes as costing $8.95, and says "prices effective 1 November 1986". All volumes refer to Grimoire Games, San Diego

Posts: 77 · Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2004 9:44 pm

Kosh Vorlontay wrote:

I just came from a trip to the Half Price Bookstore in Tacoma, WA. These people are unbelievable. They have marked up ALL of there 1st Ed AD&D to 2x and even 3x the original selling price!! Shocked

I mean a DL7 for $18 and it was shelf worn to hell and back. But on the lowest shelf 3 little booklets were poking their spines out to see if somebody would by them. To my surprise they were the first 3 Arduin Grimoires. All 3 were in mint condition with no price listed. I took them up to the blonde sales lady and ask what the price would be on them and she looks them over, gives a little huff and says $3. I said sold and handed her $9. She looked at me, frowned and said $3 total!! Shocked

I about fell over laughing as I took the Grimoires and my $6 and started walking out the door. One of the other employees asked her what was wrong and when she told him he looked at what I bought and promptly started chewing her out. (Come to find out this was the guy that was marking up all the 1st ed AD&D, so he must have known what they were worth and just didn't get around to marking them up!!! Laughing

)

That is a great find. I've plucked a couple items of my collection from that store. I don't buy much from them now because their prices on the old RPG stuff are to high.

Posts: 525 · Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2004 4:02 am

muadra wrote:

Quote:

In all my 3 volumes, inside back cover prices lists all volumes as costing $8.95, and says "prices effective 1 November 1986". All volumes refer to Grimoire Games, San Diego

You have a later printing check it against these links

grodog wrote:

Quote:

First print:
http://www.stud.uni-hamburg.de/users/afterglo/rpg/nontsr/grimoire/ag1a .jpg

Second print/reprints:
http://www.stud.uni-hamburg.de/users/afterglo/rpg/nontsr/grimoire/ag1b .jpg

Posts: 73 · Posted: Mon Nov 15, 2004 3:53 pm

In any case, getting 3 Arduin books for 3 bucks is sweet; you got your money's worth.