What's New at The Acaeum?                                                             Home
 

April 1st, 2007
  • There is absolutely nothing April Foolish regarding this update.  If you see something that doesn't look right, it's most likely a genuine error, so please report it!
     
  • A new Third print of B2 Keep on the Borderlands, a new Seventh Plus print of the Monster Manual, a new Second print of Manual of the Planes, a new Second print of DL1 Dragons of Despair, a new Eighth print of the REF1 DMs Screen, a new Second print of B1-9 In Search of Adventure, and a new Second print of S1-4 Realms of Horror
     
  • New strangeness with the Second print of D1 Descent Into the Depths of the Earth.  Two versions of the Second print have been confirmed -- one that has missing illustrations, and another where all illustrations are present.  We'd be interested in hearing from anyone with either version, to try and get a handle on how rare each is.  And while you're on that page -- we'd like to get additional confirmation from anyone who's got a Fourth or Fifth print of D1, D2, or D3.  For the Fourth print, we're not sure if the version with the ISBN on the bottom right exists, and for the Fifth, we're not sure if the print exists at all!  Any help is appreciated
     
  • New Ninth Plus and Tenth Minus prints of the Players Handbook, as well as numerous corrections to prints Ninth and later.  This should (hopefully) resolve many of the discrepancies contributors were noticing
     
  • Exceedingly-rare discoveries: First and Third prints of Character Archaic, and First and Second prints of the 1977 D&D Character Record Sheets
     
  • New information on -- and a scan of! -- R5 Great Bugbear Hunt
     
  • A ton of new pieces of original artwork in the Museum
     
  • Further background on B3 Palace of the Silver Princess
     
  • Clarifications and corrections made to the Fifth and Sixth prints of Palace of the Vampire Queen
     
  • A cover insert for the Australian D&D Basic Rulebook?
     
  • Text of the Correction Sheet bundled with the Original D&D Set, as well as errata for Unearthed Arcana
     
  • Quite a few new questions -- and answers -- on the Ongoing Research page
     
  • An explanation of all those numbers found on a D&D product's outside cover
     
  • Removed the condition estimations from the registries of Lost Tamoachan, Ghost Tower, and R1-3 Pre-Pubs.  We never intended to be a grading service on these copies, though that's what the registry was turning out to be
     
  • Five years later... State of the Hobby
     
  • Item valuations have been updated, but only a portion of them.  We've been less than diligent in tracking values this past year, though we're going to initiate a new batch of Valuation Board members in the near future to fix this
     

March 16th, 2006

  • A bevy of new Estimated Values for "common" items (those of Rarity score 1, 2, or 3).  The Valuation Board has now begun tracking these, and will update these values approximately once a year, as opposed to once a quarter as with the Rarity 4 and 5 items.  Roughly half of the common items on the site are now being tracked (and since almost every tracked item has had a value change to some degree, the easiest way to tell if an item is being monitored is to look at whether the value has increased or decreased, as indicated by the red and green arrows).  Additional common items will be added to the monitoring list shortly.  For more information, please see this forum post
     
  • Values for the Dungeon Masters Guide 2nd Alpha have been decided on by the Valuation Board!  You may all rejoice and rush to purchase your copies.  Since there has been a sale -- for $562 -- the Valuation Board agreed to use this to determine the valuation for this item.  As such, this estimated value is highly speculative (as it is with all items we cover with little or no market history...), and certainly subject to wild swings in light of future sales.  Use it with a grain of salt!
     
  • What would an update be without a new class-5 rarity?  Greyhawk Reference Sheets.  Values for this have not yet been established
     

March 12th, 2006:

  • Due to new information and research, the sequence for Palace of the Vampire Queen has been expanded and reshuffled.  Most notably, the previous First and Second print definitions have flip-flopped, but this does not affect valuation.  Please check your copy of PotVQ to ensure it fits within this sequence -- any discrepancies, please let us know!
     
  • The Fourth print of the Original D&D Set has been eliminated; we believe that the previous description of this print was in error.  As a result, the Fourth Minus print has shifted up to the new Fourth
     
  • In a similar vein, we believe that the reports of a First print of Greyhawk (as a separate item from the "True First" printing) were confused, since no one has been able to produce a non-True First print.  As a result, we've removed the "True" portion of the "True First" print, making it the one-and-only First
     
  • ...and for the last of our printing deletions, the Second print of Quest for the Fazzlewood has bit the dust as well.  Since reported to us in 2000, no other copies have surfaced -- we believe the copy spotted at that time was probably a photocopy or other similar reproduction
     
  • An article by Kent Kelly on the mysteries to be found within the Official AD&D Coloring Album
     
  • A new Second print of AC5 Player Character Record Sheets, and a new Third print of T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil
     
  • An interesting "combined" foreign module: the Finnish B3 Palace of the Silver Princess and B6 Veiled Society
     
  • Moved the "Updated" column on the Indexes to the left of the "Rarity" column, to help underscore that the date listed for "Updated" refers to updated information on the item's page, and does not have any relation to when the Estimated Values were updated
     
  • Estimated Values are now present for the DMG print sequence, with the exception of values for the Second Alpha print (only one sale, for $562, has been recorded; the jury is still out on valuation of this print).  It should be noted that the Second Alpha is the rarest DMG print known to exist, and as such, should command a much higher price than the more-common First print -- but probably not a five-hundred-dollar premium
     
  • A new Google-powered site search engine.  Searches both the main site as well as the forums!
     
  • All URLs on the site have been changed to lowercase.  We apologize if this breaks any of your personal bookmarks -- but it's something we wish we had done at the site's inception.  Only recently did we find the tool necessary to make this happen, and bring the site into compliance with the Internet norm
     
  • Complete HTML-layout overhaul.  Old fragments of code, misaligned elements, and general shenanigans were straightened out.  While most of the changes are very subtle, you should find that the site pages now scale better at different browser resolutions, and things align more nicely.  Please let us know if something isn't resolving correctly on your browser
     
  • A new forum address.  This address change coincides with a major upgrade of the forum software
     
  • Finally, I'm proud to unveil the first of The Acaeum's new subwebs: The Judges Guild Booty List.  Presented in much the same style as the main site, but edited and maintained by Plaag.  Please help out with submissions and corrections, to help ensure that this repository of knowledge on Judges Guild products is the best it can be!
     

June 5th, 2005:

  • Mostly a "housekeeping" update -- tightening up, correcting, and clarifying many of the changes made in the last update
     
  • Expanded and clarified grading definitions, courtesy of Paul Tremiti
     
  • All relevant essays, as well as The Acaeum FAQ, have been updated to reflect the new grading and evaluation systems
     
  • First quarter 2005 auction results have been compiled by The Acaeum Valuation Board, and the updated Estimated Values accordingly appear on the indexes
     
  • Eliminated both "Poor" and "Mint" from the Estimated Values altogether.  Under our new philosophy, "Poor" is still a grade, but not one that we're going to offer estimated values for (a Poor-grade item is considered not collectible, even though it may still have some value).  Additionally, "Near Mint" replaces the condition previously ascribed to "Mint".  While an item can certainly be truly Mint (i.e., uncirculated and completely unblemished -- "perfect"), and will necessarily command a price premium if in that condition, the vast majority (99.9%) of items should be properly described as Near Mint.  Near Mint represents 100% value of an item, with lesser conditions scaled accordingly
     
  • A new Plus/Minus column ("+/-") where the Mint column used to be on the Indexes.  In the continual quest to reduce eyestrain, this column will feature a colored arrow to denote whether the Estimated Values for that item have gone up or down since the last update:  = down,   = up,  no arrow = no change
     
  • Historical auction sales on the individual item pages have had their conditions adjusted to match the new grading scale:

    •  SW conditions changed to NM/SW

    •  M conditions changed to NM

    •  NM conditions downgraded to VF

    •  EX conditions changed to FN

    While not necessarily accurate for all items, it at least provides consistency, and allows us to keep these older sales available for reference purposes.  Also, odds are good that we've missed a few during the conversion, so if you spot any of the old grading values still in use on a page, please let us know!
     

  • As an additional aid for making sense of the Dungeon Masters Guide print sequence, I've composed a flowchart which should make determining your printing much simpler.  Please note that we haven't had the time to monitor DMG sales on eBay with the new sequence in mind, so we've left the value of the DMG blank for now.  We'll correct this in the next update
     
  • Two distinct prints of Daystar West Rahasia identified
     
  • Unofficial errata for the D&D Rules Cyclopedia
     
  • An interesting discrepancy with the Finnish version of AC2 Combat Shield & Mini Adventure....
     
  • New items added to our listings: Dragon Dice and Dragon Dice Percentage Generators
     
  • The Acaeum Distributed Computing Project Handbook.  A dramatic name for a dramatic idea -- create and manage your own Acaeum subweb!
     
  • A request for donations to not only keep the site running, but to help offset the costs of a bigger, faster server.  In return for your donation, we'll grant you a sizeable chunk of online real estate, e-mail addresses, and more!
     


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