Blackmoor wrote:After winning the auction (I think is was for $20.00 or so) he sent me an invoice with shipping for over $70.00.  I sent him a terse e-mail about the overcharge on shipping and his reply was something like "I didn't get what the item was worth so I charge more for shipping"...

This was not an isolated incident.  Aaron was(is?) definitely hiding profit in the shipping charge.  To quote Aaron .... "there is a handling fee on all our ebay auctions since the merchandise is in general selling for less then our cost there".  I personally find this behavior morally questionable.

Based on both Blackmoor's and my experience I do have to pull Aaron up on his claim that eBay is new to NKG.

Noble Knight Games wrote:3) We use stock photos wherever possible.  This is clearly stated on the webpage and the eBay page.  It boggles my mind how many places I can put information and still have it be missed or ignored.  EBay is new for us.  

Both our purchases were made back in 2007.  I am not sure where the line is between new and experienced but I am pretty sure 5 years is long enough to move out of the new category.

As far as OOP stock goes, I think all of these (good) points will probably be moot in the non-too-distant future. I check their website (for D&D/AD&D only) relatively regularly, and it doesn't seem like they're restocking OOP material at nearly the rate that they were a couple of years ago. Whether this is a deliberate choice and they're moving away from it, they're offering too little to people looking to sell collections, things are becoming scarcer, or a combination, I don't know.

It appears to be a blatant attempt by Aaron's staff to deceive the unsuspecting buyer.
Very little attempt has been made to present an honest description of the goods in any way, and the image is blatantly there to mislead the buyer as to the product and its condition.
The company have degenerated over the years into dishonesty and deception, and, from what Aaron and/or his staff have said on this forum, they both know about their practices, and couldn't give a fuck about their customers or any perception of dishonesty or impropriety they are giving.
I doubt we'll see any change, any explanation, or any honesty going forward.
In fact, Aaron and his underling would be wise to avoid responding, because responding will only get their ass chewed out in a public forum.

Versimilitude wrote:Hi,

particularly as the item as described as VG.

In the grading system VG is described as COMPLETE....

Cheers,
KAL

Not true.... particularly with that item.
No box set is complete without THE BOX!
And even if complete otherwise    , at that price it is WAY too high and without a proper description, the bidder is taking his/her chances with the rest.

Since when does a "very good" condition include someone having colored in any of the pages, whether it's "neatly" done or otherwise?
It doesn't even match their grading system in their own auction details!


** expired/removed eBay auction **


and again, here's the Jade Hare -- shown with cover -- yet you have you go down four paragaphs into the description to read the disclaimer that there's no cover.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dl ... rid=229466

Wow, I'm glad this post was bumbed back up as I never saw it before.

Being relatively new to the collecting scene (been playing for years [I still need to introduce my self {this embedded comments is just for kicks}]) I am totally amazed at the current prices being asked for these OOP items.

It all started with Amazon mostly (trying to complete some of my WW collection) and found that there is simply ridiculous pricing out there, books for thousands of dollars, etc. which I never understood and still don't till today. I'm not talking rares either, just simple SW AD&D 2e items sometimes. DailyDealzUSA, AnyBook, ugh, they make me sick.

Then came my lust for building my D&D collection (through 2e) and I have started picking up rares and SW items when I can, if the price is right. I have been trying to understand these ebay resellers through this board and I still don't and you guys just keep making me smarter. T&T, KNG, Intelligator, they all have huge stocks of old items but charge ridiculous prices for them. Not to mention the descriptions issues you guys have been discussing.

It reminds me of a store near where I live, which has a fairly decent size of old gaming products, all types. I used to like book stores where you were climbing over stacks of boxes to find things until I became a collector. This store pisses me off. Tons of great stuff that just get smashed between the new stuff being brought in and the even older stuff below it. Box sets with no boxes that just sits there and could be sold off to people on ebay for cheap helping them complete collections. Only one guy can price stuff and everything is overpriced. Even newly OOP items, like WW or GURPS 3e is overpriced and he has 15 copies of each book. Sort of reminds me of these huge resellers on ebay. I would kill to run these guys stores and get the first picks for items coming in. They probably give people 5 bucks for RPGA modules then sell them for hundreds.

How do they even get into this business? Can I put a Craigs List add out. Bring me all old RPG stuff and ill give you nothing for it! lol I would totally run a reseller store i i knew how to get the products coming in.

The real thing that irks me is the pricing, as I imagaine it does everyone else. Not just that it is pricey but its impossible to tell what things should be worth anymore. We have these great Acaeum standards but they are blown out of the water everyday. N2 The Forest Oracle SW just popped up on ebay for a reasonable price 12.99 (no BIN) and already I have someone outbidding me on it. Other people will stumble onto it and it will just keep going up. Should the Acaeum prices be updated to reflect what people are willing to pay today, not necessarily what we think they should be worth? Of course that just enables the huge resellers to start higher but man the whole thing is just difficult. Makes you wish you simply worked harder for that allowance when you were younger and bought more stuff at retail!  Oh and never opened it! HA

Pipswich wrote:An item is worth what the buyer will pay.  If it is not worth the price to you, why fret?  Prices fluctuate based upon context.  

That sure is the truth!

Pipswich wrote:FYI, I wish I had a local bookstore that handled rpg irregardless of price.  (Hint)...  if the guys prices are too high, then they simply won't sell and you don't need to be offended... save up some money, be very, very nice and politely let him know you might be willing to buy ALL of the rpg if he ever wants or needs the cash flow.

I'm normally offensive, not offended!   Hey that's what road trips are for. C'mon down to Denver and you can buy all you want. Nothing rare too often but they have 30 copies of the PHB!

Do they keep an inventory of hundreds or thousands of rare, and I mean very rare, items? I would bet something worth $200+ would merit the 2-3 minute time it takes to snap a photo and catalog it properly.

I have a real simple solution: if you do not have a picture of the actual item, don't post a picture at all. Done.