What's up with OCE prices lately? • Page 2 • Collecting General • The Acaeum

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What's up with OCE prices lately?
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harami2000
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Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2005 8:01 am

Still got a draft response to <Terminal_Frost>'s post, somewhere.
Or else might start a new thread re. 4th-/4th(?)/5th prints...

deimos3428 wrote:I'm still not sure if that's a compliment or an insult. I lurked here for quite a long time, though...

Heh, heh. Take as ya will. Was just meaning from the p.o.v. of remember when the OCE prices were high, with those few extra crazies; before they dipped again, more recently.

Logging a few more; for ref.

Think the slightly bashed OCE with rusty-staple books at $165 prolly deserved an "honorable mention", especially since it didn't go to the orc.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 5952190925

Another nothing-special corners-slightly-pushed in OCE at $203 (boosted by the orc, this time)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 5165474391

5th print plus Greyhawk at $225 (thanks to Ian, this time) had to be a bit better value than that. Nice looking books and box (only slight discoloration, relatively "square" corners, but stated to have scuffing)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 5168150392

Another orc-ish OCE at $191.
"The box has some aging/yellowing and small stains, but all the corners are very tight with no rips, tears, or writing". Fairly crisp books, with obvious staple rust. (Loved the comment about supplements(!); take "those" away, and you're left with a box plus reference sheets

)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 5956121713

Somewhat battered and dirty OCE box made a big difference; $122 including Lizard Greyhawk & Blackmoor, plus Wizard Eldritch.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 5167263714

Rather decent (only minor corner pushing, discoloration and inside edge wrinkling) OCE with nice looking books and ref. sheets was probably the best purchase (relatively!) at $103.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 5957583843
(I suspect throwing in a MM, DMG & PHB probably lowered the value of this one...).
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 5957583843

"Bargain basement":
Chipped corner OCE, no ref sheets, good looking books; $75
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 5167283364
Somewhat tatty OCE box, inscribed books, but with ref. sheets; $51
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 5168176096

(Proportion of OCEs to earlier printings is again noteworthy

)

bclarkie
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Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2005 9:54 pm

Ahh, more OCE insanity:

cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem& ... 7&rd=1

I mean I know it has all the supplements & chainmail, but still $275.00 with morre than 16 hours to go

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." -Neitzche

deimos3428
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Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2005 9:57 pm

bclarkie wrote:Ahh, more OCE insanity:

cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem& ... 7&rd=1

I mean I know it has all the supplements & chainmail, but still $275.00 with morre than 16 hours to go

Check out the stains on the GDH. That kind of sentiment (sediment?) costs extra! :wink:

Gnat the Beggar
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Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 11:31 am

cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem& ... RK:MEWA:IT

$305 8O with 2 hours 49 minutes left! :roll:

Even considering decent prices (Say $25 each) for the Supplement books and Chainmail (Not unusual), but none of them are First Prints (and as said above, the GDH clearly has damage). That leaves the box set (With a damaged box) supposedly valued at around $155... and who knows how many snipe bids wait in the shadows for the final outcome....

A bit of a stretch IMO

"Guys, I am starting to think Tegel Manor might be haunted..."
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killjoy32
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Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 12:33 pm

Aneoth wrote:cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem& ... RK:MEWA:IT

$305 with 2 hours 49 minutes left!

Even considering decent prices (Say $25 each) for the Supplement books and Chainmail (Not unusual), but none of them are First Prints (and as said above, the GDH clearly has damage). That leaves the box set (With a damaged box) supposedly valued at around $155... and who knows how many snipe bids wait in the shadows for the final outcome....

A bit of a stretch IMO

i think more and more ppl are now becoming aware of these OD&D pieces and therefore want to get their hands on them....possibly the reason for the hike in prices? and of course, there are more and more members on here, so many more are becoming very aware of the rare pieces that are around....

course i could be totally wrong, but thats what i think

Are we nearly there yet?

Gnat the Beggar
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Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 1:03 pm

OK, new buyers/collectors seems quite reasonable to me. Visiting the Acaeum for the first time, sees a White Box Set and says

"WOW! An Original D&D White Box Set! I recognize that Starburst from the pictures on the Acaeum! I GOTTA HAVE THAT!"

But how does that explain the Low prices from recent auctions of older White Box Sets then?

A Fifth, or Fourth Print run does not seem get a seller nearly as much as a newer same grade OCE does these days. And we all know that they are not nearly as common as the OCE either. In the same condition, an OCE can go for twice or even 3 times as much.

I have seen a Fifth get only 65-75 recently, and the books were fine, box fair to good. I saw another set get only 45, without a box but the Books (and Ref Sheets) were in Excellent Condition.

That is simply shocking to me....

"Guys, I am starting to think Tegel Manor might be haunted..."
Stated by me as a PC during a run of Tegel Manor DMed by killjoy at NTRPGCon 2010

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harami2000
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Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 1:06 pm

killjoy32 wrote:i think more and more ppl are now becoming aware of these OD&D pieces and therefore want to get their hands on them....possibly the reason for the hike in prices? and of course, there are more and more members on here, so many more are becoming very aware of the rare pieces that are around....

course i could be totally wrong, but thats what i think

I'd think it was an ideal "starter" or "speculation" piece for someone to jump into the "more serious" market place; whether or not they've got other books, modules or suchlike lying around.

Plenty of OCEs up for sale, so it's relatively easy to "take the plunge", too.

Of course, if they sign on here and find we only "value" their purchase at $45-80 (and decrease the past four years), rather than the $100-140+ the genuine purchasers are paying, they might "give up the game" somewhat rather than get hooked and go on to increase the diversity of their collecting. Some might say "bigger and better things".

(Not that I've got anything against OCEs...

)

In theory, this is good in the long run, so long as there is no overall unsustainable "bubble" economy.

harami2000
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Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 1:30 pm

Aneoth wrote:OK, new buyers/collectors seems quite reasonable to me. Visiting the Acaeum for the first time, sees a White Box Set and says

"WOW! An Original D&D White Box Set! I recognize that Starburst from the pictures on the Acaeum! I GOTTA HAVE THAT!"

Sounds more like we haven't "educated" them.

If they'd read everything here, they would be paying more for the 4th(?-)/5th prints which are rarer by a factor of 4, 6, 8 or whatever, in terms of auctions.

And not just that one 5th, above, at $225 (with Greyhawk) which looks "good enough to be an OCE".

Aneoth wrote:But how does that explain the Low prices from recent auctions of older White Box Sets then?

A Fifth, or Fourth Print run does not seem get a seller nearly as much as a newer same grade OCE does these days. And we all know that they are not nearly as common as the OCE either. In the same condition, an OCE can go for twice or even 3 times as much.

No explanation. And unfortunately we're neither reflecting the actual auction realisations (not even those at the lowest point), nor providing any particular incentive to push the earlier prints back into a relatively-sane position price wise.

A 4th(-) in extremely rare VF condition (about best possible) is only rated $160. Why wait?

(I'd've thought the OCEs were closer to level, or 50% over at most, but they've certainly had the majority of higher prices- because there are more of them. Not sure whether this applies to the UK market, though).

Aneoth wrote:I have seen a Fifth get only 65-75 recently, and the books were fine, box fair to good. I saw another set get only 45, without a box but the Books (and Ref Sheets) were in Excellent Condition.

That is simply shocking to me....

*nods*. Almost worth it for the ref. sheets at that price, if you're missing them.

The realisations do seem to be tied in closer to box condition now (which is a change from the end of last year when worse OCEs were for a time apparently selling for more than better ones!).

And if box condition is of more importance than the contents, the older prints cannot possibly "win" on that score, alone. (With latest date = 1976/7 vs. 1985, that's no surprise).

cavscout761
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Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 2:05 pm

I was watching an OCE set that closed yesterday and the bids didn't go higher than $51.00 I think it was (which didn't meet the reserve). I was watching because I have one and wanted to see what would be a resonable price to set it for. Are these really only worth that price?

Scouts out!

Gnat the Beggar
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Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 2:37 pm

cavscout761 wrote:I was watching an OCE set that closed yesterday and the bids didn't go higher than $51.00 I think it was (which didn't meet the reserve). I was watching because I have one and wanted to see what would be a resonable price to set it for. Are these really only worth that price?

As a collector, my standard answer would be perhaps so, depending on the condition of the box, ref sheets and books of course.

The Acaeum's listed auction sale history is a really good standard to go by on most items you will find as to D&D.

As a seller? The answer changes to: "A good price is whatever you can get...."

OCE's with excellent or better boxes are getting silly prices. So, I say sell em' while ya' got em'! :twisted: 8)

"Guys, I am starting to think Tegel Manor might be haunted..."
Stated by me as a PC during a run of Tegel Manor DMed by killjoy at NTRPGCon 2010

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harami2000
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Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 2:50 pm

Aneoth wrote:As a seller? The answer changes to: "A good price is whatever you can get...."

*chuckles*

Aneoth wrote:OCE's with excellent or better boxes are getting silly prices. So, I say sell em' while ya' got em'!

Anyone have a stencil handy?

A few of my 4th- sets are good enough, I think, especially with a low-res wide-angle photo and some fancy spot-lighting...

Just leave out the word "Collector's" so they can't accuse me of deceiving them!

:roll:

harami2000
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Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 4:13 pm

Aneoth wrote:cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem& ... RK:MEWA:IT

$305 with 2 hours 49 minutes left!

Even considering decent prices (Say $25 each) for the Supplement books and Chainmail (Not unusual), but none of them are First Prints (and as said above, the GDH clearly has damage). That leaves the box set (With a damaged box) supposedly valued at around $155... and who knows how many snipe bids wait in the shadows for the final outcome....

A bit of a stretch IMO

Finished now... no further advance(!) on $305.

Yes, good spot on the damaged box. Certainly imperfections and possibly slight "dishing", too.

So, four Wizard supplement titles which were going for around $45 late last year. Throw in a "rough" G,DG&H and a fairly decent looking Chainmail.

=

Looking back at the revisions, there was a "Buy It Now" price on this one. I wonder how much that was...

deimos3428
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Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 4:37 pm

harami2000 wrote:
Aneoth wrote:As a seller? The answer changes to: "A good price is whatever you can get...."

*chuckles*

Aneoth wrote:OCE's with excellent or better boxes are getting silly prices. So, I say sell em' while ya' got em'!

Anyone have a stencil handy?

A few of my 4th- sets are good enough, I think, especially with a low-res wide-angle photo and some fancy spot-lighting...

Just leave out the word "Collector's" so they can't accuse me of deceiving them!

I told ya man, it's an OCE "prepub".

Probably worth millions.

rosenkav
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Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 7:39 pm

I have to say that when I looked down, one year ago, at the prices of the booklets of true original D&D, I wondered at the prices: they were actually LESS than what I thought.

And so it came that I bought the three original booklets (all 5th print) and a Greyhawk (9th print) - without box - for around 30 bucks - the state is really good, like having been just taken out of the box. The fact is that I didn't care about the box or the value - I just wanted to own a piece of RPG history, the one piece that originated all. And when I took them to my players, all that they say was "oooh" and "aaaahhhh", and we all went rolling under the table looking at the game mechanics and the ludicrous artwork. But we knew that these three booklets started all, started everything that kept us hooked from then onwards. And now that I have them tucked away in my own library, I sometimes take them out, open them carefully and smile. I know I could get something for them, and I know I could buy something published earlier: but in fact I think I'm not a true collector, and so I don't care much. Well, if you happen to sell a true first for twenty bucks, maybe I'll change my mind, but in fact I won't spend all those bucks running after early editions of these items: I'd prefere much to spend them bettering my collection of first and second AD&D material, which I find more interesting and useful.

deimos3428
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Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2005 8:26 am

rosenkav wrote:The fact is that I didn't care about the box or the value - I just wanted to own a piece of RPG history, the one piece that originated all. And when I took them to my players, all that they say was "oooh" and "aaaahhhh", and we all went rolling under the table looking at the game mechanics and the ludicrous artwork. But we knew that these three booklets started all, started everything that kept us hooked from then onwards. And now that I have them tucked away in my own library, I sometimes take them out, open them carefully and smile. I know I could get something for them, and I know I could buy something published earlier: but in fact I think I'm not a true collector, and so I don't care much.

This bothered me because it seemed so incongruent. Seems to me like this is the very definition of a true collector. If all you're thinking about is resale value or shrink-wrapped mint condition -- well, that's something else, but I wouldn't call you a true collector. :wink:

rosenkav
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Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2005 8:29 am

At the very least, you wouldn't call me a furball either. :lol:

johnhuck
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Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2005 8:29 am

rosenkav wrote:...I think I'm not a true collector...

I would argue that you are a true collector. I would argue that you are NOT an investor dressing yourself up as a collector.

(dons armour and waits for the volley of missiles :wink: )

killjoy32
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Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2005 8:45 am

johnhuck wrote:
rosenkav wrote:...I think I'm not a true collector...

I would argue that you are a true collector. I would argue that you are NOT an investor dressing yourself up as a collector.

(dons armour and waits for the volley of missiles )

*fires an armour-piercing missile at john*

Are we nearly there yet?

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