beyondthebreach wrote:One possibility is that one of these "fly-by-night" companies will actually linger around until some day everything changes. . . and they become larger and larger and more popular. They once made several little known modules and as they grew and became more popular their older more "obscure" titles still were relatively worthless. Perhaps someday, 20 years from now, WOTC sells out their rights to D&D and this "growing" company is around to purchase it. D&D 10th edition is now released by this new company, and while the younger generation buys it, the 30 something crowd remembers their own youthful playing days. These obscure titles by the now wildly popular "new company" are remembered and the older (wealthier) crowd buys them with increasing frequency. Maybe not like a Tsojconth, but maybe with the appeal of our current H1-4 series.Or maybe an author (like this Wolfgang Baur) becomes famous in his own right - perhaps as an author or perhaps pioneering a new RPG company. In any case, his old modules could garner collector interest based on his having written them.
Badmike wrote:I was pruning out my collection and getting rid of some really lame early 3rd edition stuff I bought years ago at discount, when it hit me: Are these items going to be the hard to find rarities of the future completist collector in 20 years? I'm not talking any of the WOTC, Sword & Sorcery, Necromancer, Kenzer, Green Ronin,etc stuff. I'm talking about the one-shot, made-some-bucks-then-folded, fly by night crap that came out right when 3rd edition did in low print runs, and disappeared. Companies that perhaps released only one or two titles before folding.
dathon wrote:Do young people still play D&D in large numbers? I was under the impression from people who go to cons that there are less and less that play D&D, instead they go for CCGs, video games and other pursuits.
deimos3428 wrote:Badmike wrote:I was pruning out my collection and getting rid of some really lame early 3rd edition stuff I bought years ago at discount, when it hit me: Are these items going to be the hard to find rarities of the future completist collector in 20 years? I'm not talking any of the WOTC, Sword & Sorcery, Necromancer, Kenzer, Green Ronin,etc stuff. I'm talking about the one-shot, made-some-bucks-then-folded, fly by night crap that came out right when 3rd edition did in low print runs, and disappeared. Companies that perhaps released only one or two titles before folding. I'm sure in 20 years some of it will be valuable. But there is no way to determine which items, and with the absolutely vast amount of 3e stuff out there, you're better off pitching it all, and hunting for the "good stuff" in 10/15/20 years. It's just taking up valuable space at the moment.
Badmike wrote:Good point. We will need something to do as we enter retirement age. At age 60+ I'll be looking for something else to collect by then. And my wife will seriously kill me when I announce that at our retirement party.Mike B.
Shingen wrote:3e stuff is very tricky collection wise. After the OGL, a grip of people came out with "Jack's 1000000 Broken Feats" and more. So many of them sucked, and died.Unfortunately, it made 3e look bad because of themunchkins putting that crap out.
Badmike wrote:I was pruning out my collection and getting rid of some really lame early 3rd edition stuff I bought years ago at discount, when it hit me: Are these items going to be the hard to find rarities of the future completist collector in 20 years? I'm not talking any of the WOTC, Sword & Sorcery, Necromancer, Kenzer, Green Ronin,etc stuff. I'm talking about the one-shot, made-some-bucks-then-folded, fly by night crap that came out right when 3rd edition did in low print runs, and disappeared. Companies that perhaps released only one or two titles before folding. I mean, in the future are titles like "Assault on Darkspyre" going to be the sought after manna of the kids right now growing up with 3rd edition? The print runs are low, and they are OOP never to be seen again. Or will anyone care? Truthfully most of these early products are gawd awful crap. Then again, some of the early 1st edition stuff we look for is pretty terrible (Wee Warriors stuff? Early Role Aids? Wilmark Dynasty?). So, should we be salting away a copy of stuff like Nemoran's Vault, Spear of the Lohgin, or The Gryphon's Legacy (actually, the last is a real sleeper, probably the best one shot 3rd edition adventure I've ever read, written by Wolfgang Baur as the first adventure of a series by a company that apparantly went under soon afterwards...)? Or should we just toss the lot and hope we aren't saying 20 years from now "Yep, I had a copy of that Akrasia Thief of Time, but who knew?"Mike B.
