GenCon and Origins are certainly good for hunting up rarities.  Shawn and Devon put together a report on these boards from the GenCon auction sometime not long after they returned....

burntwire wrote:GenCon is a great place to purchase OOP items. Some of the resellers at the convention want way to much though. I have tried to talk Crazy Egor down on a few items and he wouldn't budge. He states it costs $5000 to rent the convention space for the 4 days. Sometimes you can get deals at the auction if you don't mind sitting for hours and hours. We will be putting a few items in the GenCon auctions.

Shawn

I'd stay away from the big name cons if you want cool items at a good price, or even a steal.  I've had all my luck through the years at small regional cons where often you have game store owners clearing out the back room which has OOP stuff, or joe public just wanting to dump his old D&D stuff.  I could go on and on stuff I have found at small cons compared to big cons.  One of the funniest memories is attending an Origins con years ago. a big name dealer was set up with gaming stuff, he was charging $20 or more for PHOTOCOPIES of some hard  to find OOP items, and about five times more for the real thing.  I'm sorry my memory is not perfect here, but the one item I remember specifically was FR5 The Savage Frontier, he wanted $20 for a photocopy or $50 for the real thing.  He was asking $100 each for Grenadier gold box miniatures, in the original boxes,  that had been inexpertly painted and were quite used (you can get the same thing on Ebay for half that).  What Burnt said is true, those guys at the big cons have to pay for their spaces.
   In contrast, here are a few deals (once again, memory is shot at my old age) I found at regional cons....one year at Aggie Con (a great con that Texas A&M has had the last 30 years or so) I found a complete set of Different Worlds and Space Gamer magazines, a buck each, these are all in my personal collection now.  Also found a complete set of the Canadian gaming magazine The Apprentice and some other hard to find gaming mags.  In a small gaming con in Dallas about ten years ago I got a complete run of JG stuff (this was when JG stuff was still hard to find), including the City State stuff and other rarities, I think the guy charged cover price and it was still in the shrink!  A con out in Tyler Tx a few years ago, very small town but has a regional college I believe, I found 2-3 (can't remember exactly how many) From the Ashes boxed sets still SW, cover price, from a game store owner (the guy was cleaning out his back room!!!) Now, sometimes small cons suck and nobody has anything, but I think the potential to make a great buy is much bigger simply because the seller doesn't know what he's got most of the time, and you don't have much competition being an Acaeum stud!
    Anyway, my advice would be the hit the big cons to see the big names, the big retailers,  and have a good time, but hit the small cons for the good deals!

Mike B.

I was at a smaller con a few years back and I found a dealer cleaning out his back room as well.  I got many shrink wrapped high value items including 3 copies of Planescape Bloodwar, 3 copies of planes of conflict and heaps of other stuff (about a 4 foot high stack actually).  The guy gave me a wicked deal about 70% off retail.  He thought I was a nut and I went on the sell all the multple copies and extras I bought for tons O' cash.

Another good example of where to buy good quality items.

Xaxaxe wrote:

beyondthebreach wrote:Odin, I wouldn't give up on eBay if I were you. . .

Agreed. You are NEVER going to do better than eBay — a truly global marketplace that operates 24/7/365 and doesn't require you to leave your house is pretty tough to beat.

Yeh, but you'll hardly ever get a DEAL on ebay anymore.....let's face it, we all know about it and give it a looksee on occasion.  Nothing is slipping by Acaeum members, heck we even have a thread dedicated to interesting items on Ebay.  I barely shop there anymore myself, I just can't buy stuff at a price I'm comfortable with for reselling.  Used bookstores or small cons if you want to get a deal!

Mike B.

Badmike wrote:

Xaxaxe wrote:
Agreed. You are NEVER going to do better than eBay — a truly global marketplace that operates 24/7/365 and doesn't require you to leave your house is pretty tough to beat.

Yeh, but you'll hardly ever get a DEAL on ebay anymore.....let's face it, we all know about it and give it a looksee on occasion.  Nothing is slipping by Acaeum members, heck we even have a thread dedicated to interesting items on Ebay.  I barely shop there anymore myself, I just can't buy stuff at a price I'm comfortable with for reselling.  Used bookstores or small cons if you want to get a deal!

Mike B.

It's hard to find a deal anywhere -- of the few remaining gaming stores in my area, all are selling common items at ridiculous prices, if they sell D&D at all.  CM series modules in VG or worse for $40, you get the idea.  

eBay is a little better, there are rarer items available, common items go for a bit less, but as you've mentioned, nothing of collectable value is "slipping by" everyone, and I don't have the dollars to bid against the big guys.  I still salivate everytime I discover a used book store I haven't checked out, because that's probably my only shot at a deal -- an uninformed offline seller.  That's how I obtained the one rare I do have, and it's been a decade, so I'm about due for a find.