In regards to the ebay factor which has been a great boon to collectors. I do agree that it in many ways has rendered the comic book price guide obsolete. CGC is now the driving force of that market! Many people who collect comics and spend big $$$ on them are well informed,follow the market closely, and have a long history(some of which has been recounted in this thread) to learn from! These people certainly do not need a guide at all-I threw mine out years ago!!! Newbies will still find a guide helpful! I also think most Rpger's NEED THIS SITE to familiarize themselves with the collecting aspect of TSR. To many of us(if not most)
TSR's products were just games that we loved and not thought of for their value as collectibles. We are just finding out now how valuable they are to ourselves and others. A good example of this is my own experience-I owned virtually every first edition module published up to 1983 and all the major books. I thought i had just about everything ever made for D&D. Until this site i had never even heard of palace of the vampire queen or wee warriors for that matter! I knew virtually nothing about the original D&D. So for me this site is really useful for the wealth of information available. Without such info I don't see the collectibles in this hobby getting much more valuable because so few people know about them. If D&D items are going to continue to appreciate in value then this site is critical to it! Without it there just isn't the organization or knowledge available to the collector for prices to greatly appreciate! In short comics may have outgrown a price guide but
RPG'S certainly haven't.
Posted: seeking arcane knowledge, will pay well for old writings,books,scrolls,alchemist cookbooks, and other odds n' ends that will aid me in furthering my pursuits!
         -Thenraine the silver magus