I've pretty much bought and sold every worthwhile item. I'm still trimming out the things I won't use, but I have 20 huge Sterilite buckets going into storage. Nothing major besides things Like PoVQ, DG, etc.
Over the years I've had just about all the heavies at one time or another, 3 C1's, 5 C2's, a few Fazzles, blah blah blah. I find I do not miss them. Having once owned them and gotten to see/read them firsthand was enough for me.
I did the same thing with Magic cards. I collected cheaply, and had at least one of every set and card ever printed at one point. Then I sold them all off to a Japanese buyer for twice what I had into them. Don't miss them a bit.

MShipley88 wrote:I am not buying role-playing publications. I am buying the past.

I can definitely identify with this.  But I am specifically buying the past that I wished that I had.  My girlfriend still doesnt understand why I still have an Atari 2600.  :D

MShipley88 wrote:Also...mark my words...in a distant time one of you will see my daughter on the future version of Antiques Roadshow with my game collection on proud display. Even the commons will have become rares.

You know I'm still waiting for them to show something like that..

"Tell us what you brought in today"
"Well my father bought this at a yard sale, think he paid $20 dollars for it, and well I know its titled Dungeons & Dragons."
"Indeed, and the makers mark is found here on the box, TSR, that stands for ..."

ShaneG.

I think the furious pace is what has go you. My entire collection is probably half of that, and I have been collecting in one way or another for 20 years - although it was more like accumulation than a collecting hobby.

That all changed 9 years ago after my first was born. My only contact with the game is through collecting on ebay. It is my thin and distant connection to my early days of gaming. Although a few of my old buddies are now trying to put together a once a month D&D night. Everybody is married with kids so it just isn't easy to set up a good night for everyone.

I also created a closed set of rules for myself (mostly by accident). I only use "ebay" money for my collecting. I buy and resell (often just to get a specific item out of lot of 20) and use the profits (if any) to finance my next purchase. I bank some money which I add to my kids mutual fund accounts and keep the rest in paypal for ebay purchases (This is also the reason you do not see me hit the big dollar stuff - everytime I hit about $1k in paypal, I disburse to mutual funds - ain't the internet cool). It is a closed system and I don't use any "family" money to keep it going. That makes the collecting part fun as I don't have an open check book (which I could do without problem) for my purchases.

Of course, I am also extremely limited by time. I just don't have much free time to pursue and purchase and resell. I'll accumulate stuff for a few months, then do 50+ item dump on ebay.

All that said, I tend not to get bored because I am not putting that much time into it. I prefer the chase and fun of finding that odd missing piece from time to time, rather than going all-out. Otherwise, I would be in the same boat - Got it all...now what???

MShipley88 wrote:  In the best episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Captain Picard is zapped by an alien space probe and lives the entire life of a member of an alien race in a few hours of real time.

Nothing new I can add here that someone else has not said already. I just wanted to take the time to echo the comment about "The Inner Light". This was without a doubt in the top 10 episodes across all the various series.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 5, Episode 25: The Inner Light - TV.com

...back to the topic at hand.

MShipley88 wrote:I am not buying role-playing publications. I am buying the past.

In the best episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Captain Picard is zapped by an alien space probe and lives the entire life of a member of an alien race in a few hours of real time.

 In the end, Picard picks up the flute that he loved in his alternative life and finds that he now knows how to play it. He plays a favorite song from a life that never happened...it is possibly the most poignant moment of that series.

 I can identify with that moment.

 I remember places and people...some of whom never existed. Collecting the old publications gives me the feeling that there is someone else who still remembers the old days. Having the old books on the shelf gives me the comfort that maybe someone else will still remember in years to come.

Also...mark my words...in a distant time one of you will see my daughter on the future version of Antiques Roadshow with my game collection on proud display. Even the commons will have become rares.

Excellent post. I think many of us are in that exact boat. The collection is simply a physical link to specific moments in time that are meaningful for one reason or another.

I also think this is not universal. My group of about 10 guys (known since we were in grade school) all were equally heavy into gaming and just a couple of those that are still single, still play. We still see each other after 30s! But to my knowledge, I am the only collector of the group. Sure some of the guys have massive Warhammer collections, but none have the D&D stuff that saturated our youth. I think D&D (gaming in general) may have been more important to me (though I may not have known it at the time) than it was to my freinds. I'll just say that I needed the escape more than they might have. Therefore, my connection to the game transferred into collecting when the gaming stopped.

I think my collection is my version of a photo album. It is my window into a time when gaming was a big part of my life and, more likely than not, something that impacted me in a positive way and got me through. If I did not have that connection, I probably would not be a collector. But then again, this stuff is still cool after 30 years!

Prufrock wrote:On that note, I have decided I will not sell. Just take a break from going after everything that my eye fancies. I would like one day to have the collections some of you have.

Probably a good plan, Prufrock.  I've always felt the bug to collect moreso when I've been playing in a good game, so I recommend you put your collection to use:  gather some friends, roll some characters up, kick down some doors and put those goblins to the sword!

GraysonAC wrote:

bbarsh wrote:Excellent post. I think many of us are in that exact boat. The collection is simply a physical link to specific moments in time that are meaningful for one reason or another.

Yup. This is also why, imo, the old D&D books won't keep their values long-term. Very, very, very few folks in their 20's or even early 30's played with the old D&D stuff. At 24, I'm one of the folks that started with D&D, and moved straight to 2nd Edition, without ever playing 1st. So not many of the 1st Edition books have much meaning for me.

Did about the same, but having an older brother get me started in the game I was able to use 1st Edition modules with the 2nd Edition rules when I moved to them from D&D...

ShaneG.

KingOfPain wrote:

Prufrock wrote:I started collecting (ebay) in Jan 05. My first purchase was a L3 for $128.00 . Then I found this website and educated myself. Began collecting in earnest. I've spent around $2500 and have around 500 items.

So my question is: How do you handle the times when your really not all that excited about collecting?

Martin

You started collecting in Jan. 05 and you already have 500 items? Maybe that is part of the problem.  I didnt really start collecting until 2000 and since then I have probably acquired around 500 role-playing items (if that). I pick up a few items a month on Ebay and sometimes will find some items at Half-Price Books or Badmike will have a few items that I will buy from him. But for me to stay interested in collecting I have to pace myself. For one I dont have a large cashflow (just bought a house) and the other reason is that I collect so many things. Kind of difficult for me to afford a woodgrain or set of RPGA modules when I just spent $50 dollars on comics and won an auction for an Intellivision. I guess I am just not in any hurry to complete any of my collections because then I am afraid I wont have the collecting bug anymore.

Just please think about what you want before doing what one guy I know did. He spent thousands of dollars on his D&D collection which included an almost NM woodgrain, set of shrinkwrapped R and RPGA modules, 1st print Chainmail, a SW orange B3, and every printing of rulebook ever and tons of box sets and modules. He ended up selling everything with the exception of the woodgrain and the orange B3. I know he got his money back but regrets not having the collection now.

If I hadn't played D&D in the early days, I don't think I'd collect it.  In my employment various gaming systems come through my hands, for example right now I'm selling off a bunch of Traveller stuff.  It has absolutely no sentimental value and I have no attachment to it because I never played it and their are no memories attached to it.  The act of using the items themselves is what leads me to collecing them...that's why I'm not interested in many of the rares, if I can't see myself using it somehow I'm not that interested in owning it.
   Collecting D&D is like a huge link to my past, each and every 1st edition module has an entire epic story behind it from when I first ran it for my group.  I don't think I could become a collector of any genre that didn't have this memory connection (my other two collecting loves, comics and music, have the same sort of links to my past).  
   I think also that collecting used to be such an arduous task, now Ebay has made the idea of an instant collection a doable idea.  Literally, if money was no problem, you could own everything ever printed for D&D including the super rares in about a year.  Speaking of Aneoth, who you referenced (and I was the beneficiary of that sale I admit), if his new business succeeds I think he could replace almost everything he sold me in a sort period of time, he accumulated everything in about that year time frame, and to top it off he kept the most valuable and hard to find items anyway. Maybe this ability to have an instant collection leads to quick disinterest, since it was gained in almost no time.  I have certain items on my Music Want list that I have been looking for literally decades (out of print items that never made it to CD), when I get lucky and find one it's a huge lift, like I finally climbed a mountain, and I really get excited finally listening to the album.  I guess with Ebay now that surge and thrill is gone because hey, if youdon't win that Jade Hare this time another will be along in a month or so, it's not like it used to be where you were scared if you didnt' get the item right then you might not see it again.

Mike B.