i worked for a game distributor for several years and we had to order module quantities in the minimum amount that could be held in one box: 12 or 24 at a time. dragon magazines had to be ordered in boxes of 72. that being said, and i`m working off of 20 year old memory, but at the gencon auction the year before i bought the first one sold, there was one up for sale, but the minimum bid was $250. i was 15 and my brother-in-law wouldn`t loan me the money so i (and everyone else ) passed. in discussing it, frank mentzer mentioned that 3 or 4 boxes, approximately, had been rescued from the dumpster. so i have always put a lot of stock in a number of about 72 to 144 in existence, since frank was a lot closer to the truth of this than anyone else i know and i trust him completely. but all of my info is third hand.

Well, there's certainly more than 24 out there.

I'd bet there's a good chance some wag grabbed a box, brought it home and forgot about it. There's probably a stash of 24 shrinked copies in an attic somewhere.

I am acquainted with someone who was a TSR staffer during the time period in question (my wife is friends with his wife). He still has his OB3 copy. Since he hasn't worked for TSR in years he might be willing to tell us what he knows. Since it would probably be a few days before I could contact him, does anybody have any good questions that I should ask?  :?:

BTW, it could be that he doesn't know anything. He was a writer but not involved in the production of the OB3. I just thought that it couldn't hurt to ask.  

Okay, I've talked to my staffer acquaintance but I'm afraid he can't shed much light on the matter. His name is Mike Price and he was employed by TSR from '80 to '83. He worked in Design and Development and was involved in the creation of 2nd ed. Gamma World, among others.

Mike doesn't remember who obtained his copy for him (after all, it was over 20 years ago!), but he says that everyone in his department knew that the OB3 would be a collector's item so everyone made sure they kept a copy or two. He recalls that there around "a couple dozen" people in his department at the time.

Since the anonymous warehouse staffer mentioned earlier said, "there were several copies floating around, and not in the editorial or creative offices", and Mike confirms that there were 24-48 (or more) copies scored by the denizens of the creative offices, I think it is safe to assume that there was more than 1 case lifted that day.

Anyway, sorry I couldn't find out more.