thanks for the nice thoughts everybody. i had been lugging around 250 legal boxes of stuff for many years, so it can eventually find it`s way on to shelves. to echo formcritic, i sure hope my son likes gaming and appreciates the game room er, i mean the living room (thanks dear) and all thats in it so he can pass it on to a next generation... many if not most of my rares have been purchased at gencon (since 1978) so it`s great that such a large acaeum group will be there this year (remember the great things people got last year ?)....i think the thread was called i.o.`s little castle, but there were great pictures of mike`s fabulous setup down in florida...and thank you bracton for helping me move all this stuff probably half a dozen times (although i promised him never again). he is the best dm not named mentzer i`ve ever played with, he was the best man at our wedding and my friend for nearly 30 years. i have gotten the better end of the deal for sure.

i had been collecting frp for about 10 years when in 1987 i made the odd decision to try and get one of every (english language) paper  frp items ever published. but only paper frp items. no miniatures, computer games, science fiction, cyberpunk, boardgames etc. 20+ years later on the shelves are 5119 books and modules, 1897 magazines, 29 tournamant adventures (r5-r10 counts as 6 for example), 42 manuscripts (like steve marsh`s city of the revenaunt) and 57 call of cthulhu items (which obviously don`t count as frp but they`re so cool). so there are 7144 singles there (plus the rare doubles like brown boxes). they`re alphabetical by company and then in stock number order. the boxed sets are first, then the modules and then the magazines, with the digest sized items along the top. i had to do that (and put the boxed sets on their side) to maximize space. the shelves are 30` long & 9.5` high, but there`s no more room. we`re going to build some small shelves on the opposite wall to house any new additions.

stratochamp wrote:i had been collecting frp for about 10 years when in 1987 i made the odd decision to try and get one of every (english language) paper  frp items ever published. but only paper frp items. no miniatures, computer games, science fiction, cyberpunk, boardgames etc. 20+ years later on the shelves are 5119 books and modules, 1897 magazines, 29 tournamant adventures (r5-r10 counts as 6 for example), 42 manuscripts (like steve marsh`s city of the revenaunt) and 57 call of cthulhu items (which obviously don`t count as frp but they`re so cool). so there are 7144 singles there (plus the rare doubles like brown boxes). they`re alphabetical by company and then in stock number order. the boxed sets are first, then the modules and then the magazines, with the digest sized items along the top. i had to do that (and put the boxed sets on their side) to maximize space. the shelves are 30` long & 9.5` high, but there`s no more room. we`re going to build some small shelves on the opposite wall to house any new additions.

Well you don't want to put boxes on boxes or they will deform. You should think about light fading. Unless you have glass doors that filter the light the edges exposed are going to (eventually) fade. I wondered about how they were organized when I saw the two versions of basic boxes on the same shelves with the woodgrain and white boxes.

stratochamp wrote:20+ years later on the shelves are 5119 books and modules, 1897 magazines, 29 tournamant adventures (r5-r10 counts as 6 for example), 42 manuscripts (like steve marsh`s city of the revenaunt) and 57 call of cthulhu items (which obviously don`t count as frp but they`re so cool). so there are 7144 singles there (plus the rare doubles like brown boxes). they`re alphabetical by company and then in stock number order. the boxed sets are first, then the modules and then the magazines, with the digest sized items along the top.

In Philip Jose Farmer's To Your Scattered Bodies Go, there is a scene early on where Sir Richard Francis Burton is watching what appears to be an infinite series of human bodies fall past him.  (If you don't know the story, it's a bit too long to explain here.)  Farmer writes, "For a while, [Burton] stared.  Then he began counting bodies; he had always been a devoted enumerator. But when he had counted 3,001, he quit."

stratochamp would not have stopped at a mere 3,001.

JZavoda wrote:Well you don't want to put boxes on boxes or they will deform. You should think about light fading. Unless you have glass doors that filter the light the edges exposed are going to (eventually) fade. I wondered about how they were organized when I saw the two versions of basic boxes on the same shelves with the woodgrain and white boxes.

No worries.  He's having windows installed that filter out UV light.  Really.

I should thank stratochamp for the kind words; some are even true.

originally i wasn`t collecting solo books until i had a conversation with lawrence schick who convinced me otherwise. oh, i should mention i decided to stop getting new stuff if it was published after 2003. so i`m trying for the first 30 years (1974-2003) of frp, somebody else can get the next 30 years. anyway, there are about 200 things i`m looking for from 1974 to 1998; of those 200 about 50 are solo books because i wasn`t targeting them at first. i`m missing fighting fantasy 55 & up, i have the dragon warriors books, missing lone wolf 20-23 & 25 & up. there are 30 magazines i`m looking for (not including fanzines like owl & weasel, beholder, bohemian ear spoon etc. you could make that your life`s work, oh wait you are brette ! ). from 1999-2003 there are about 300 things i`m looking for; i`ll get every lousy d20 one of them eventually, it`s just taking me longer because i refuse to buy them unless they are about 75% off...

stratochamp wrote:originally i wasn`t collecting solo books until i had a conversation with lawrence schick who convinced me otherwise. oh, i should mention i decided to stop getting new stuff if it was published after 2003. so i`m trying for the first 30 years (1974-2003) of frp, somebody else can get the next 30 years. anyway, there are about 200 things i`m looking for from 1974 to 1998; of those 200 about 50 are solo books because i wasn`t targeting them at first. i`m missing fighting fantasy 55 & up, i have the dragon warriors books, missing lone wolf 20-23 & 25 & up. there are 30 magazines i`m looking for (not including fanzines like owl & weasel, beholder, bohemian ear spoon etc. you could make that your life`s work, oh wait you are brette ! ). from 1999-2003 there are about 300 things i`m looking for; i`ll get every lousy d20 one of them eventually, it`s just taking me longer because i refuse to buy them unless they are about 75% off...

Must be nice to have such well defined goals, I have no real goals   I just collect whatever strikes me that day!!

Still my eye is planted firmly on a complete D&D/AD&D collection

stratochamp wrote:originally i wasn`t collecting solo books until i had a conversation with lawrence schick who convinced me otherwise. oh, i should mention i decided to stop getting new stuff if it was published after 2003. so i`m trying for the first 30 years (1974-2003) of frp, somebody else can get the next 30 years. anyway, there are about 200 things i`m looking for from 1974 to 1998; of those 200 about 50 are solo books because i wasn`t targeting them at first. i`m missing fighting fantasy 55 & up, i have the dragon warriors books, missing lone wolf 20-23 & 25 & up. there are 30 magazines i`m looking for (not including fanzines like owl & weasel, beholder, bohemian ear spoon etc. you could make that your life`s work, oh wait you are brette ! ). from 1999-2003 there are about 300 things i`m looking for; i`ll get every lousy d20 one of them eventually, it`s just taking me longer because i refuse to buy them unless they are about 75% off...

Don't remind me on the magazines/fanzines..... I've aimed for 1998 and before, but even that has started to creep.. My origional aim was to have 1 of each item in Heroic Worlds! The biggest problem I have is the fact that I'm overseas (well not in the USA I suppose ) and can't attend Gencon auctions..  alas.. if only.. oh well..  I also collect solo game books as well .. so I could see you were a bit short in the lone wolf depertment.. LOL.. sometime I wonder if I'm going to be a little old man who is able to tell you all about a book by its spine at 50 paces...

Brette:)

stratochamp wrote:i loved what jasonw said about your room kingofpain, that you are surrounding by your favorite things. well my favorite thing in your cool room is king conan sitting on his uneasy throne. where did you pick that up?

Let me think.  I picked that up a few years ago at one of the local comic book stores here in Dallas.  It is part of the McFarlane Toys Conan series.  I think I picked it up for around $30 at the time it was released.  I just did a quick search on Ebay and found just this one:




** expired/removed eBay auction **




All of the Conan figures that McFarlane did are really nice.  You can check out the King Conan figure here and look at the other sculpts as well.



http://www.spawn.com/toys/product.aspx?product=2590

Looking at the photos:  I'm simply mesmerized.

Martin