Grandmasters of (A)D&D Collecting
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Post Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2003 5:15 pm 
 

Now, what kind of topic is this? Let me explain what I want to know: When I started collecting seriously not a year ago, the world of (A)D&D collecting was a mystery to me. Today, I have gained some knowledge on the items and values and the principles of our beloved hobby. But except the posts on this forum I know little or nothing about the important participants in the RPG collecting world. So here comes my question:

Who are the grandmasters of collecting?

Now, in chess a grandmaster is someone who is among the best players. In terms of RPG collecting, I'd like to know, who are the people with

  • the best collection in quantity and quality
  • the most knowledge
  • the most influence
etc.

If you want to post to this topic, please allow this easy rule: You might name anyone except yourself and they don't have to be members of this forum.

Please no hurt feelings if someone is not mentioned. I don't ask for complete lists, a name or two who come to your mind may be enough. If someone disagrees with me as to whether such a question is acceptable, please let us know why.

I hope we will see many opinions and names following.

One last comment: This is not meant as a contest. I don't want to see a "world ranking" of collectors as a result or something similar. This is just to shed some light for us beginners on who is a "heavyweight" collector (and who not ...)

  


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Post Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2003 5:23 pm 
 

Here is an incomplete list of who I think are among the Grandmasters of (A)D&D collecting:

  • Malcolm Lawrenson
  • Adrian Newman alias blackdougal
  • Alan Grohe
  • FoulFoot
  • chromaticknight
  • Brett Easterbrook
  • Paul Stormberg
...hmm, should we add cougarrinard?

From Germany we must add those two:

  • Uwe Siebel
  • Jan Thordsen (metallian)

  


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Post Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2003 7:56 pm 
 

Cougarrinard claims to have 2 complete sets of everything D&D/AD&D so you should probably add him.

  


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Post Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2003 8:15 pm 
 

Yep, we add him.

Thinking about it, I probably forgot Sir Kill Alot. I don't know about the others though.

Any more nominations?

  


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Post Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2003 2:57 am 
 

I would like to add that my collection do not approach Adrian's, Paul's, or other folks' here on the boards:  I have some rarities, certainly, but my collection is not deep by most standards.

I would add the following folks to the list.  To the best of my knowledge, they're not members of the forum:
  • Frank Mentzer, probably the Grandmaster of Flowers among collectors
  • Doug Behringer, who interned with TSR c. 1982
  • Jason Zavoda, who's love for Greyhawk may exceed my own :D
And, FWIW, my name is properly spelled Allan, like Poe's middle name....


Allan Grohe ([email protected])
Greyhawk, grodog Style

Editor and Project Manager, Black Blade Publishing
https://www.facebook.com/BlackBladePublishing/

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Post Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2003 1:00 pm 
 

Hi All,

when I sold an ST1 to "Rivervalleyman" he did say it was the only item he was missing for his collection.

Don't know anything else about him tho.

Cheers,

Malcolm

PS be bl**dy surprised if cougarrinard has got 1 of everything, let alone 2, unless you count photocopies.

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Post Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2003 1:27 pm 
 

I think Riftvalleyman's name is Chris Roseman? I understand he is a good friend of Rhea Shelley (rumor). Yet another big daddy collector from Texas. I think you only have to look no further than Texas for the Grandmaster's of our peers. However, if you sell it all, do you retain Grandmaster status?

Riftvalleyman used to give me fits on Ebay in the late 90's. I was glad to see him complete his collection so that I could have a shot at a few rare items :) He beat me outta of a hidden Inverness one time that one of us could have gotten for less than $200 if the other hadn't spotted it :x  I think it wound up going for $600 which was still cheap at the time.

The Grandmaster of Scribes award would have to go to Lawrence Schick. I think his encyclopedic tome 'Heroic Worlds' (1991) with lists of collectible rarities was at the dawn of the collectible boom.

I would also fully agree with Allan's assessment on Mentzer.

Later.

Adam


"before chuck even gets in the room, you can feel the bad-ness." -Al

  


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Post Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2003 2:22 pm 
 

Oh and by the by, I seriously doubt anyone has ever completely owned all things D&D. One would have to look no furter than some of the new material added to this site in the past 9 months as a result of discussions here...UK Dragon and misc TSR periodicals for example. I would wager one could merge the 3 largest collections and still have a few minor holes.



Later.

Adam


"before chuck even gets in the room, you can feel the bad-ness." -Al

  

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Post Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2003 4:39 am 
 

Hi All,

did Rivervalleyman sell up then?

Cheers,

Malcolm

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Post Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2003 8:11 am 
 

I understand he did manage to sell all. He had a post up on the newsgroup that he was selling all of his collection. A well placed rumor is that he sold the whole thing in one shot.



Later.

Adam


"before chuck even gets in the room, you can feel the bad-ness." -Al

  


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Post Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2003 11:41 am 
 

Adam Shultz wrote:I understand he did manage to sell all. He had a post up on the newsgroup that he was selling all of his collection. A well placed rumor is that he sold the whole thing in one shot.

Later.

Adam

Hi,

My name is Ed (Ebay: edmud)

I have been away from collecting for about two years now due to hmmm . . . complex family matters.  But  just before I disappeared from the collecting scene I had a list of Chris' collection and if I recall he wanted about $50K for it.  I would say it was very complete and of high quality.  The problem for me was that there were only a few rare items that I was still lookig for at the time so I couldn't bring down his whole collection.  

Yes, Chris and Rhea are good friends from TX.  I would like to get back in touch with Chris, Rhea and Bad Mike if possible . . . fellow collectors from the great state of TX.  If any of you guys read this, this is Ed in Japan still in Japan but coming home soon.

I would say that Rhea probably has the most complete game collection out there judging from what he told me.

EDC


Ed Courtroul

Osaka, Japan

  


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Post Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2003 1:51 pm 
 

edmud wrote:I would like to get back in touch with Chris, Rhea and Bad Mike if possible . . . fellow collectors from the great state of TX.EDC


So if you add in Adrian and I read between the lines that you are also from Texas, then D&D collections really do grow to the size of their environment. There are some damn big collections in :D  Texas!

Ed, Do you own the Golden Orb? I can't remember if that was you who won that.

Please introduce yourself further in the Introduction sticky above. Tell us about all of the goodies you have. :)

Later.

Adam


"before chuck even gets in the room, you can feel the bad-ness." -Al

  


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Post Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2003 2:08 pm 
 

Does anyone know who the Theshield2000 is or is he on these forums? He has a very nice collection going.

Does anyone know who Ebay user JG0283 (or some number combination like that)? He was my first encounter with a Burnie type in the late '98 into '99. He really killed some rare auctions... B3 orange, Tamoachan, Inverness, etc. I should have contacted him to buy his stuff when he stopped bidding but I was certain at the time he was waayyy overpaying for those items.

Thanks.

Adam


"before chuck even gets in the room, you can feel the bad-ness." -Al

  


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Post Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2003 2:32 pm 
 

Here is my list of the grandmasters:



D&D

1. Rhea Shelley

2. Aaron Leeder

and then in no other particular order:



Mike Deaton

Adrian Newman

Mike Baldolato

Chris Roseman

Malcom Lawrenson

Adam Shultz

Doug Bartholemew



Non D&D:

In no particular order:



Adam Shultz

Mcduff

Beaterbrook

Me

Frank Farris

Christophe Smagghe

Matthias Bock

  


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Post Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2003 1:10 am 
 

Just curious, does anybody here collect White Wolf stuff too?  I'm picking some up now that the price for alot of it is falling through the floor.  I've almost got full sets of Changeling and Wraith going, but I despair when I see just how freaking much was published for Vampire and Mage.  Guess I'll be buying those in lots once I fill some more holes.

A part of me (the part that likes pain) is almost tempted to try to adapt some of their stuff to d20.  Because god knows, some of their rules mechanics were HORRIBLE.  

Hmm...  I own probably own about 60-70% of D&D and AD&D published (probably about 90% of 2nd edition).  Unfortunately, don't have alot of rares other than a few items, so I'm nowhere near a grand master.

  


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Post Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2003 1:35 am 
 

Adam Shultz wrote: So if you add in Adrian and I read between the lines that you are also from Texas, then D&D collections really do grow to the size of their environment. There are some damn big collections in :D  Texas!


I must admit that I am relatively new (5 yrs) to collecting so I do not know all the big collectors personnally but I have met/dealt with quite a few of you.  Chris, Mike and Rhea all had (have) great collections.  TX sucked as far as actual gaming went but it just happened that some of the best collections I know of have ended up there.  Mike introduced me to and showed me the ropes of collecting.  I would say that Aaron must be the King of collecting now since it is his chosen profession  . . . its makes sense.  Scott and William have also sold me some great items.   

The sad part is that I would have bought both Chris' and Rhea's collections if it were not for an untimely vampire attack that I suffered at the worst possible moment (I will post more on that in my introduction).  But in order to properly store such a collection I was considering building a controlled-environment facility at my parent's home in CA.  

Yes, I have the Golden Orb here in Japan.  I will start going through my things to re-inventory them soon and then I will tell you what I have.  If I were more computer/internet savy I would make a site like McDuff's.  Any advice on that would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Edmud


Ed Courtroul

Osaka, Japan

  


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Post Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2003 2:18 am 
 

Hey Ed, you should be glad to know that Rosemans and Rheas collection have been distrubuted throughout the US and the World to other collectors like myself who will take care of the items :-)

  


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Post Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2003 8:48 am 
 

Hi Ed,

For freebies....try any of the free web hosts. Do a simple google or dogpile search and choose one. They have simple web programs that will allow you to chose a prearranged format and push up some picts and text.

Or you could see if your ISP has personal pages. These are much like above but just a bit simpler. Avoid the services where your guest has to subscribe in order to view pages. And avoid ones with excessive popups.

Welcome to NY, I will drop you a PM later today!

Later.

Adam


"before chuck even gets in the room, you can feel the bad-ness." -Al

  
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