Half-Price Books - What do you think?
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Post Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 9:08 am 
 

sauromatian wrote:Half-Price central Austin has been putting good stuff into the clearance section: NM Fiend Folio $3, Rogue's Gallery $1. It's just been common stuff I already have so I don't mind alerting others. It seems like a reseller/trader could make good use of this however.


you shoulf give mike a heavy prod then :)


Are we nearly there yet?

  

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Post Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 9:42 am 
 

FormCritic wrote:Half Price Books drives me nuts some times.

They have stuff I might want to collect for $1...but priced at $25 because the original price was a laughable $50.

I have considered taping a note to the game shelf at the Tacoma store:

Hey! Have you considered why this section keeps growing and growing without most of it ever selling?  Has it occured to you that most of this stuff is not worth even 10% of the original price...much less 50%?


The local HPBs are usually pretty good at rotating product to the clearance section once it's been sitting for awhile..then again, the laughable North Arlington HPB has a $50 Rod of Seven Parts box that is about to celebrate a birthday in a month (priced on 10/06)...and I've already pointed out to management that the box is missng the maps, so unlikely to pull in even a quarter of that. Obviously some stores are better than others when it comes to pricing issues.

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Post Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 4:15 pm 
 

Found a Swords and Spells today for $1.98.


:)


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Post Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 4:48 pm 
 

Center_Stage_Hobbies wrote:Found a Swords and Spells today for $1.98.

OK, who in North Texas is in for a road trip to, errr, Ohio?

Only 1000 miles one-way.  That's about 50 gallons of gas at $3.00 per gallon . . . hmmm . . . and at least 12 hours . . .  :pale:

  


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Post Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2007 4:53 pm 
 

Center_Stage_Hobbies wrote:Found a Swords and Spells today for $1.98.


:)


WTF!

Are the any of these places in Columbus? I have friends there.

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Post Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 9:18 pm 
 

JohnGaunt wrote:OK, who in North Texas is in for a road trip to, errr, Ohio?

Only 1000 miles one-way.  That's about 50 gallons of gas at $3.00 per gallon . . . hmmm . . . and at least 12 hours . . .  :pale:


Well, if you're coming up Cleveland way, stop by and have a beer or three, then we'll duel over the rare stuff.  :twisted:


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Post Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 9:42 pm 
 

silver_beetle wrote:Well, if you're coming up Cleveland way, stop by and have a beer or three, then we'll duel over the rare stuff.  :twisted:


Let him have the beer, but don't have yours until after the duel.  Any edge helps. ;)

  

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Post Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 11:25 pm 
 

My big score last week:  

The Conan RPG by Mongoose.

The original price was $50+

It was marked down to $25+

The store guy came by while I was shopping and marked it down to $12+.

For those of you who have not checked out this game....it is D20 3.5 material, but made cooler for the Conan campaign background.  That means that the magic system has been gutted and replaced with the type of magic depicted by Robert E. Howard.

You don't play demi-human races...or half-dragons or whatever.  Instead, there are extensive character creation stats for each nationality on the map of the Hyborean Age.

One clue to how the rules read:  There is an extensive section depicting all of the types of armor and weapons in the Conan world.  All of the weapons are depicted with blood on them.  Even the longbow!  8O

With the inclusion of text by REH and an essay on the Hyborean Age by REH (published elsewhere, but interesting in this context), the entire game book is a solid product.  

The artwork is also pretty Conan-esque (Conan-licious?).

Oh..and I also paid, like, $2 for a near mint copy of DCC #1 Idyls of the Rat King, with the original cover art.


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Post Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 11:42 pm 
 

FormCritic wrote:My big score last week:  

The Conan RPG by Mongoose.

The original price was $50+

It was marked down to $25+

The store guy came by while I was shopping and marked it down to $12+.

For those of you who have not checked out this game....it is D20 3.5 material, but made cooler for the Conan campaign background.  That means that the magic system has been gutted and replaced with the type of magic depicted by Robert E. Howard.

You don't play demi-human races...or half-dragons or whatever.  Instead, there are extensive character creation stats for each nationality on the map of the Hyborean Age.

One clue to how the rules read:  There is an extensive section depicting all of the types of armor and weapons in the Conan world.  All of the weapons are depicted with blood on them.  Even the longbow!  8O

With the inclusion of text by REH and an essay on the Hyborean Age by REH (published elsewhere, but interesting in this context), the entire game book is a solid product.  

The artwork is also pretty Conan-esque (Conan-licious?).

Oh..and I also paid, like, $2 for a near mint copy of DCC #1 Idyls of the Rat King, with the original cover art.


The main book is very cool but I didn't think much of the boxed sets and supplements for the mongoose conan.

  

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Post Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2016 1:47 pm 
 

Half-Price Books right by my house has turned me off almost completely from visiting their stores. They had a nice amount of 1st edition stuff but when they want $20-50 a module in FN or lesser condition they are just assholes. I don't even charge close to the prices they have. Hell they may even start to make NK prices look good.


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Post Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2016 2:23 pm 
 

I lived around a lot of HPBs up until 2005, but I wasn't back into D&D yet then. Been hearing the hype for the last seven years (started collecting in 2009) and was excited earlier this year to have a chance to visit a few. It was a big letdown - didn't have much old stuff, and the prices weren't that great. Could be the cat's out of the bag, and the fun is over.

  

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Post Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2016 3:28 pm 
 

My main problem is they probably don't give whomever brought the stuff in hardly any $$. They should sell the stuff for less than the highest prices around. Amazon and sellers on ebay who charge 3-4 times the actual value are the ones who cause this.


Available now from Die Cast Games: Night of the Black Swords by Allen Hammack (Author of C2-The Ghost Tower of Inverness) with artwork by Jeff Easley and Diesel.

  

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Post Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2016 4:02 pm 
 

That's usually the way with used whatever resellers. I know a couple of bookstores that will give a quarter for a used paperback novel, maybe 50 cents if in really good shape, then sell them for $2.50-3.00 or more. How much does a used car sell for on the lot versus what they gave the person trading it in? SOP. Sucks to be the buyer or seller to outfits like that.

What little I resell, I'm usually happy with doubling my money back on an overall basis. But then, I'm not greedy.


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Post Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2016 12:11 am 
 

I have seen the same, while I still take a look, rarely find anything, and when I do it is crazy prices.  Only once have I gotten lucky and that was probably because whoever was pricing that day either did not do the research or did not do it carefully enough (1st print DMG, probably a G or VG condition, $6 - needless to say I bought it.)  But mostly see stuff priced way too high, or a common printing priced like a rare/uncommon printing.

  

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Post Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2016 11:22 am 
 

I'll browse the local HPB occasionally, but mostly I prefer to stick to the small mom and pop used bookstores. Not only do they usually have a better selection, the prices are much better.

  


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Post Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2016 3:05 pm 
 

HPB pricing often seems to be based on supply. If they get several Judges Guild items, they'll price a few high and a few low. The high- and low-priced items might be placed in different sections. Therefore, if you see a bunch of old-school items appear, it is worth sifting through them for bargains. If you see a few high-priced items appear, it is worth going to all other sections in which RPGs might be (such as Clearance) to possibly find corresponding low-priced items.

  

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Post Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2016 4:38 pm 
 

burntwire brothers wrote in Half-Price Books - What do you think?:Half-Price Books right by my house has turned me off almost completely from visiting their stores. They had a nice amount of 1st edition stuff but when they want $20-50 a module in FN or lesser condition they are just assholes. I don't even charge close to the prices they have. Hell they may even start to make NK prices look good.


Hit or miss, really.  I have at least five stores within about an hour and a half drive.  Some are getting a little heavy handed with their pricing.  I asked at one store and they are using Noble Knight, Amazon, and eBay as their sources for pricing! 8O



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Post Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2016 12:02 pm 
 

I, too, used to find good deals here a while back.  A friend of mine used to go to comic conventions, and HPB would have a booth there.  Everything they sold in terms of RPG was truly half-priced.  He scored me some huge deals on rare items (loved seeing his number come up when my phone rang on convention weekends!).  I have to say, though, that, for the most part, the "overly" priced items I see in there now do eventually sell, so while I may wish I could get the deals like in the old days, they know what they are doing.  I'm sure many people do what I do and wait for their 50% off one item day to grab something they've been considering.

  
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