That's a good one. I never thought about Dick and Jane jokes (that is not sarcastic in case it comes off that way).

Howdy Acaeumites,

I'm new to this forum, and have been lurking for only a couple of weeks. I thought I'd introduce myself. My name is Ed, and I work for Troll and Toad. As of October, I've taken over the RPG department. I'm coming from the board game department. I've worked the board game department for three years, and I think it has developed nicely. The higher ups would like to see similar changes in the RPG department.

I'm kind of a jack of all trades when it comes to games, I play board games, RPGs, CCGs, and on occasion, even some miniatures. I started with D&D in 1978 and played till 2nd edition came out, skipped that edition completely, and bought the third edition. I didn't play much, mostly due to lack of time, I've got two kiddies. I skipped 3.5 as the changes didn't seem that big of a deal to me. Then I bought 4th edition which I really like. I know that puts me into a very small minority.

When I was a youngster I played with many systems, Traveller, Hero, Call of Cthulu, World of darkness stuff, Runequest, FGU stuff, and Harnmaster. I currently have a big pile of 4th edition books, pretty much everything Harn, including Harnmaster Gold, a smattering of Call of Cthulhu, and some off the wall stuff like Lords of Creation, CthulhuTech (I just picked this up, and so far it's been an interesting read), and Burning Wheel, I also have large quantities of war games and board games.  When I was playing AD&D we did mostly home brew games, but I did run through quite a few modules, probably my favorite was Dark Tower from Judges Guild, though White Plume Mountain was very cool as well.

My coolest rpg item, definitely my Dad's homebrew adventures all unique, and all a lot of fun. I remember going to cons and people asking him to play in his games, even though they had to put up with me!

When I took over the rpg department I felt there were two main issues with it. One, prices had not been systematically updated in a very long time. Two, the categories and items were poorly named, and organzied. I've worked on reorganizing the categories, and then picked 2nd edition D&D to work on heavily. I've made it through about half of the 600 items we currently carry for 2nd edition. It's a big project but I'm excited about the opportunity to make the RPG department shine. If anybody has some constructive criticism I'd love to hear it. There are some things I have no control over, but any good ideas I will try to implement. It might take awhile though, as I think I'm going to be buried for at least 6 months just fixing problems I know are there. If anybody is in need of a job let me know, I could use the help!

Anyways, I look forward to poking around here on occasion, and the database of info is a really great resource!

Ed

Prufrock wrote:HI Ed,

Welcome to The Acaeum.

I have bought from Troll and Toad and had various experiences.  Please see this thread:  Shipping Charges (trollandtoad) for a discussion of Troll and Toad schizophreniz shipping charges.

I had a damaged item but T & T replaced it quickly.

Martin

Unfortunately, shipping is one thing I'm not able to change. If you see a weight that looks wrong let us know, and we can reweigh it.

Tips for buying from Troll and Toad.

1. If it is on eBay it is on our site for cheaper. We add ebay fees to the costs of our items. The only exception are live auctions, in which it may be cheaper on eBay.
2. Shipping and eBay are a nightmare. Troll and Toad is not a mom and pop shop, we're not running out of our garage. This means we have lots of things automated, including eBay listings. eBay is not a friendly site to list multiple auctions, and is very unfriendly when wanting to do unusual things. Combining shipping for multiple invoices is one of them. Shipping will typically be much cheaper ordering through our website.
3. Flat rate shipping. We simply don't have the programming in place to do this. This has been mentioned in several meetings and is on our programming list, but has no definite time.
4. We've been around for almost 20 years, you can't do that if all you are about is screwing people over. We try and keep our customers happy, if you aren't happy then we'll try our best to rectify the situation.  That said, because we are a big company, and RPG's are not the majority of what we sell, the customer service people might not be aware of the product you are talking about please be patient with them, they are trying their best.

5. GenCon. Wow what a mess! Here is what I know.

The charity auction, is a charity auction, and all the proceeds go to the charity, and the Charity actually gets paid. The Partnership does not skim any off the top.

The regular auction. The Partnership is half owned, by the owner of Troll and Toad. They are NOT the same thing. When I buy something at an auction, the Cost of Goods assigned to it, is the value I bought it for, not 15% less. As for the auction being a cash cow, it isn't. The Partnership might make 2-3K total for the weekend. This GenCon they probably lost money due to the stolen laptops. Jon helps run the auction simply because we would like to have a venue to buy items. We think it is worth our time to make sure the GenCon and Origins auction are running smoothly. For full disclosure, Origins, is NOT run by the partnership, it is run by Troll and Toad, with a bunch of great volunteers. The head volunteers are NOT Troll and Toad employees. Some employees help when needed, but for the most part both auctions are run by volunteers. Troll and Toad lost money running the Origins auction due to the terrible events that happened there this year. Lastly I'd like to thank the volunteers for running the auctions, they do a great job, and I appreciate all the hard work they do.

Ed

Welcome Ed and as above, thanks for taking time out to answer a few points previously raised.

If you can get accurate descriptions and actual photos of items up on auctions, you may move yourself into 'legend' status..  

Hope you stay around

Cheers
Dave

Hi Ed,

Thanks for joining us and welcome to the board.

Most of the membership here are not your regular RPG player buyers. Accuracy, honesty and fullness in the description of items and their condition is very important to us. It's probably the most important thing for a lot of us.

That said, we're not too fussed about condition descriptions of a copy of X1 or B2, or a copy of Dungeon 68, as opposed to say a 1st print DMD or a white box in shrinkwrap. So there is scope there to concentrate more experienced and wiser staff to dealing with more expensive items, and leaving the regular stock to the less talented staff.

As an aside, now that you have browsed th Acaeum, and the more you do so, you will become aware of the expertise that resides here, and the manner in which collectors collect. We have a Classifieds section, and maybe bringing premium items to our attention through the Classifieds will allow us the ask specific questions, and allow you to shift product faster to a cliebnt base that has the money to pay for quality rarities.

Welcome aboard.
Ian

Welcome James (or BoB, seems shorter)

enjoy your time on the boards and asking green questions is the start of the slippery slope to getting a huge quality collection...  

Hi Binibren,

Your going to fit in real nice.  Have no worries about questions -  the guys here have a great deal of "gamer" knowledge and if they cannot anwser your question they get real excited, if you know what I mean.

Two conventions to be aware of are Gencon (or course) and The North Texas RPG Con (NTRPG Con).  The NTRPG Con was created by several folks from this website and is dedicated to a weekend of gaming.  With emphasis on "old school" games.

Welcome,
Martin

corum wrote:2) Planes. Ooooo, I love Planes.

A few Acaeum members love them some Planescape, though I don't know if this is what you meant by Planes.  Me, I have enough problems with one fantasy realm of existence.

BTW, Dragonsfoot is a good place for discussing the gaming aspects of AD&D, more so than here.

Welcome aboard!  Someone will be by shortly to nail your head to the floor for any perceived faux pas.  

Binibren of Bristlebane wrote:Hello all,

I'm new to the Acaeum having been a lurker for the past six months or so. What a fantastic site. Kudos to the admins and the many contributors on the forums.

About me: D&D player since 1982 when I purchased my first Players Handbook from a fellow 7th grader on the school bus. That book atop my Kiss trashcan served as the table for my alarm clock all through college and beyond until my wife made it clear it would not make it into "our" bedroom. Most of my gaming was AD&D (1st) with a little D&D (no OD&D). I played more D&D on my Commodore (Pool of Radiance, Eye of the Beholder, etc.) than I did on the table top but the books were my regular bathroom readers over the years. Don't worry, they're clearly marked "has been in the bathroom" and they're never going to see the likes of ebay et al anwyay. According to my will they're to be buried with me.

I've recently started collecting modules without being too fussy about condition. Once most of the set is filled in I plan to focus more on quality. That should give me enough time to perfect my process without worrying about an accident downgrading a collectible. Apologies in advance for any overly green questions I might ask.

I look forward to getting up to speed here and perhaps bumping into a few folks at a convention or two.

Cheers,
James

P.S. No gmail addresses for signup? Ouch!

Welcome to the Acaeum.

Noticing your avatar (and name), I'd just thought I'd mention that I play a Cleric (Rorrik) on the Drinal Server (That's Everquest for the rest of you...).