I pretty much collect all things D&D, with no particular focus except grabbing up whatever affordable item falls into my path.

Gnat the Beggar wrote:And I have no doubt that I will never own Ultra Rare, and unique items and will not even try (mostly).
There are several Ultra Rare items that I do not have a care about owning.
ST1 Up the Garden Path being just one of those.

I do not collect any rare TSR too. Actually I do not collect TSR. I have some TSR products, but mostly common/uncommon ones.

I am in a pretty similar way of collecting to Mars:

Mars wrote:At some point I branched out into nonTSR stuff as well have really enjoyed the small press stuff.  I enjoy the hunt for things and with such a broad range of things to collect it means that if I see something that seems like a good deal, I will generally pick it up.
Although more specifically, my main collecting focus is all small press RPGs.

My 2 other main focuses are:

- To get all french RPGs / RPG-related productions ever made during the 80's. I am nearly close for official publications (only few items are missing in my collection). For fanzines, it is more complicated, too many different fanzines and some are known only in city where the association ran the fanzine.
- To get a complete collection of CoC items from in 1981 to late 90's. Not 3rd millennary products. With all US/UK and french products, and all limited foreign products (like the limited German edition of the rule book, limited to 666 copies, and which was used as base for the US 20th anniversary edition)

Thanks to a recent purchase, I am massively closer to one of my goals. I am still very far off, but at least I'm beginning to believe it is possible.

Charles G. wrote:Still looking for Space Gamer #1 (and a couple of others, but mostly that one), Warriors of Mars, an early print of Greyhawk Supp 1, and a few other miscellaneous cats and dogs.

The first of those still seems to be the most awkward of the three: good luck; I don't recall seeing more than half a dozen copies over the years.
(Do you need protective gloves to be catching cats and dogs?)

Charles G. wrote:My collecting motivation is partially nostalgia, partially a desire to get early prints of stuff, and partially for historical research.

Cool!

Doug Williams wrote:Since I have reached that goal, I have been rather directionless in my collecting, mainly buying things that I like, catch my eye, or just look cool. I mostly focus on "official" TSR/WoTC products, and the vast majority of my collection is pre 3rd edition.

Out of interest, is it a positive factor where there is an inventory to aim for or a community focused around particular items, or is that really primarily a case of "catch my eye/looks cool/good reading"? Sometimes I get the feeling that it's easier (and cheaper?) /not/ to follow such.

Doug Williams wrote:While I sometimes buy items in shrinkwrap, I never leave the shrinkwrap on, because I do not consider this an investment, just a fun hobby, and I like reading the things I buy.

*yay!*

It's taken a couple of years being away from this awesome hobby to realize what my direction is.  And it's not surprising, given my age (45).

I am fascinated with OD&D.

The early sets of rules are my primary fascination: Chainmail, Wilderness Survival, and the White Box + GH, BM, EW, GDGH, and SS. I own all of those, but there are still a lot of holes in my collection.  For instance, I've never owned (or seen) the errata sheets from the white box.  And I'm also eager to own related rules and supplementary material from Strategic Review, Dragon and other vendors, like JG.

I include the very earliest Monster Manual editions in this group; but only those with "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" centered at the top of the front cover. I also want to own that really weird hybrid with "Advanced D&D" with a yellow stripe and "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" on the spine.  It was the one I used back in the day and it got stolen in college.

I also include the basic/expert/companion, etc boxed sets and all the modules labeled "Dungeons & Dragons" that went along with these sets.

I don't know if it's historically correct to label these latter materials "OD&D", but that is the way I distinguish the material that is appealing to me from the various AD&D editions and WoTC editions.

Thank you and goodnight.

Keith the Thief wrote:I include the very earliest Monster Manual editions in this group; but only those with "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" centered at the top of the front cover. I also want to own that really weird hybrid with "Advanced D&D" with a yellow stripe and "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" on the spine.  It was the one I used back in the day and it got stolen in college.

I see these MM's pop up from time to time on Ebay. You can kind of narrow it down from the angled banner on the cover, since the font has an outline.
If you're patient, then I think you'll be able to just keep emailing sellers on Ebay when you see the MM's come up with outlined letters and ask specifically what the printing it mentions on the title page. You should be able to pick this up for less than $20, maybe even as low as $10.

If you want to really get to the nitty gritty with the printing versions, check out this thread, a little more than halfway down. This is the current list of those printing variations.
viewtopic.php?t=3266&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=100

Doug Williams wrote:When I first started "collecting" (pre eBay), my goal was simply to have a copy of every book and module I remembered playing with/DMing back when I first started playing AD&D in the early '80s. After that was accomplished, I set a new goal which was to have a copy of every item that had anything to do with the Greyhawk campaign setting, regardless of which edition of (A)D&D it was printed for. Since I have reached that goal, I have been rather directionless in my collecting, mainly buying things that I like, catch my eye, or just look cool. I mostly focus on "official" TSR/WoTC products, and the vast majority of my collection is pre 3rd edition. I try to buy the best condition items I can find, but I'm not above filling my blank spaces with "play copies", if I cannot find a collectable condition item. While I sometimes buy items in shrinkwrap, I never leave the shrinkwrap on, because I do not consider this an investment, just a fun hobby, and I like reading the things I buy.

That's about the same way I started. First, I collected the ones I played, then I collected the ones I wish I played, which meant collecting the WG and FR worlds. For me, a shift from nostalgia to curiosity, I guess. And now ... I think it's library/archiving to complete things as much as possible. Funny, it seems the more I learn, the more I want, and the less complete everything is!

Gary

simonmwh wrote:  
Ouch.  Don't know whether I like the idea of this or not
Having thought about it......if you have shrink copy why dont you swap the with someone on here for a Mint/NM copy without the shrink?  You will have two happy peeps then:)

Because every time I make that offer, I get no takers.