Phentari wrote in Interesting Non-TSR Items Formerly on eBay: I suppose it's sort of like saying that a Gutenberg isn't an original Bible, eh?

I get the point but that was Not the best analogy you could have chosen.
The Guttenberg Bible, was in fact a first print.
The original first original first print of any major book in the history of the entire world.

So, no not even close to the same things.....  

Thunderdave wrote in Interesting Non-TSR Items Formerly on eBay:This was an interesting lot:


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I've never heard of the Stone of Sandor.. nice pick up

Awesome deal

Including the always tough to find issue 2:

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Bracton wrote in Interesting Non-TSR Items Formerly on eBay:Unsurprisingly, Jon put the point far better than I did.

It is certainly possible that the copies were made by the subscriber, to just have extra copies.  That would indeed be, in my view, an item of very little value (other than the novelty of being able to read something where likely ten or fewer copies are in existence).  And, if that is how these copies came to be, Zen's and Gnat's objection to giving any real value to them absolutely makes sense.

That, however, was not my assumption, based upon the fact that duplicate originals were not being sold, along with Jon's earlier posts and the opinion of another Acaeum member much more experienced in evaluating these types of items than I.

As Jon suggested, the original distribution of the Domesdays often appear to have been done via photocopies, made by Gary or others in the C&C Society.  IF that is the case with these copies, then they are in effect originals, just without the color paper cover.  It is impossible to tell from the pictures in an eBay auction whether this may be the case, and without provenance it may be forever impossible to be sure either way.  That being said, a few members on this forum (myself certainly not included) may be able to look at the copies and make an educated guess as to whether they were in effect part of the original distribution.

If they were, then I stand by my valuation.

I thought I would update the Domesday post.  I was the winner of the Domesdays.  I rarely comment on my purchases but I believe my EBay purchases have become not as secretive over the past couple of years.  There are quite a few of you that know me and I am apparently one of the "usual suspects" now.  As I had posted earlier, I believed with Stratochamp and Increment that there were 2 solid and obvious original DBs:  #6 and #10.  I also highly suspected that #12 was an original DB because the photo showed the staple in the upper left corner, the fold in the middle for mailing, and the staple mark in the top middle and bottom middle of the page where it was stapled together for mailing which was consistent with the original distribution for the later DBs.  In addition, I could tell in the dog ear on the upper left corner that the cover was a different color from the other pages.  #11 was too hard to tell and there was hope that it may be an original which was also why Increment did not rule it out.  

Upon receiving the DBs, the good news is that the covers of #11 and #12 are light blue green and different from the other pages.  Reviewing this information with the experts, we were able to confirm that #6, #10, #11, and #12 are indeed original DBs.  The remaining copies do appear to be period photocopies that could have been made by Gary or someone else in the C&C Society at the time of the C&C Society.  The fact that the later DBs #10-12 are originals could indicate that this individual acquired originals and the copies around the same time in early to mid 1971.  Overall, the exact time and origin of the copies may never be known.  The staple rust, fading and aging does indicate that they are old but there is not an exact date as of yet.  One other item that I was very pleased to discover is that stapled to the DB #4 are DBs #1, #2, and #3.  I was thrilled to behold these extremely rare DBs.  They are also copies likely produced at the exact same time as DB #4.

Overall, I personally am pleased to come away from this with 4 original DBs and what are likely 8 period copies of DBs.  It would have been interesting to see what the individual DBs would have sold for in the market today.  Until we see some come up for auction, it will likely be a lot of speculation.  It was a bit of a roll of the dice for this auction.  I may not have rolled a 20 on the D20 but I feel like it was at least a strong 18 or 19.          

Awesome buy!

I am personally very glad that you won these because I've seen some of your collection and I love that you are pulling together an amazing amount of gaming history.  

Congrats on the bonus finds too!

That is awesome Scott, what a great buy!

That's amazing, Scott!  I had thought you had a good buy originally, but confirming a fourth original, and with DB #1, #2 and #3 to boot, you really got a steal.  I can't wait to see them in person.

Awesome snag Scott, especially to get period copies of 1, 2 and 3 as a bonus!  It's very unlikely that we will see an auction like that again.

Would be nice to get The Acaeum updated with some of those pictures...

This might be interesting for some of the fellow collectors:

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