Howdy gang. I'm thinking of parting with my old Arduin universe stuff but thought I'd get your input first. The Goodies: Arduin Grimoire volumes 1-4, all first printings, and signed by my good friend Dave Hargrave. Book one was used by me a bit and is in good condition but obviously used. Books 2-4 are in excellent to darn near mint condition as I never did use them. They were given to me right off the press and stashed away. I have Revised Arduin A Primer printed in 1984 which is also in excellent condition but not signed by David. I have the Dungeon books one through three in excellent condition, still in their glad bags, with Caliban being signed by David. Now here is something I didn't know I had until I got to the bottom of the box. Two sets of monster cards, and one set of Magik Artifact cards from 1977. These cards are still in sheet form and have not been cut out. The sheets are still in their plastic wrap from 1977. David drew these himself and they are pretty cool. I was with him now and then when he was working on them. Anyway that is the lot. Thanks a bunch for your input.

If you are on Facebook, there is a very good group for Arduin Fans & Collectors there.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ArduinGrimoire/

Also a Group for selling all RPG related items, including Arduin (of course). It's a little tricky to join that group, make sure you carefully read the rules for joining

https://www.facebook.com/groups/RPGAuctions

One thing I do want to run by you though.

To me, your collection is more significant as a whole than a sum of its individual parts, since you had a relationship with the Author. Would that significance automatically mean that you will get more money for it? Most likely not, usually collections sell for more broken up and sold off individually than if done in one fell swoop. It's a shame but that's just a reality.

I collect stamps and have purchased a few whole collections. I picked up one a few years ago. Not a great collection, probably worth less than $800 in total. I bought it to take some things out of it and sell off the rest eventually. When I started going through it I found some of the collector's notes and such which convinced me the collection was more interesting as a historical piece of a person collecting stamps from the 1940's though approximately the year 2000. The collector being a woman, which I'm sure is Not unheard of, also heavily influenced my decision.

With all due respect to benjoshua, who I really like and admire in this group (you know I love you Man and I ain't afraid to say it out loud), I would not take his advice in this specific situation. Arduin prices are all over the place. Do not compare what you have to the "generic" similar listing that pops up on eBay from time to time. This is the main reason why:

There's a lot of confusion as to what a TRUE 1st Print is in Arduin items, you have first hand knowledge of what they are because of your collection. You do need to be absolutely certain of that, pretty sure isn't enough and if you're proved wrong about any one piece, your credibility on the rest of the collection will be lost. Just a little warning, don't take it personally.

If I had your collection and wanted to sell, I would try to find a collector that wants it all. I would include any Arduin inspired materials that I personally made too, it might not add material value but from a historical context, it's so much better to get an insight of you , an original lover of Arduin and friend of the man that created it. Then make some type of documentation of putting together the collection. Doesn't have to be official, we're not talking about million $ oil paintings here, just a few sentences a little more detailed than what you have provided here. Adding dates and locations would be good, and anything else you can think of.

If that proved to be impossible or too time constraining. I would not sell them auction style on eBay or RPG Auctions. Whether you want to sell them individually or all together is up to you, but I would figure out the highest possible price I could imagine them realistically selling for and add at least another 25% to that, maybe even double, list it as a Buy It Now, with the "Make Offer" activated and just sit on it until that someone comes along that sees what a treasure you truly have. Warning: you might end up on our "Silliest price" thread here but I wouldn't worry about that. If money isn't your chief concern, I would just find someone that probably loved them as much as you have, and try to work out some type of an arrangement with that person.

If I can help any more with this, don't hesitate to ask.

benjoshua wrote in Arduin Bunch of Goodies:
Mister Yuk is correct, and I don't mind him challenging me, but you will note that I stated that the ebay sold prices "have to be compared the sold items to your items as condition, reputation of the seller, shipping costs/location and many other things can affect the sold price."  In other words, make sure you are comparing "apples to apples."  You don't want to compare generic items to items that have special provenance.  

You're right and even though I did read your whole Comment originally, I promptly forgot that you said that while I was writing my response. Sorry

I had my own idea I wanted to push. I'd just love to see this group kept together, and the right buyer to get it. Wish it was me, but my coffers are not mighty at this time.

You may want to sign the book you are credited in and also write up a nice letter about Dave's and your history together. Regardless, hope the best for your sale.

Thank you for your input/advise. You all make a lot of good points. I agree that my collection is some what unique being mostly signed and dated by David and all first edition/first printings. It should definitely be sold to a collector as a whole and I believe a real Arduin collector would want the whole collection. Since I dug this stuff up I found a few more things that I would probably include. When David would DM he would draw and color all found treasures on the spot. These were usually done on 3x5 or 5x7 cards. Picture on one side and description on the other. There were no character sheets back then. All our characters were rolled and descriptions written on 3x5 cards. I still have my old card box with all my guys and gals. Lol Scrolls and such would be on parchment paper, rolled and sealed with wax and stamped by Davids signet ring in the wet wax! We all thought that was pretty cool at the time. I still have several of those scrolls I found during the course of adventuring. Anyway, I need to figure out how best to present this stuff and find the right buyer. Take care.

Very Interesting

Mithrom wrote in Arduin Bunch of Goodies: He said, Get over here Brad and roll a character, and the rest is history.

Thank you, and that's a very cool memory!

I didn't really notice if you can upload pictures here. I've got a few things you might get a kick out of. I know how to upload pictures to ebay but not sure about here. Forgive me I'm an old curmudgeon. lol

Mister Yuk,
Thank you for your tutorial on picture inclusion. I will get out a few things to show you all this weekend. This will be stuff David did before Arduin came out. It should show a little more of David's creativity. If I can find it I'll show you all something you probably didn't know. David wasn't just in to D&D/Arduin. He actually created and ran an ancients wargame that we played by mail. It was centered around the Mediterranean. There was Rome, Carthage, etc. but also Cimmeria and a few other fantasy countries. I was Etruria and David thought he would make me work by putting me next to frigging Rome, with Cimmeria at my back door! I had to lower my standards and ally with Germania. Lol Anyway if I can find the game map I will upload it. David hand drew all the maps for the players of which if I recall there were 10 of us. The maps were quite the work of art in my opinion. Take care all.