Hometown Games in Lawrence, KS, has two copies of Rise of the Runelords Chapter 1: Burnt Offerings.  Unfortunately, they are shelfworn and may have been previously read.

If they are still there in a month or two, I'll know that condition matters more than availability for this book.

FormCritic wrote:From Bill Webb's sales pitch at Frog God Games:

In the meanwhile, missing that out of print Necromancer Games Module? Never got a chance to buy the low print run K series while they were in stores (less than 400 of each in circulation)?

Do you figure that this means there were only 400 sent out to distributors?

Or, does it mean only 400 were printed?

That's tough to say although it seems doubtful that they would have only printed 400 when all their other items had much larger print runs.  So, if I had to guess I would say that more than 400 were printed and that 400 is only the number sent to distributors.



The K series was one of the items that was being dumped on Ebay not so long ago (last summer or fall).  You could get the full set for around $25-$35.  I'm sure the seller must have sold at least 50 sets of them.  Maybe Necro Games put a stop to it so they could sell them individually for a higher price (such as $37 for 1 book):



http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0472869173



With more than 10 available of this rare book, it makes you wonder if they really have hundreds of copies left.  Maybe it would be more beneficial if they took a Melanda Daysofknights sales strategy.

Mars wrote:

That's tough to say although it seems doubtful that they would have only printed 400 when all their other items had much larger print runs.  So, if I had to guess I would say that more than 400 were printed and that 400 is only the number sent to distributors.

The K series was one of the items that was being dumped on Ebay not so long ago (last summer or fall).  You could get the full set for around $25-$35.  I'm sure the seller must have sold at least 50 sets of them.  Maybe Necro Games put a stop to it so they could sell them individually for a higher price (such as $37 for 1 book):

** eBay auction listing blocked.  Please enable cookies in your browser for this site and for eBay! **

With more than 10 available of this rare book, it makes you wonder if they really have hundreds of copies left.  Maybe it would be more beneficial if they took a Melanda Daysofknights sales strategy.

This was a Kenzerco/Necromancer series. Could be the reason for a lower print run. Could be that the print run was split between kenzerco and necromancer so the 400 might represent necromancers stock.



The seller dumping the K series on ebay, along with kalamar and hackmaster lots, was Amber Blackburn. Jolly Blackburn is either co-owner or chief slave at kenzerco (he writes Knights of the Dinner Table).



Makes me think that Jolly took part of his cut or pay in physical stock and is dumping it on ebay to raise some cash. I don't believe necromancer would have any say in the matter.

I've been trying to get Bill Webb on the phone to ask him directly.  

I have a few other publishing questions for him.

Lost City of Barakus is a good one. I'd rather have that than City of Brass.

FormCritic wrote:
I paid something like $15 for my copy.  It is new, except that the idiot seller (who was closing out his game store) wrote "New $26.95" on the front end paper in permanent marker.  It was an act of astonishing stupidity.

Ho Ho.  Very special move.

I haven't collected the Necromancer Games products seriously yet, and I'm wondering what their content is like and which ones are htf.
Can anyone tell me where to start?
The copies I have (through chance good deals, from what I can tell) are G4 and G6.
Gary

Some "experts" here are probably going to say that these are ultra rare but really none of them are rare but certainly some are more in demand than others.  By in demand it means that they sell for around 1-1.5 time cover price.  The most in demand is the Rappan Athuk Reloaded boxed set and it is probably the rarest with "only" 1000 copies being made.  Valuations are up and down.  Noble Knight had copies for sale and 1 in shrink for $160 (I think) a couple of months ago - probably $150-$180 is about right (cover price was $100).



I'm not sure if any others are really worth significantly more than cover price.  The Wilderlands boxed set come in around $75-$100 with cover price of $70.  CSIO hardcover book currently sells around $45 (cover price of $35).



Lots of people seem to like boxed sets.  The other Necromancer Games boxed set is City of Brass but that can be had for less than cover price.



Necromancer Games themselves have a lot of stuff on Ebay right now:



eBay listings



But most of their valuations are flat out ridiculous.  They do however suggest that the K series might be less common.  A seller last summer blew out a number of these sets of books for cheap though so I think it means that they probably have a ton of copies left.



Most of their books are good.  If you are thinking about trying to get a set of them all, then I would start by finding most of the common stuff that is going for $5 or less and in the meantime, keep your eye out for some of the more in demand books that might sell a bit on the lower side.

Hey, new collector!  

I am not a real clever collector.  I am more of a hobbyist who bumbles about like Peter Rabbit in Mr. MacGregor's garden, hoping the cat won't get me and losing my coat crawling under the gate.

That said, from the point of view of someone who is not a re-seller and (relatively speaking) not a big spender, I offer you the:

D20 COLLECTING ADVICE OF THE DAY

Watch for sell-offs.

A lot of D20 stuff originally hit the market for way over-inflated prices.  With so much material on store shelves those modules sat there for half a decade until D20 was supplanted by D&D 4.0....WOTC's own version of New Coke.

Most game stores discounted these items and unloaded them.  The other game stores did what game stores usually do...they went out of business.  

Most game store owners are also hobbyists, who fully intend to re-open.  It takes them a year or two to figure out that is not going to happen.  Then they unload the boxes in their garage to a distributor like...for instance...Troll and Toad.

If you watch, you will notice a tendency for numbers of similar products to appear on the market at the same time for a very reduced price.

Mayhemcomics (mentioned above), for instance, has obviously acquired the stock of a failed store, or some similar source, and they are dumping the modules for cheap.  The fire sale will last only as long as Mayhemcomics has stock to dump.  Then it will be gone.

The same thing is happening at Troll and Toad right now, where the entire run of Goodman Games' 4.0 Dungeon Crawl Classics line is being dumped off in complete lots.  Troll and Toad has a lot of them, so the source was probably Goodman Games themselves (because of the whole D&D 4.0 New Coke thing).  They have so many of these lots that the price has actually dropped in recent weeks.

These sell-offs do not last.  The seller runs out of dump-off stock.  The dump-off stock was bought by small collectors and enthusiasts, who will hang onto it forever.  But a lot of it was purchased for re-sale by second tier Ebay re-sellers.  

When the dump-off ends, the D20 items re-appear on Ebay, listed by the second tier re-sellers.  Sometimes, the second tier re-sellers actually have the dump-off stocked marked-up on Ebay before the dump-off sale ends, because there's always a buyer who does not know the score.

If you want a D20 item, the time to buy is during the dump-off.  Don't be disuaded by the idea that no one wants these items and they will always be around.  They won't.

A good example of this can be seen in what happened to Judges Guild collecting over the past five years.  When I got into collecting Judges Guild stuff there were a lot of items listed for 99 cents.  The prices for more rare items ranged from $3 up to $30, with a lot of mid-range popular publications up around the $15 mark.  

There were a lot of Ebay Judges Guild re-sellers around because cargo container stocks of the publications had surfaced in two or more locations around the country.  The stock passed around in very large lots between re-sellers and appeared on Ebay from multiple sources.

Now, Judges Guild common items are still available in the $3 range.  There are very few 99 cent deals.  The  $30 items are now around $75-$100.  Those items are not what I'm talking about here.

It is the mid-range items you should pay attention to.  I bought several of the Wilderlands adventure series modules in the $15 range.  I bought Dark Tower for $20 and a second copy for $9.95.  I bought two copies of Caverns of Thracia for around $5.  I bought Inferno, just as it started to take off, at under $20.

Go and check on the prices for those items now.

Judges Guild is not a perfect metaphor for the D20 items because the glut was so huge.  But, just for fun, check on the prices for shrinkwrapped bundles of Judges Guild magazines.  I have several of those shrinkwrapped bundles because they were around $2 apiece and no one wanted them!

My interest in Judges Guild led me to Necromancer Games.  Back a few years ago, copies of the Necromancer Games City State of the Invincible Overlord were sometimes getting no bids in the $10 range.  I picked one up at $10 thinking I was being foolish.  

I stupidly passed on copies of the Necromancer Wilderlands of High Adventure boxed sets for $12, $15, $25...$35...and then I realized that I had been stupid, but it was too late.

Point is...in case anyone is still reading...dump-offs are a limited opportunity. They go away.  Higher prices follow.  Do not be lulled into waiting on these items just because they are only 99 cents.  Get them now, or pay the re-seller much much more than that a year or so from now.