Faster, Pussycat wrote:
This is the letter in the pic I think:

http://www.yog-sothoth.com/docs/ms-amer ... cation.pdf

Looks like Paul Stormberg incorrectly thought this was something much more than what it actually was.  Subsequent discussion here and at Y-S.com cleared the matter up - but his letter remains and may have misled the seller.  Or, (to be cynical), he knows full well that this is something different, but is using that letter to try and dupe a buyer. Though I see no reason to assume an ill motive.



This may be the text... (?)

http://www.yog-sothoth.com/docs/ms-amer ... re-coc.pdf

I would say so.  

Maybe worth $30. This is a random MS with no relation to anything of any import, a description written by a school girl, a photo taken on a mobile phone, and a free PDF of the whole auction available in the public domain. $300 is just a fantasy. Maybe they could get it to $80 or so if they read a few books on selling stuff on eBay and buy a $100 camera.

Some people have no idea.  

Well worth downloading and storing away for those who have never bought an unpublished manuscript. It's a good freebie seing as the original sold for $175. It gives you a good idea of what you get when you buy manuscripts (all be it a small one), and should put all but the most scholarly and rich off venturing into that domain.

For Improv, if you're still lurking, here's a good little titbit addon for your copy of City of the Revenant (Cupric Text and all that). Probably not worth buying  the original even with the tie in tou your existing manuscript(s), but the free PDFs are well worth archiving along with them.

ScketreWhisp® wrote:I know it's not worth $300, probably not even $50.00

But it needs to be taken off the market... the "provenance" page needs to be destroyed and the pages sent to the person that has the rest of the documents it goes with...

That is my intent.

Please don't bid on the item. I placed a bid and hope it goes for the $300.00 so it can be done with. Yes the seller gets more money than it's ever worth, but it's for a good reason.

I am not even a Cthulhu fan, but I don't see anyone else willing to throw $300.00 at it to get it corrected so I'll see what I can do ...

Good idea. Destroying the provenance page will solve the problem for future collectors, and we can have Steve authenticate it himself if he has the time (Since he's still up in Plano I believe)...perhaps it will end up at the NTRPG auction next year (unless Doug wants it for himself) with the "new" authentication.

Mike B.

Howdy All,

Faster, Pussycat wrote:Looks like Paul Stormberg incorrectly thought this was something much more than what it actually was.

Actually, it was the Cthulhu fanbase that thought this was something much more than it actually was.

I had this original, typed, partial ms. from Steve, along with 1000's of other sheets all jumbled together. When I asked Steve what this was he told me about American Gothic and how the manuscript contained many of the original concepts of the game, many developed hand-in-hand with Sandy Peterson. He also told me it was pre-Call of Cthulhu. All of that is accurate. However, that is not the whole story.

The manuscript is actually an installment of his ongoing mini-fanzine, The Cupric Text (a nod to Steve's City of of the Revenaunt campaign), that ran in The Wild Hunt (IIRC).

The ms. sold for about $40 and was water under the bridge for the D&D collecting community. Then a few days after, the Call of Cthulhu fanbase discovered the ended auction and were bemoaning the fact that they had missed out on something they thought was "important". They talked it up quite a bit and even tendered some buy-out offers to Invincible Overlord in the hundreds of dollars range.

Then it came to light what the original ms. really was: a fanzine article by Steve containing some concepts of American Gothic. Still, the ms. is pre-Call of Cthulhu and it does contain developmental concepts from American Gothic. The critical missing bit of information is that it is an original ms. for Steve's The Cupric Text, mini-fanzine.

It turned out that the 1st page of the ms. was accidentally mixed into another collection of mss. Thus, the discovery of my oversight. The error was mine and I failed to connect the dots on this particular item. Had I pressed Steve further, or had a collection of The Wild Hunt, I may have come to a more accurate identification.

When I offered to buy it back from Invincible Overlord he politely declined and said he would hang on to it, feeling the purchase price was equal to it's value. Simply adding "from Mini-fanzine, The Cupric Text 1977" to the Letter of Authentication would clarify the matter.

You'll note that the Authentication Letter has my contact information on it so that these sorts of things can be verified. To date no one has contacted me about this item, although I have sent a note to the seller.


Futures Bright,

Paul

I remember when that item was discussed on the Yog-Sothoth forum.
The excitement was fueled when Sandy Petersen commented on the item with the following quote:

So you could consider this the alpha version of CoC.

ScketreWhisp® wrote:Hey Paul, I doubt the current seller wants to "fix" the problem, and no big deal if he doesn't

This is my thought also..with the very deliberate bit of very little description, I think the intention is clear....which is why I would suggest destroying the provenance page. Clearly the unscrupulous among us might keep trying to pass this on down the line as something it's not.

Since we know who has the rest of "The Cupric Text" pages, I'll just get them forwarded to that person and there won't be a problem any more ...

It's only confusing when it comes up for sale

I'd STILL destroy the provenance page...if it's going with the rest of the Cupric Text lot, then it's where it belongs, and doesnt need a separate provenance letter.  There have been many, many cases where the original buyer of a lot or item passes away or loses a collection, and I'd hate to see this pop up on ebay again in 5 years as "The MS to American Gothic, as stated in the provenance letter".  Better to solve the problem once and for all.

Is the person owning the Cubric Text a big secret, or is there some reason we aren't mentioning him?

Mike B.

Behind ennemy lines (FASA edition)




** expired/removed eBay auction **

Mars wrote:
I read these 3 words and was hoping it was the Companions edition.

Héhé sorry ... it is why I had (FASA edition) in the text
I'd like to find another copy of the Companion edition since mine is not in good shape but I didn't manage to find one other for the moment  

I saw.. can't bid as only USA

*g* Slightly selective quotes from pers. comm. but, anyhow, fire me over your addy Doug and will see if we can hopefully get some sort of positive result from this multi-year fiasco.
Thanks, again.

Just an update, in passing.

Faster, Pussycat's "Or, (to be cynical), he knows full well that this is something different, but is using that letter to try and dupe a buyer. Though I see no reason to assume an ill motive" comment was pretty much on-the-spot but too generous, IMHO.

Following further comms with more clear pointers to what they're actually selling, they've now gone deadly silent and are - as you can see - not updating the description or publishing any comments.
The obvious conclusion is that they're only interested in making a profit and more than happy to snag an ignorant buyer who's unaware of the background.
*
To be honest, my current thought would be "stuff them" and hopefully let that fall to no bid.

Yes; those pages /should/ go with the rest of Stephen's mss. but there are a large number of historical RPG items - particularly mss. - that should never (IMHO) have been split in the first place and a $300+ tag to fix just one of those which is already, thanks to Mike/IO, mostly available as a freebie online is possibly not "best use of limited resources".

(Of course, if you wish to hold me to that "If for some wonderfully generous reason you do feel inclined to place a bid, I'd be more inclined to send you over the remainder of the archive in order to join at least that much back together again" comment, feel free...

Paul; thanks for the attempted explanation, but (so much for biting my tongue)...

The Collector's Trove wrote:The manuscript is actually an installment of his ongoing mini-fanzine, The Cupric Text (a nod to Steve's City of of the Revenaunt campaign), that ran in The Wild Hunt (IIRC).

... where did you get that from?

Cheers,
David.