Just wanted to say that it seems I was wrong about the shrinkwrapping. It appears I may have misunderstood a statement and was then led to believe TLG does not shrinkwrap; it does now seem that the wrapping was done for the distributors, by TLG. Copies sold to individuals were not shrinkwrapped.

Sorry for the confusion, but I was very sure I knew what was happening.

Mark:  the signed versions are signed and numbered (to 200 or 300, I don't recall which, offhand).  My understanding is that they're otherwise identical to the non-signed copies.

Mars wrote:Do you know if the GenCon version was shrinkwrapped?

I picked up a set of districts/adventures from a retail store and East Mark was the only one in shrink (which makes sense considering the format).

Also, any idea of which print of Dark Chateau is rarer (or size of print run?) - grey or brown?

GenCon versions were NOT shrinkwrapped....

Mike B.

Excellent!  Thanks guys.

Overseas eBayer corcorellis has won my copy of CZ:UW for $202.47.

Also-ran bidders include melroseandvine and gruggreyskin.  I suppose that I should know who they are, but I do not.  I won't out anybody else.

Acaeum members did bid, but most of them dropped out early. Over 30 people were watching the auction in the hours before auction's end.  Only 12 unique bidders bid on this auction.

Neither the charity aspect nor the Free RPG Day module appear to have affected the final price.

JohnGaunt wrote:Overseas eBayer corcorellis has won my copy of CZ:UW for $202.47.

Wow, incredible.  This thing is really skyrocketing.  Now I feel like more of a dope than usual after deciding the $45 or so BIN on that set that was up a couple of months ago was too high.  And to think it sat there for several days!

JohnGaunt wrote:How many "sure things" never increase significantly in value?  Buying CZ:UW at the end of 2008 was a risk.  It was available below SRP for a while, so a BIN at cover price did look expensive.

Jason Zavoda and others appear to be correct in their analyses of/reasoning behind buying and holding CZ:UW.  Maybe they should be discussing economic solutions in the OT thread.  

As soon as my Amazon copy sells or moves to eBay, I won't have a horse in the the CZ:UW race.  But I would enjoy seeing CZ:UW hit $299 at the end of 2009, perhaps coinciding with a 4E release from Gygax Games or reworked supplements from independent authors.

This kind of return is unpredictable. I buy things with 5 years in mind rather than 5 months. And sometimes knowing too much can keep you from investing. I managed a comic shop going on to 20 years ago, and I knew too much to invest in the Death of Superman comic. I could have picked up a 1000 copies wholesale (and our shops discount was 62% because of the volume we were buying from Diamond comics). But I knew that killing a comic character meant nothing, and the sales of superman were low. We had 7 regular subscribers to each of the Superman titles compared to over 100 for X-Men titles. After that issue and for the next 6 months we had 250+ subscribers to the superman and batman titles. We sold over 600+ copies of each issue the week it came out. Then of course all the speculation went BOOM! and the issue which had gone for $100 or more a copy was down to less than $7, then $5, then the comic market imploded.

What I did know was to sell while the other issues were high and dump them when the first signs of the bust started to show.

CZ: UW isnt going to bust and if the print run is truly low then the current price should be sustainable. Down the road I think this is a gaming grail and I cant see how it will be ever reprinted in this format. The owners of the rights are crazy not to get out another version as quickly as possible. I just think whatever comes out will be geared toward 4th edition and change the entire feel and content of the set.

Grug Greyskin wrote:$195.17


** expired/removed eBay auction **


There is a BIN copy available at $199 (posted earlier), cheapest on Amazon was $249.  Did the others on Amazon (at $199) sell or get removed or raised in price?

I sold it for $149.99.  My was opened and had some wear on the box and a couple dings to the books. I purchased it new but wasn't very well packed when shipped. The box set was just put in a box with no packing so banged around in the shipping box on its way to me. It wasn't in shrink wrap either.

Grug Greyskin wrote:$195.17


** expired/removed eBay auction **

Good to see that it is still holding around $200 despite the economy, 4E, etc.

There is a BIN copy available at $199 (posted earlier), cheapest on Amazon was $249.  Did the others on Amazon (at $199) sell or get removed or raised in price?

One shrinkwrapped Amazon copy sold for $199.99 a few weeks back.



The shrinkwrapped copy currently on Amazon will fluctuate between $199.99 and $249.99 as my mood dictates.    Or maybe I'll roll my four Zocchihedrons and determine a price.