So, now it has happened to me....  

    I got four new, shrink-wrapped Judges Guild items in the mail today:  

Fantastic Wilderlands Beyonde
Portals of Twilight
F'dech Fo's Tomb
Dragon's Hall

    I paid 99 cents each for three of these items, but now....

    Do I open the original, factory shrink wrap?  I mean, as soon as I do their value drops, right?  But why did I buy them if I cannot even read them?

    I have crossed over from the freedom of a JG fan to the realm of the collector.

    Do the values change THAT much?  (Lots of items on Ebay are not in shrink wrap.)

    Do I want them more in their wrappers...forever a mystery...or do I want them more for what they ARE?

    What should I do?  

    (Also, I must say that the woman on the cover of Portals of Twilight is wearing the least practical adventuring outfit I have ever seen.  I mean, I think I can see her water/wineskins, but here does she keep her 50' of rope?  No wonder she looks so puzzled!)

That is the problem, Alan...the idea that I would need two copies.

I am now taking a fairly deliberate approach to finding and collecting the last, major D&D items from Judges Guild.  Part of my approach is to savor the process to prolong the fun (what C.S. Lewis called, "the joy") of collecting.

I do have multiple copies of a few things, but mostly because of a couple of lot purchases and because of mistakes by sellers.  Now comes the temptation to become a seller...maybe a different type of "joy?"