a very fast start..

Brette:)

Met with Bob today and we have some modest ideas so stay tuned.

PS he encouraged me to write my recollections of Franklin Mall (he and two of his sons walked through the ransacked building with me) which includes 48 of my 55 years. So there are a lot of stories. A few JG stories may surface that were left out of the JG history book. If so, I will add them to my jg page: www.g-design.us/jg since it will be 99% about the building, Franklin Travel, fellow shopkeepers and living in the apartment above cafe.

misterspock wrote:
I just looked back and saw it ended around $750...so who's the lucky map owner now?

I expected more of a bloodbath at the end.  It went quickly up to $700 and sat there for most of the week until the end.  Anyone know who l***l (143) is?

Not to talk out of school . . . that would be stratochamp.  Coming just ahead of tfm.

Bracton wrote:Not to talk out of school . . . that would be stratochamp.  Coming just ahead of tfm.

I thought tfm didnt collect D&D related items anymore?     I was very surprised it didnt go for more than the final price.  I figured it would top out around a thousand $ for sure.

Plaag wrote:Should frame that map.

Yep; that's what's I'd plan to do.
And I'd said the same to myself on several previous occasions... oops.

Nice win, Bill, 'grats: I know you'll do the job properly.

Bracton wrote:I agree.  I had expected $900 at the low end.  This is the oldest surviving copy of what is arguably the most important city of the classic D&D era.  The closest analogy would be to an original floorplan of Castle Greyhawk.

You hit the nail on the head there with "copy". Respectfully, I've never seen "oldest copy" be considered in the same light as "original", even if the originals or any other older copies no longer exist: therefore, I wouldn't draw any analogy (to Greyhawk City, rather than Castle?) on that score any more than I would a proof copy of Tegel to a not-quite-so-desirable ms. original.

That said, it's undoubtedly a good buy at the price. Hopefully you didn't frighten anyone off with your $1k+ estimate off the back of the early bidding when that certainly wasn't the intention here.

Bracton wrote:One would have expected it to go for much more than, for example, some of the modules of questionable quality that sell for a small fortune due solely to rarity.    Another victim of the economy, perhaps?

Wouldn't have said so, if using your own analogy, given that the price paid is actually more than a level from Castle Greyhawk's floorplan.

Published mods do tend to command a better price relative to rarity than mss., originals, proofs, etc. in this marketplace because it means fighting over limited "resources" with a known origin rather than trying to guess the worth of a one-off item which no-one can up the ante on in order to increase resale value. Might not make sense, but that's the way it seems to go and unlikely to change from past experience.

Having said that, if you're comparing with... oh, let's say ST1... I might hesitate for approximate 25 milliseconds before agreeing with your particular comparison.

02c/ymmv, anyhow,
David.

*off to buy shares in UV glass companies*

[OT]

gyg wrote:well tfm is just RUBBISH at not buying D&D stuff  

*g* Good spot! Yeah, tell me about it, Carl; viewtopic.php?p=148615#148615

(And still not quite sure how to reconcile that site price update since then with those copies selling for $2k+ previously, to say nothing of "+50%" being a way OTT markup IMHO for SW on certain items such as oB3s and 10th Anniversary box sets - especially when that's shredded and torn, or warping the book ).

I don't remember seeing anything in the auction for the original that copies were going to be made for sale.  I hope the buyer had fore knowledge of this.

leadjunkie wrote:I don't remember seeing anything in the auction for the original that copies were going to be made for sale.  I hope the buyer had fore knowledge of this.

Why? The auction was for a specific copy not reprint or copyrights?

gyg wrote:I wondered this myself. Though the new item is clearly that (new) I cannot help but feel that this slightly dilutes the desirability  of the 'real deal' (see Faro's post above). That having been said, this will always be a fairly contentious subject and really comes down to diversity of opinion - 'do copies harm.... blah,blah,blah etc ad infinitum'.
Arguments on both sides of this are usually quite compelling, and I've never reallly decided one way or another, mainly because it's not something that will ever impact me personally .
I would hope though, that this new fun/d raising venture was made clear to the buyer at the time.


edited due to putting seller instead of buyer- d'oh

I would disagree about copies doing harm.

They will only refer people back to the original. And since we all know who has it, it's a good thing...