I am Speaking about White Box Sets and the Wood Grain Box Sets, where the books are great, but the box is past forgotten history.

The acaeum only lists sets that are complete. What are the books by themselves worth?

Example: What should someone expect to pay when a set of books from the fourth print are at auction?

What about a set of books from one of the Wood Grain Box Sets, with no box included?

I have two sets of books from the White Box Sets with no boxes, and I would like to auction them off on E-Bay and I really do not know what to expect.  

Personally, I would expect to pay somewhere close to the Acaeums low rate, listed under the title 'poor condition' and possibly more if the books are in near-mint condition or better.

What do you folks think?

Aneoth wrote:What about a set of books from one of the Wood Grain Box Sets, with no box included?

$406 for VG- 1st print books with a lot of advertising here.
Don't ask why I know...

Have tried to disaggregate the prices before, but it's kinda difficult given the difference in "average" condition of box and books, plus various "special" points (i.e. woodgrain vol 1 being more "recognisable" than the other volumes...).

Will have another stab at this, here, if Scott doesn't mind.

I think that you are right to expect to pay the low price.  Although if you already had a box on its own, I'm sure you would be prepared to pay much more.

I bought a 3rd print with no box and 5 supplements for $142.50 back in January which is way off the bottom of the scale.  And the books look almost unused.  I then sold 4 of the supplements for £215   (3 1st prints).  So, I actually ended up getting them for free with money left over.

johnhuck wrote:I bought a 3rd print with no box and 5 supplements for $142.5 back in January which is way off the bottom of the scale.

Flukey low price... I'd've bitten off anyone's hands who offered me them so cheap!

Aneoth wrote:I have GOT to get me one of them new fangled danged ole' snipin' programs.............

You serpently have   It changed my life  

The power of collector alliances cannot be over-estimated.  Consider contacting your most frequent rivals.  Let them know, "Hey, I really want this item, if you're interested, I'll give you 1 free future bid on the next item we both want.  Please don't bid on this.  The next time something comes up and we both want it, cash in your free bid, and I will abstain from bidding.  This will slow us down a bit, but save us massive amounts of cash."

You'd be surprised how many people are willing to do this.  It's very effective when you're after the rares.


There are also some great tactics to use when your rival requests that you piss off, but I probably shouldn't share those.

OK.  It's been awhile since I've made a politically incorrect, chaotic evil post.  I take all responsibility.

To deal with a nasty rival:
•        Make sure they're a bastard.  You're about to do some evil, and waste a lot of time.
•        Do not do anything illegal.
•        Do not violate eBay policies.  (No second IDs, no contacting sellers and interfering with current auctions, no bidding without intent to pay, no bid cancellations that aren't mistakes because they go on your permanent record, etc.)
•        Beyond that, anything goes.

Here's some recommendations.  It's time consuming and excruciatingly effective.

Create a spreadsheet, headed by their username.

Do an Advanced Search in eBay.  Select Items by Bidder.  Enter the rival's user ID.  Checkmark the box, "Include completed listings."  Select "Even if not the high bidder."  This will give you a detailed summary of the user's bidding history.

Make a note of every item you find in the bidding history that you are interested in.  Enter into the spreadsheet the item, their bid, the item number, and the final sale price.

On a second tab, do the same for every item you are not interested in.

If you're willing to be patient and gather data for 2 months, you will be much more effective when you strike.

Your first goal is to drain as much money out of your rival as possible.  Using the information on tab 2, bid against them on every single item they bid on, even though you don't want it.  Keep in mind the values that this person is willing to pay.  You want to bid enough that you pump the final price, but not so much that you win the item.  You may win occasionally, and you must honor those auctions; the best thing to do with this material is to resell it so you can keep going.  Block the rival from your auctions so they can't bid on this material.  If you want to be really nasty, bid against your rival only using snipes, so that when auctions end, they find out in the last 7 seconds that you pumped them.

If you want to be extremely nasty, carry this procedure over to their other interests that have nothing to do with D&D -- cigars, diaper coupons, videogames, music …

Keep this up constantly.  Keep a detailed track of their bidding history, to see if they change their bids or items in response to your tactics.  Sort the spreadsheet primarily by item type, secondarily by item number, to keep a chronological record of their trends.  If they're highly aware of you, drop your bid war for a week or two, while still collecting data.  Then strike again as soon as they get comfortable.

On items that you both want, place an early bid to generate their interest.  Place a snipe at the last minute.  You can be more aggressive with these prices, since if you win the item, you're happy, and if you don't win and just pump them, you're happy too.  Just be sure you don't make an outrageous bid, because they will call you on it and you will suffer.

If you want to be sadistic, keep track of how much money you have personally caused them to overspend.  This is your satisfaction meter.

Never relent.  Go away for a few weeks if finances dictate, but keep up the data.  Then hit them again.

Truces are accepted at your leisure.  Do not place any bids on things you want but snipes, because if they're smart and have lots of time, they will fight back.

I don't recommend this if you're dealing with a civil rival.  But if they really, truly suck, then have fun.

Aneoth wrote:

darkseraphim wrote:The power of collector alliances cannot be over-estimated.  

Now that is a truly good idea. One of the best I have heard on this forum!!

What say you, Harami???  You and I appear to bid on many of the same items (of late at least) and you do seem to be my chief rival the past year.

You're welcome to that water-damaged boxless OCE set + supplements...

Kinda pushing auction rules to discuss such matters, even if the current eBay focus is on shilling as defined by /increasing/ realisations, rather than active collusion to keep them down...
The latter is well-known in the big-bucks art market and may be treated as an attempt to defraud the seller when there are a limited number of known serious buyers for a given item with the finances available.

(Not that eBay is particularly in control of anything much, from what I've seen...).

Aneoth wrote:Other than Cougar that is, and I truly doubt that he is up for agreements like this one.

Kitty is very busy...

darkseraphim wrote:OK.  It's been awhile since I've made a politically incorrect, chaotic evil post.  I take all responsibility.
<lots of stuff was here>
I don't recommend this if you're dealing with a civil rival.  But if they really, truly suck, then have fun.

(flashes "Alignment Police" badge)  
Now, I'm sure we've had this little talk before.  That was FAR too organized and well thought out for chaotic evil.  But you've got the evil part down pat, so we'll let it slide.