Unknown. Prices have been crazy.

#1 has been selling (asking price) north of $300; issues below #30 are over the $100 mark; #100 and below are in the $30 range; #101 - #200 are going for $5; #201 & up are so common (and relatively new) that you might have a hard time giving them away, unless someone is missing an issue.

That said, There are always collectors looking to buy complete runs. And someone ALWAYS needs single issues (myself included - just can't afford the early ones now).
Noble Knight Games Is always looking for stuff - Just don't let them beat you down on what they are worth.

And don't accept what I say as "the word of God." There are much more knowledgeable people on these boards.

Oh. And welcome to the boards, by the way.

benjoshua wrote in Complete set of Dragon magazine: I would say, overall, issues between 10 and 30 are closer to $40 on average than $100.

I have seen only asking prices. I have no time (or inclination, really) to sift through sales for final prices. I'm sure there's some idiot out there that thinks he has gold, when all he really has is a handful of crap. And there's some (way too little, IMHO) that actually have gold, and don't know what it's worth.

Ebay is all over the place on prices. The Facebook Acaeum Group usually has fairer prices.

jkason wrote in Complete set of Dragon magazine:Unknown. Prices have been crazy.
#1 has been selling (asking price) north of $300; issues below #30 are over the $100 mark; #100 and below are in the $30 range; #101 - #200 are going for $5; #201 & up are so common (and relatively new) that you might have a hard time giving them away, unless someone is missing an issue.

Not to dog-pile here, but I also don't think these ranges are accurate. Over the last four years or so I have completed a collection from issue #2 through to #165 (I personally do not have much interest in collecting higher issues than that.)  I did this piecemeal - the biggest lots would have been maybe 4-5 issues. Along the way I compiled a spreadsheet of what I paid for each issue and developed a pretty good understanding of what these actually sell for. Here's a chart from that spreadsheet:

Chart of Dragon Magazine prices

Note that:

• if you mouseover the chart you can see data for each issue.
• the jagged red line is what i paid for that issue
• the smoother blue line is a rolling average of the previous (lower numbered) ten issues. In the case of the first ten issues, i use however many issue are available.
• the condition of my purchases did vary, generally G+, VG, VG+, or Mint.  I would accept minor dings, minor staple rust, minor creasing and overall wear, but not tears, stains, missing pages, heavy staple rust, or writing.
• shipping costs were amortized across lots (meaning if I paid $5 to ship 5 magazines, i added $1 to the sale price of each). more on shipping below
• I still don't have Vol1 No 1, which would heavily influence the rolling average (smooth blue) line (more on #1 below)
• buying at these prices is only possible if you have the patience to wait for the best price.  if you need to acquire a full collection in less than 5 years, you will pay much more.

Regarding issue #1, of the asking prices I've seen in the last year, #1 has been about $1000, not $300. When these do end up sold, they disappear from eBay without any indication of what price was actually accepted. I've contacted a few sellers to ask if they would share the actual sale price (something they are under no obligation to do) and have yet to ever receive a reply.

After #1, there is a sharp drop off in sale prices (I'd say down to an average $70), though I think I did get lucky on a few of my #2-#10 issues.

After #10, the next 40 issues or so are about $30 each.

After #50, I'd say $5-$10 each.

After #100, paying more than $5 is a mistake and you better be buying them in lots or you will get murdered on shipping.

On that point, by far the biggest contribution to the total investment is shipping, so being able to pick up issues is lots will save you a lot of money. So would picking up purchases in person, though I have never had the opportunity to do that.

When it comes to selling/buying a whole collection, I think you could save a tremendous amount of money on shipping, but at the same time, the seller also enjoys a huge boon in terms of convenience (vs selling single issues or small lots), so I do not think it is realistic to simply add up the individual prices to determine a lot price.  I think my total spend on all these was about $2000, but again, a huge amount of work and patience went into waiting for good prices.  I would guess it would cost twice as much to do it in half the time.

Anyway I hope this helps.  I'm open to sharing raw data here if anyone would find that helpful.

That graph is very cool Mordenkainen!

I guess I expected the spike for issue 20, that was a Halloween issue wasn’t it?

But what’s up at 39 or 40?

If anyone is wondering, the smattering of $15 issues were new old stock issues from Paizo that I picked up very early in this process.  I'd say I overpaid except that they were in immaculate condition.

And for the complete collector, you need to get the Dragon Magazines with the mailing covers!!!  

I think Andy is referring to issues 11 through 26, that had wraparound mailing covers, as opposed to the brown paper bags that I think you are referring to.

I'm not interested in the later editions much, but this lot seems reasonable to me for a buyer trying to kickstart a collection. Works out to a couple bucks per issue with savings on bulk shipping.


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