I'm currently starting out as a collector.
I hope one day to get my son (age 4) and his friends into playing (after all thats how i started when at age 13, a friends father got us playing and was our DM for the next 5 years).  So, I'm scanning ebay looking for things to buy, for use with him later and also to sell a few odds and sods when I stumble across The Acaeum.  
Well, to say the least, I'm annoyed to find that a crap D&D record, that I vagueley remember playing frisbee with could have made me a few bob!
So, I'm scanning through, and then I see it! ST1 UP THE GARDEN PATH is the single highest price paid for a module.
At this point, my trousers go brown.  After all, my wife and mother conspired between them a few years ago for me to throw a whole load of D&D stuff out.  I know ST1 might be at my mothers (250 miles away!) and have waited patiently for 3 weeks to see whats there and whats not.  
So, earlier on this week I travelled up to see her..... Well, mint boxed battlesystem and modules may have gone, 50 earlyish issues of Dragon, 40 issues of early issues of white dwarf and countless modules and box sets may have gone, but totally randomly, 3 modules only survived: UK2, I12 and an unused copy of ST1 (although with a couple of creases on the cover)

Now, this is the big dilema.  I'm starting collecting for the future (AD&D 1st edition as I already have the rulebooks).  So do I sell this to make money to fund the hobby or do I keep hold of this apparently super rare item?
I think it must be sold, so do I just put it on ebay and hope for the best?
Then theres this lousy exchange rate at the moment, the dollar is worth only a fraction of what it was a year or so ago and  I'm assuming the US is my main market, or am I wrong?

Anyway, thanks to The Acaeum, another ST1 will see the light of day, rather than been thrown away, next time mother does her spring clean!

So, I've moved this post from classifieds to here as I got a huge amount of post in only an hour!  Please feedback to me, especially with how I might list this, especially condition etc.  Looking at it, it looks great!, but there are a couple of spine creases and one big crease (although not breaking the card) in the top right hand corner.  The paper appears very white and has only been scan read.  The corners are fairly sharp, but not perfect.  The spine of the module appears perfect, with no signs of rusting from the staples.  What else will people want to know? see?

Thanks in advance for responses,
Jon Hargreaves[/img]

jonjhargreaves wrote:I'm currently starting out as a collector.
I hope one day to get my son (age 4) and his friends into playing (after all thats how i started when at age 13, a friends father got us playing and was our DM for the next 5 years). So, I'm scanning ebay looking for things to buy, for use with him later and also to sell a few odds and sods when I stumble across The Acaeum.  
Well, to say the least, I'm annoyed to find that a crap D&D record, that I vagueley remember playing frisbee with could have made me a few bob!
So, I'm scanning through, and then I see it! ST1 UP THE GARDEN PATH is the single highest price paid for a module.
At this point, my trousers go brown. After all, my wife and mother conspired between them a few years ago for me to throw a whole load of D&D stuff out. I know ST1 might be at my mothers (250 miles away!) and have waited patiently for 3 weeks to see whats there and whats not.  
So, earlier on this week I travelled up to see her..... Well, mint boxed battlesystem and modules may have gone, 50 earlyish issues of Dragon, 40 issues of early issues of white dwarf and countless modules and box sets may have gone, but totally randomly, 3 modules only survived: UK2, I12 and an unused copy of ST1 (although with a couple of creases on the cover)

Now, this is the big dilema. I'm starting collecting for the future (AD&D 1st edition as I already have the rulebooks). So do I sell this to make money to fund the hobby or do I keep hold of this apparently super rare item?
I think it must be sold, so do I just put it on ebay and hope for the best?
Then theres this lousy exchange rate at the moment, the dollar is worth only a fraction of what it was a year or so ago and I'm assuming the US is my main market, or am I wrong?

Anyway, thanks to The Acaeum, another ST1 will see the light of day, rather than been thrown away, next time mother does her spring clean!

So, I've moved this post from classifieds to here as I got a huge amount of post in only an hour! Please feedback to me, especially with how I might list this, especially condition etc. Looking at it, it looks great!, but there are a couple of spine creases and one big crease (although not breaking the card) in the top right hand corner. The paper appears very white and has only been scan read. The corners are fairly sharp, but not perfect. The spine of the module appears perfect, with no signs of rusting from the staples. What else will people want to know? see?

Thanks in advance for responses,
Jon Hargreaves[/img]

]

Welcome Jon;

    It's nice the story has a happy ending, so many of these "I had BLANK but my mom threw it away" have the same ending (Like my dad's mom tossing out his 1950's New York Yankee card collection with the rookie Mantle, I still have stomach flops thinking about that.....)
 One option would be to use THIS rare to trade for a stack of OTHER rares, thus giving your collection a kick start.  Then again, you will probably never run across one of these again, you have to decide how much you actually want the item before deciding if it's worth an R-series plus other goodies or whatever.
 Then there is Ebay if you just want the cash. You should use a digital camera, as most people bidding on this item will be anal about condition, and you will never be able to verbally describe it to their satisfaction.  A scan of the cover and interior pages at the very least would be required.  Definitely list on Ebay as you will have the maniacs on this forum beating up each other to get to it. Good Luck!  You should net up to $1000 or so but who knows, what a nice find!

Mike B.

The market is very boyant at the moment, and there seems to be a lot of money around. There are a few UK buyers with a lot of cash looking to buy an ST1, and there are is a lot of money in the pockets of the US collectors as well.

If you are going to post an auction on eBay, the best thing you could do is display good high resolution pictures and an accurate description of the modules condition.

Have you sold stuff on eBay before, or is this new to you?

jonjhargreaves wrote:Hi,
Yes I'm currently just starting out selling on ebay. I have sold a few items (including a second copy of GDQ1-7 thats out there at the moment).
There have been various comments about pictures, can I put these here? And is a photo prefered to scans? and what sort of shots would be preferred?
Thanks all, this has been a great warm friendly intro back into D&D community (my last real contact was through UK games fair of the mid to late 80's held at Reading)

unless your camera is super-duper and does incredible close-up's that are precise and sharp - a scanned image tends to show any flaws in an item very clearly.

if one is parting with a ton of money for something, ppl round here will want to know everything about it and then some...right down to the last speck of dust......and you think i jest? wait & see chummer

Jon

Welcome to the Acaeum.  These might provide some more useful background reading:

ST1 Up the garden Path
ST1 survival rate??
ST1 Auction

Can I also ask you where you got your copy of ST1?  It would be useful for the ongoing research.

Correct me if I'm wrong.  But didn't the last NM copy go for around $2k?

So, depending on whether the creases you mentioned are small spine stress creases or major creases where the module has been folded in half this will probably mean that you're going to get at least $1k in the current market.

The exchange rate simply means that there is more chance that the module will stay in the UK (although that's still a very small chance - start saving David!).  You could wait for the exchange rate to get better to improve your £ return.

But if I had been in your position  :mrgreen: when I stumbled across the Acaeum then I would list in with a small BIN for the benefit of other UK collectors (someone slap me)   What I meant was, I would hang onto the module for my collection.  Chances are that unless you've got some serious money to throw around this will be the jewel in the crown of your collection.

Longer term who can say what will happen?  Maybe the market is reaching a peak to which it will never return.  Or maybe it will carry on steadily increasing over time.

If you have only recently made the decision to start collecting, then I would take some time to think about what you want to do with ST1.  Maybe six months.  Then see where you are.  Whatever you do don't sell it in summer (I think).  Someone provided some info on the best months to sell and I'm pretty sure that the summer months tended to be a low point.  Although I'm not sure this would apply to ST1.

As far as images go, I would scan the front and back and also take some photos in natural light if possible.  These tend to show any flaws better than in flash.

And don't use eBay picture hosting.  The images need to be big.  So try one of the free image hosting sites such as
ImageShack® - Online Photo and Video Hosting
Photo and image hosting, free photo galleries, photo editing

Good luck.

John.

I notice, there is much talk of when and where it was available.  Well, I know that I bought this at Games Fair, Reading, UK in 86 (possibly 87 or 88 - I only went to 3).  It was the last day, late on at the meet, I was 15 at the time, waiting for a lift home.  I visited the TSR stand with the other items I had bought (LP for example!) and due to this had very little money left.  I handed over only about a pound or so for my copy.  The guy there had plenty left and didn't seem to think they had much chance of selling!
I'll see what I can do about the pictures.

Forgot to ask.  Does your mum smoke or have pets?  Or has it been stored in a loft or garage?

What I'm getting at is, does it smell smokey, musty, of pets, etc?

This will detract from the value or leave you with an unhappy buyer if you forget to mention it.

Games Fair was a 3 day event held at Reading University, I thought it was hosted by TSR UK, but I'm sure others would have more info. it was held in the students union, with accomodation in the halls of residence. It must have been at non college time (either Easter or Summer), I suspect it was Easter. However, I've just spoken to a friend who also went and he is positive we only went twice (86 and 88). I suspect he's correct, so that would make it almost certainly Easter 86 that I bought it, as money was no longer a problem come '88! Also, I bought it when the D&D First Quest album had recently come out.
Could it be that it was ready for this Games Fair by Easter 86? It was a very big event at the time. I remember also getting my AD&D Players Handbook signed by E Gary Gygax, which he inscribed Games Fair '86.
If anybody kept their badges from the event, that might help, I seem to remember the 86 had a green dragon cartoon on it and the other one I went to had a red dragon cartoon on it.
I have no doubt that I bought it here, but am now 90%+ sure it was in '86.

Geez, I go home from work and have no internet access due to ISP problems , and come back to work only to see that I missed out on a new ST1 discovery. Looks like I am little late...........

BTW, if any US folks have any thoughts of going through Comcast for internet service, DON'T!!!