Hi,

I've been thinking about unloading my AD&D books and seeing similar on ebay for about 10 bucks or less, figured it wasn't worth bothering.  But I recently discovered this site and was able to ascertain that they were all first printings, which apparently makes them worth something.  I recall a buddy of mine (there were four of us and we all bought all of these) actually had the DM guide with the MM pages accidently in it and I swear I think he sent it back for a correct replacement.   If only we'd known...  

Below is a link to pics of these and I will describe a few things here.  I can't get the gallery they gave me at AOL to put them in order unfortunately, but there is a front/back of each along with the inside front.  The MM is probably the poorest of the bunch in terms of what shape it's in; it appears to have gotten damp at some point so I am posting a pic on the edge of it so you can see how the last 50-60 pages obtained a slight ripple to them.  The player's handbook is the standard 1st printing, not the "true" first printing.

All of these have some minor scuffing on the covers, the DM guide has a thin line down the back where the cover bubbled a bit.  I think it actually came that way when I got it.  All the spines are intact with no tears, in good shape inside, none of these are anywhere close to coming apart.  I had to hold the DM guide open with my hand to take the inside photo as the spine is still strong enough to want to pull the book closed rather than lay flat/open.  

The pages in all volumes are intact with no rips or creases and there is no writing or major staining, fingermarks or significant damage on any of them except as noted above in the MM.  They were bought by me when they originally came out 1977-79 era and have been in storage for about 25 years.

What I'd like to know is:

1) a rough estimate of what these are worth individually.  Are they worth more as a set?  I have a notion based on the figures published on the frontpage of this site but would like some opinions.

2) do you think ebay is the best place to sell them or would you recommend some alternate venue?

You can view them at http://pictures.aol.com/galleries/rbaker2868

I would guess that they would sell for 20-50 USD each on e-bay. The black spots on the back of your monster manual are a little worrying.

does white oval at back of phb also have spotting? was phb stored with mm? same question for dmg

Spots on the back of the MM are clearly mold; on PH and DM looks more like dirt.  Is there a way to tell for sure?

You might want to check out the "What to do if you find mold" page on the DragonsFoot Collector Forum:

http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15434

I've never tried these steps, but it can't hurt.

Badmike wrote:Dead is right....these might belong in the trash.   I would attempt to clean them up with Goo Be Gone, bleach or the equivalent, but in the end it might just be better to toss these.  It's not worth the S-storm of infection that would happen once these got next to uncontaminated goodies...

But if the condition is mentioned and not hidden, then the eBay market can determine what their value is.  "Has mold/had mold" and "Needs a serious cleaning/Cleaned with such-and-such" combined with photos will let the potential buyer know that mold was a problem.  If the mold came back after the books were sold, then the buyer would be pissed if he hadn't known they were previously infected.

The books might be worth a few dollars to use in a mold-killing experiment --- freezing, exposing to sunlight, microwaving, cleaning with solvents, etc.  The old hardbacks are sturdy and might survive a good cleaning.  But they'd fetch more on eBay.