Sunday, April 29, 2012 at 9:01PM
Hello Everyone,
Exciting news at The Collector’s Trove! We have recently contracted to auction the David L. Arneson collection. The new owner of the collection has authorized The Collector’s Trove to begin auctioning items from the legendary game designer’s collection spanning over 50 years of amateur and professional involvement in war games, strategy games, card games, board games, and role-playing games.
The Collector’s Trove contacted Dave Arneson for the first time in 2005. At that time the possibility of auctioning off his collection was discussed. The conversation continued off and on over over the next several years, the last time about 3 weeks before Arneson’s death in 2009. He informed The Collector’s Trove that the management of the collection would now be in the hands of his heirs and that he would pass along our services to them. Unfortunately, there was no word from Dave’s heirs in over two years.
Then, in an unforeseen turn of events, the management of the collection apparently became too much for Dave’s heirs to handle and they abandoned it in a storage locker. While the owner of the storage facility made numerous attempts to contact the heirs, they did not respond and left the fate of the collection in the hands of others. Like an episode of Storage Wars or Auction Hunters, the owner of the storage facility followed the business’ standard protocol of auctioning the lockers contents. A local auction company won the bidding for the locker and took possession of the collection. Again, however the enormity and eclectic nature of the collection proved to be too much to manage, certainly beyond the scope of the company’s operations. They ultimately contacted Michael Cox, long time owner and operator of the The Dragon’s Trove an online gaming store with a long history of selling collectable RPGs.
Michael then contacted The Collector’s Trove, the premier online auction house that specializes in handling the collections of RPG games designers and artists, and the two agreed to team up to rescue the collection. After, three hours in an unheated garage, on a cold Minnesota afternoon, the collection was evaluated by The Collector’s Trove and a buy-out offer was tendered and accepted. A few days later The Collector’s Trove returned with an empty cargo van. All 114 boxes and various loose items were loaded into the van with nary space for the driver and passenger to move. As darkness fell the pick-up team climbed into the van for a long drive.
The team drove through the night arriving at home base the next morning. Later that day the unloading and processing began.
The collection comprises some 10,000 items ranging from Dave’s 1959 game of Risk to game designs he was working on up until his death in 2009. Dave was a creative genius and designer, devising game after game, poring over military history books, maps, and documents, refining and tinkering his designs way beyond the ken of even the most meticulous game designer.
Now, The Collector’s Trove, in cooperation with Michael Cox of the The Dragon’s Trove, will seek to preserve the intellectual property of the collection while trying to carry out Dave’s wishes to have a portion of its value go to his heirs. Through a combined effort of scanning, documentation, and auctions it is hoped that we may achieve both goals. In the process Dave’s fans and collectors alike will have the opportunity to support this effort and have a chance to own a piece of gaming history. Likewise, the gaming community may yet get a chance to see Dave’s unpublished game designs come to fruition.
If you wish to keep apprised of this and the many other exciting, once in a lifetime auctions at The Collector’s Trove use the 'eMail Notifications' link in the right column under 'My Services' or click here for Email Notification. Those who do so will receive a special preview list of each upcoming auction and exclusive preview pictures of items in each collection.
Otherwise, standard updates of web site news may be received by clicking on the 'RSS Subscription' link in the right column under 'My Services' or by simply checking back in on the website as often as you like.
The first Ebay auction will be launched next Sunday evening, May 6th and will include nearly 200 items including several rare wargames, Call of Cthulhu, Empire of the Petal Throne, Blackmoor, Dungeons & Dragons, and Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Highlights of the auction will include inscribed and autographed copies, editorial and review copies, author's and comp copies, Dave Arneson library copies, and personal play copies! Among many special items are a series of Empire of the Petal Throne books and journals autographed by the late M.A.R. Barker.
Futures Bright,
Paul Stormberg
The Collector’s Trove
Dave Arneson, co-creator of D&D (other other, of course, being Gary Gygax) had - as might be expected - quite a collection. These items are being auctioned, and include, according to GeekDad, "..his original gaming dice. His original <CITE>Dungeons & Dragons</CITE> and <CITE>Blackmoor</CITE> campaign manuscripts. His first printing, woodgrain boxed set play copy of D&D. Letters from Gary Gygax. Other letters, notes, documents, artwork, photos, cartography, rare wargames and hand-made models and miniatures. And more." 
