OOP adventure's value

[Glyfair]

I was looking up a few things on eBay the other day and happened to notice that the Temple of Elemental Evil was going for a lot less than it was. I remember it going for over $50, now it's down to about $30 on average. Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, on the other hand, was going for around $45 on average.

It seemed a bit odd to me, especially since RttoEE was about 5 years old, compared to ToEE's 20 year or so age. Perhaps the fact that RttoEE is more playable than ToEE (indeed, I believe RttoEE has been updated to 3.5 by some industrious souls) is a reason. Maybe the fact that you can get ToEE for a PDF download has affected the price.

Thoughts?

 

[Steel_Wind]

.pdfs - both legal and illegal - have certainly hurt the value of collectibles.

How much is hard to say. As recently as ~5 years ago, a friend of mine sold all of his ICE Middle Earth stuff on e-bay. He had everything there was for it (might have missed one or two small adventures - but for the most part he had it all in very good condition).

He got about $1800 USD for it at the time on eBay.

There is no way - no way at all - you would get that now.

Some items are collectibles and have an inherent physical component to them for being so. People want the product on their shelf, simple as that. To some extent, among a core group of collectors, that has not changed.

But something else has and it effects the market.

As the .pdfs fill the "value-in-use" part of collectible game material, they decrease a lot of the demand pressure on items that were once sought by less committed collectors who just want it to use it as an active gaming item - not as a pure collectible.

Similarly, people no longer need to fear they will lose the "value-in-use" forever if they sell a physical product because they can still keep it in .pdf form. Consequently, they are far more willing to sell.

Demand goes down - supply goes up. The result is inevitible: prices have markedly dropped. Pure and simple. This is so even if the hardcore physical collector remains more or less unchanged in his commitment to acquire the product.

There will always be a market for collectible gaming stuff. But it isn't what it used to be for all but some really very rare stuff. It will take time to work it's destructive ways upon the physical goods themselves for the current supply to markedly shrink.

Until then, I don't see anything changing all that dramatically.

 

[IronWolf]

I think the PDFs have probably hurt the value of some of the older items more so than anything else. Once things start hitting a certain price on eBay one is probably much more apt to say, "Hey, I'm not too into PDFs, but it sure sounds better than spending $50 on the module." One can print quite a bit for the price difference and probably even get Kinko's to bind it for you.

 

[Wraith Form]

I think the passage of time effects this too. How many younger people with disposable income even remember ICE's MERP?

That'd be like me saying I have an original pressing of the Beatles' Revolver for sale, but being depressed that hardly anybody wants to buy it. 1) People don't have turntables as much any more, 2) poll 1,000 teens these days and most of them will give the response "Who are the Beatles?", and 3) it's out on CD anyway, with remastering and a better quality playback format--why buy it on vinyl?

Apply the same priciple to this old-school role-playing material.

 

[CarlZog]

If prices of some stuff has dropped off, I also expect that it's because the demand has been met. It seems to me there's a limited pool of people who are buying old D&D stuff strictly for the sake of "collecting", and those are the only people willing to pay ridiculous money for an original copy of a specific title. Once those people all have what they want, prices drop off.

Also, all collectibles rise and fall in popularity over time. I've never understood why something suddenly turns into the new hot collectible, or been able to predict when today's hot collectibles are going to crash.

Carl

 

[The_Gunslinger658]

Hi-

Wargames are still a hot collectable, especially Adavanced Squad leader modules. I remember when the Necromancers handbook used to sell as high as 150 bucks, now you can get it off eBay usually for alot less.


Scott

 

[Crothian]

I'm amazed they are going for that much. I see the REturn to the temple at hlaf price used book stores often enough, and the orginal I've seen being traded for not much.

 

[Captain Tagon]

I think the passage of time effects this too. How many younger people with disposable income even remember ICE's MERP?

That'd be like me saying I have an original pressing of the Beatles' Revolver for sale, but being depressed that hardly anybody wants to buy it. 1) People don't have turntables as much any more, 2) poll 1,000 teens these days and most of them will give the response "Who are the Beatles?", and 3) it's out on CD anyway, with remastering and a better quality playback format--why buy it on vinyl?

Apply the same priciple to this old-school role-playing material.

You don't know any of the teens I do. I'm one of like three people my age I know that wouldn't kill for an original Beatles vinyl.


But on topic I think the big deal is pdfs. Just cheaper in the long term unless you are big into being able to hold the actual product in your hands. Kind of like buying CDs vs. downloading them.