GenCon Auction

OK, finally the promised auction post.  I spent a lot of time at the auction this year.  I only really discovered how great it is last year, and this year I think I was making up for lost time.  Honestly, I probably spent too much time (and money) at the auction.  I think next year I’ll try to scale back.

Below is a complete chart of all my purchases.  I’m including this partly for my own personal records, and partly in case it helps anyone trolling the web to try and put values on stuff.  I don’t really consider myself a collector, I buy these chiefly for reading and actual use in play.  That said I wouldn’t buy a worse condition copy at the same price, and I do admit some delight in finding stuff in really good condition.  It’s the “still in shrink” that troubles me.  I never purposefully buy such an item, but on occasion I’ve ended up with one.  This year it was the copy of D1-2, and honestly I didn’t notice how good it was until I got it home.  I haven’t decided what to do about it yet, but since it’s fairly low in the reading list (very eager to read the A series), I can delay that decision.

These purchases were made throughout the 3 days I attended the auction.  I first went for the AD&D hardbacks.  I’ve always wanted copies with the original covers, and last year I just missed them.  I actually saw the guy with the last ones in hand leave the store.  This year, I knew if I could find some I would snatch them up.  I probably paid too much, but they’re in great condition.  Honestly, I blame last TotalCon for this purchase.  I played an AD&D game where I was the only player (out of like 10) that had the orange spine books.

Fluffy Quest probably deserves it’s own post.  Part of this was that I wanted to partake in the charity auction and was willing to pay extra simply for the altruism.  Part of it was also that I have fond memories of playing Fluffy Quest at GenCon back in the early 90’s.  I just couldn’t resist, and I’m kind of shocked I got it for only $40.

The copies of N3 and N4 were wrapped in plastic wrap, clearly not original shrink, but very carefully done.  I see now the reason for this was to keep the horrible smoke odor at bay.  These things are in good condition otherwise, so I’m trying to figure out how to eliminate the bad smell.  Right now I’ve got them just laying out on a table, but I intend to do some research on other ways to get that smell out.  Also I seem to have lost the auction slip for N4, which is why there’s no price listed, but I seem to recall it was pretty similar in price to N3.

OK, enough editorializing.  Without further ado, here is the list:

Wow, I just summed up the prices and am kind of horrified by the total I spent.  Still, I barely spent anything in the dealer’s hall this year, so I suppose it’s not so bad.  I really do have to control myself next year.  Also, I think I had better make a master list somewhere of all the modules I own.  I’m in serious danger of starting to have more than one copy of some, and in fact I almost accidentally left the auction store once with two copies of the same module in hand.

Oh yeah, one more thing I almost forgot.  The Harold Johnson  signature on A2 was a happy accident.  It wasn’t there when I bought the module, but guess who was working the register when I went to pay?  Yup, the man himself, and he happily offered to sign the module right then and there.  Yet another reason the GenCon auction is just way better for buying this stuff than eBay.