Ridiculous eBay Prices

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Endless Flight

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I scour eBay about every day for RPG stuff that I might find interesting and I have seen a recent trend in certain products pre-1990 to be jacked up in price to an almost outlandish degree. I’m going to post a few of these as my posts come. Some of these have actually sold at these prices.

$325.00
 
$275.00

$219.95 - SOLD
 
$275.00

$219.95 - SOLD
The former I actually bought an extra copy of from the used shelf at a games shop maybe 15 years ago for circa $10. Only missing the little fold-up characters.

The latter I have seen within the last year for maybe $50. (I have an extra copy of it as well.)

Ipso facto, these prices are crazy.
 
This one sold for $40 not long ago.

 
This one sold for $40 not long ago.


Check the timestamps. There is a reason it was put up with a buy it now of 40 and it was immediately gone in less than 5 minutes. Guy didn't know what he had:

 
Stimulus check? I mean for some people it was just random silly money.
 
I'm not huge on nostalgia... I'd love a copy of the Mentzer Basic Boxed Set, because it was the first RPG I ever played. But at the end of the day, it would just gather dust on the shelf, so I couldn't justify spending more than a few bucks for one. At best. Besides, the real nostalgia comes from flicking through my books, not someone else's. Behind every mark and stain on my 2e PHB is a story that I can reminisce about. Someone else's ragged, dirty books are just... kind disgusting.

Most of this stuff is available in PDF form these days. The Rules Cyclopedia is even available as a POD... no idea how the quality compares to an original one, though.
 
I'm not huge on nostalgia... I'd love a copy of the Mentzer Basic Boxed Set, because it was the first RPG I ever played. But at the end of the day, it would just gather dust on the shelf, so I couldn't justify spending more than a few bucks for one. At best. Besides, the real nostalgia comes from flicking through my books, not someone else's. Behind every mark and stain on my 2e PHB is a story that I can reminisce about. Someone else's ragged, dirty books are just... kind disgusting.

Most of this stuff is available in PDF form these days. The Rules Cyclopedia is even available as a POD... no idea how the quality compares to an original one, though.
So I'm a hoarder but even I agree the true nostalgic items are the ones either I or a close friend owned that I thumb through. Hell I have a copy of Unearthed Arcana my cat threw up on that I keep and just avoid those pages. I cleaned it up best I could back in the day and I wasn't so flush with cash I could just toss it and get another. I also own a copy with no vomit that I am more likely to grab.

Part of me loves having the books at any cost and part of me wants to clear up the room and downsize. I guess I want the kids to have a chance to look at them and see if anything tickles their fancy before I let them go.
 
I'm moving and can't find my Supernatural RPG, so figured I'd look at prices to see about replacing it in case I can't find it.

$186.95

 
$100.00


That particular seller prices things... strangely. Some of his listings are on the high side of fair, but others are just... out there. Top Secret SI, particularly a box set in that condition, does not sell for that. In that condition... maybe $30 plus shipping.

Someone look up listings for the first edition of Cyberpunk. I mean, I guess they're kind of collectible, but the prices people ask for on that box set seem a bit silly to me. Over $100 without the box (or with a torn to shit box), $250+ with the box.
 
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I suspect many of the eBay purchasers are collectors and those poor games will sit on a shelf or in storage and not be played or even read.

Fortunately I have pretty much everything I want and am actually trying to get rid of stuff, as you all know from my giveaway thread a couple of months back. I expect to start a new giveaway thread sometime soon as I come across items now and then while reorganizing things in the den and closet. Keep your eyes peeled, sometimes there's something pretty good.
 
I suspect many of the eBay purchasers are collectors and those poor games will sit on a shelf or in storage and not be played or even read.

Fortunately I have pretty much everything I want and am actually trying to get rid of stuff, as you all know from my giveaway thread a couple of months back. I expect to start a new giveaway thread sometime soon as I come across items now and then while reorganizing things in the den and closet. Keep your eyes peeled, sometimes there's something pretty good.
He has good cool stuff!
 
I think there are a number of causes.

A big one is simply people have no idea of the value which results in really wonky prices both high and low.

I think some price things high knowingly in the hopes that some buyer with deep pockets and no ability to use Google will be lured in by the "very rare" label. A step down from these are the people hoping for someone with more money than patience. I have found items still in print with the coveted "vintage, very rare" asking many times the current retail price.

There also seem to be a lot of people who have no clue that what people ask for an item has little to do with what people will actually pay for an item. I see this with a lot of items, you see one get listed on ebay for 10x the realistic value and suddenly every seller of the same item "knows what they have, so don't try to low ball me".

Worse some specialty item or one in (actual) mint condition will sell for a high price, like a complete OD&D set signed by Gary Gygax. Suddenly every one with a dog eared, and cat piss stained copy thinks they are sitting on a gold mine. Watch classic car prices after a Barrett Jackson auction, same thing. Some Shelby GT500 convertible will sell for $200,000, and every guy with a 1968 Mustang rust bucket thinks it must be worth at least $100,000.

Finally some of these things really are getting up there in price, 1st edition games that came out 20, 30, 40 years ago in decent condition are becoming less common. I'd like a nice 1st ed CoC boxed set, but I'm not willing to pay $100-150 for one. I missed the window to get one at a decent price.
 
$219.95 - SOLD

As someone in the market for this game, I'm trying to figure out what a fair market price for it is. At least that one is still sealed. And personally, I can see a high demand box set in NIB condition meriting a price like that. For whatever reason, DC Heroes 2e doesn't seem to pop up on ebay often. At least it hasn't for the past year.

I mean, if I hadn't just made a high dollar purchase in another area of interest, then I could see at least entertaining that price for that item.

That said, the past several months on ebay have gone insane for some things. DC Heroes is one of the games affected. Just six months ago, sellers couldn't even give away DC Heroes 1e stuff. I got two complete and unused 1e sets for about $60. Now people are listing beat up and incomplete sets for $100.

I had been doing a lot of RPG ebaying right before COVID hit and now that I'm returning to it, I see a lot of prices have spiked.
 
As someone in the market for this game, I'm trying to figure out what a fair market price for it is. At least that one is still sealed. And personally, I can see a high demand box set in NIB condition meriting a price like that. For whatever reason, DC Heroes 2e doesn't seem to pop up on ebay often. At least it hasn't for the past year.

I mean, if I hadn't just made a high dollar purchase in another area of interest, then I could see at least entertaining that price for that item.

That said, the past several months on ebay have gone insane for some things. DC Heroes is one of the games affected. Just six months ago, sellers couldn't even give away DC Heroes 1e stuff. I got two complete and unused 1e sets for about $60. Now people are listing beat up and incomplete sets for $100.

I had been doing a lot of RPG ebaying right before COVID hit and now that I'm returning to it, I see a lot of prices have spiked.
How much of this is due to the new podcast using this system?
 
How much of this is due to the new podcast using this system?

Ah! That could certainly be a factor. I recall that being mentioned a while back.

Anyway, here are some of my contributions to WTF?? listings




 
Seller relisted the item. Despite 3 bids, there was only one bidder with 1 feedback who had only ever bid on this item. I call shenanigans.

I see that now. He now has a BIN price of $325.
 



I have all three of these on my shelves, and would feel ashamed to list them for that much.
 
I suspect many of the eBay purchasers are collectors and those poor games will sit on a shelf or in storage and not be played or even read.

Fortunately I have pretty much everything I want and am actually trying to get rid of stuff, as you all know from my giveaway thread a couple of months back. I expect to start a new giveaway thread sometime soon as I come across items now and then while reorganizing things in the den and closet. Keep your eyes peeled, sometimes there's something pretty good.
Yea, fortunately I'm in this boat also. I kept my OD&D boxed set and BECM when I dumped D&D, and kept my 1977 Traveller. I have never tired of RuneQuest. And before things went crazy I bought Holmes Basic, and the BX books. I regret not getting RC at that time (early 2000s). I managed to score almost all of the RQ stuff I was missing in 2005 in a single big auction with a $100 buy it now price. I also got the AD&D 1e core books back in 2005. I don't actually regret selling my original Deities & Demigods with all the original content though I may not have gotten top dollar for it at the time (1990 or so).

Things I would still love to pick up if I could nab them at a decent price:
Rules Compendium
Burning Wheel Classic
Bushido (especially would love to nab the Tyr Games edition)
Space Quest

Fortunately for me, I'm happy with PDFs of most stuff these days, and PDFs of a LOT of original games are or have been available (legally, there's more of course you can find if you look).
 
ebay has gotten progressively worse the last few years. Part of it is brick & mortar stores moving in and turning it from an online garage sale to just another corporate venue - I've even come to suspect some companies (I'll not mention who) are deliberately creating shortages of new releases to then sell with inflated prices on the secondary market. Part of it, is in general, people seem to think their old crap is all "collector's items" - this trend comes from outside Ebay even - for the longest time I would frequent garage sales often. In the last ten years, garage sales have gotten, just silly. The last time I went to one, about 2 years ago, which caused me to give up on them altogether, the person was trying to sell their used books at cover price. Another issue is the frequent money laundering through Amazon wherein seemingly minor items are listed for ridiculous prices, which in turn Ebay sellers see and think they can get that same amount.

There is, however, one more legitimate reason for the inflation. As I memed in the Gen X nostalgia thread recently, we are now as far away from the 80s as the 80s was from the 40s. The sad truth is that the stuff from our childhood is getting rarer and rarer as more and more of it finds its way to permanent collections. The secondhand market for "vintage" (as much as it pains me to use that term to describe stuff that feels like yesterday to me) shrinks every year.

Edit: another aspect that occured to me is that as a lot of stuff is available now (both legally and illegally) in pdf form, physical copies of original material is getting pushed more ad more into solely the realm of collector's.
 
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Yea, fortunately I'm in this boat also. I kept my OD&D boxed set and BECM when I dumped D&D, and kept my 1977 Traveller. I have never tired of RuneQuest. And before things went crazy I bought Holmes Basic, and the BX books. I regret not getting RC at that time (early 2000s). I managed to score almost all of the RQ stuff I was missing in 2005 in a single big auction with a $100 buy it now price. I also got the AD&D 1e core books back in 2005. I don't actually regret selling my original Deities & Demigods with all the original content though I may not have gotten top dollar for it at the time (1990 or so).

Things I would still love to pick up if I could nab them at a decent price:
Rules Compendium
Burning Wheel Classic
Bushido (especially would love to nab the Tyr Games edition)
Space Quest

Fortunately for me, I'm happy with PDFs of most stuff these days, and PDFs of a LOT of original games are or have been available (legally, there's more of course you can find if you look).
Can't help you with the original Tyr edition, but Bushido is still available directly from FGU as an all-in-one softcover (there might also be a PDF option):
 
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