Nice to see such a well-loved brown box.  Thanks for posting the pics, Frank.  The Arneson Chainmail looks especially nice, but for pure interest, the DQR7P ranks tops on my list.

The above listings will be all for now.

Later (Dec) offerings will be more mundane: monochrome accessories (such as DMAL), some AD&D modules and WoG booklets, D&D comics from the '90s, lizard belt buckle, 1981 AD&D Battle Royale set... and the Dragon Pile (SR 1-7, Dragon 1-50).

btw, I've put a lot of time into imagery; a good close look at the item is far better than verbage. Hope you appreciate them. Do your own quality ratings. ;>

Questions/comments encouraged.

Summary:

Sets & misc
01 Brown box
02 White box OCE
03 Jasmine cardgame
04 Tiffany paperweight

Booklets
05 Autographed OD&D Book 3
06 Blackmoor 1st
07 Chainmail 1st (Arneson)
08 Chainmail 3rd
09 DGUtS 2nd
10 Eldritch 1st (Leason)
11 GDH 7th
12 Greyhawk 6th
13 Swords & Spells 1st
14 Warriors/Mars best
15 Warriors/Mars lesser

Prepubs
16 Doc's Island original maps
17 Egg/Phoenix tourney print
18 DQR7P part 1
19 DQR7P part 2
20 DQR7P part 3

AD&D Other
21 R3 Egg Phoenix
22 WoG Folio 6th

Minigames
23 Remember the Alamo
24 Vampyre
25 Pleasantville
26 Icebergs
27 Viking Gods

Boardgames
28 Divine Right 1st
29 Divine Right 25th
30 Iron Horse
31 Knights Camelot
32 Mertwig's Maze
33 White Bear Red Moon

Hardbacks
34 DDG 1st
35 DDG 2nd
36 I, Strahd
37 TSR catalog 1993
38 VampTM slipcase

Campaigns
39 Williams materials
40 Mentzer sheets Major
41 Mentzer sheets minor
42 Mentzer materials

Going to contact everyone during the next two days.

Some minor items are already listed on eBay, with more popping later today.

F

Hey Frank,

I think that is probably a wise move.  Ebay seems to be a bit more down than up these days and it sounds like you have a solid off-ebay offer.  While I am a bit disappointed in not being able to bid on the Warriors of Mars, I think it is in the best interested of Mr. Conant to do what you did (regardless of any flak you may take for it).

It may have been a wise move if he had started it that way, but to change tactics in mid-stream is horseshit!

Hello Frank,

Ah well, I was surprised at the turn of events.
But if someone can offer such a great price to Mr. Conant then really it is in his best interest.

Was really looking forward to being able to get the Chainmail 3rd, and the 2nd edn DDG for myself. In the process of getting another 2nd end DDG for a christmas gift for a friend.

Hopefully something will turn up.

Also, if I had the funds I probably would have bid for the whole collection, but I think the shipping to Hong Kong would have killed me.  

Best regards,
Ronald

I see that the revised auction of $6750 now has a minimum bid of $7500...yet no bid has actually been placed. If the point is to provide Conant with the biggest amount, I don't understand the point of even selling this on ebay at all now. I don't know what the calculation is on the ebay and paypal fees, but it seems like he can be saved money by bypassing the site altogether since this ship has kind of sailed on combining the whole thing into one lot.

That being said, I have to say that I think it was a mistake to cancel all the original bids and auctions in order to (hopefully) make a deal happen. I don't understand why this anonymous non-bidder couldn't just snipe high on all the auctions individually if he/she wanted the whole thing so bad. Who's to say that the total wouldn't have surpassed the $6750 or $7000 mark?

I seem to recall several instances of auctions we've seen over the years having bids cancelled and being pulled because of side deals, and I'd tend to think that the general consensus wasn't very positive about any of them...especially towards the buyer who broached the subject.

Of course, I think I understand why the new aggregate auction was created in order to maintain some idea of fairness to the community and previous bidders.

Or they calculated ebay fees vs. a non-ebay offer.

Greetings to all interested parties.

The Dave Conant Collection sale has had an interesting history. The items were offered individually, with notices posted on topic-related websites, but few offers were received. Most of the items were thus placed on eBay for public bid, and many bids were received. Offline offers for certain items had been tentatively accepted, with details ongoing to close those sales.

We then received an offer for the entire collection. Dave and I discussed the situation, and made a decision. The 50+ individual eBay listings were discontinued (and the bids cancelled) with explanations and apologies offered to all the individual offline bidders. This caused some controversy. I again apologize for the cancellation of these individual sales. No money had changed hands, and everything was handled in accordance with eBay regs. To further ensure fairness to all, the Collection was listed as a single eBay lot, giving everyone another chance. Finally (as it turned out) a competing offer was received for the entire collection, and the eBay listing was revised accordingly.

Some interested parties felt strongly that we should not have 'changed horses mid-stream', cancelling the individual sales and reoffering all as a single lot. This is indeed a debatable point, and further discussion of the ethics vs pragmatic reality (getting more money for the seller) is encouraged (in another thread pls). But as the paid agent of the seller, I have acted in his best interests, and well within all legal parameters.

(On a technical note, now irrelevant: the 11.9% eBay & PayPal fees were added to the offline bids to establish the minima for the one-lot eBay listings. The offline offer, not subject to such fees, was thus the equivalent of 7273.50 on eBay. At this point the bid increments were $250, so that was rounded to $7500 as the minimum raise via eBay. There were no bids at that price. This was a necessary calculation; eBay regulations forbid 'going around' eBay, so if any of the previous eBay bidders had attempted to bid offline, such offers would be declined; they would have been referred to the eBay listing and stuck with the additional fees.)


The deadline for the initial bidder to respond was the conclusion of that eBay auction, which ended a short time ago. No other bid has been received. Thus, the higher bid wins, and the offering is now closed. No further bids will be accepted.

I will soon contact the winner to arrange shipping details and calculate the total price thereby. Once payment is made, the sale will be finished (pending delivery). Should any major problems arise in that process, the collection will be offered to the backup bidder at the slightly lower bid price, but that is unlikely, and I anticipate no problems in this phase.


Thanks one and all for your participation in the sale of this unique collection. Congratulations to the high bidder and thanks to Mr. Conant for making it available for public sale.