The Lost Topic Thread • Page 3 • Collecting General • The Acaeum

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The Lost Topic Thread
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ExTSR
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Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 3:32 pm

mbassoc2003 wrote:LOL. No, it your response to our unknown friend's hoard of photocopies, and something about being ashamed that he even exists within the same hobby as us.

Your memory is faulty and selective, I'm afraid. (But then, we're all getting older.) My comment is-was regarding a certain soulless (and prolly cowardly) DF member who proudly stated that he would never help someone in need. Please do not promulgate canards under a veil of vagarity.

And you *must* PM me your snailmaill addy, so I can send you an early Eldritch product in thanks for our entertaining duels... for you see, I know you're not a Bad Guy. (And I'll be in London for lunch on 15 July, if you care to meet.)

mbassoc2003
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Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 3:35 pm

MetamorphosisSigma wrote:
Exactly. My concern would be that WotC won't bother wasting man-hours in their legal department, but simply make a quick call to the FBI, pointing them to the "confession" (this thread and the other). Letting it go and hoping they forget might be the wisest course at this juncture.

Post can quickly be deleted. Google bots don't cache that quickly.

This week I've been mostly eating . . . The white ones with the little red flecks in them.

mbassoc2003
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Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 3:44 pm

ExTSR wrote:Your memory is faulty and selective, I'm afraid. (But then, we're all getting older.) My comment is-was regarding a certain soulless (and prolly cowardly) DF member who proudly stated that he would never help someone in need. Please do not promulgate canards under a veil of vagarity.

And you *must* PM me your snailmaill addy, so I can send you an early Eldritch product in thanks for our entertaining duels... for you see, I know you're not a Bad Guy. (And I'll be in London for lunch on 15 July, if you care to meet.)

Strange. I had read the quip to meant you didn't like to associate such behaviour and the underlying ethical question, with the hobby. I did see the general acceptance that you can do nothing if it happens so why stress about it. I misinterpretted it.

Alas, I have not the funds to get to London any time soon. But one day I hope to free up the time and money to attand a convention or two in the US.

This week I've been mostly eating . . . The white ones with the little red flecks in them.

Gnat the Beggar
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Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 5:49 pm

mbassoc2003 wrote: ...I am surprised they bothered with Gnat's eBay listing mind you.

Like I said before, I seriously doubt that WotCo/Hasbro had anything to do with it.

faro wrote: ..... I tried to get eBay to pull the auction before the value got that high, but they were too slow.

"Guys, I am starting to think Tegel Manor might be haunted..."
Stated by me as a PC during a run of Tegel Manor DMed by killjoy at NTRPGCon 2010

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faro
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Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 5:58 pm

Gnat the Beggar wrote:Like I said before, I seriously doubt that WotCo/Hasbro had anything to do with it.

Impossible to say. I also tried to get them to pull those waves of forged Traveller 'zines and they didn't remove a single auction (needless to say, at least some of the winners who left positive feedback weren't quite so happy when they found out). It seems to be more or less random as to whether they bother or not but the wording on your auction probably helped.

"7.3 ORGANIZING THE PARTY: Always have a keg, even if it's BYOB...
7.4 TAKING THE GAME SERIOUSLY: Don't"

Gnat the Beggar
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Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 6:02 pm

Well, guess it was my own fault the listing was removed then.
I was not trying to deceive anyone. :roll:

"Guys, I am starting to think Tegel Manor might be haunted..."
Stated by me as a PC during a run of Tegel Manor DMed by killjoy at NTRPGCon 2010

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TheHistorian
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Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 6:10 pm

ExTSR wrote:It's other folks who are buying some to reap the profits when the prices skyrocket.

Okay, by that logic, Ian is right, and no one should be able to get cranky about pdfs or scans of old products that anyone has, as long as they weren't the ones to make the pdfs or scans in the first place.

Now we can talk about all the great sources for scans out there!

:roll:

Areas of interest/knowledge: Harn, WFRP, Ars Magica, anything BRP based such as CoC, Runequest, Pendragon and all their related games

MetaSigma
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Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 7:51 pm

TheHistorian wrote:
exTSR wrote:It's other folks who are buying some to reap the profits when the prices skyrocket.

Okay, by that logic, Ian is right, and no one should be able to get cranky about pdfs or scans of old products that anyone has, as long as they weren't the ones to make the pdfs or scans in the first place.

Now we can talk about all the great sources for scans out there!

It was totally foreseeable that the donors receiving these would resell, sooner or later, especially given that one could take 2 per day each day of the con. Who needs 6 copies for research :roll:

? To characterize publishing these as somehow altruistic is a bit much.

Why should anyone be getting cranky about what other people download from the Internet, anyway? Personally, I only keep .pdfs of products for which I have originals, so I don't have to unbag an item every time I want to reference something. But what other people do is their own business, and risk. Why get my panties in a wad over some corporation's purloined IP? WotC can take care of itself without me worrying about them.

Ithaca Dragon
-==(UDIC)==-

MetaSigma
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Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 7:54 pm

The first message sounded pretty final to me

Ithaca Dragon
-==(UDIC)==-

Badmike
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Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 7:55 pm

mbassoc2003 wrote:
I haven't quite got my head around it myself yet, but I see it all the time. I am surprised they bothered with Gnat's eBay listing mind you.

Once again, WOTC did NOT bother with Gnat's Ebay listing, that was ebay taking action after being pointed there by someone (and reading the description of the material being offered for sale). I'd still be surprised if they are even aware of it.

Mike B.

"THE MORE YOU THINK ABOUT WHY i DONE WHAT i DONE THE MORE i LAUGH" Cougar
"The Acaeum hates fun" Sir Allen
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Badmike
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Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 7:58 pm

ExTSR wrote: Neither Doug nor Mike has kept copies for resale later at higher prices. These items were available at the low stated price to benefit the convention, period. It's other folks who are buying some to reap the profits when the prices skyrocket.

F

This is actually a subject we have discussed. If hoarding these materials for later killings on the secondary market becomes more of an issue, we'll figure a way around it.

Mike B.

"THE MORE YOU THINK ABOUT WHY i DONE WHAT i DONE THE MORE i LAUGH" Cougar
"The Acaeum hates fun" Sir Allen
"I had a collecting emergency" Nogrod
Co-founder of the North Texas RPG Con
NTRPGCON

Badmike
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Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 8:11 pm

A small press publisher approached Conde Nast in the mid-90s about doing high quality reprints of some of the pulp magazine heros Conde Nast had possession or....Doc Savage, The Shadow, The Spider, etc. Paperback reprints hadn't been made since the 70s and early 80s and the property was generating little or nothing for Conde Nast (no licensing agreements, etc). Conde Nast replied they would give him the permission to reprint for a million dollars. When he followed up with proof the properties were worth maybe a tiny fraction of that at most, and some money for the properties was better than no money, their reply was along the lines of "We don't care, the property can sit there forever and not earn anything for us, but it's not worth our while to license them otherwise".

Unless you are going to money-whip a big corporation there is zero chance they are going to give you a break on any sort of thing like this.

As a post script most of these properties are now in the public domain and can be reprinted by anyone.

Mike B.

"THE MORE YOU THINK ABOUT WHY i DONE WHAT i DONE THE MORE i LAUGH" Cougar
"The Acaeum hates fun" Sir Allen
"I had a collecting emergency" Nogrod
Co-founder of the North Texas RPG Con
NTRPGCON

faro
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Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 8:12 pm

Badmike wrote:This is actually a subject we have discussed. If hoarding these materials for later killings on the secondary market becomes more of an issue, we'll figure a way around it.

Hence "Saturday night I was given a complete rundown of how at previous Cons, some of the limited items were bought wholesale by nefarious eBay scammers who sold the wares at greatly escalated prices.... BADMIKE WOULD NOT ALLOW SUCH TRANSGRESSIONS, ALL CON GOERS HAD FIRST DIBS!" per http://crushingskulls.blogspot.com/2011 ... art-v.html

By supply and demand, if that's an issue *just print more* and they'll be *worth less*.
And I'd've had those DG reprints to pass on to friends that I'd foolishly "promised" a year in advance.

If you throttle supply more, you're just stoking the secondary market even further. Or is that not obvious?

"7.3 ORGANIZING THE PARTY: Always have a keg, even if it's BYOB...
7.4 TAKING THE GAME SERIOUSLY: Don't"

ScketreWhisp®
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Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 8:14 pm

Badmike wrote:This is actually a subject we have discussed. If hoarding these materials for later killings on the secondary market becomes more of an issue, we'll figure a way around it.
Mike B.

Not sure what Mike means here, but we will not be printing any TSR products at all.

Badmike
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Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 8:54 pm

ScketreWhisp® wrote:
Not sure what Mike means here, but we will not be printing any TSR products at all.

We've talked about this before, raising print runs for items we do have permission to reprint (aka Dwarven Glory, etc). A print run of 150 to 200 won't hurt the collectible aspect of the item but might prevent hoarding and speculation (currently print runs have been at 100 items or less).

Mike B.

"THE MORE YOU THINK ABOUT WHY i DONE WHAT i DONE THE MORE i LAUGH" Cougar
"The Acaeum hates fun" Sir Allen
"I had a collecting emergency" Nogrod
Co-founder of the North Texas RPG Con
NTRPGCON

Gnat the Beggar
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Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 11:34 pm

faro wrote: Hence "Saturday night I was given a complete rundown of how at previous Cons, some of the limited items were bought wholesale by nefarious eBay scammers who sold the wares at greatly escalated prices....

So I suppose I must be one of those nefarious e-Bay scammers then?

Last year I bought exactly TWO Copies of the PotVQ reprint (one is mine, the other is Colton's, my grandson who also attended the con).
I still have BOTH of those two copies.
Although I recently obtained another copy through a trade with another Acaeum member.
Of course, being the big time nefarious eBay scammer I am I immediately posted it on e-Bay as one of my many big scams.

I have sold exactly ONE copy of PotVQ reprint (about 3 months ago) and I am currently selling ONE copy of The Dwarven Glory reprint.
I also listed that one research copy of Ghost Tower, which someone had removed by e-Bay.

Not exactly a get rich quick scheme for a fella with 6 kids (or was it 5?) to feed...

So, who wants a research copy of Ghost Tower at a greatly escalated price then?
"I need to sell some wares; I gots 5 kids (or was it 6?) to feed man!"

"Guys, I am starting to think Tegel Manor might be haunted..."
Stated by me as a PC during a run of Tegel Manor DMed by killjoy at NTRPGCon 2010

Charter Member of the ATM

TheHistorian
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Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 11:48 pm

Badmike wrote:This is actually a subject we have discussed. If hoarding these materials for later killings on the secondary market becomes more of an issue, we'll figure a way around it.

Two ideas that come to mind:

Limit it to one per person (keep a list) not per ticket.

Write their name on the cover.

Areas of interest/knowledge: Harn, WFRP, Ars Magica, anything BRP based such as CoC, Runequest, Pendragon and all their related games

stratochamp
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Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 12:03 am

1) PRINT the name on the inside cover, not the outside
2) not with their actual name, but their acaeum (or dragonsfoot/whatever) name; that way years from now people would say "ooh it's blackmoor's copy of the b3 reprint" .... i picked jeff since he deserved recognition for being the first acaeum roster name listed in the kingslayers module.....

Last edited by stratochamp on Tue Jun 14, 2011 12:29 am, edited 2 times in total.

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