I've looked back at a bunch of different items and it does really only look like  the OCE's have had a large gain in price (other than the really rare items) while other items have had small (like the MM, DMG) or statistically insignificant changes.

Some lying statistics (because I'm combining everything except 1st and special prints and I really only look at items that have 2 bids or more):

MM: 12.57 / 16.50
DMG: 9.26 / 13.58
PH: 10.84 / 20.46
UA: 10.49 / 17.44
FF: 8.59 / 8.73
Q1: 5.71 / 11.64

zdaddyo wrote:I've looked back at a bunch of different items and it does really only look like  the OCE's have had a large gain in price (other than the really rare items) while other items have had small (like the MM, DMG) or statistically insignificant changes.

Some lying statistics (because I'm combining everything except 1st and special prints and I really only look at items that have 2 bids or more):

MM: 12.57 / 16.50
DMG: 9.26 / 13.58
PH: 10.84 / 20.46
UA: 10.49 / 17.44
FF: 8.59 / 8.73
Q1: 5.71 / 11.64

Agreed, but allow me to take your post a bit further.

Of those items you listed, all of them are currently selling for less (as so called OD&D collectable items) than they did when they were brand spanking new.
As I recall many or all of those books originally sold for between 14.95 and 25 dollars. So they are actually not really collectables in that sense. (Potential re-sale value) (IMO)

Is that not one of the main factors in what folks call collectables?
As a rising value investment?

OK, not for me, and most probably not for most of us here either.
As for me and most folks here at the Acaeum, it aint about investment at least not much. I simply love these old RPG items.
But at the same time, it certainly does not cause me any pain to see the perceived value of my Orange B-3 Skyrocket up with high priced purchases of other Orange B-3's on E-Bay.

But still, what of those more common older Modules? A B-2 recently sold for about 20 bucks. Not much is more common than them, save perhaps for X-1......  
At $20, the price for a 30 year old B-2, does not seem at all unusual IMO, certainly not absurd.

I bought two B-3's from a re-seller not long ago for 15 each that were both Shrink Wrapped and had the hangy down card still attached. I am quite sure that is not far off the original asking price when they were new. Perhaps the ones I got were as much as twice the original price..... MAYBE...

No so for the OCE's that have been moving so well the past couple of years or so, and as has been stated in this and other threads, before EGG's passing they were selling for near twice the prices they were going for 4 years ago. They are recently selling for 25 to 50 TIMES the original asking price ($10 NEW!!)

Last year, I know they were selling for between 10 and 20 times the original asking price with some going as high as $250 and perhaps a very few even higher.
And now one went for about $525-$550 or so depending on what you think the Supplement that sold with it should go for.

BIG difference folks. I think the value and the attraction of the OCE and other older OD&D white box sets are seriously under estimated here.

Dangit, Almost makes me wish I still had those 15 White Box Sets I had 3 years ago........

Xaxaxe wrote:Um ... yeah. I know what it stands for.

There was no guarantee the damn thing would ever become truly collectible; that's the point. It takes time to sort out the collectible from the ordinary.

I was making a different point than the one you took.
From the very planning stages at TSR the OCE was always intended to be a collector's item.
It was (in part) going to be a final step out of OD&D before the Next step into AD&D.
A farewell to old friends and hello to new friends sort of deal.
IMO, the OCE was never simply an ordinary product.

That is my thinking on the OCE anyway.

Last year, I know they were selling for between 10 and 20 times the original asking price with some going as high as $250 and perhaps a very few even higher.
And now one went for about $525-$550 or so depending on what you think the Supplement that sold with it should go for.

The original asking price is entirely irrelevant when comparing across types of collectibles. Consider:

Let's first assume that TSR pulped these products at an equal rate..

The OCE is years older than the modules you're talking about. So a) it's initial price will naturally be relatively lower than a B3 (your product of comparison) just by virtue of inflation. Consider, $10 in 1978 is already $15 in 1981... a 50% increase!!; b) since more time has passed for the OCE before "collecting" took hold, they were more likely to have been thrown out, increasing the price today more so than a B3.

Moreover, the OCE -- a boxset with removable pieces -- is more likely to be damaged/incomplete over time than a simple module, which might not only contribute to a higher rate of disposal, but also that there is a higher premium on condition. Shrinked B3's are more likely to be maintained in good condition because it's so easy to stack them without damage back when we didn't even care about those things. Box sets were routinely crushed.

Finally, certain things are naturally more collectable than others. If you think EGG's death had an effect on the price of OCE, and want to compare it to the change in something like a regular shrink B3 you need to first find out how both of these items compared beforehand.. but not in terms of asking price, but in terms of market price growth rate. Then when you filter out that effect you can isolate the impact of EGG's death on OCE relative to a regular B3. You'd probably want to do a regression to have the most convincing result.

The point is that, for purposes of assessing the cause and nature of OCE prices: 1) sticker price is meaningless; 2) simple observational data won't give an accurate take on what's driving prices; some sort of econometric regression is needed.

Aneoth wrote:umnnnnn.......  Dude.
What the.........?
I never spoke of the second print-etc. B-3's.

Aneoth wrote:I bought two B-3's from a re-seller not long ago for 15 each that were both Shrink Wrapped and had the hangy down card still attached. I am quite sure that is not far off the original asking price when they were new. Perhaps the ones I got were as much as twice the original price..... MAYBE...

No so for the OCE's that have been moving so well the past couple of years or so, and as has been stated in this and other threads, before EGG's passing they were selling for near twice the prices they were going for 4 years ago. They are recently selling for 25 to 50 TIMES the original asking price ($10 NEW!!)

Maybe I missed something, but I don't think you got a pair of OB3's for 15 bucks each.

My point was this line of comparison doesn't seem to make much sense other than a point of interest. The initial sticker price seems irrelevant to this entire debate -- that is, the question of what is driving the rise in OCE prices and/or other D&D harder to find items.

Sea-to-sky-games wrote:
Maybe I missed something, but I don't think you got a pair of OB3's for 15 bucks each.

My point was this line of comparison doesn't seem to make much sense other than a point of interest. The initial sticker price seems irrelevant to this entire debate -- that is, the question of what is driving the rise in OCE prices and/or other D&D harder to find items.

Okie Dokie..... I made the last post thinging you were refering to the later one. Sorry.

Those GREEN B-3's came out in and after 1981, the OCE's came out in 77-79, like I said 28-31 years ago. The GB-3's are selling for around $10-20 and those are not far removed from the original asking prices.

I now have a C1 for 11, which came out in 1980. I also have a mono T-2 that was first introduced in 1978. I got it (NM) for 15........ none of those prices are far removed from the oriingal asking prices of the modules.

My point of contention is that the OCE always was and still is a well sought after collectable. Not so all the modules, or not at least as much.

FWIW, the OCE set was still for sale direct from TSR at least as late as 1986. It's listed for $30 in the Summer/Fall 1986 Mail Order Hobby Shop catalog. It's not in the next catalog I have from 1988 (Chainmail and the Supplements were still available). However, I bought a new copy around this time from a game shop.

gyg wrote:
** expired/removed eBay auction **



$245 BIN with 5 supplements - condition not great but this probably won't last long!

It was $165 BIN. Which is almost worth it. Figure ~$20/book and that's 160. The box is worthless and there are no reference sheets (that was my question). I seriously considered purchasing it, but I only needed 3 of the 8 books.



Now, if they had been a different printing of the box set, then I would have certainly purchased then.

zdaddyo wrote:I considered the $165 BIN, but I can't stand when people write the name on the cover. Inside is fine. Outside disturbs me just enough...

I've noticed that the last two OCEs have moved back down in price: $138.05 and $127.

Me too. Looks like the Post EGG Passing bump has about worn off.  Bet the guys who dropped five bills on those white boxes in the meantime feel a little dirty about it.  

Mike B.