grodog wrote:

My hunch is that the seller will break the set up, and relist the 1st GH separately, since....

"That book by itself is worth all that you paid and I am sure when I relist it on Ebay, I will have no trouble selling it."  

So, for reference, I'll be making some scans of the worst-offending pages and will post them to my site, in case folks want to see what they look like later.  
I'll also post my "% marked-up" analysis of the page counts when they're done too:  caveat emptor indeed!

Anyway, I'll keep everyone posted on the drama as it proceeds.[/b]

That was what I thought he might do also. (Break it up)
I can just picture the massive amounts of fingers attacking the bid buttons for the GH once he lists it at $1500 BIN....

Thanks for going through the trouble of making and posting scans.
(Not that I would bid on it anyway..... )
You are going through more trouble than the seller did, or would.

Gnat the Beggar wrote:That was what I thought he might do also. (Break it up)

That was what I thought they'd planned the best part of two weeks ago. The foot-dragging doesn't make sense given their beliefs on $ value, even with the woodgrain box burst at virtually every corner vs. the deliberately misleading impression given that it wasn't quite /that/ bad.

Gnat the Beggar wrote:I can just picture the massive amounts of fingers attacking the bid buttons for the GH once he lists it at $1500 BIN....

Well, if you can say what that'll fetch in advance you're doing better than I can. I've no idea and no such copy has been sold in open auction afaik.
he catch being that it appears to be an error/oversight (much like the 4th OD&D set with uncorrected address) rather than the "genuine article". Not that there's evidence for a totally separate print in the first instance.

@Allan: The seller was (typically) unhelpful on the height measurement for that 1st GH but from the blunt/rounded figure they eventually provided that was within the bounds for a normal copy. Could you please also measure that to the nearest millimeter as "evidence" one way or another, since they have no further supporting evidence on TSR staff associations and I doubt they'll be helpful next time around.

Gnat the Beggar wrote:faro:
Sorry, I Was being sarcastic... hence the laughing face at the end of that line.

*g*. No probs, thanks; spotted that...

I wasn't sure if you were aware, though, that that 1st GH doesn't have the price strike-through -- as someone keeps asking about every time one of those comes up for sale. Hence that silly and somewhat vindictive "worth as much as you paid for everything" ($1,500) quote from an otherwise generally clueless seller.
(Per the previous page, though, that's more likely just an oversight in this case rather than a staff copy or anything otherwise "out of the ordinary" given the other information grudgingly supplied by the seller).

Gnat the Beggar wrote:I honestly do not see that a 1st Print GH will get that kind of response.
If so, I have one that is all but PRISTINE for sale.
ONE bit of writing, is the only hold back from Gem Mint.
Initials of a previous owners Name neatly written on inside front cover...

And I would take a hell of a lot less than $1,500 for it.
Offers are very welcome all week.....
PM: me for scans and/or pictures....

I sincerely hope a lot, lot less. Can't recall the highest 1st GH price I've seen off-hand, but it's somewhere in the $300-400 band IIRC.

You're not selling the woodie to go with that, I presume?

That's good news Allan, I hope everything goes smoothly.

Best,

Paul

Mars wrote:Any update on this - everything get settled or still too soon to tell?

Still in process.

Mars wrote:Did Grodog verify that the strike is not there or if that was just another error on the part of the seller?

It's definitely a 1st GH without the price struck through.  I'll include scans, etc. of it once I get that legwork done.

faro wrote:You'd've thought the seller would've been smart enough to wave a white flag at some point although I guess "goodwill" doesn't come into the equation?
Credit card companies take time but still heading in the right direction, it sounds.

Any update?

Still submitting the details to Visa, should be done tomorrow.

Made a few more discoveries while flipping through the books page by page:  the M&M is missing pages 17-20; M&T cover is loose from the staples, as are pages 19-22; U&W pages 15-22 are loose from the staples; 1st GH pages 11-46 are loose from the staples.  

I'll post the combined stats on % of pages marked up, and total rows with markings, once they're tabulated.  I'll post the images too, of course.

I may need to request a official "second opinion" on the sale from folks who have official businesses on eBay and elsewhere, in particular if you have official letterhead.  Would anyone willing to assist me on that front?  (Hmmm, I could ping Aaron Leeder, I'm sure, too, come to think of it...).

Aaron would be a good choice if amenable even if I'm not so sure asking for an estimated retail price would be a good idea: he was unaware 1st prints had dropped from $4-5k to $2-2.5k (and is now stuck with the old benchmark) and I'm fairly sure he wouldn't be selling any woodgrain "cheaply", anyhow.

Perhaps comparing stated eBay listing condition vs. what the /relative/ valuation might be with the faults now known might work; or just leaving value out of the equation altogether? Not that Aaron might reject a resale or commission sale totally, but clearly the seller would have to downgrade their expectations considerably.

Pics uploaded to http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/temp/dispute/