The Grandmaster of Collecting • Collecting General • The Acaeum

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The Grandmaster of Collecting
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Favonius Cornelius
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Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 2:12 am

Hey I was wondering if there was ever a confirmed or suspected collector of the entire D&D franchise. Or at least all of 2nd edition or before?

In search of the unknown...

beasterbrook
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Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 2:43 am

There is an old thread somewhere here.. someone?

Brette:)

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GreyM
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Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 8:00 am

offhand...names/nicks i think of offhand are Martin and TFM...but I don't know for sure if either have a close to "complete" collection or not

lokiwookie
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Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 8:13 am

I think TFM is more in non-TSR than TSR.

The Entire D&D franchise includes all prints?

Stratochamp perhaps?

Adventures in Austerion : a fantasy RPG, with boardgame mechanisms and modular battlemap. By Guillaume Tavernier and GÃ©raud G.

GreyM
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Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 8:50 am

stratochamp wrote:"...
i had been collecting frp for about 10 years when in 1987 i made the odd decision to try and get one of every (english language) paper frp items ever published. but only paper frp items. no miniatures, computer games, science fiction, cyberpunk, boardgames etc. 20+ years later on the shelves are 5119 books and modules, 1897 magazines, 29 tournamant adventures (r5-r10 counts as 6 for example), 42 manuscripts (like steve marsh`s city of the revenaunt) and 57 call of cthulhu items (which obviously don`t count as frp but they`re so cool). so there are 7144 singles there (plus the rare doubles like brown boxes).
..."

I found that in this thread --> viewtopic.php?t=3444&start=0

After reading that (page 9) and seeing his pictures (page 7), I would have to agree that Stratochamp would probably be the one.

Mars
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Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 8:53 am

Rhea Shelly was probably close. I think there are several collectors who have near complete collections of the official releases but missing a bunch of the rares. Things like acquiring a full set of the Adventurer's Guild modules is a very difficult thing to do - not sure if Stratochamp has all of these types of items or not. Also, I think he only collects fantasy so not sure if Gamma World, Star Frontiers, etc are part of his collection or not - need to look over his pictures again.

mbassoc2003
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Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 9:05 am

Improv seems to have dropped off the radar, but there must be a good half dozen or so really big collectors at the top of the tree.

You must be damn close yourself, Mark, but I you don't seem to go in for those big money TSR items much.

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

bbarsh
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Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 10:02 am

The original Invincible Overlord out of Florida has an impressive collection.

And I could've bought these damn modules off the 1$ rack!!!

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Kingofpain89
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Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 10:23 am

GreyM wrote:
I found that in this thread --> viewtopic.php?t=3444&start=0

After reading that (page 9) and seeing his pictures (page 7), I would have to agree that Stratochamp would probably be the one.

This thread may be the more appropriate to resurrect:

viewtopic.php?t=408&highlight=grandmaster

Though I'm pretty sure there are a few people listed who have either sold off their collections since then or no longer actively collect.

You don't like your job, you don't strike. You go in every day and do it really half-assed. That's the American way. - Homer Simpson

Mars
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Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 10:37 am

bbarsh wrote:The original Invincible Overlord out of Florida has an impressive collection.

From the liquidation of assets we saw earlier, I think it is safe to say that collection is no more.

copycat
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Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 10:43 am

I bet Frank Mentzer has a decent D&D collection...

Those who can, don't. Those who should not, do.

Gnat the Beggar
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Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 10:44 am

serleran wrote:I bet Frank Mentzer has a decent D&D collection...

Probably true.

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Last edited by Gnat the Beggar on Sat Feb 26, 2011 10:08 am, edited 1 time in total.

lokiwookie
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Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 10:48 am

Kingofpain89 wrote:viewtopic.php?t=408&highlight=grandmaster

Though I'm pretty sure there are a few people listed who have either sold off their collections since then or no longer actively collect.

For example, Christophe is no longer collecting and sold a great part of his collection.
But even if some of them do not still actively collect, I guess that their collections should remain.

Adventures in Austerion : a fantasy RPG, with boardgame mechanisms and modular battlemap. By Guillaume Tavernier and GÃ©raud G.

Last edited by lokiwookie on Fri Feb 25, 2011 10:55 am, edited 1 time in total.

Mars
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Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 10:51 am

mbassoc2003 wrote:You must be damn close yourself, Mark, but I you don't seem to go in for those big money TSR items much.

I am missing a lot of the superrare stuff. I don't have any woodgrains, missing most of the tournament mods, need RPGA1,2 and some stuff like the Adventurer's Guild items. But for the mainstream lines, I am missing probably around 20 items and various prints. I don't actively collect Ravenloft either so not sure how many I am missing there. I haven't really been trying to finish off TSR stuff either - small press RPGs are enough to use up my extra cash.

Badmike
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Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 10:59 am

Rhea Shelley and the old IO sold off a lot of their stuff, their day has come and gone. I'd go with Bill (Stratochamp). I'd also bet on guys like Frank (a ton of stuff in his basement), TFM, or guys that are still collecting now if they really buckled down (Mars, Blackmoor, Bracton, Burntwire Bros). Actually, if Doug (scktrewhisp) was halfway interested he could easily get one of everything, but he restricts his interest to the rares and super rares, I don't think completing runs of Spelljammer or Ravenloft gets him too excited..... :wink:

What I love about the Acaeum, and what I think is really cool, is that if you combined the collections of the guys listed above and throw in a few more you'd have one of everything....between us all, we are the greatest databank of D&D knowledge on the planet!

Mike B.

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Gnat the Beggar
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Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 11:06 am

Have to agree about Doug.

As someone with about nine copies of the First Print of Palace of the Vampire Queen and something like 15 copies of Dragon Issue 1...
If he ever got truly serious about wanting one of everything TSR ever produced, I think he could get-er-done in a short period of time.

And probably not a single X1 in his entire collection.... :lol:

If so, then it was likely obtained by default (from a large lot of items).

"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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Blackmoor
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Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 12:18 pm

I am sure there are a few private collectors we do not know about that have such a collection.

I have seen Bill's (Stratochamp) collection personally and it is about as comprehensive as it gets and I am sure that Paul (collector's trove) is equally as comprehensive. I have at least one of every published TSR item, many manuscripts, original art and most of the rares, just missing a few of the individual printings. Both IO and TFM have broken up there awesome collections (I know this because I have bought some of there items).

Games can get you through times of no money but money can not get you through times of no games!!

stratochamp
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Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 5:05 pm

this really is subjective. is one looking for the most # of gaming items? or the most total # of frp items? most # of frp singles? # of TSR singles? for instance there are two tsr rares i don't own: jade hare with cover, and one of the 10th anniv. combo packs. while i have all other tsr (frp) stock codes, i don't have every printing of every stock code. i'm sure that Frank M. has some different printings that i don't have and i bet that Blackmoor does too. i now have 2095 different frp magazines, but i bet Brette has 200 that i don't. Mars probably has 50 small press items that i'd love to have. David Witts and I split a lot of the coolest Rob Kuntz auctioned stuff and Improvstone won the bottle city auction (although i pushed him to $3500). Paul Stormberg has Domesday #9 that I lack (but I have #14 that he lacks). Malc has a great collection. Lofenloc may still. it sounds like Doug has lots of rare items. Etc. i really like Mike's post about what a great collection of knowledge (and product) is corralled here. Thanks be to Scott!

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