Tarmogoyf wrote in AD&D 2nd Edition:Are there any rares/chase books from 2nd edition or where they all mass produced?

MadCatUSA wrote in AD&D 2nd Edition:

Tarmogoyf wrote in AD&D 2nd Edition:Are there any rares/chase books from 2nd edition or where they all mass produced?

"The Complete Book of Necromancers" ....

dbartman wrote in AD&D 2nd Edition:Not really a dedicated subforum, but there are quite a few of us here who actively collect 2nd Edition.

Your intuition about the scarcity of certain 2nd Edition items is spot-on. While early 2E core books and early PHBR handbooks were printed in massive quantities, the market tightens up significantly on late-era products.

Some reasons for the scarcity:

Late-Era TSR Print Runs (1996–1997): Products released right before and during the Wizards of the Coast acquisition, like Of Ships and the Sea or late Planescape and Dark Sun titles, had noticeably smaller print runs and restricted distribution compared to early 90s releases.

Limited Distribution & Product Quality: Titles like The Complete Book of Necromancers saw lower distribution/reprint runs than standard class handbooks, and items with loose map sheets or cards are increasingly tough to find complete in high grade.  The quality of the materials used was noticeably inferior, which also contributes to the scarcity of items in collectible condition.

Shift in TSR Strategy: Toward the end of 2E, TSR shifted heavily toward setting-specific accessory lines, which naturally fragmented the buyer base and reduced individual title print numbers compared to generic 1E modules.

In case you aren't aware of them already, here are some links that document 2nd Edition product lines, codes, and variations:

Stocklist

Category:Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition - The Acaeum Wiki

Tome of Treasures (AD&D 2E Section):
https://tomeoftreasures.com/tot_adnd/tot_adnd_home.htm

RyhopeWood wrote in AD&D 2nd Edition:Many of the final 2nd edition books like Die Vecna Die, Carnival, Priests Spell Compendium Volume 3 are difficult to find (although that may be a UK thing).  

Stuff for the Planescape, Al-Qadim, and Dark Sun settings are expensive too - especially the box sets.

I find the Waynes Books reference site very useful to identify what should be present in second edition books and box sets.  There are often a lot of things that can be missing - especially poster maps, counter sheets, GM cards, and monster compendium sheets.  You really have to study the photos carefully as many resellers do not actually realise that a map is missing (or that's what they claim in any case).

Ian

dbartman wrote in AD&D 2nd Edition:You can look at eBay’s Product Research area (formerly Terapeak) to get a really good idea of the sold values:

https://www.ebay.com/sh/research?market ... bName=SOLD

I recommend looking at a 3-year timeframe to start, though keep in mind eBay defaults to 1 year or 90 days if you don't adjust the date picker. A 1-year window will show you current trends, especially with higher volume items.

Here's a filtered search example (that might or might not work depending on your account permissions/login state) for The Complete Book of Necromancers:

https://www.ebay.com/sh/research?market ... 2FNew_York


This has been filtered for the categories: Toys & Hobbies > Games > Role Playing Games > Dungeons & Dragons to eliminate extraneous entries like non-gaming novels or unrelated computer games.

Note that the average sold price (around $104 over 3 years) includes all conditions, so you'll want to filter out low-end "reading copies" or high-end NM/M copies to get an accurate number for a specific book.