Many of the common terms you'd search for -- "monster manual", "dungeon masters guide" -- we do come in on the second page of search results.  That's because of all the later D&D edition products with the same name.  If you search for an item that was only 1st edition -- "palace of the silver princess", "st1 up the garden path" -- we're pretty high up.

Foul

Tszii wrote in Perception Check:How did you find the Acaeum? Frankly, I dont remember how I found it.

I found it after attending my first NTRPG Con... Bad Mike and the crew told me about it and I joined shortly after.

I got sick for a few weeks in 2008, while resting & recouping my better half introduce me to eBay, where I reignited my interest in D&D. My first purchase since 1988 or so was a Moldvay basic set (for $12!).  I started searching out and buying old Dragons (fond memories as a kid getting subscription copies ), and searching out print-run numbers lead me here (via Google). My first post was an inquiry for publishing quantities. I found the right place!

I joined the forums in 2002, not too long after the forums started up, but utilized The Acaeum website prior to that.  The forums added a whole new level to The Acaeum and really allowed us to come together as a collecting community.

The Acaeum has always been a fount of knowledge, especially in earlier times when there wasn't a great deal of information out there related to the fantasy roleplaying, and specifically to D&D / TSR.  That has been expanded over the years to include other gaming systems and branches of D&D.

I'm happy to be part of The Acaeum, and grateful to Foul for keeping this site alive and relevant all these years.  Looking forward to many more years to come!

Nice accounts.

It was only a couple of years ago, but I remember trying to understand the difference between the 7th print S1 and the 1st-3ed Also, the 4th-6th, and why some seemed to have two booklets. (Folks made them two.)

I kinda hope this thread sees some folks explaining how they found it last Tuesday when looking for something.

I can't remember what I had for breakfast let alone how I found this place I am pretty sure coffee was involved in breakfast but beyond that nothing!

How did I find Acaeum?

An eBay search, on a whim (because I was neither an active player, nor collector at the time) for ' rare D&D ' threw up a listing for an unpublished manuscript by Steve Marsh for City of the Revenant. I think Acaeum was mentioned in the eBay listing.

I found the listing a day or so before I flew to the Canary Islands on holiday. I had really sporadic internet connection at best. There was no such thing as Wifi or mobile data back then. You had to go to internet cafes and log in and watch your bids. So I'd nip into one of these places when I could, read through the chit chat on the thread about the Steve Marsh auctions, and begin to digest the wealth of information that is available on this forum. Then I'd adjust my bid on the manuscript which inevitably had been surpassed since the previous day and hope that would do until I next had a chance to check in.

On the last day of the auction, I threw in a stupidly high price and the following day I discovered I'd won. Sniping wasn't as sophisticated back then, 'cos most people were on 56K dialup. Competition was also low at that price point, with Improv and maybe Harami being the only other serious bidder. (Anyone heard from Improv recently? Is he still healthy? Active? Lurking? - I see a nom de plume I associate with Harami. I trust you are well my friend. I was up your way the Sunday before lockdown taking much needed supplies to parents a little further north.)

Anyways, I finish my holiday (having failed to mention my surreptitious spend to my other half), return to the UK, and then introduced myself to the community in response to enquiries on the forum along the lines of, "does anyone know who won that?"

The rest is history... I was pulled towards the more obscure and esoteric publications that fall into the 'non-TSR' category... That was where Judges Guild resided before Plaag set up the subweb, and most of the known information was listed on a university website known as Afterglow. Hence, when it was deleted from the web, and I began my cataloguing, I went with Afterglow2.com and started putting pictures to things... It is a bit dated now, and probably doesn't run well on modern browsers… The things you do when you have time on your hands, no children, and no career.

I find myself drawn back in (due to being furloughed from employment) and, now being almost completely without a D&D collection, I find myself looking for a little project.

mbassoc2003 - Glad you are back with us!

Is it SheWolf_626 now?