wvexpat wrote in Collecting References:is there any sort of reference book in print for AD&D materials and values?

If there is, the prices might as well be in Deutschmarks or Confederate Dollars, as prices are rising rapidly & dramatically.

I am not a member of the valuation board here, and don't claim to know their methodologies (is there a post somewhere that outlines broad strokes?), but if you look at our valuations, they do show as up to date (many updated Nov 2021 or Oct 2021). In general, I have found the values here tend to be on the lower side, but at minimum it is an active reference point.

wvexpat wrote in Collecting References: is there any sort of reference book in print for AD&D materials and values? What about for gaming materials in general?

In terms of a book, there are a few, but the best general reference by far is Lawrence Schick's _Heroic Worlds_: Heroic Worlds: Schick, Lawrence: 9780879756536: Amazon.com: Books   It was published in 1991 and is rather out of date now in terms of current products, but it still immensely useful for pre-1990 research.

These are my favorite reference web sites and resources:

- here at the Acaeum
- The Tome of Treasures at Tome of Treasures for Role-Playing Games Collectibles and Tome of Treasures :: Index
- Ian's Afterglow2 site at You need a browser that supports frame to view this page. (named after Matthias Bok's old afterglow site at web.archive.org/web/20041229060011/http ... ontsr.html)
- Adrian's TSR Archive at TSR Archive
- Echohawk's various D&D published product guides by world on ENWorld at Greyhawk Collector's Guide | EN World | Dungeons & Dragons | Tabletop Roleplaying Games and Greyhawk Collector's Guide | EN World | Dungeons & Dragons | Tabletop Roleplaying Games (these are the Greyhawk-specific guide and thread, and you can go to the others from there IIRC)
- GenCon tournaments history at Best 50 Years in Gaming
- Scott's GenCon history site at Gen Con in Wisconsin (1968-2002)
- RPGgeek at RPGGeek

There are quite a number of other sites devoted to specific games, specific editions of D&D, etc.---like Zach's Zenopus Archives blog at ZENOPUS ARCHIVES and site at Zenopus Archives for example---that are well-worth checking out, depending on your specific interests.

Allan.

sauromatian wrote in Collecting References:Now that Evergrande has defaulted, we can expect another global recession like in 2008, so prices for collectibles could fall. Hooray!

That's a big domino that fell.  It will be interesting how many more it takes out with it.  The CCP will do anything to keep social stability (and itself in power). How far that 'anything' goes is anyone's guess.

-SKA

As someone sent me a picture this week…

dbartman wrote in Collecting References:This topic has come up in the past, but I don't mind providing some input again.

The valuations are based on past and current confirmed sales (mostly auctions, as BIN and private sales are not necessarily accurate or verifiable sales) and not spot market sales.  This tends to moderate the valuations, so you don't have wild fluctuations over time.  If someone is looking for spot sale prices, then eBay or Facebook recent sold items are where you need to go.  Definitely don't look at active listings on eBay because the prices are often skewed by sellers that look at other people's active listings and not sold items.

Check out this link for additional explanation:

Re: arcaeum price guide...

Here are a couple of links that will hopefully provide some additional details:

FAQ

Formulas

The Formulas procedure described is not entirely accurate anymore, as the details have not been updated on the page for a while, but the basic methodology described is accurate.

100%