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Post Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 10:47 am 
 

Ok, that was a wee bit overdramatic, but you're reading, ain't ya?

So I walked down the street the other day and saw a few little home-made posters (y'know, the kind with the tear-off phone number info at the bottom..) advertising that someone in the area was offering to buy Comics, Games, RPGs for CA$H.  

I figure it's another collector (maybe not quite so focussed) trying to fish out rarities before they hit local bookstores, garage sales, and thrift shops.  I've also noticed that somebody is doing a pretty good job of beating me to the thrift shops, leaving behind only tattered remnants of RPG collections.  

So I've set up a sting...a copy of the 2nd Ed. DMG, late printing has been carefully positioned to try to gauge which particular days he scavenges...I've noted carefully it's position to the surrounding "fiction", etc.  From this and earlier such black operations, it looks like he's in there on Thursdays, generally speaking...so I might be able to edge him out by going earlier in the week!  (Ok, it's actually fun playing "collector espionage"....not a lot of stuff comes by, you have to keep yourself occupied.)

I've probably exaggerated the cloak-and-dagger aspect slightly, but what do you do when someone invades your staked-out collecting "turf"? :D

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Post Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 10:51 am 
 

You could call the number saying you have some stuff for sale to find out who he really is.

Toronto is a tough place though, there seem to be a number of sellers from there.  There are also some want ads constantly on Kijiji too.

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Post Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 11:22 am 
 

I have no competition, :D  but I have virtually no market either. :cry:

I agree.  Call him(or her) up.  Inquiring minds want to know.


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Post Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 11:29 am 
 

Happens around here all the time...just ask harami next time he shows up.  He and I have had many similar experiences with fellow collectors in cyberspace.

I suggest setting up a remote, motion-triggered big-game camera.  That way you can catch the dude and his sycophants.


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Post Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 11:34 am 
 

deimos3428 wrote:Ok, that was a wee bit overdramatic, but you're reading, ain't ya?

So I walked down the street the other day and saw a few little home-made posters (y'know, the kind with the tear-off phone number info at the bottom..) advertising that someone in the area was offering to buy Comics, Games, RPGs for CA$H.  

I figure it's another collector (maybe not quite so focussed) trying to fish out rarities before they hit local bookstores, garage sales, and thrift shops.  I've also noticed that somebody is doing a pretty good job of beating me to the thrift shops, leaving behind only tattered remnants of RPG collections.  

So I've set up a sting...a copy of the 2nd Ed. DMG, late printing has been carefully positioned to try to gauge which particular days he scavenges...I've noted carefully it's position to the surrounding "fiction", etc.  From this and earlier such black operations, it looks like he's in there on Thursdays, generally speaking...so I might be able to edge him out by going earlier in the week!  (Ok, it's actually fun playing "collector espionage"....not a lot of stuff comes by, you have to keep yourself occupied.)

I've probably exaggerated the cloak-and-dagger aspect slightly, but what do you do when someone invades your staked-out collecting "turf"? :D


It has happened. Usually I win the wars, because rarely is the competition as tenacious as I am in hitting the same used bookstores over and over and over.  You might call him and pose as a seller; you can find out a lot of information, including who he is and where he lives; how much he pays for used games; and whether he seems knowledgable about his stuff. All good things to know if he's your competition (and especially if he hasn't found out yet YOU are HIS competition!).

Also wouldn't hurt to ask some of the store owners if they have an "arrangement" with someone....maybe he's gotten them to call him first when they get a nice big collection in.

Mike B.


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Post Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 1:54 pm 
 

You could invite him round to your house to 'view' the stuff you want to sell (a few choice good condition uncommon items and something relatively rare too). Drug him, put him back in his car, and roll him off a cliff.


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Post Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2008 2:31 am 
 

rather than a "competitor", i would seize this opportunity to improve both positions...

why dont you get in touch with him and start trading?

1) if he's sufficiently experienced, you could have some nice time and (possibily) a fair deal...

2) if he's not experienced you could earn more than he could do towards you...

3) if he's experienced, then the quickest with the blakjack would win (see prev post!) :D


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Post Posted: Sat Apr 26, 2008 3:44 am 
 

1)  Drive around the city.  Locate his posted signs.  Replace them all with fake signs that lead to porn sites or phone sex.  

(Around here, one digit off on the power company number and a woman's voice answers by saying, "Hi!  Are you feeling horny?"  Last time I dialed wrong I was actually waiting for the correct menu item to be listed before I realized what had happened...about three heart beats.)

2)  Plant stories in the local papers about how any gamer who calls a "certain mysterious number" dies within 24 hours by whatever was the most horrible way one of his characters died.

3)  Call him up.  Pretend that you've taken a first print woodie OD&D set hostage.  You'll blow the box up if he does not run about the city, answering a succession of pay phones and following increasingly bizarre instructions.

4)  Get a reverse directory.   Find out where he lives.  Hide in his house one night and call him up from inside his own game collection closet.  "Have you checked...the modules?"  Remember to wear a mask...Warduke, if at all possible.

5)  Spy on him for a while and then steal his identity.  Dress like him, re-route his email and phone calls to your house, compile a list of his enemies to murder for him and mail a mocking letter to the city paper...boasting of his plan to "kill...and kill again."  Arrange a meeting in the mall to sell him your original copy of Ghost Tower of Inverness.   Don't show up...instead, photograph him from a distance and mail the photos to his house, along with shreds of an old Monster Manual.

6)  Adopt a super-villain personna.  Get together a costume.  Call him up and claim to be "The Shiller," or "GURPStron."  Alert the media to your crime spree, challenging your rival to somehow stop you.  Leave clues for your nemesis to solve your next evil deed...which always involves something ironic happening to rules lawyers.

7)  Pretend to be an FBI "profiler."  Call him up because he perfectly fits the profile of a serial killer who has been haunting Canada for decades.  Work things so that somehow all of his murders are related to the number 144...which we all know is the number of pages in a Cthulhu/Melnibonean mythos Dieties and Demi-Gods.  Claim that his game collection is "evidence" that must be siezed for analysis.

8)  Write him a whole bunch of letters in which you take on the roles of the various gods of the Greyhawk pantheon.  Slowly...slowly...we work our way down to Zagyg...and total madness.  Madness, I say!

9)  Call his phone and ask him, "Do you have Dragon #2?"  IF he says"Yes," then you say, "Isn't it hard to clean off your shoes?"

10)  Arrange to meet him in a cafe or other public place.  Flash a few copies of B2 and maybe a Dragonlance novel.  Suddenly, your meeting is interrupted by 10-20 screaming soccer moms (basically, all your gaming buddies' mothers and wives).  They wave BAD&D signs and shove cameras in his face.  Claim that you actually work for 60 Minutes and this is a television sting operation to locate and expose "game pushers."

Anyway...just trying to help....

Mark


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Post Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 4:28 pm 
 

deimos3428 wrote:I've probably exaggerated the cloak-and-dagger aspect slightly, but what do you do when someone invades your staked-out collecting "turf"? :D

I don't do anything ... I have people that take care of that sort of thing for me.

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Post Posted: Mon Apr 28, 2008 5:55 pm 
 

That's funny. I have a fair number of junk and 2nd hand book shops around me, but almost never find anything RPG. I'll admit though I do get a bit a tense, when I go in and see another nerdy looking guy with a back pack and bicycle out the front looking through the games section! PDT_Armataz_01_17

  


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Post Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 10:25 pm 
 

FormCritic wrote:<snip>Anyway...just trying to help....

Thanks.  But heck, I'm already doing #6...and #3 as well if you replace "woodgrain" with "ultra-rare 4th print DMG".  :lol:

 YIM  
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