Joined: Oct 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 133 Karma: 18
A Most Pleasant Surprise « Thread Started on Jan 30, 2012, 4:42pm »
Because it so rarely happens to me and I'm forced to sit in envy every time I read a post about somebody who bought a woodgrain OD&D set for $0.25 at a yard sale, here's my own stroke of good fortune in 2012:
Being lucky enough to have a FLGS that buys old collections from ex-gamers, I occasionally find a book that I unwisely chose not to buy in my youth. I've been on the lookout for JG products ever since I returned to gaming and landed in the OSR. Topping my list of wanted JG books is, of course, Wilderlands of High Fantasy and the City State of the Invincible Overlord.
Today, I visited the shop and saw they had a copy of the Mayfair CSotIO boxed set. Figuring this might be the closest I'll ever come to the original material in hard copy, I plunked down the $30 they were asking and took it home.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered that not only did it contain all the assorted gaming materials originally packaged with the Mayfair set, but ALSO had the JG City State of the Invincible Overlord mixed in there!
It's the 6th printing and is missing the Thunderhold and Sunstone Cavern map from the middle of the booklet, but the players and referee's maps of the City State are present. The book's in good shape, having only a few minor stains and pencil marks. A remarkable improvement over the poorly scanned PDF that RPGNow sells. I can't wait to finally be able to sit down and read the thing without succumbing to eye-strain.
I may never use the Mayfair material, but $30 for a mostly complete City State is certainly cause for celebration!
Falconer Level 9 Sorcerer Cleric of OD&D member is offline
OD&D, Middle-earth, Star Trek TOS
Joined: Sept 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 1,341 Location: Chicago, IL Karma: 51
Re: A Most Pleasant Surprise « Reply #3 on Jan 30, 2012, 9:14pm »
Nice! Congrats!
I haven’t heard much good about the Mayfair CSIO, but the box seems kind of nice.
I now have a complete CSIO (original, not revised) except the actual Guide to the City State. I figured it would be easier/cheaper to slowly build to a complete set, but the Guide is hard to come by.
A man may do both. For not we but those who come after will make the legends of our time. The green earth, say you? That is a mighty matter of legend, though you tread it under the light of day! —J.R.R. Tolkien
Joined: Jul 2007 Gender: Male Posts: 2,503 Karma: 57
Re: A Most Pleasant Surprise « Reply #4 on Jan 31, 2012, 3:36am »
That's awesome! I keep hoping to come across something like that, possibly at a garage sale or something (there are many around here, every single year).
But my wife doesn't like stopping at them. Ah, well.
Re: A Most Pleasant Surprise « Reply #6 on Jan 31, 2012, 1:04pm »
What a coup! I'm jealous that you have such a great store nearby.
Tucson (my area) has some excellent used bookstores where such items sometimes appear. Unfortunately, one of the people I game with collects old gaming material and has a friend who works in the most prominent of these stores. He has repeatedly showed off his finds and described other classics that I "just missed". I keep asking the guy to let me know if something cool shows up, but he never bothers. "Oh yeah: I saw a copy of City-State of the World Emperor there a couple of weeks ago. I doubt it's still there."
Re: A Most Pleasant Surprise « Reply #7 on Jan 31, 2012, 4:52pm »
I waited and waited and finally scored a very nice copy of the yellow Judges Screen for what I thought was a quite reasonable price. This treasure is all worth persevering for.
Joined: Mar 2008 Gender: Male Posts: 395 Location: Los Angeles, CA Karma: 10
Re: A Most Pleasant Surprise « Reply #9 on Jan 31, 2012, 8:18pm »
Los Angeles is a waste land for gaming stores, book stores, and old gaming material. I have The Last Grenadier, but it's about an hour away and I've picked through it multiple times already. Apart from that, it's pretty thin. No half price books or the like. Maybe I'll check out some ancient pawn shops or something.
Oe, Chainmail, Delving Deeper, Labyrinth Lord Society, GangBusters, Boot Hill 1e...
Joined: Feb 2011 Gender: Male Posts: 881 Location: Harrisburg, PA USA Karma: 72
Re: A Most Pleasant Surprise « Reply #10 on Feb 1, 2012, 8:29pm »
Speaking of which..... I walked into my local Salvation Army Thrift Store on the way to Starbucks and picked up the following hard-cover books in excellent condition with dust jackets:
The Knight & Knave Swords, Leiber Elric Saga Part 1, Moorcock Elric Saga Part 2, Moorcock Forgotten Realms - Archives Silver Edition Manual (paperback)
And a complete Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit Game! (with the cool metal figures)