Gygax and Arneson collections fetch high prices on ebay

On the 23rd of September, a number of items from the Dave Arneson collection were put on ebay. The items come from an abandonned storage locker that once had belonged to Dave Arneson. The Dave Arneson collection was announced on The Collector's Trove.

On the 23rd of October, a new batch of items from the Gary Gygax collection were auctioned on ebay. The Collector's Trove has been authorized by Gary's widow, Gail Gygax to auction items that Gary has accumulated over his five decades of amateur and professional involvement with chess, miniature wargames, strategy games, board games, card games, and role-playing games, including several years spent as the head of TSR Inc. the company that founded the role-playing game industry. Previous auctions of Gygax's items took place in December 2010, March 2011, June 2011, November 2011, and December 2011.

Gary Gygax Collection

• Lost Tamoachan is a tournament module that was originally published for Origins 79 and was later published by TSR as C1 Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan. Next to 300 numbered copies, also 50 dungeon master copies and 25 staff copies were printed. This is the first 'Complementary copy' to surface. Ex-TSR employee Frank Mentzer commented at the Acaeum that he had never seen a complementary copy before. This copy sold for $9.100.

• Lost Caverns of Tsojconth was the second D&D module ever written and was released as a tournament module at Wintercon V in 1976. It was later also released by TSR as S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth. An estimated 300 copies were printed. Gary's copy sold for $5.655.

• TSR D&D Player & Endless Quest Reader Profile Study 84 is a detailed demographic study of the players of D&D game books and of such players in general. It includes tables of data from a survey of thousands of individuals. The study sold for $1.225

• TSR World of Greyhawk Gord Saga of Old City Poster 1985 is a poster used to promote the TSR book of the same name as well as the Gord the Rogue series of novels set in the World of Greyhawk. The poster sold for $1.009

Dave Arneson Collection

• The Domesday Book was a newsletter founded by Gary Gygax and published by the Castle & Crusade Society as of 1968. 13 issues of this newsletter were distributed, while issue 14 was produced but never distributed. As the society at its peak had about 80 members, you can imagine how rare these newsletter are.
  
  
  • Domesday Book #13 (July 1972) - First mention of Dave Arneson's Blackmoor campaign : $4.355
  • Domesday Book #5 (July 1970) - Contains the LGTSA Miniatures Rules, the foundation of Chainmail, a precursor of D&D : $4.203
  • Domesday Book #7 (September 1970) - Whose Rules are These? by Gary Gygax, more foundations for Chainmail : $3.706
  • Domesday Book #8 (late 1970) : $3.673
  • Domesday Book #12 (June 1972) : $3.156,65
  • Domesday Book #10 (April 1971) : $3.050
  
  
  
  

For more information on these items, please visit the Acaeum.