Do you actively go looking? Is there really stuff left at flea markets, Half Price books and garage sales? Or is it just totally rare random luck? I've been to a few half - price books, a good will store and one flea market in the last six months and haven't seen anything with TSR on it. Are the days of finding stuff with any frequency just over now?

Way late edit: It is.

I feel like the 'golden age' of going to a used bookstore or flea market and coming home with an arm full of games stuff is gone.  But the 'game' of hunting for game stuff is still interesting.  My problem mostly is I've now collected all the stuff I really care about.  Sure, I'd love to find a stack of Wee Warriors stuff laying in a dusty pile in the back of a store or flea market stuff... but it's not the stuff I gamed with.  I think I've successfully built *my* version of what D&D entailed in the late 70s and 80s.  So I'm far pickier now.

Ebay is pretty 'dead' for swooping in and bagging a bunch of stuff.  Craigslist seems to always have overpriced garbage but... occasionally I'll see a post about someone scoring a nice little cache.

Best Bets I think are:

Used Book Stores (ask the desk.. sometimes they put games stuff in 'fantasy' section and once it was behind the counter because they just didn't know what to do with it)
Flea Markets/Garage sales (I find the odd mini or dice mostly.  But sometimes books)
Thrift Shops
Game Store swap meets/cons.  Gamers usually offer the best deals to gamers or perhaps are willing to 'horse trade'.  I am usually MORE than happy to trade one of my board games that I paid 40-60 bucks for but am tired of for a slug of 5-6 monochrome modules.  Everyone is happy that way.  The get a new game I'm done with and I improve my collection.
Facebook groups:  Hit and miss but there are some fun listings there and I find a lot of stuff from overseas that I otherwise probably wouldn't ever see. (I'm not into international versions unless it's a good deal)

Finally; I think the right mindset that will keep you happy is to NOT expect to find anything.  It's the hunt.  In a Used bookstore I will usually tidy up the game section and put things in rational order (For example, put D&D editions sorted, TSR stuff apart from non-TSR by publisher etc..).  When at a flea market/garage sale, just ask them if they have any more game stuff.  Sometimes they do!  You might get a story about a gamer or campaign that's long dead.  Sometimes people are happy to sell their game stuff to a fellow gamer that will give their stuff to a 'good home' even though they don't game anymore.  Be prepared you might get regaled with a story of a deceased family member and their gaming hobby, but that's valuable too, in a sense.

Lastly; give away your stuff.  The extras/low value things.  I've made up about a dozen 'starter sets' and given them as Christmas gifts to friends who used to game but lost their stuff.  They love it.  Plus you make new gamers and that's what it's all about for me.

Tszii wrote in Is it practical to go looking for "good finds?":Do you actively go looking? Is there really stuff left at flea markets, Half Price books and garage sales? Or is it just totally rare random luck? I've been to a few half - price books, a good will store and one flea market in the last six months and haven't seen anything with TSR on it. Are the days of finding stuff with any frequency just over now?

HPB in this area has a really good selection most of the time. The problem is, they tend to price it like it's on eBay. I think the person doing the pricing looks at the current auctions and not what has actually sold when pricing items.

Life is like a Bag of Holding!  You never know what you're going to find when you look inside.

Last weekend I uncovered this little gem hidden in the corner, on the bottom shelf, in the last of three bookcases in the second-hand section of a FLGS:



Most of the time, I come up empty handed, but every once in awhile, I find something nice.  As Dave mentioned, the hunt is often as rewarding as actually finding something of interest or value.

I think some of it has to do with the areas of the country that you do your searching at. I have found some pretty amazing things locally but never any gaming stuff. Well, one time at a garage sale a kid had a small collection of beat to crap 3E books he was asking about cover price for and at an Estate Auction I ran into some 2E stuff that had the covers falling off of them - I passed. But stuff has to be out there - I see too much of it come up on eBay from non-Gamer Resellers. I'm hitting a lot of the same haunts that they are. Washington State and Colorado seem to be hotbeds for some reason.

Living not even a Half hour from the original Judges Guild location I keep thinking some day I'm going to hit the Mother load of JG goodies but it still hasn't happened.

Edit: I'm not counting the multitude of Dragon Magazines that I have found in Comic Book Stores, though maybe I should...

spinplasm wrote in Is it practical to go looking for "good finds?":But it brings to mind a sort of moral question I have and am curious of folks thoughts.  If you find a gem, say for example a wood grain box set at a garage sale and the folks have no idea what it is and offer to sell to youfor $5, do you feel any dilemma about taking something worth possible thousands for $5?  I am no talking about a "I went to antique roadshows and found out my garage sale painting was a an original..." but cases where you, as RPG collecting experts know the relative worth.   Should you be taking it for $5, or educating folks on real potential value and offering a fair market value price?

Thoughts?

That, to me, would depend on the attitude of the seller... Allow me to explain: If the seller is someone that has the attitude of, "Just find what you can and get the hell off my property" (and trust me, I've been to plenty of garage sales where you got that vibe from the seller) then I'll take it for the price they are asking and probably even offer less. If it's someone who is friendly and honestly doesn't seem to have a clue what they are selling (i.e. adult children selling Dad's collection at an estate sale, or mom and dad liquidating the collection of a lost child, etc.) then I will certainly educate them about what they have and offer to assist them with finding a buyer able to afford to pay what it is really worth.

So, it depends on the attitude of the seller.

Always. And you can find really good deals in all sorts of places. I really like checking boardgames stores, especially if they have a used games section. Often times the BG folks aren't aware of the particulars in regards to RPGs or even older wargames, and you'll find some real gems for just a few dollars. 2017 was a really really good year for buying on Ebay and at second hand book stores.

Last winter I scored a copy of SPI's Strategy I along with SPI's Nato for just $40 plus shipping on Ebay. Separately they routinely sell for $150, and that's when they are even available for sale.

Scored a full set of D&D supplements for just $63 including shipping. That's Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Eldritch Wizardry as well as Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes.

First Printing of Traveller boixed set for $30

Judges Guild City State of the World Emperor for $70. That might seem a bit pricey, but it just happened to include two full complete but well mixed copies of the Wilderlands of High Fantasy. I sold just one, and about paid for my entire buy on this...

I spent $75 on a copy of the Judges Guild Wraith Overlord (without the sewers map) only to turn around a week later, and get the same thing that included also included copy of the sewer maps for just $11 and five cents including shipping from some woman who was auctioning off her dead husbands gaming collection.

I got a full set of 3e books for $25 including shipping.

I bought a 3e Players handbook for $4.50 and that included shipping.

A copy of Avalon Hill Runequest Deluxe 3nd Edition for $24.11 including shipping. It was $38 brand new, back in 85

Avalon Hill 1985 Price List
Avalon Hill Catalog Jan 1985 | Mail | Credit Card

These were all 2017 finds. Have not found anything good on Craigslist recently, and I go through 2x a year looking at the listings for every single city in the country. Lots of good 3rd edition D&D buys are available from failed garage sales. best areas of the country to find good deals in - Pennsylvania, The Carolinas, Oklahoma City, Denver, Minneapolis and Seattle/Tacoma as well as Vancouver. Places I have never ever found a good deal on RPG or wargame stuff on Craigslist includes Florida, Maine/New Hamphsire, and Idaho/North/South Dakota.


Things I'm having trouble getting.

Gamma World 1st edition (very pricey) my wife stomped my box trashing it during a fight before Christmas. It cost a c-note to replace with a used one of very good condition (and an undamaged box). There is only one true Gamma World though, and that is the original edition, so say we all!

D&D White Bookset. $100 for a loose copy without a box, if you are lucky, and the average price is $202-$300 for a used box set on Ebay (Mostly in ok-fair condition)  some are outright poor. I'm convinced it's now easier, and much better on the wallet to buy the pdfs from PRG now, print the books, build them, and then build a box for them.  I can do that for less than $40.

There are no 'good finds' where I live. And even less places to look for them.

I live on the outskirts of Little Rock, Arkansas.

There is not one Hobby store who deals in older gaming items.

There are only a couple of Comic Book Stores and they carry some card games and that's it.

There aren't any used book stores I can think of that would have anything remotely close to vintage gaming items.

I haven't found anything at a Goodwill, Salvation Army, etc. since the late 90s!

Craigslist? Lol.

So the various online outlets are the only options I have....

Sea-to-sky-games wrote in Is it practical to go looking for "good finds?": Back in the day you could find stacks of $1 village of hommlets in shrink whenever you wanted.

webrik33 wrote in Is it practical to go looking for "good finds?":There aren't any used book stores I can think of that would have anything remotely close to vintage gaming items.

Both of these are good descriptions of the way it used to be in most places, & will continue to be in many places. I remember D&D collecting used to be hit-&-miss - usually nothing, but occasionally a motherlode appears for cheap prices.