Hi there, I am Neven from Germany. I was introduced to AD&D by a friend in the late 80s and I remember playing weekends without end in "multi-solo" (he was the
DM, I played 3-4 characters). In my later years in high school, I was
DM for the first time and started a (modest) collection.
In my first year in college I upgraded to
2E and continued
DMing... until I moved to a new college town. I neglected the hobby and began selling my books on the early ebay (and was amazed that somebody was willing to pay 5 bucks for a heavily read Dragonlance Paperback!).
After college, no time for gaming, but I had money and started buying D&D and AD&D in bulk (and I discovered this site, which I have been stalking for ages). But the collecting came and went and around 2019 I decided to sell... everything. I didn't think I was ever going to play again and had two large bookcases full. I also noticed that people were going bananas and willing to pay 100USD for my "Throne of the Bloodstone". So I sold it. And my shrink wrapped Dragonlance Modules (all of them)... until Covid.
We were all locked at home and a friend suggested we play an online game of D&D. As I was the only guy with experience in
DMing, I became
DM and because a few of the guys had the 5E
PHB, we switched to 5E.
Ever since, the hobby has come back. I have two 5E groups and I have returned to the hobby. I heavily collect 5e Kickstarters, stopped selling my ODD,
1E and
2E stuff and have actually had a few lucky finds of boxes in somebody's basement and flea market, which filled my bookshelves again.
I have all original books, and all major third party publications. I also have >80% of ODD,
1E and
2E books (barring the super-rare modules) and basically finance my hobby buying in bulk, picking what I need and selling off the rest, although times of getting 50 books for 100USD is (as you all know) over, so scavenging has become more challenging.
I am happy to be here, and thanks for all your insights and the valuation board which has helped me tremendously!
