We don't have HPB here, but we have a local chain that is almost exactly the same concept.  I noticed last time I was in that the RPG selection was BAD, when I asked about it I was told they no longer buy RPG books.  So much for that source, between the stores 4 locations I probably spent $2500 a year ALL on RPG books. =/

JohnGaunt wrote:Related to this other HPB thread ( viewtopic.php?t=5671&start=0 ) but slightly different.

I went to Austin's HPB stores yesterday and came away more concerned than usual.  Maybe I was expecting too many bargains, but I only found one good buy.  Everything else that I bought was an afterthought.

I had the usual gripes:  Dozens of DAW yellow-covered fantasy paperbacks with the prices marked-out with either grease pencil or permanent marker.  A series of paperbacks with miscellaneous bookstore stamps and owners' names.  Paperback shelves with holes where certain authors should be.

Then my concern grew: Rogered and water-damaged items paperbacks and RPGS priced as if they were undamaged.  Few D&D items.  Fewer than normal AD&D items and good/fine/NM items in general.

This could be a minor blip.  Maybe the buying of good-quality paperbacks and RPGs is in a down cycle.  But seeing shelves of crap instead of the bounty that was HPB around 2000 makes me uneasy.  Are people selling items on eBay instead?  Has time take its toll on the stock of good-condition paperbacks and RPGs?

I am concerned about the recent influx of overstock d20 items from the publishers.  Dawnforge, Legends and Lairs, and Bastion Press overstock hit the shelves around September 20, as did a ton of WotC hardbacks.  Is HPB now going to be a dumping ground for d20 overstock?  Granted, if I played d20, this would be the coolest thing to happen in a long time; I did pick up the Dawnforge pseudo-slipcased collection for $9.98 (retail $39.99).  But where did all of the old stuff go?

Will 4.0 cause more dumping of d20 buy current owners?  The McKinney, TX, store had nearly a full run of at least two of Mongoose's supplement lines and some Bastion Press stuff, none of it overstock.  Again, I'll buy some of the third-party books, but where is the D&D/1e/2e stuff?

HPB is definitely seeing a siphoning off of pre-1999 RPG stuff to the EBay market.  First, HPB has always paid very little for used items of any sort, particulary stuff like comics and RPGS.  For example, I used to be able to pull out some great comic items from HPB back even 5 years ago....now, instead of taking 3-5 cents a comic, most collectors and casual buyers will just put the longboxes up on ebay and take their chances, particularly if there are key issues involved.
   The same is happening with older game stuff.  Instead of 20 cents an item or whatever HPB pays now for gaming stuff, most would rather either list it on ebay in one large lot, or haul it down to ISoldIt or a similar operation and have them deal with it.  For the most part, they come out much better this way, and I think the word is out that HPB is just basically a dumping ground if you either need gas money that day, or drug money for a fix that afternoon, or food money because you haven't eaten in days, etc.  For most of us, waiting a week or two for 10x what you would get at HPB is not an issue, and I have seen more and more large lots end up there rather than the stores.
    Second, as more of the pre-1999 stuff ends up in the collectors market and out of the hands of casual buyers or those just cleaning out their kids closests, less and less will hit the secondary market. The same thing happened with comics in the 90s, and it's happening to games now.  I once found a Spiderman #8 once in the mid-80s at a local HPB, nowadys, the comic collectors are not dumping stuff in secondary markets, I havent' found a good comics deal in several years in any HPB anywhere in the US I've gone.  With more items in the hands of collectors that know their worth, you'll see less and less of this stuff hit the secondary market such as used bookstores, game stores, thrift shops, flea markets, etc.
    Third, and this isn't in all cases, employees themselves are becoming a bit more knowledgable and sophisticated about older gaming stuff.  This could mean either they buy the stuff themselves as they get it in, or they mark it up in price instead of just placing it on the shelf at half cover.  I remmber the day when the entire staff at local HPBs had no clue about gaming stuff when they got it in, and would call me at home to come up and look at a giant buy they had gotten in (I had given them my number in case they got a bunch of gaming stuff in all at once).  Now, since the original gamers and the generation below have "grown up", chances are someone working at a store has a passing interest or knowledge about D&D and knows that White Box should be priced at $100, not $20.
    This I see as just a natural evolution, I've seen it run before through many genres.  I've been shopping HPB regularly since 1980 or so, and every sort of collectible eventually becomes scarcer and scarcer to find.  For example, I also used to collect, and now sell, paperbacks of pulp heros such as Doc Savage, The Avenger, The Shadow, The Spider and others.  Up until the mid 90s or so they used to be put straight out on the shelves for half cover (typically a buck or less). Now, it is extremely rare if you see one of these paperbacks not in a plastic paperback bag with a $3-$6 price tag on them, and in most cases, the condition isn't too great either.  Hell, I used to find stacks of pulps such as Weird Tales, Amazing Stories, and Dime Detective from the 40s-50s for $10 or so apiece at least once a year or so...when is the last time (if EVER) you have either seen a pulp magazine period, or one priced less than $50?  
   So, while yes the older game stuff is getting harder to find, it's nothing to be alarmed about, as it's just following a natural progression.  Myself, I look nostalgically back on the days when you used to go into HPB and find piles of modules prices a couple of bucks each.....but things change.  It sucks for me because I get a lot of my resell stock at those places, but I think it sucks for the casual buyer/collector more, as they have to be even luckier that the one time a month they walk into a HPB there just MIGHT have been a large buy put out on the shelf.  Myself, since I go into HPB regularly, I still have a better chance to run into bargains, but that window is slowing creaking shut even for guys like me.

    RE: 3E stuff. In the short run, you are going to see a lot of overstock hit the shelves for the next year or so even as 4th edition makes it's debut.  Like you said, nice if you want to fill some holes and buy a $40 hardback for $20, but otherwise, it's just debris clogging up the shelves.  The interesting thing will be watching to see when the gigantic amount of overstock (HPB on NW highway has shelves and shelves and shelves of it) will itself hit the clearance racks for $1-$5 an item (I might even pick up a few titles for that kind of markdown).  
    I don't think there has been any large market swing lately; I think it's been a gradual creep due to the influences I mentioned above.

Mike B.

I just came from the HPB in Mayfield, OH, outside of Cleveland (had to go there for work! Woohoo!) and what once was one shelf of junk was now three shelves of 3.5, Including three copies of the leather-bound PHB! Several copies of just about every other WotC title as well, and nothing from 1st ed.