eBay Board Wargame Collector’s Digest                                                                                          Volume 1, Number 2

 

Welcome to the second issue!  The response we received to the first issue was incredible…  it was sent out to over 110 people, no fewer than 25 wrote letters of encouragement and offers of support!   We’ve also added 23 new subscribers, and only lost one! 

 

Special thanks goes out to Gerald Delker who has volunteered to keep track of SPI game prices closing on eBay for us – thanks! 

 

In addition to our email distribution list, John Kranz of ConSimWorld is offering the newsletter for download from his web site in Adobe Acrobat format, and Alan Poulter is posting issues and archives in his www.grognard.com site.

 

With this issue, I’m changing the document format from Microsoft Word, to HTML.  Several members wrote in that they use no-Windows based platforms and had some formatting problems with the Word 95 document, and the HTML format will also me to post the issue on the web quickly and easily!

 

As always, letters, comments, suggestions, and submissions are welcome!

 

Many thanks, and enjoy!

 

Peter T. Szymonik

EBay = Xorg

344+ eBay Rating

 

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Game Price Tracking:

   

Every issue we’re going to track closing eBay auction prices for “mint” and “punched but excellent” wargames.  Over time people can use this as a guide to gauge what they can expect to get for a particular game title before posting it, as well as to watch trends in game pricing. 

 

There are other wargame price guides out there, Mike Boone in particular has an excellent one.  However, my experience with these price guides is that they often contain dated information.  Additionally, since they track auction prices from conventions and sales prices from the newsgroups, they really aren’t a great guide for auction prices on eBay, which is what we all really care about!

 

Since our last issue, John Kranz of ConSimWorld has created an eGroups area tied to his great www.consimworld.com web site.  The eGroups link has a great database function, and we’ve moved our eBay price tracking to this web based format.  The advantage is that it’s a lot easier for us to keep track of prices this way, and we have a running record!

 

Listed below are the most expensive games sold on eBay since our last issue:

 

 

Campaign for North Africa 

SPI 

BK 

MT 

355.00 

9/19/2000 

War in the Pacific 

SPI 

FT 

EX 

251.00 

8/24/2000 

War in the Pacific 

SPI 

ZP 

MT 

250.01 

9/14/2000 

War in the Pacific 

SPI 

FT 

EX 

242.50 

8/29/2000 

Module One 

SPI 

FT 

MT 

212.50 

9/18/2000 

War in the Pacific 

SPI 

FT 

EX  

211.00 

8/27/2000 

John Carter of Mars 

SPI 

BK 

MT 

206.04 

9/20/2000 

War in Europe 

SPI 

FT 

MT 

202.50 

8/20/2000 

DAK 

The Gamers 

BK 

MT 

202.50 

9/16/2000 

First to Fight 

GRD 

BK 

MT 

177.50 

9/14/2000 

Middle Earth Trilogy 

SPI 

FT 

MT 

172.50 

8/28/2000 

Empires of the Middle Ages 

SPI 

BK 

MT 

167.50 

8/29/2000 

Highway to the Reich, 2nd Edition 

SPI 

FT 

MT 

167.50 

8/28/2000 

War Between the States 

SPI 

FT 

EX 

162.51 

9/16/2000 

Highway to the Reich, 2nd Edition 

SPI 

FT 

MT 

162.50 

8/28/2000 

War in Europe 

Decision Games 

BK 

EX 

162.50 

9/11/2000 

Empires of the Middle Ages 

SPI 

BK 

MT 

158.50 

9/17/2000 

The Longest Day 

AH 

BK 

MT 

153.50 

9/17/2000 

Campaign for North Africa 

SPI 

BK 

EX 

153.50 

9/20/2000 

Campaign for North Africa 

SPI 

BK 

EX 

152.49 

9/18/2000 

Module One 

SPI 

FT 

MT 

151.50 

8/28/2000 

The Longest Day 

AH 

BK 

MT 

151.00 

9/17/2000 

Scorched Earth 

GDW 

BK 

MT 

129.52 

9/16/2000 

The Conquerors 

SPI 

FT 

MT 

117.51 

9/19/2000 

Empires of the Middle Ages 

SPI 

BK 

VG 

107.60 

9/17/2000 

 

 

Guide:           MT – Described as Unpunched and Mint

                   EX -  Described as Punched but Excellent

 

                   FT – Flat Tray Packaging

                   BK – Bookcase style packaging

                   ZP – Ziplock packaging

                   (  ) – No listing – game only has one package style

 

 

The new eBay Price Tracking database can be found on eGroups here:

 

          http://www.egroups.com/database/consimworld?method=reportRows&tbl=4&sortBy=5&sortDir=up

 

You may need to create a free eGroups accounts to view this database.  Just follow the steps to create and eGroups account (free!) and find the consimworld area.  Click on Databases, and you’ll find our eBay Pirce Tracking database!

 

 

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Wargame Company Profiles…

 

It’s become clear to me that about 15-20% of the people I trade with on eBay don’t know that the Board Wargame hobby is actually alive, doing fairly well, and churning out new titles by some outstanding companies.  I’ll spend some time over the new few issues highlighting these companies.

 

 

          DECISION GAMES:     www.decisiongames.com

 

          Decision Games is headed by Dr. Christopher Cummins, and the company is the direct descendant of the old SPI and England’s World Wide Wargames.

After TSR opted to get out of the board wargame business in the early 1990s, Doc Cummins bought the rights to many of the old SPI classics from

them, as well as all of the former S&T magazine games. 

 

Decision Games has continued publication of STRATEGY & TACTICS, the military magazine with a game inside, on a regular basis – the latest issue is

Nr. 202, Taipei 2000, and is available now.  If you were a former S&T subscriber in the 1970-1980s, be prepared to experience much improved

magazine published on high-quality paper, with better magazine and game graphics!

 

Additionally, Decision Games also publishes MOVES and FIRE & MOVEMENT magazines, and the old 3W WARGAMER magazine has been folded into

these two publications.  No games in these, but extensive game analysis articles, scenarios, options, and more.

 

Decision Games is a prolific publisher of boxed wargames.  They have republished many of the great old SPI game titles, and even expanded

some Quad game series with new games.  Additionally, they offer a whole slew of new and highly playable wargames.

 

Finally, Decision Games is working hard to update and republish many of the most popular old SPI monster wargames.  Their new and expanded War in

Europe is available now, a new version of Wacht am Rhein is in the works, and they are also working on board and computer versions of Empires of

the Middle Ages.  These reprints take a tremendous amount of effort, and Decision Games is working to republish one new monster game a year.

 

 

THE GAMERS:           www.tgamers.com

 

Dean Essig and the gang have been in business since 1988, and they have produced some of the greatest wargames published during the past ten

years.  They are very active on the Wargame convention circuit, and are known for the extreme attention to customer service and gamer feedback.

 

The Gamers has probably the most robust wargame store web site around today.  Not only do they sell their own line of award-winning wargames,

but also games by other publishers as diverse as:   GMT Games, Decision Games, UGG, West End, Clash of Arms, Avalanche Press, Mayfair, and GRD.

 

In addition to games, they also sell military books, and game parts (now you know where I buy all those replacement counter trays I include with

some of the games I’ve been auctioning!)

 

The Gamers also publishes OPERATIONS magazine, a quarterly journal devoted to coverage of their wargames.  OPERATIONS subscribers also enjoy

discounts on purchases made from The Gamer’s web site!

 

 

GMT GAMES:            www.gmtgames.com

 

GMT Games is head by Gene Billingsley, perhaps the hardest working man in the hobby today.  GMT can also be found at just about every wargaming

Convention, and like Decision Games and The Gamers, these guys have helped carry the hobby through the 1990s.  Look at the list of GMT’s game

Designers, and you’ll find many of the masters from the old SPI days – including Mark Herman, Rich Berg, and Van von Borries.

 

Ask any wargamer about GMT, and the number one word that comes into mind is feedback.  These guys love it, and they feed off of it.  They post

“living rules” on their site so gamers always have access to the very latest rules revisions and edits, and encourage people to send in game ideas

and modification suggestions.  All of GMT game’s are graphic masterpieces and highly playable.

 

GMT also has a great way to ensure that they only publish games people really want to see designed and played.  Their “Project 500” posts future

game design ideas in detail.  Once 500 orders are placed for a game, it’s marked for production and published, with the first 500 copies going to the

first 500 people who invested in the game’s concept.  Discounts are also available for pre-publication games.

 

 

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eBay & PayPal

 

Looks like the online payment system wars are beginning to heat up! 

 

PayPal has recently been taking some heat for “reminding” its members to upgrade to a Business or Premier account if they use the service for “business purposes.”  The problem is that PayPal has not clearly defined what a “business purpose” is, and they have seemed to imply that people who use eBay on a regular basis are in fact “business users.”  The difference is the basic PayPal account members don’t pay to use the service, while Business or Premier account holders pay a nominal 1.9% transaction fee in exchange for a several enhanced services (including the ability to download transaction logs files in Excel format.)   We’ll watch to see how this develops.

 

 

eBay seems to have finally noticed that PayPal has been eating its lunch, and that BillPoint isn’t a very popular method of payment.  Beginning October 1st, BillPoint will offer the following new pricing and features:

 

 

 

 

eBay Online Payments

PayPal Business/Premier Account*

Credit Card

 

 

Transaction Fee (for a $15 sale)

0.00% + $0.35**

1.90% + $0.25

Transaction Fee (for sales greater than $15)

2.50% + $0.35

1.90% + $0.25

Deposit Fee

0.50%

0.60%

Electronic Check

 

 

Transaction Fee

FREE!

1.90%

Deposit Fee

FREE!

0.60%

Net Rate***

 

 

Transaction Fee

1.55% + $0.35

1.90% + $0.15

Deposit Fee

0.33%

0.60%

 

 

Note that eBay is making a comparison to PayPal’s highest level Business/Premier account, and that eBay will still be more expensive for transactions over $15, but this bears watching.  Additionally, few people use Electronic Checks when using PayPal – its far more convenient to simply have funds transferred between PayPal accounts than to wait for an electronic check hit my checking account, IMHO.

 

 

PayPal has been making moves in the international payment arena:

 

 

  - INTERNATIONAL PAYMENTS -- a way to receive payments from anyone

    in the world.  International payments to Premier and Business

    Accounts will be treated the same as domestic transactions --

    that means no extra fees for you.

 

I know a lot of people on our mailing list have been waiting for this to finally happen!

 

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International Transactions:

 

The following letter comes to us from one of our international correspondents, Bruce Probst of Melbourne Australia.  Bruce has some great points regarding the current state of international electronic payments.  This has become an important issue for me personally, as in the past few weeks I’ve sold games to eBayers as far away as Australia, Japan, Finland, Italy, and South Africa!

 

 

Just some additional points for "e-Bay for newbies":

 

For non-U.S. gamers like myself, the BillPoint facility, whatever other faults it may have, is a godsend.  Non-U.S. customers cannot (at this time) use PayPal

at all (they say they're working on it, but who knows).  Another bonus with BillPoint is that if you use VISA, you get $1 off each purchase.  That can add up

if you buy a lot!

 

The next best thing to BillPoint/PayPal is BidPay.  This allows you to buy U.S. money orders with a credit card and have the M.O. sent directly to the seller.

There's a fee (something like 5% of the value of the M.O., minimum $5.00) but that's a *lot* less than purchasing a M.O. in US$ at a local bank (and considerably less time and hassle, as well).  They will post to addresses in Canada, as well.  The only major limitation is that there must be an online auction for Bidpay to check against (doesn't have to be e-Bay, can also be Yahoo, Amazon, etc.) -- you can't use it to pay for stuff you might buy on rec.games.board.marketplace, for instance.  Why they have this limitation I have no idea.  Maybe they get some kickback from the auction sites they support?

 

Finally, note that some online shops (not private sellers) will of course let you send them your credit card details via e-mail.

 

Contrary to this ease of use is the considerable difficulty involved in dealing with non-US/Canada sellers.  There are no on-line facilities (that I'm aware of -- I'd love to be proven wrong) equivalent to PayPal etc. for sending payments in non-U.S. currencies, which makes buying stuff from the U.K or other places in

Europe a real pain, and additionally expensive to boot (it costs me about A$15 for each foreign currency cheque I have to buy -- maybe it's better in other

countries, but I expect all have a similar policy).

 

Any way, just some thoughts, hope you find them useful.

 

Bruce Probst

 

Thanks Bruce!

 

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eBay Guidelines – A Clarification…

 

This submission comes to us from Steve Bucey.  Steve raised an excellent point regarding one of the sections of my Game Guidelines.  Steve expressed

concern that since he trades infrequently on eBay, he may be considered a risky trader according to my guidelines:

 

"Second, how frequent and current are those ratings?  Is the seller auctioning off games on a constant basis (a very good sign) or has it been months

since they last had something to offer (potential red flag.)"

 

Hello Peter,

 

I just read through your journal, and I decided I would send you a few words of comment.   I guess that the first thing that I noticed is that it appears that

the journal really is intended to have a very limited audience.   Whether you intended this or not, it seems that only a very small group of wargame buyers

and sellers on e-bay would be interested in this.  The above comment I found under "Ebay's Feedback System" is one such item that leads me to this

conclusion.

 

I guess maybe the above item actually prompted my response more than anything else because I fall squarely into that category.   I'm an occasional e-bay

user, both buyer and seller.   Once every few months I gather up a handful of games I've decided I'll never play (or never play again) and sell them.  In fact,   I was just thinking of doing that this coming weekend.   But with comments like the above being made, I'm now wondering if it will be worth my bother, as I

would begin to wonder if people who would read your journal would avoid me because my last auctions were several months ago and I have less than 50

positive ratings.

 

So, if I ignore your rating system am I going to lose potential buyers?   Am I going to lose potential buyers who read your journal and decide I'm not

to be trusted?   I wonder.

 

Steven Bucey

 

==========

 

Thanks for your letter Steve!

 

The newsletter is most definitely geared to a small audience, namely those folks active in the Wargames area of eBay.   Right now the mailing lists stands at some 115 wargamers, and I’ve been adding about five new people each week.

 

Personally, I don't think you'll have problems at all.  Experienced eBayers know to weigh the whole body of evidence before bidding on a game, and as long as you have a positive rating with few or no negatives, you'll be fine regardless of the frequency of your postings (in fact, I may have bid on some of your games myself!) 

 

If anyone asks (and most will if you have a game they really want), just offer them some good references from previous buyers.

 

This being said, new members tend to be very leery of eBay, and my guidelines just note one of the generally recognized eBay "potential red flags." 

 

There have been cases where people (often stores believe it or not), dump a lot of product on eBay, get a quick 20-30 positives, and then disappear and screw the next 20 people out of their money, only to re-appear a few months later with a new handle.

 

I see your viewpoint, and if you'd like to edit this into a "Letter to the Editor", I'd be happy to include it in the next newsletter!

 

Thanks

Peter

 

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How to List Non-Mainstream Game Titles?

 

This letter comes from an eBayer I have bought far too many games from!  J

 

What is the best way to post obscure but rare and highly collectible game titles?  Posting these games involves a higher degree of risk.  They are probably have very high collector values, but unless you get the attention of a critical mass of bidders and collectors, they may sell far below their worth.  Setting a reserve price helps, but reserve prices also tend to scare away bidders, which is not the desired goal!  Is there a solution?

 

Peter-

 

An item I'd like to see addressed in a future issue of the newsletter is how to best list and sell obscure (non-AH, GDW, SPI) wargames. I originally used the ..."not Avalon Hill, GDW , SPI tagline in my titles and descriptions, but got a warning message from eBay about "Key Word spamming", which they consider this to be. 

 

I did email them back, saying most wargamers would have no other way of locating these obscure titles in a "normal" search.  They never replied.  Then I began sending listing messages to regular buyers of my auctions.  Some, like yourself, objected to this practice, so I've discontinued it for the most part.

 

BUT, I recently sold a mint PWG To the Wolf's Lair for $32, and expected to get substantially more.  I think part of the reason is that PWG or People’s War Games aren't regularly searched by most eBay game buyers.  Like I stated, I'd like to see topic discussed in a future issue.  One thing I do all the time when I'm buying is to search using "unpunched" or "punched" as my search word, searching titles and descriptions... rather than searching for game titles.

 

In this way I found a copy of GDW Tsushima, which I'd never have found otherwise, because the guy had misspelled Tsushima in his title, and didn't include "GDW" in his title.  This is another issue that merits discussion… trying to establish a "standard" for listing titles and descriptions. 

 

In my example, I think most of us would list that game as GDW Tsushima, or something similar.  His listing, however, read "Tsuhima wargame", fortunately he did use the word unpunched in his description.  A standard way of listing especially titles would be very helpful...

 

Thanks!  Rob "Brunell"

 

================

 

Rob raises an excellent point!  I start all my game headers with an abbreviated company name:  SPI, AH, GDW, GRD, COA, with the assumption that most gamers and collectors know what these stand for.  This has worked great for the most part, but like Rob, I’ve also posted very obscure but highly collectible game titles that people have ignored or passed over because of poor search term usage on my part, or just a general unfamiliarity with the game being offered. 

 

Some regular eBayers I know do check eBay on a daily basis, scrolling through all of the new postings each day (and slogging through all of the Warhammer stuff!)  But many eBayers just log on every few days and search for “SPI”.

 

Anyone else have any more tips on to solve this problem?

 

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Hey Peter!  Great job on the first issue!  Nice to see my name in THAT list of ebayers and onliners - I guess I'm doing something right!

 

You told me the first time we did business on eBay about PayPal - and how right you are!  Great service and it's free.  I try to recommend this to everybody

whom I meet who has never used it.  A couple of them have, and now they love it as well.

 

I read about the packaging and learned something new-putting packing peanuts/newspaper INSIDE of the game!  Never thought to do that!  What about

games still in shrink?  I sent somebody a copy of GRD's War of Resistance a while ago and inside the box everything was shifting from side to side (BUT it was sealed and I didn't want to open it up!).  Next time, I'll ask the person if they want me to open it up to secure the merchandise inside.

 

Something I might mention is dealing with Canadians.  J

 

I seem to have a knack for buying things from them and one of them told me to use only an International Money Order with them because the Canadian Banks DON'T treat a regular money order as cash (like most American banks do).   Canadian banks, he said, will hold checks and regular money order for up to two weeks!!  He did say though, that international money orders are as good as cash, even in Canada.  Might be worth mentioning to everybody who buys from up North to be polite and spend the extra $3.00 to get an international money order when buying from our Canadian friends (I know I would hate to have to wait two weeks for my money to clear - NOT to forget that the buyer is waiting for the game!)

 

Also, stores receive a BUNCH of packing peanuts and the like and usually throw them away.  If the people knew this, they might be able to arrange to pick up

These discarded peanuts and use them in their shipping.  This would save them from being used once and then thrown away.  Every little bit helps the

environment.

 

I run a small store here in the boonies of NM, and I get a huge amount of the peanuts!  I save them as long as possible to use them.  Same with boxes for

the stores too - and 90% are completely reusable.  While I do like getting Priority Mail boxes from USPS, they are still new (even though I think that they're

actually recycled) and if we can reuse anything - THAT's GREAT!  I'm not an "environmentalist" at all, but even I see the sheer amount of "one use" items

and shudder.

 

Speaking along the lines of the above - I would like to know who is a store and who is a person/group of people when dealing with people on eBay.  Stores

seem to usually list the new stuff and not the old (at least the ones I've dealt with so far.)

 

Todd Davis in New Mexico

 

======================

 

Thanks Todd!

 

Your point on shipping mint and shrinkwrapped games like War of the Resistance can be an important issue for several reasons...

 

Clearly a collector would want to receive a new shrinkwrapped game in as close to pristine condition as possible.  If the counters shake loose of the tree during the shipping due to loose packaging, some “more critical” collectors might be upset.  Best to ask if in doubt on this one.

 

A related issue regards out-of-print and older shrinkwrapped games.  I don’t trust shrinkwrapped games for two reasons.  This first is that SPI was notorious for missing parts.  It was not all uncommon to buy a new SPI game, remove the shrink, and find two copies of one map, charts missing, and the wrong countersheets included with a game.

 

Even worse, during the 1980s, there were some unscrupulous people out in the wargame convention circuit and in the newsgroups who were repackaging collectible SPI games with copied or used components, reshrinkwrapping them, and them offering them as “new” or “mint condition” games.  This is quite rare these days since its fairly easy to tell the difference between 20+ year old yellowed shrink and new, but its still a concern.

 

For these reasons, I always asks sellers to remove the shrink and to verify the contents before bidding on a shrinkwrapped OOP game title.

 

Excellent points on the recycling of peanuts and boxes.  Priority Mail boxes are made of recycled materials, and I use spent Priority Mail boxes as my recyclable containers.  My recycling man loves them, since he can dump the cans and bottles out of them, and toss the boxes in with the newsprint! 

 

Personally, peanuts have always annoyed me.  They’re messy, cling to everything, and most can’t be recycled.  Some companies have started making these out of corn starch, which is great – except that my cats seems to think they taste good J  Recently I’ve noticed that more companies are shipping product with large plastic air bags.  Great on the weight savings, but the use of plastic is again an issue.  The bottom line is that the more we all trade our packing materials along with our game trades, the better!

 

Peter

 

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Countersheet Database!

 

This letter and suggestion comes to us from Tom Ciampa.  Tom suggested we expand our newsletter to include a database of countersheets from collectible games.

 

 

How about setting up an archive of countersheet fascimilies on a server somewhere?   I shouldn't think there would be a flap over copyright or anything IF they were strictly put on in black and white and reduced to odd, random sizes before uploading.... or scanned at an odd percentage.  If they were put up in color there would be some clever types that would know how to size and print them out and pirate them to make their own copies of the countersheets which they could conceivably sell as spare parts on eBay..... I hope it can work out though as it would be a valuable service for people with used games and a way to know what is missing.

 

Tom Ciampa

 

=========

 

Thanks for the letter and idea Tom!

 

A lot of collectors and people on ConSimWorld think this is a great idea – but the real issue is one of copyrights.  The copyrights to many of the old wargames we’re trading on eBay and collecting are in fact still in force and owned by various people and companies.  It would unfortunately be a violation of copyright law to publicly post these countersheet scans with the express approval of the copyright holders.  For starters, I know that the rights to many of the old SPI boxed games, and all of the S&T issue games, are owned by Doc Cummins of Decision Games.  I believe Rich Berg retained or purchased the rights to his GBACW series games from TSR, and he holds those.  Avalon Hill game copyright are now held by Hasbro. 

 

To create such a database, we’d need someone to volunteer to ask these people for permission to post their counters on line.  A great idea, but we need to do this legally!

 

Thanks

Peter

 

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Communication – It Works!!

 

One of the most difficult decisions an eBay collector needs to make is how to react when a deal goes bad.  Recently, I witnessed an example of how good communication can help solve even the most difficult situations…  [The names and eBay handles of the actual people involved will be kept confidential for obvious reasons…]

 

Recently a number of gamers complained on ConSimWorld that a particular eBay trader had taken their money and disappeared.  He stopped replying to emails, and never sent their games.  While this is a very rare occurrence in the wargaming area, what really caught my attention is the name of the person who allegedly wronged all these ConSimWorld members.  He was a trader I had successfully bought a number of games from before, and he had a respectable 70+ eBay rating with no negatives (at least prior to this event!)

 

Curiosity got the best of me, so I contacted this problematic trader and asked him what was going on.  Sure enough, he thanked me for my email and concern.  He said that he was going through some personal difficulties which preventing him from completing his eBay deals (i.e. he didn’t have access to his home computer or wargame collection.)  He assured me that once his situation was resolved, he would do his best to fix things with the wronged bidders.

 

Sure enough, one of the bidders that whose check this fellow had cashed and not delivered on informed me that he did finally get the seller on the phone, and was promptly sent a refund!

 

A happy ending to a difficult situation.  We should always remember that people have “real lives”, and that sometimes when things go wrong, they’ve gone wrong for a reason outside of the seller’s or buyer’s control.  Give it time and communicate before panicking or going negative!

 

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Thoughts for Future Articles!:

 

If you’re interested in writing for this newsletter, here are some topic ideas up for consideration for future issues.  If you’d like to wrote the piece, please contact us!  We’re looking for a page or two of text, more if you’re so inclined!

 

 

SNIPERS! – GOOD, BAD, or UGLY?

 

All week, you’ve been the high bidder on a rare wargame you’ve been searching for for years.  You check your bid in the final hours of the auction, and all seems well…. then in the final two minutes, along comes a “sniper” who outbids you in the closing moments of the auction and wins the game by a dollar!  Do you get angry and start to scream?  Accept this as part of the eBay auction experience, and do some sniping yourself?  Baby all of your auctions to the final second to make sure this doesn’t happen again?  What are your thoughts on this?

 

PUNCHED GAMES AND COUNTING COUNTERS – DOES IT REALLY MATTER?

 

          Based on some fiery discussions that have occurred on ConSimWorld and the newsgroups of late, there are strong feelings on both sides of this issue.

          Some collectors believe that punched games should always have their counters counted for completeness, and that every counter – even the blank

ones, must be there in order for a game to called “excellent.”  Others believe this is a waste of time and that punched games should be considered used games.  A missing counter or two shouldn’t impact the game’s overall value or condition rating as long as every counter needed to play the game is there.  What are your thoughts?  Do you assume every punched game you buy has every counter that came with the game – including blank counters?  Or do you buy punched games strictly to play them, and assume punched games probably are missing a counter or two, and only buy mint games for collecting purposes?

 

TREASURE TROVES – REAL LIFE WARGAME COLLECTING FINDS!

 

A wargame collector walks into a run down old toy store in a small town in upstate New York and finds a pile of mint condition SPI wargames in the corner marked at $5.00 each.  An old wargamer returns home after many years away at college.  Digging into their closet or basement they find a collection of old wargames they forgot about that are worth hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.  At an estate sale, among the piles of old furniture and paintings, the auctioneer offers up a collection of old board games – turns out most of these are highly collectible Avalon Hill game titles from the 1960s.  Truth or urban legend?  What are your own stories?  Have you experienced anything like this – or do you know someone who knows someone who has?

 

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