Is there a game you wouldn't sell for $1,000?

But you probably get more value out of Heroscape stuff by selling it piecemeal rather than all as one set. You're right that there probably isn't a market for one complete set of everything produced, but there are probably a ton of people out there willing to pay top dollar for whatever particular piece they're missing. In that regard, $16,000 might not be as far off as you're indicating.

That is definitely true, parcelling something like that out would net more value. But even then, $16,000 worth of Heroscape is TONS of work...that means determining prices for everything, which seem to range between literally $0 up to around $150 (those aquarium plants). And that also means finding a buyer for each parcel, lot or piece. You might market $16k worth of Heroscape product and make $500 from it. Or it might take five years to sell $1000 worth of it. So it's hard to say...it comes down to actual market value versus the emotional value.

I bought a complete set of Heroscape a few years ago. I paid $2000 for it. No way I would pay $16000, though.

It was funded by selling a Mox Ruby, Mox Jet, and some Unlimited Dual Lands. Generally that is how I fund most of my boardgame purchases -- just sell some old magic cards.

Michael Barnes wrote: Value is a funny thing. The reality of it is that there is no Heroscape collection in the world that is actually worth $16,000. Because there is no buyer for that kind of item at that kind of price. Most people do not understand aftermarket/collector valuation at all- witness any episode of Pawn Stars. You see those dudes turn stuff away all the time not because it's not valuable or rare, but because there's no buyer market for it. It doesn't matter if they only made 100 copies of some GenCon exclusive or whatever if a lot of people are not actively in the market for it. I see auction after auction end with no buyer on eBay because items are priced to perceived value rather than an actual, marketable value.

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My experience as someone who hocks a lot of games on ebay is that despite there being many games that do not get reprinted very few retain their after market value even if they are good simply because there is so much new product that games are now forgotten. Its pretty common for even a rare and desirable second hand board game to sell below its original market price on ebay, I see copies of Dune sell for around £40 fairly often for instance.

I can't remember what all he has (at least one of everything, I'm pretty sure), but to give you a sense of how big the collection is, I believe it includes 40 master sets.

Heh, he may have so much that putting it all in the market would actually drive the assumed value DOWN!

Duke, that's a good point and it something that has changed just in the last five or six years. The constant crush of new titles has definitely torpedoed a lot of aftermarket prices, let alone the direct reprints. It isn't such a big deal to get a WHQ set now because there are 10 other games that have replaced it (not counting Silver Tower). I remember when Dune, Fury of Dracula and all of that we're big bucks...now their value is halved or even quartered. There are still some games that retain high value (Jati, Full Metal Planete, Capes and Cowls), but there again I see sales for high value games that come and go with no buyer. So that says that they are overvalued or that there isn't a market for it.

Shipping prices have gone up though, which hurts both buying and selling used stuff.

To the topic: There is absolutely no boardgame-sized amount of paper, cardboard, and plastic I would not sell for $1000, unless it was some extremely sentimental gift or something.

Ohhhhh yes. Shipping prices have really hurt aftermarket selling. If you put used games on eBay, expect to get like 25% of retail unless they are new and in demand.

For me the main issue is that $1000 is such an awkward amount of money. It is a lot if you have to spend it, but not particularly life changing if you receive it. About 10 years ago my grandfather put $1000 in some sort of bond for me as an extravagant Christmas gift when he was near death, and due to the GFC it is still worth about the same (maybe $1200 now). I have never had a good reason for cashing it in, so it is still sitting there. If it was more like $3000+ I would have found a use for it (holiday, renovations) and if only a few hundred dollars I would either have just blown it on something trivial or just stuck it in savings.

So given that it is an awkward amount of money, if one of my games was valued at that amount I probably wouldn't go out of my way to sell it. That being said if someone came to my house and offered me that amount of money in cash I would probably give it up.

I dunno, I bet we get $1,000 worth of fun and laughter every time we play Liebe & Intrige.

$1000 is enough to buy any of my games no questions asked, as long as that's the only qualification. The very closest to that limit is probably Duel of Ages II, just because it's probably not coming back anytime soon and it's a big set. But even that is probably worth only $300 maximum, and that's if we're going on the optimistic prices on BGG.

There are games that I would sell for $1000 and then buy back right away, particularly stuff like Cosmic Encounter or Dune.

I've bought and sold individual games for between $200 and $400--I can't tell you how lovely it was to find unpunched copies of VVB's GMT Army Group Wherever games at local sales for under $50--had them flipped for many hundreds within 48 hours--and a couple of sizable ASL collections for a few grand [kept a set for myself and parted out another that paid for both mostly on the back of unpunched copies of the MMP Market Garden and Tarawa sets].

I'd bet just about any ASL geek has probably had a "4-digit check"--either writing or receiving--experience at least once.

But a grand? Yea, I'd sell. Only thing I have that ventures into that territory is a 1940 Brunswick pool cue that I found at a thrift store for $5 [and procured it by quite literally yanking it out of the hand of some 8 year old just before he was going to clock his little brother with it--apparently, sometimes the Samaritan is rewarded on Earth, too]. Ended up buying it because it was straight, felt like it had some history, and was my favored weight (21oz)....and then had a friend who collects vintage billiards gear tell me it was worth at least $800 and could probably fetch $1200+ if I had it re-tipped by a vintage pro. I just couldn't bring myself to put the thing on ebay because it's such a niche item and there were few precedents on ebay [then anyway; haven't checked in a couple of years]. Shoots like a dream though--or at least as much of a dream as a hack like me can muster.

KDM reprint confirmed, by the way. Just got their newsletter.

When? Is it another Kickstarter?

If it couldn't be replaced, there's a few things I wouldn't sell for that much:

- GURPS Werewolf. I was a playtester. The first RPG book I ever got my name into.
- Realms Beyond the Perisphere. A Sword & Planet supplement for the Blade of the Iron Throne RPG. The thing I got my first design credit for.

Anything else is up for grabs.