I’m selling my old D&D stuff on eBay and Amazon but some of the older stuff don’t have the original suggested retail price on them and the info doesn’t seem to be anywhere.
want my accounting straight, subtract original cost from current selling price.
Other than finding an archive of TSR's Dragon Magazine output and flipping through the ads and reviews, you may want to look into some of Shannon Applecline's writings. He's sort of a definitive and as far as I can tell well respected TTRPG historian. I can't think of anything of his off hand that has a quick and accessible price list, and his books are pretty heady but I that's the only avenue I can think of.
I don't know if this is accurate, but I remember AD&D Hardbacks being around $15-20. Modules being $7-9. Boxed sets I couldn't tell ya.
How exacting do you want your accounting to be? Are you trying to do a straight dollar amount, or adjusted (Say original 1e MM purchased circa 1979 or thereabouts) to current value estimate? The closest thing I can think would be to do that in reverse, take a current book's price and figure out it's '79 value. Not exactly what you're looking for, I know.
I wish I knew, to help you out, but also out of curiosity to remember what I paid way back when. I also wish that, while I was away at college, my parents hadn't given away the box that had all my 1e books, including the Deities and Demigods first edition that had the Elric and Lovecraft mythologies.
Example: Current 5e PHB price is $29.99. Using your suggested method, the 1e PHB should have cost only $7.35 in 1979. It most certainly was not so cheap.
It lists for 50, though most everyone gets it discounted because of Amazon.
My memory agrees with 15-20 for hardcovers, less sure on the rest, and I'm not going to go digging through the Dragon archives CDs just to find ads.
How exacting do you want your accounting to be? Are you trying to do a straight dollar amount, or adjusted (Say original 1e MM purchased circa 1979 or thereabouts) to current value estimate? The closest thing I can think would be to do that in reverse, take a current book's price and figure out it's '79 value. Not exactly what you're looking for, I know.
I wish I knew, to help you out, but also out of curiosity to remember what I paid way back when. I also wish that, while I was away at college, my parents hadn't given away the box that had all my 1e books, including the Deities and Demigods first edition that had the Elric and Lovecraft mythologies.
The books were different thicknesses, the printing industry has changed a lot over the decades... market changes specific to RPG's... too many variables for just currency fluxuations to matter.
Example: Current 5e PHB price is $29.99. Using your suggested method, the 1e PHB should have cost only $7.35 in 1979. It most certainly was not so cheap.
Good points, although I was thinking current SRPs (the PHB is $49.95) as books were probably rarely discounted at game stores back then, which is the only place I remember being able to find them.
One of the reasons you will have a difficult time is that the books didn't have prices on them like some hard cover jackets and paperback covers. It is possible that the price was a number under the bar code?
For every one of the modules I bought, it was wrapped in plastic with the price sticker on it. There is no way I would have kept the plastic wrap from way back then.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
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I’m selling my old D&D stuff on eBay and Amazon but some of the older stuff don’t have the original suggested retail price on them and the info doesn’t seem to be anywhere.
want my accounting straight, subtract original cost from current selling price.
I don't have any proof, but I remember modules being between $5-7 and books in the $12-20 range.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
It’s crazy it has to be somewhere!
I guess I’ll just have to estimate for my accounting
Other than finding an archive of TSR's Dragon Magazine output and flipping through the ads and reviews, you may want to look into some of Shannon Applecline's writings. He's sort of a definitive and as far as I can tell well respected TTRPG historian. I can't think of anything of his off hand that has a quick and accessible price list, and his books are pretty heady but I that's the only avenue I can think of.
I don't know if this is accurate, but I remember AD&D Hardbacks being around $15-20. Modules being $7-9. Boxed sets I couldn't tell ya.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
How exacting do you want your accounting to be? Are you trying to do a straight dollar amount, or adjusted (Say original 1e MM purchased circa 1979 or thereabouts) to current value estimate? The closest thing I can think would be to do that in reverse, take a current book's price and figure out it's '79 value. Not exactly what you're looking for, I know.
I wish I knew, to help you out, but also out of curiosity to remember what I paid way back when. I also wish that, while I was away at college, my parents hadn't given away the box that had all my 1e books, including the Deities and Demigods first edition that had the Elric and Lovecraft mythologies.
It lists for 50, though most everyone gets it discounted because of Amazon.
My memory agrees with 15-20 for hardcovers, less sure on the rest, and I'm not going to go digging through the Dragon archives CDs just to find ads.
Good points, although I was thinking current SRPs (the PHB is $49.95) as books were probably rarely discounted at game stores back then, which is the only place I remember being able to find them.
One of the reasons you will have a difficult time is that the books didn't have prices on them like some hard cover jackets and paperback covers. It is possible that the price was a number under the bar code?
For every one of the modules I bought, it was wrapped in plastic with the price sticker on it. There is no way I would have kept the plastic wrap from way back then.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale