sounds weird i'm sure, but its gotta be my beat up old dice.  lotta memories in them, i'll tell ya.

My most prized D&D collectable is also an OCE box set.  I purchased it in 1981 at my local game store and kept it in collectable condition ever since.  I was 15 years old at the time

From a nostalgia standpoint, I would say my first Moldvay basic set.  Only a couple of original dice remain and the rulebook, module and box are beat all to hell but it was my introduction to the game so it goes on the top of the list.  

As far as items I was not the original owner of, the OCE I bought off of Ebay ranks right up there.  It was the first time I spent over $100 on a D&D item (over $40 for that matter) and it is in really great shape.  Plus it is one of the oldest items I keep handy to show to people who would appreciate it.

My Dragon Magazine collection is another one of my favorites.

None of these are the most valuable items in my collection (though the complete Dragon run would probably top any other single item I own) but they are the ones I would put at the top of my prizes.

Deadlord39 wrote:I still have my original hardbacks, and our first modules, inscribed with my nickname in them when I was a kid. They'll never be sold. But if they went up in smoke, I'd lose no sleep. I don't think I'm attached to any item in particular, and I could care less about value when it comes to sentiment.

some years back, i gave my daughter a little tin of dice as part of her christmas presents. she counts them periodically in case i steal any and builds things out of them - she also carries them around like they are the lost treasure of the inca's. for me, thats my prized item really, on top of everything else. you just cant beat it.

Al

For me it is a tiny spinning silver disk.

The data contained upon it; practically every single item that has ever passed through my hands is there in PDF form; some of it absolutely unique.

Other than that, maybe a little lead figure of a fighter I played 25 years ago. It took me years to track the figure down, but eventually I ended up with one mint in it's original baggie (Grenadier I think). Also dot a few to play with, but the one in the baggie is for keeps.

A severely rogered Fantastic Films April 1981. It has a D&D catalog in the last dozen pages, in the standard Zocci format, from right around the time I started playing, when Archer: Fugitive from the Empire was making its failed debut, & we had just moved to a new suburb surrounded by mysterious-looking forest [not in the country, but typical Houston jungle growth]. I would draw D&D-style maps of the woods & read the catalog, dreaming of Duck Towers & Ral Parthas & Keeps on Borderlands. The magazine had neat articles too, speculating on what would happen in the next Star Wars film. Oddly, none of the speculators managed to predict that the next installment would suck big donkey dick.

Hi,

probably my Larry Elmore painting of the cover of FR9.

Cheers,
Malc

Roslof's re-interpretation of the Q1 cover, with the characters of my original D&D group in place (Gandolin the elven sorcerer (Joe); Ugor the half orce fighter (Doug); St. Michael the cleric (my favorite NPC); and Krago the dwarf (Rob). I love this thing!  It was worth every penny.

Mike B.

I have two, one Italian and one Italian translated:

the first is a copy of the Italian fantasy RPG Kata Kumbas (hardback edition) with a big drawing of John Howe himself, the cover artist for the game and as you know one of the artists behind the LotR movie trilogy. He did it during the Lucca Comics & Games show in 2003: everybody was queueing for LotR books to be signed, I was in line with KK. He was amazed by the book (he told me he never got any copies) and amused by the choice of a not LotR subject. I was mostly pleased by his work, it's not simply a sketch but truly something wonderful (I'll put a photo of it in Mondi Eroici 2009   ).

The second one is an Italian language D&D Red Basic Set with the autographs of both Gary Gygax and Larry Elmore when they came in Italy (in different years, one in 1999 and the other in 2004...). If I get Frank Mentzer autograph on it too, I'd be very proud. I remember that Gary was sitting in the Mod Con main hall with a bemused look for all those people playing around him and seemingly not recognizing him. I recognized him and I showed him for signing a copy of the Red Basic Set and a copy of the B2 module (Italian edition of course).MINUTES after a big queue had formed behind me with people showing every kind of D&D and AD&D books (the ones not having them were desperately seeking to purchase some QUICKLY   ). Gary was very friendly and I hoped to the last minute he could be invited in Italy again but alas my pleas fell on deaf ears  

Nothing much to tell about Larry. He was very polite, very professional and quite distant. I bought a print of him (Red Dragon of course) that he kindly autographed, he autograhped the Red Basic and recognized with a smile Gary's signature and that was all.