Just lost three EBay auctions for this in the last few days. All three went for $36 to $37.50 (not including shipping). I recall reading not too long ago (maybe a year or so) that they were going for a little over $20 fairly frequently.

Is there a newly found interest? Or, are there just a few too many people with more $$$ than they know what to do with?

I reckon that with patience you will pick one up for $20 - just be prepared to lose a lot of auctions in the meantime!

They come up quite regularly, and are an item that often seems to be overlooked in job lots, so make sure you keep your eyes peeled.

I'm not surprised their is a demand for them - I reckon it's out-and-out one of the best rule books ever - with one of these you never need make another purchase, except for a few pads of graph paper and a load of ring binders (and a handful of dice of course )

(And as a personal note - I've found more of these (4) in charity shops tham I've found Monster Manuals (3) - go figure)

serleran wrote:people getting it confused with the D&D 3.5 book of similar name...

Could be right - And to think I always assumed pen and paper roleplayers were supposed to be on the smart side

gyg wrote:
Could be right - And to think I always assumed pen and paper roleplayers were supposed to be on the smart side

We are headed into the era of Pencil & Paper becoming Plug & Play. No thinking required. You will be assimilated and become part of the collective.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rules-Cyclopedia- ... 638Q2em122



Very tidy one with a day to go - already $27 though

jamesmishler wrote:$30 to $40 is totally fair for a minty copy, as that is what it would cost today, looking at  comperable books.

Good point - I kind of never consider the value/cost of new rule books - and remember, this book needs no supplements (Though I agree with what James says ref the Mystara setting info - but then you're back to collecting everything - argh a vicious circle )

In Italy, where the Rules Cyclopedia was never translated, the book is very popular (for an English language book by the way   ): it sells usually for 50 euros. I keep buying one copy for myself, putting in the store inventory at a 'very high price, nobody will ever want it' price and discovering that somebody after all wants it nonetheless.   This time at 60 euros I guess I'll keep it for a while (by the way I'd like to recommend Intelligator great service).

the rules cyclepedia has commanded a good price as it has most of the rules in one book,the same goes for the gaz series(mystara)which can complement the series.
These buyers probally have the rulebook and then collect the gaz series,which accounts for the high price they fetch.
i think that 4ed should do the same as they started to reprint the series.
ravenloft is a good example as well.

re4321 wrote:the rules cyclepedia has commanded a good price as it has most of the rules in one book,the same goes for the gaz series(mystara)which can complement the series.
These buyers probally have the rulebook and then collect the gaz series,which accounts for the high price they fetch.
i think that 4ed should do the same as they started to reprint the series.
ravenloft is a good example as well.

The Gaz series command high prices for the same two reasons I noted in my previous post: low print run, great product.

I bought mine at Gen Con many years ago at the TSR clearance booth. They had maybe three or four plastic milk carton containers full of them. I remember buying them on Sunday while trying to burn through the rest of my cash. I had inspected the clearance booth on Thursday, but decided to wait. Nobody was buying them. They were $2 each and I bought one of every one they had - I think I got all but a couple in the series, which I then bought somewhere else (probably the gen con auction for peanuts). They were brand new in the shrink.

Point is, no one was buying them. TSR was dumping them within 12 months of the original release. So I am gonna go out on a limb and say there was probably a single print run of each,  and possibly very low production of the later GAZ supplements.

The RC and GAZ series are great products on top of all that. These items do well on ebay because of what they are combined with relatively low availabiltiy (as compared to their contemporary products). The DA and DDA3 and DDA4 modules ae also good examples.