The Collector's Trove Presents

Our World War I Themed Auction!

This is our special World War I themed collectable auction, featuring WWI land, sea, and aerial war games! Be sure to check out the numerous other WWI war game auction lots currently being offered by The Collector's Trove!

These treasures come from several collection—all in one WWI themed auction! Auction items come from the collections of the late Al Christensen, a veteran war gamer and elder statesman of the Fight in the Skies Society, Jim Quinn, a former TSR employee and another long-time member of the Fight in the Skies Society, the artist Darlene, who did illustrations for the Society, and Jim Roslof, TSR artist who worked on Dawn Patrol and was a fan of WWI aviation! Over 200 items from TSR, Guidon Games, Nexus, Nova Games, GDW, and several other companies!

Highlights of the auction include multiple copies of TSR board games—a number of Fight in the Skies and Dawn Patrol boxed sets!

Featured items include an author comp copy, signed items, rare Gen Con programs and ephemera, a huge run of the Fight in the Skies Society's incredibly rare newsletter, Aerodrome, a TSR business card, memos, letters, production copies, a Dragon Magazine article manuscript, and a signed and numbered art print by Jim Roslof!

Among the very special items are Al Christensen's personal play copies of Fight in the Skies and Dawn Patrol, as well as a Fight in the Skies Poster and shrink wrapped 6th Edition boxed set!

Auctions Close Sunday, November 20th, 2022 Between 10:00 and 11:30 CST/MEX

Bookmark this link to place your bids:

The Collector's Trove eBay Auctions

New Episode: When We Were Wizards

Howdy All,

The third episode of the When We Were Wizards podcast just dropped and reviews are in on the first two episodes--listeners love them! Our audience is growing every day and we are grateful to those listening.

Here are some of the reviews we received for episodes 1 and 2:

•    Very well edited and enjoyable so far. The episodes seem much shorter than they are because the subject matter is presented the way it is.

•    I love your podcast!

•    Brilliant podcast.

•    Wow! Amazing job!!!!

•    Very professional. You left me on a cliffhanger!!! When can I listen to the next episode!!!

•    I listed to most of the first one this morning. Very interesting and well professionally done. I listen to a lot of podcasts and this one is top shelf!

•    I’ve listened to your excellent podcast twice! I’ve also been promoting it on social media as I think you are really into something here. I had considered myself fairly well versed in the TSR/D&D origin story but your podcast has been highly educational.

•    This is so damn cool. Thanks for doing this.

•    Just about done with the first episode. Digging it so far, and there was plenty of information new to me. The portrait of Gary Gygax being painted definitely doesn't veer into hagiography.

•    Really enjoying the podcast. An excellent look at the early days of the game

•    I’ve been enjoying the series. I look forward to more.

•    Just finished the first two episodes. This is excellent, well-sourced history in eminently listenable podcast form. Focusing on Gary Gygax’s life snaps the narrative into a much tighter focus than the more sprawling books by Peterson and others. Nonetheless, Mary Jo, Arneson, Wesely, Megarry, and others are given ample voice and not minimized or dismissed. I’m hoping the rest of the series is equally good. Also, some of Gary’s experiences in Chicago go a long way toward explaining why the AD&D random encounter tables for cities are so dangerous!

•    Very good podcast. I thought I knew the TSR/D&D origin story but this podcast has lots of new information. Highly recommended. What is the release schedule for new episodes?

•    I recommended the “When We Were Wizards” podcast to one of the members of my original gaming group. Fortuitously, he’s gotten interested in the history and background of D&D just within the last few weeks. The timing on the podcast dropping was remarkable.

•    I finished the first two and I’m anxiously awaiting my podcast app to grab the next one!

•    I've enjoyed the first two episodes. Eagerly awaiting the next!

•    I listened to the first episode the other day and enjoyed it. I expect I'll get to episode two this week.

•    I am on my second episode of the podcast. I'm finding it very interesting, therefore I'm still listening to it even though I knew nothing about it beforehand.

•    I really am enjoying this podcast.

•    It was neat hearing new stuff from people like Mary Jo, Rob Kuntz, and others. I've read Jon Peterson's books and Empire of Imagination, and lots of Gary's Q&A posts and other old school folks online, but there's still new stuff to learn. I expect I'll get to episode two this week.

•    Really enjoyed the first two episodes. Looking forward to the next one coming out!

•    So professional. This is outstanding. Player/DM since 1978.

•    Love this! Next episode please!!!

•    This is great. I can't wait to see what direction you take future installments.

•    Are you telling me are there only two episodes! When is the next one coming out? The suspense is killing me.

•    I just had a chance to listen to your first episode, and it is great! You did a wonderful job weaving the various interviews into a clear, engaging narrative. I will highly recommend this to my friends!

•    I've listened to the first two episodes and they're really enjoyable. Looking forward to hearing more. Thank you for sharing the history of D&D.

•    Episode 2 is fantastic, really almost get goosbumps because this is the moment. The moment that seems to launch what we know today. Can't wait for more. Great production sound, edits, narration, interviews, chronology, historical, context. You nailed it.

So join the thousands of listeners and find out what the praise is all about! You can do so on your phone, laptop, or iPad. Just follow the links below to your favorite music or download service:

SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/7pcZ1tc0riPb1IarAXnIqS

ANCHOR: https://anchor.fm/traction-media

APPLE PODCAST: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/when-we-were-wizards/id1631699827

GOOGLE PODCAST: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8xMGRlYTVkNC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw

AMAZON MUSIC: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/5ef4cc84-8e34-4d24-8a8b-b136c77ca0c3/when-we-were-wizards

Futures Bright,

Paul

When We Were Wizards

 

We have been quiet since our amazingly successful, annual Christmas Auction last December. Why? Because our fearless leader, Paul Stormberg, with his unmatched perspective on the history of Dungeons & Dragons, teamed up with screenwriter Adam Turner to produce, When We Were Wizards: An Oral History of Dungeons & Dragons, an unprecedented, 10 episode podcast, telling the riveting story of Gary Gygax, D&D, and TSR Hobbies, the company founded to publish the game.

We will resume our 2022 auction season, with a massive auction in August, over 500 items! Some of the rarest fanzines, games, and memorabilia you have come to expect from The Collector's Trove!

The podcast started three years ago when screenwriter, Adam Turner, and Dungeons & Dragons® historian, Paul Stormberg, embarked on a project about Gary Gygax, D&D®, and TSR Hobbies. During the course of this project they recorded their ongoing conversations, not only about the cultural impact of the game, but the profound personal impact it had on Gary, his family, friends, and colleagues. The result is an unprecedented 10-episode podcast that tells the story with the voices of the people who were there, through never before released interviews, personal letters, and internal company documents.

D&D® was the world's first published role-playing game and, as such, is one of the few types of table-top games ever created by humanity.

Can we say who created chess? Or dice? No, of course not. But we can name the people who created Dungeons & Dragons®, and we can tell their story. This is that story. One of dreamers and gamers who changed the world.

Dungeons & Dragons® is a truly global phenomenon. An estimated 50 million people have played the game since it was created and it has been translated into dozens of languages. Nearly 14 million people play it currently and 9 million people watch livestreams of other people playing it. The game pervades popular culture and has become part of the very fabric of our civilization.

Gary Gygax believed in the power of games to transcend age, gender, ethnicity, culture, language, religion, and class. Even as a child, that power drew him to games like chess, cribbage, mahjong, and others. But all those games were based on competition. In a millennia of game design, a thousand years of human history, no one had broken this paradigm of us vs. them, victory or defeat. The purpose of games were to win, and losing meant failure.

But for the first time in thousands of years, D&D® gives us something different. It’s a game whose only boundary is the imagination of everyone sitting around the table playing it. Where the shared experience is the reward.

Join Adam and Paul as they explore the origins of a cultural phenomena and how it changed the lives of those who created it and, ultimately, the whole world.

When We Were Wizards is currently available on these platforms:

SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/7pcZ1tc0riPb1IarAXnIqS

ANCHOR: https://anchor.fm/traction-media

APPLE PODCAST: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/when-we-were-wizards/id1631699827

GOOGLE PODCAST: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8xMGRlYTVkNC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw

AMAZON MUSIC: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/5ef4cc84-8e34-4d24-8a8b-b136c77ca0c3/when-we-were-wizards

The Collector's Trove Presents Our Annual Christmas Auction!

The year's auction will include offerings from the collections of seven gaming legends and three private collections in one massive auction! Designers and industry insiders such as Harold Johnson, Dave Sutherland III, Zeb Cook, Allen Hammack, Jason McAllister, David Wesely, Jim Quinn, Jim Barber, and one of the original play testers of Dungeons & Dragons, Rob Kuntz! Over 400 items from TSR, Mayfair, Ral Partha, GDW, and several other companies!

Highlights of the auction include TSR promotional items, calendars, catalogs, retail brochures, rare Gen Con materials, shrink wrapped copies of TSR board games, as well as a number of D&D and AD&D boxed sets, modules, and accessories!

Featured items include author and designer comp copies, autographed items, rare Gen Con trading cards, issues of TSR's incredibly rare employee newsletter, Random Events, TSR business cards, internal company memos, a black foldered, 1st print, Palace of the Vampire Queen, a set of Origins 1980 tournament-played pre-gen character sheets, and production art and prints by Dave Sutherland, Darlene, and Jim Roslof!

Among the very special items are an employee owned TSR Hobbies lizard man logo belt buckle, an RPGA The Artists of TSR Portfolio in shrink wrap, David Megarry's designer's copy of his Dungeon! board game, still in it's original shrink wrap from 1975, a copy of TSR's Lankhmar board game personally inscribed and autographed by Fritz Leiber in 1976, as well as original TSR artwork by Jeff Easley, Jim Roslof, Tom Wham, and a stunning Dragon magazine piece by the late Roger Raupp!

Auctions Start Sunday, December 5th, 2021 Between 4:30 and 11:30 pm CST/MEX

Auctions Close Sunday, December 12th, 2021 Between 4:30 pm and 11:30 CST/MEX

Follow this link to place your bids:

The Collector's Trove eBay Auctions

Good luck bidding!

Futures Bright,

Paul

A D&D Cartoon Collection!

Bidding is underway! Come join in the excitement! 

 Click on Auction Previews to register to receive updates.

 Now is your chance to own a part of the cultural phenomena that helped define the 1980s! 

 Good luck and thanks for visiting The Collector's Trove auction house!