I hate Lev Lafayette. Not for any real and serious reason, but only because I envy his luck, as related in his recent LJ post. Omitting his links...

   So I'm halfway on my 1.5 hr journey to work on Wednesday when the Business Director rings to say one of the routers has fallen over and could I return to the city to reset it. No problem; it's one of the things I do and besides I quite like hanging out in big rooms with thousands of servers humming away. Finally returning to deepest darkest Croydon I discover that there's another twenty minutes for the next connecting bus so I visit the tiny second-hand bookstore in the arcade and discover a small mountain of ancient roleplaying tomes going very cheap indeed. I put aside some twenty books and promise the shopkeeper to return the following day. Two stories follow:

[snip whinging about Melbourne's private-publoic transport system, which I heartily agree with but has nothing to do with roleplaying]

Now, story two; arriving the following day before the bookshop closed, I collected by twenty RPG books for the bargain price of $150. The shopkeeper enquired whether I was interested in the others. "Not this time" was my response ('twas a heavy load, being twenty books). "How about the rest for an additional $100?". It was a bargain I couldn't refuse. Dispite the incredible difficulty of travelling from Croydon to Ripponlea, I eventually made it and catalogued my haul: fully 134 books, including several boxed sets, a dozen hardbacks, old Tunnels & Trolls classics, a dozen Ars Magica books, twenty Champions scenarios etc.. Ran Seven Leagues last night; seriously fun system set in magical and mythical faerie realms; have also hacked our way through half of G2: The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant, in the ongoing retro-AD&D game. Recently reviewed the new Earthdawn Players Compendium and Ruby.

Lucky bastard! 134 books, how the fuck did he carry them all?!

Now, who else has ever had a really lucky score like this?

Quote from: JimBobOzLucky bastard! 134 books, how the fuck did he carry them all?!

He made a litter out of your jealousy.

fucker!  maybe that sort of thing only happens south of the equator?  i dunno where lev's from, tho.  i got nuthin'

lucky fucking bastard!  

he should have to list everything he got as punishment

Yeah, I have fond dreams of stuff like that happening.

Only time it ever did for me was with the Gameboard Knoxville, TN 80% off sale.  That was a wondrous time.

I'm not sure if this on the same order but twice now I've purchased the Universal Brotherhood supplement for Shadowrun from a local gaming store, for less than ten dollars US in the last five years.

Yesterday I stopped in and they had NAN volume 1 for 5 dollars, and I'd just recently lost my last copy of that book. (Well my last unmutilated copy.) So I snagged it.

I also got the new Star Wars D20 hardcover for 25 bucks, including shipping and handling. So it's been a good week for me.

My luckiest find was finding a copy of Delta Green at a Half Price Books back in '01.  It was $20, which was a good price even for back then.

I was only lucky once, when the local library had Magic in the Shadows for 0.50€ in the throwout bookshelf. I'm still wondering how it landed there - the book was new and completely faultless, and our library doesn't stock any role-playing stuff at all (except some old Fighting Fantasy books).

Quote from: SkyrockI was only lucky once, when the local library had Magic in the Shadows for 0.50€ in the throwout bookshelf. I'm still wondering how it landed there - the book was new and completely faultless, and our library doesn't stock any role-playing stuff at all (except some old Fighting Fantasy books).

Then most probably it was a donation that the library had no use for.

A Game Store in my town clearanced all of their oWoD books down to $1 a piece about a year ago. Everything was dollar. I got every Hunter book, all of the Demon Splats
, 10 or so Mage softcovers (the rest had been picked through...but I got some great stuff!) All the Werewolf tribe books, every book by the Black Dog Label, Exalted Sidereals, Exalted Lunars, Kindred of the East, Dark Ages Vampire.

There was some other cool stuff on the dollar sale too. TMNT, Engel,
Gurps Mech, Gurps Discworld....

Overall I think I bought like 40 books (for 40 bucks!) and 15 or so of them were hardcovers.

Quote from: KrakaJakA Game Store in my town clearanced all of their oWoD books down to $1 a piece about a year ago. Everything was dollar. I got every Hunter book, all of the Demon Splats
, 10 or so Mage softcovers (the rest had been picked through...but I got some great stuff!) All the Werewolf tribe books, every book by the Black Dog Label, Exalted Sidereals, Exalted Lunars, Kindred of the East, Dark Ages Vampire.

There was some other cool stuff on the dollar sale too. TMNT, Engel,
Gurps Mech, Gurps Discworld....

Overall I think I bought like 40 books (for 40 bucks!) and 15 or so of them were hardcovers.

You and Lev are both lucky bastards!:)  I never have come across a treasure trove of awesome for cheap.

i never found one for gaming stuff, only comics.

Has anyone scored books by accident or gift for free?

Harn by accident
I have on my bookshelf some Harn books. One day five or so years ago I went to a newly-forming game group. We spent many hours making Rolemaster characters and I ended up being offered to view some BDSM gay pr0n, but that's another story.

One of the players had a whole stack of Harn books in his car, which I noticed as he kindly drove me home. "Wow," I said, "these look interesting." Orbaal, Rethem, Kanday, Gods of Harn.
"You can borrow them if you like. Just return them to me next session, or whenever."
"Really? Thanks!"
I was really chuffed - I'd just met this bloke, and not only was he driving me home, he was lending me game books! I was touched by his trust.

The GM postponed the next session, then postponed it again, then indefinitely - had some personal issues. I emailed the other player asking if he wanted his books back, he said, "whenever we game next is fine."

We never gamed together again, nor met. So the books remain on my shelf today.

Gave away Rolemaster
When I was living in NZ, I became sick of Rolemaster and was going to discard the books. "Don't throw them away!" cried Tony, "I'll take them."
"Are you going to run it? I thought you said it was stupid."
"It is. But it's good to have them anyway."
"You want this copy of HoL, too?"
"No, you can throw that away."

That would have been the players book, the GMs book, the magic book, Arms Law, and all the Companions I-VII, I think.


Gamer quitting
Another gamer I know quit gaming because his wife has a baby on the way, and has passed all his game books onto a mutual gamer friend of ours. I don't know what he's scored, but it must be substantial, and probably has a lot of Lord of the Rings stuff, the guy loved that - his flat used to have a geek room decked out with the stuff (when he was single!)


So those are some free or accidental scores of game books I've been involved with. Anyone else?

Quote from: Kyle AaronSo those are some free or accidental scores of game books I've been involved with. Anyone else?

An old gamer buddy from school gave me some Unknown Armies adventure books - 4 books in total (I think). Man, I love UA and didn't realize there were published adventures. He said it was not his kind of horror but I might dig the stuff. I tried to make it a fair exchange and trade some of my stuff, but he really didn't care too much for the games I play . So in exchange I said I would run something for his crew and him (since he loves to play but does not often get a chance).

Regards,
David R

My buddy Jerry used to own the FLCS. He traded a guy god knows what for a bunch of Battle Tech, Robotech, and some misc books. I looked over the pile. The Robotech books were really rough. Looking at the Battle tech stuff. I figured it would only make me spend more money tracking down other battletech books. Buit there was a copy of Gamma World 4th edition. Which brought back a lot of memories. But I didnt have any cash for. Anyways a couple days later I was up there. Jerry had sold off all the Battletech stuff. (I think he e-bayed it) More than making up the money for the whole lot he traded for. So he says to me "You like Gamma World right? Here take this." Giving me free of charge, the book.

I also picked up a copy of Cadillacs and Dinosaurs RPG for $4.00 bucks at the new comic shop I frequent. (Which is a find of pure awesome to me.  Your milage may vary.)

So I guess I have gotten a few deals.