Original 1974 3-Volume D&D Box. What's it worth?

[GarlandExCon]

So yesterday I was at a library I go to once a month to play D&D and there was a big box of old 70s & 80s D&D books that were donated to the library by someone, but because the library is about to undergo a major renovation they told everyone to get rid of extra donations. Thus, we could basically take whatever we wanted. I snagged some AD&D and original D&D supplements, and a couple old issues of Dragon Magazine. But what really caught my eye was an original D&D 3-volume box set. The printing date was 1974. It contained all three volumes, plus the rules & reference sheet. It also contained several supplement books: Blackmoor, Grey Hawk, Underworld & Wilderness, Men & Magic, Monsters & Treasure, Eldritch Wizardry and Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes.

I've played a lot of D&D in my day, but I'm definitely someone who came late to the party. The earliest version I've played is 3.5 and I did have a DM use a couple old AD&D books as supplements before, but they were both hardback and from the 80s.

I'm not planning on selling it, as I think it's cool. But I am curious to know what it's worth and how rare it is. Anyone know?

 

[oldmanpaco]

http://www.ebay.com/bhp/original-dungeons-and-dragons

 

[agris]

So yesterday I was at a library I go to once a month to play D&D and there was a big box of old 70s & 80s D&D books that were donated to the library by someone, but because the library is about to undergo a major renovation they told everyone to get rid of extra donations. Thus, we could basically take whatever we wanted. I snagged some AD&D and original D&D supplements, and a couple old issues of Dragon Magazine. But what really caught my eye was an original D&D 3-volume box set. The printing date was 1974. It contained all three volumes, plus the rules & reference sheet. It also contained several supplement books: Blackmoor, Grey Hawk, Underworld & Wilderness, Men & Magic, Monsters & Treasure, Eldritch Wizardry and Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes.

I've played a lot of D&D in my day, but I'm definitely someone who came late to the party. The earliest version I've played is 3.5 and I did have a DM use a couple old AD&D books as supplements before, but they were both hardback and from the 80s.

I'm not planning on selling it, as I think it's cool. But I am curious to know what it's worth and how rare it is. Anyone know?

Looks like $300, give or take.

 

[nikolokolus]

https://www.acaeum.com/ddindexes/rulebooks.html

 

[DemonKing]

The original box set was re-released as a collectable item a few years back so that's probably cut into the value somewhat.

 

[Melan]

https://www.acaeum.com/ddindexes/rulebooks.html

This is the correct answer. The best course of action would be to take a bunch of pictures, then register on Acaeum and ask for a valuation. They are helpful and very knowledgeable.

Generally, "woodgrain" sets are the rarest and most expensive (in the low-to-mid thousands range), "white box" printings with 'balrogs' and 'hobbits' somewhere in-between, and "white box" printings emblazoned with 'Original Collector's Edition', and featuring 'balors' and 'halflings' the most common (around 100-300 bucks depending on condition). I was lucky enough to snag a battered, pre-OCE 5th printing box at $90, but that was ten years ago.

The recent re-releases haven't really had an appreciable effect on the collector value of original sets.

It is also fun to read the game with an open mind, and see how ill-defined, yet also how broad it is before it settled into its 'canonic' form. You've got rules for aerial combat, challenging the rulers of strongholds to jousting, rudimentary ideas for domain management, and so on. It is arguably both less and more than a regular role-playing game.

 

[GarlandExCon]

Thanks everyone for your help. Melan, I'm going to do what you said and take some pictures, register and post at Acaeum.

It was really fun reading through the books. I especially like the art.

 

[Old One]

It is also fun to read the game with an open mind, and see how ill-defined, yet also how broad it is before it settled into its 'canonic' form.

This is really true. I've been reading through my late-1970s/early-1980s D&D stuff, and it's very interesting to see how things transformed over the years.

It made me realize how appealing the old rules are and were. When D&D started it really was all about groups of kids sitting around tables with nothing but paper, pencils, and some strange-looking dice. Everything else was to be made-up as you went along.

Some good things have been lost since then.

 

[Old One]

Still the best DnD is just the shit in Basic and Expert.

Yeah, it's pretty good. That's mainly what I've been reading. I have the Basic and Expert paperback manuals with the Erol Otus cover art. I think those are from 1980 or 1981. Then I have the Basic and Expert softcover manuals from a couple of years later - the ones with Larry Elmore cover art. I don't think I ever spent much time looking at the later ones because I thought they were mostly the same as the Erol Otus versions, but actually the later editions are completely different.

Naturally I prefer the earlier versions even though the Elmore books have some nice things about them too.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

The pure system focus of B/X is really nice.

You go into the dungeon, you kill monsters, and get loot. There's no strongholds, or these dozens and dozens of stupid pointless systems that show up in later editions of DnD.

Supposedly, the 1981 Moldvay/Cook B/X version of D&D was intended to be completed with a Companion rulebook that would have included rules on building strongholds and ruling dominions, something already present in original 1974 D&D albeit in extremely abbreviated form.

Instead, it was Mentzer 1983 BECMI D&D that would see the first detailed rules published for this aspect of the game with 1984's Companion "Green Box" set, and that would be followed in 1985 by the Master "Black Box" set containing rules for a second end-game (questing for immortality), followed by 1986's Immortal "Gold Box" set containing rules for a third end-game.

 

[Old One]

...1984's Companion "Green Box" set...

I've got that one too. It does indeed have rules for human and demi-human PC strongholds. Overall it's a bit thin, though, especially the Players' book.

I don't think I have the Master set. I'll have to dig through my old boxes to know for sure.

The '81 Basic (red) and Expert (blue) books with the Erol Otus artwork are still my favorites, but of course those were my introduction to D&D, so I may be biased.

 

[GarlandExCon]

So as an update of sorts, I'm highly considering trying to use this to actually DM a small campaign just to try it out. I've got two people who have agreed to play and I'm trying to get one more.

 

[nikolokolus]

If you like the system check out Swords & Wizardry. The PDFs are free and do a good job of restating the LBBs (little brown books) in a considerably cleaned up way.

 

[Melan]

So as an update of sorts, I'm highly considering trying to use this to actually DM a small campaign just to try it out. I've got two people who have agreed to play and I'm trying to get one more.

Take a look at this post on the implications for "the OD&D setting" that follow from The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures; it is pretty wild.

If you want to try a premade adventure from the same period, take a look at Night of the Walking Wet (+cover), an early classic by Paul Jaquays (it is for the higher levels, though). It is also fun to look into other stuff from Judges Guild, who were the first third-party publisher making licensed products for OD&D, and produced a bunch of cheap and fun supplements in the mid-to-late 1970s. The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor is not a bad place to start, describing a brigand fortress and a multi-level dungeon where your best friends are a bunch of slave-trading raiders, and if you aren't careful, you may run into dragons.

 

[GarlandExCon]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I think I have just about convinced my third player to come aboard. It took showing her what I had, but once she saw it I think she was hooked.

So as an update of sorts, I'm highly considering trying to use this to actually DM a small campaign just to try it out. I've got two people who have agreed to play and I'm trying to get one more.

Take a look at this post on the implications for "the OD&D setting" that follow from The Underworld and Wilderness Adventures; it is pretty wild.

If you want to try a premade adventure from the same period, take a look at Night of the Walking Wet (+cover), an early classic by Paul Jaquays (it is for the higher levels, though). It is also fun to look into other stuff from Judges Guild, who were the first third-party publisher making licensed products for OD&D, and produced a bunch of cheap and fun supplements in the mid-to-late 1970s. The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor is not a bad place to start, describing a brigand fortress and a multi-level dungeon where your best friends are a bunch of slave-trading raiders, and if you aren't careful, you may run into dragons.

The Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor was actually something else I found in the box of stuff they were giving away.

 

[Old One]

It took showing her what I had, but once she saw it I think she was hooked.

That's the thing about that old stuff...it's hard to explain, but it has some kind of mysterious, innocent, enthusiastic appeal.

 

[Gerrard]

It took showing her what I had, but once she saw it I think she was hooked.

 

[GarlandExCon]

An Update: I was able to convince my final player and after Christmas we played our first campaign. We've played three times now (a total of about 10 hours). I'm using just the original system from the material and adding a few things of my own and some of the material from the early supplements I got. So far it's a lot of fun. I appreciate the simplicity more.