eBay Board Wargame Collector’s Digest Volume 1, Number 2

Welcome to the second issue! The response we received to the first issue was incredible… it was sent out to over 110 people, no fewer than 25 wrote letters of encouragement and offers of support! We’ve also added 23 new subscribers, and only lost one!

Special thanks goes out to Gerald Delker who has volunteered to keep track of SPI game prices closing on eBay for us – thanks!

In addition to our email distribution list, John Kranz of ConSimWorld is offering the newsletter for download from his web site in Adobe Acrobat format, and Alan Poulter is posting issues and archives in his www.grognard.com site.

With this issue, I’m changing the document format from Microsoft Word, to HTML. Several members wrote in that they use no-Windows based platforms and had some formatting problems with the Word 95 document, and the HTML format will also me to post the issue on the web quickly and easily!

As always, letters, comments, suggestions, and submissions are welcome!

Many thanks, and enjoy!

Peter T. Szymonik

EBay = Xorg

344+ eBay Rating

Game Price Tracking:

Every issue we’re going to track closing eBay auction prices for “mint” and “punched but excellent” wargames. Over time people can use this as a guide to gauge what they can expect to get for a particular game title before posting it, as well as to watch trends in game pricing.

There are other wargame price guides out there, Mike Boone in particular has an excellent one. However, my experience with these price guides is that they often contain dated information. Additionally, since they track auction prices from conventions and sales prices from the newsgroups, they really aren’t a great guide for auction prices on eBay, which is what we all really care about!

Since our last issue, John Kranz of ConSimWorld has created an eGroups area tied to his great www.consimworld.com web site. The eGroups link has a great database function, and we’ve moved our eBay price tracking to this web based format. The advantage is that it’s a lot easier for us to keep track of prices this way, and we have a running record!

Listed below are the most expensive games sold on eBay since our last issue:

Campaign for North Africa	SPI	BK	MT	355.00	9/19/2000
War in the Pacific	SPI	FT	EX	251.00	8/24/2000
War in the Pacific	SPI	ZP	MT	250.01	9/14/2000
War in the Pacific	SPI	FT	EX	242.50	8/29/2000
Module One	SPI	FT	MT	212.50	9/18/2000
War in the Pacific	SPI	FT	EX	211.00	8/27/2000
John Carter of Mars	SPI	BK	MT	206.04	9/20/2000
War in Europe	SPI	FT	MT	202.50	8/20/2000
DAK	The Gamers	BK	MT	202.50	9/16/2000
First to Fight	GRD	BK	MT	177.50	9/14/2000
Middle Earth Trilogy	SPI	FT	MT	172.50	8/28/2000
Empires of the Middle Ages	SPI	BK	MT	167.50	8/29/2000
Highway to the Reich, 2nd Edition	SPI	FT	MT	167.50	8/28/2000
War Between the States	SPI	FT	EX	162.51	9/16/2000
Highway to the Reich, 2nd Edition	SPI	FT	MT	162.50	8/28/2000
War in Europe	Decision Games	BK	EX	162.50	9/11/2000
Empires of the Middle Ages	SPI	BK	MT	158.50	9/17/2000
The Longest Day	AH	BK	MT	153.50	9/17/2000
Campaign for North Africa	SPI	BK	EX	153.50	9/20/2000
Campaign for North Africa	SPI	BK	EX	152.49	9/18/2000
Module One	SPI	FT	MT	151.50	8/28/2000
The Longest Day	AH	BK	MT	151.00	9/17/2000
Scorched Earth	GDW	BK	MT	129.52	9/16/2000
The Conquerors	SPI	FT	MT	117.51	9/19/2000
Empires of the Middle Ages	SPI	BK	VG	107.60	9/17/2000

Guide: MT – Described as Unpunched and Mint

EX - Described as Punched but Excellent

FT – Flat Tray Packaging

BK – Bookcase style packaging

ZP – Ziplock packaging

( ) – No listing – game only has one package style

The new eBay Price Tracking database can be found on eGroups here:

http://www.egroups.com/database/consimworld?method=reportRows&tbl=4&sortBy=5&sortDir=up

You may need to create a free eGroups accounts to view this database. Just follow the steps to create and eGroups account (free!) and find the consimworld area. Click on Databases, and you’ll find our eBay Pirce Tracking database!

Wargame Company Profiles…

It’s become clear to me that about 15-20% of the people I trade with on eBay don’t know that the Board Wargame hobby is actually alive, doing fairly well, and churning out new titles by some outstanding companies. I’ll spend some time over the new few issues highlighting these companies.

DECISION GAMES: www.decisiongames.com

Decision Games is headed by Dr. Christopher Cummins, and the company is the direct descendant of the old SPI and England’s World Wide Wargames.

After TSR opted to get out of the board wargame business in the early 1990s, Doc Cummins bought the rights to many of the old SPI classics from

them, as well as all of the former S&T magazine games.

Decision Games has continued publication of STRATEGY & TACTICS, the military magazine with a game inside, on a regular basis – the latest issue is

Nr. 202, Taipei 2000, and is available now. If you were a former S&T subscriber in the 1970-1980s, be prepared to experience much improved

magazine published on high-quality paper, with better magazine and game graphics!

Additionally, Decision Games also publishes MOVES and FIRE & MOVEMENT magazines, and the old 3W WARGAMER magazine has been folded into

these two publications. No games in these, but extensive game analysis articles, scenarios, options, and more.

Decision Games is a prolific publisher of boxed wargames. They have republished many of the great old SPI game titles, and even expanded

some Quad game series with new games. Additionally, they offer a whole slew of new and highly playable wargames.

Finally, Decision Games is working hard to update and republish many of the most popular old SPI monster wargames. Their new and expanded War in

Europe is available now, a new version of Wacht am Rhein is in the works, and they are also working on board and computer versions of Empires of

the Middle Ages. These reprints take a tremendous amount of effort, and Decision Games is working to republish one new monster game a year.

THE GAMERS: www.tgamers.com

Dean Essig and the gang have been in business since 1988, and they have produced some of the greatest wargames published during the past ten

years. They are very active on the Wargame convention circuit, and are known for the extreme attention to customer service and gamer feedback.

The Gamers has probably the most robust wargame store web site around today. Not only do they sell their own line of award-winning wargames,

but also games by other publishers as diverse as: GMT Games, Decision Games, UGG, West End, Clash of Arms, Avalanche Press, Mayfair, and GRD.

In addition to games, they also sell military books, and game parts (now you know where I buy all those replacement counter trays I include with

some of the games I’ve been auctioning!)

The Gamers also publishes OPERATIONS magazine, a quarterly journal devoted to coverage of their wargames. OPERATIONS subscribers also enjoy

discounts on purchases made from The Gamer’s web site!

GMT GAMES: www.gmtgames.com

GMT Games is head by Gene Billingsley, perhaps the hardest working man in the hobby today. GMT can also be found at just about every wargaming

Convention, and like Decision Games and The Gamers, these guys have helped carry the hobby through the 1990s. Look at the list of GMT’s game

Designers, and you’ll find many of the masters from the old SPI days – including Mark Herman, Rich Berg, and Van von Borries.

Ask any wargamer about GMT, and the number one word that comes into mind is feedback. These guys love it, and they feed off of it. They post

“living rules” on their site so gamers always have access to the very latest rules revisions and edits, and encourage people to send in game ideas

and modification suggestions. All of GMT game’s are graphic masterpieces and highly playable.

GMT also has a great way to ensure that they only publish games people really want to see designed and played. Their “Project 500” posts future

game design ideas in detail. Once 500 orders are placed for a game, it’s marked for production and published, with the first 500 copies going to the

first 500 people who invested in the game’s concept. Discounts are also available for pre-publication games.

eBay & PayPal

Looks like the online payment system wars are beginning to heat up!

PayPal has recently been taking some heat for “reminding” its members to upgrade to a Business or Premier account if they use the service for “business purposes.” The problem is that PayPal has not clearly defined what a “business purpose” is, and they have seemed to imply that people who use eBay on a regular basis are in fact “business users.” The difference is the basic PayPal account members don’t pay to use the service, while Business or Premier account holders pay a nominal 1.9% transaction fee in exchange for a several enhanced services (including the ability to download transaction logs files in Excel format.) We’ll watch to see how this develops.

eBay seems to have finally noticed that PayPal has been eating its lunch, and that BillPoint isn’t a very popular method of payment. Beginning October 1^st, BillPoint will offer the following new pricing and features:

	eBay Online Payments	PayPal Business/Premier Account*
Credit Card
Transaction Fee (for a $15 sale)	0.00% + $0.35**	1.90% + $0.25
Transaction Fee (for sales greater than $15)	2.50% + $0.35	1.90% + $0.25
Deposit Fee	0.50%	0.60%
Electronic Check
Transaction Fee	FREE!	1.90%
Deposit Fee	FREE!	0.60%
Net Rate***
Transaction Fee	1.55% + $0.35	1.90% + $0.15
Deposit Fee	0.33%	0.60%

Note that eBay is making a comparison to PayPal’s highest level Business/Premier account, and that eBay will still be more expensive for transactions over $15, but this bears watching. Additionally, few people use Electronic Checks when using PayPal – its far more convenient to simply have funds transferred between PayPal accounts than to wait for an electronic check hit my checking account, IMHO.

PayPal has been making moves in the international payment arena:

- INTERNATIONAL PAYMENTS -- a way to receive payments from anyone

in the world. International payments to Premier and Business

 Accounts will be treated the same as domestic transactions --

that means no extra fees for you.

I know a lot of people on our mailing list have been waiting for this to finally happen!

International Transactions:

The following letter comes to us from one of our international correspondents, Bruce Probst of Melbourne Australia. Bruce has some great points regarding the current state of international electronic payments. This has become an important issue for me personally, as in the past few weeks I’ve sold games to eBayers as far away as Australia, Japan, Finland, Italy, and South Africa!

Just some additional points for "e-Bay for newbies":

For non-U.S. gamers like myself, the BillPoint facility, whatever other faults it may have, is a godsend. Non-U.S. customers cannot (at this time) use PayPal

at all (they say they're working on it, but who knows). Another bonus with BillPoint is that if you use VISA, you get $1 off each purchase. That can add up

if you buy a lot!

The next best thing to BillPoint/PayPal is BidPay. This allows you to buy U.S. money orders with a credit card and have the M.O. sent directly to the seller.

There's a fee (something like 5% of the value of the M.O., minimum $5.00) but that's a *lot* less than purchasing a M.O. in US$ at a local bank (and considerably less time and hassle, as well). They will post to addresses in Canada, as well. The only major limitation is that there must be an online auction for Bidpay to check against (doesn't have to be e-Bay, can also be Yahoo, Amazon, etc.) -- you can't use it to pay for stuff you might buy on rec.games.board.marketplace, for instance. Why they have this limitation I have no idea. Maybe they get some kickback from the auction sites they support?

Finally, note that some online shops (not private sellers) will of course let you send them your credit card details via e-mail.

Contrary to this ease of use is the considerable difficulty involved in dealing with non-US/Canada sellers. There are no on-line facilities (that I'm aware of -- I'd love to be proven wrong) equivalent to PayPal etc. for sending payments in non-U.S. currencies, which makes buying stuff from the U.K or other places in

Europe a real pain, and additionally expensive to boot (it costs me about A$15 for each foreign currency cheque I have to buy -- maybe it's better in other

countries, but I expect all have a similar policy).

Any way, just some thoughts, hope you find them useful.

Bruce Probst

Thanks Bruce!

eBay Guidelines – A Clarification…

This submission comes to us from Steve Bucey. Steve raised an excellent point regarding one of the sections of my Game Guidelines. Steve expressed

concern that since he trades infrequently on eBay, he may be considered a risky trader according to my guidelines:

"Second, how frequent and current are those ratings? Is the seller auctioning off games on a constant basis (a very good sign) or has it been months

since they last had something to offer (potential red flag.)"

Hello Peter,

I just read through your journal, and I decided I would send you a few words of comment. I guess that the first thing that I noticed is that it appears that

the journal really is intended to have a very limited audience. Whether you intended this or not, it seems that only a very small group of wargame buyers

and sellers on e-bay would be interested in this. The above comment I found under "Ebay's Feedback System" is one such item that leads me to this

conclusion.

I guess maybe the above item actually prompted my response more than anything else because I fall squarely into that category. I'm an occasional e-bay

user, both buyer and seller. Once every few months I gather up a handful of games I've decided I'll never play (or never play again) and sell them. In fact, I was just thinking of doing that this coming weekend. But with comments like the above being made, I'm now wondering if it will be worth my bother, as I

would begin to wonder if people who would read your journal would avoid me because my last auctions were several months ago and I have less than 50

positive ratings.

So, if I ignore your rating system am I going to lose potential buyers? Am I going to lose potential buyers who read your journal and decide I'm not

to be trusted? I wonder.

Steven Bucey

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Thanks for your letter Steve!

The newsletter is most definitely geared to a small audience, namely those folks active in the Wargames area of eBay. Right now the mailing lists stands at some 115 wargamers, and I’ve been adding about five new people each week.

Personally, I don't think you'll have problems at all. Experienced eBayers know to weigh the whole body of evidence before bidding on a game, and as long as you have a positive rating with few or no negatives, you'll be fine regardless of the frequency of your postings (in fact, I may have bid on some of your games myself!)

If anyone asks (and most will if you have a game they really want), just offer them some good references from previous buyers.

This being said, new members tend to be very leery of eBay, and my guidelines just note one of the generally recognized eBay "potential red flags."

There have been cases where people (often stores believe it or not), dump a lot of product on eBay, get a quick 20-30 positives, and then disappear and screw the next 20 people out of their money, only to re-appear a few months later with a new handle.

I see your viewpoint, and if you'd like to edit this into a "Letter to the Editor", I'd be happy to include it in the next newsletter!

Thanks

Peter

How to List Non-Mainstream Game Titles?

This letter comes from an eBayer I have bought far too many games from! J

What is the best way to post obscure but rare and highly collectible game titles? Posting these games involves a higher degree of risk. They are probably have very high collector values, but unless you get the attention of a critical mass of bidders and collectors, they may sell far below their worth. Setting a reserve price helps, but reserve prices also tend to scare away bidders, which is not the desired goal! Is there a solution?

Peter-

An item I'd like to see addressed in a future issue of the newsletter is how to best list and sell obscure (non-AH, GDW, SPI) wargames. I originally used the ..."not Avalon Hill, GDW , SPI tagline in my titles and descriptions, but got a warning message from eBay about "Key Word spamming", which they consider this to be.

I did email them back, saying most wargamers would have no other way of locating these obscure titles in a "normal" search. They never replied. Then I began sending listing messages to regular buyers of my auctions. Some, like yourself, objected to this practice, so I've discontinued it for the most part.

BUT, I recently sold a mint PWG To the Wolf's Lair for $32, and expected to get substantially more. I think part of the reason is that PWG or People’s War Games aren't regularly searched by most eBay game buyers. Like I stated, I'd like to see topic discussed in a future issue. One thing I do all the time when I'm buying is to search using "unpunched" or "punched" as my search word, searching titles and descriptions... rather than searching for game titles.

In this way I found a copy of GDW Tsushima, which I'd never have found otherwise, because the guy had misspelled Tsushima in his title, and didn't include "GDW" in his title. This is another issue that merits discussion… trying to establish a "standard" for listing titles and descriptions.

In my example, I think most of us would list that game as GDW Tsushima, or something similar. His listing, however, read "Tsuhima wargame", fortunately he did use the word unpunched in his description. A standard way of listing especially titles would be very helpful...

Thanks! Rob "Brunell"

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