your Friendly Local Extortionist

[Shad]

I'm in Toronto these days. Today I had time to drop by Game Trek, a noteworthy boardgame store in the heart of downtown Toronto.

They had 3 Avalanche Press titles on the shelf:

• $60 - Airlines 2
  
• $25 - South Africa's War
  
• $80 - Heroes of the Soviet Union
  

[larrymarak]

Does make you wonder what a mint Heroes of the Soviet Union, with crisp mounted boards and second edition ? rules should be valued at.

[Hugmenot]

Larry, keep in mind Shad saw the asking price, which was higher than what he (and I for that matter) was willing to pay.

I check eBay frequently and the last copy which was sold was for $9.97 plus shipping (a great bargain). There is almost always a copy listed for $80 if one "must" have it. I will wait until the price drops to $30 or less before I pick up a copy.

South Africa's War can be had for $10 or (far) less on eBay if your're patient. You can also check Toad And Troll as they are trying to sell off the old supplements (I purchased 14 supplements for $60 including shipping a few months ago).

[Shad]

Heroes of the Soviet Union shouldn't be sold for more than $30 to anyone, anywhere. Someone who pays more for an obsolete PG game should get their head examined.

The SAW price isn't bad, but I don't see it moving off their shelves anytime soon.

The very existence of Airlines 2 on the shelf just added weight to the feeling of "these guys are insane/have no idea wtf they are doing with their wargames pricing".

[campsawyer]

I agree with you Shad. A while back I noticed that there was a SWWAS:SOPAC on ebay for $180. I laughed and watch it for a while, never sold for over a month. The is no old game worth that much.

[Shad]

I would be willing to pay $180 for something like Pacific War on the following 3 conditions:

1. I had 3 other dedicated guys ready to play it regularly with me the moment it arrived
   
2. We could reliably schedule at least 4 hours of game time per week
   
3. The game was mint and unpunched
   

But for a game that I'm going to solo or will sit on my shelf forever? No way.

[Matt W]

My brother in law died and had a copy of Campaign for North Africa which I received since I was the only person who actually knew what the heck it was. It is complete, unpunched, and heavy as the dickens. This one is worth a bunch to somebody. I pulled out the rules and my eyes fogged over as I was reading about loss of fuel and water due to evaporation. There was also a large discussion concerning Italian rations including pasta as being in appropriate for the desert and the difficulty in providing sufficient water stocks for the armies.

On the other hand Heroes with only 24 scenarios ain't worth it. The hard mounted boards actually detract from its usefulness as they can't be used easily with the remainder of the mapboards (if you need some extra copies).

[rerathbun]

Perhaps we should suggest a re-release of Heroes as a scenario book using maps and counters from Eastern Front Deluxe and counters from Red Warriors.

[Matt W]

The scenarios, much like those of PG and BoB are certainly dated and could stand some updating.

[campsawyer]

A quick review of the RW scenarios shows that these are a mix of Tank Battles and Heros. I had some conversions about this with a pg designer a while back. at this point new material is more important.