Ethan sez, "The personal archives of legendary Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Dave Arneson — some 10,000 items — were abandoned by his heirs and lost in storage facility in Minnesota. Now they've been found and catalogued, and they're being auctioned starting this Sunday. Here's a story about it and an exclusive preview of Sunday's auction."
"It was by pure chance that the new owner attempted to find the meaning of some of the boxes of paper rather than deciding that there was no gold or jewelry to be found, and just tossing it all into the nearest dumpster," wrote Cox on his company's website.
Cox contacted Stormberg, whose company specializes in handling and evaluating the collections of RPG game designers and artists. They teamed up to buy and save the collection. Cox made an offer to the local auction company. The company agreed and The Collector's Trove took possession of the materials for processing and auctioning. In an interview with GeekDad, Stormberg would not put a price tag on the collection, but he did say, "it was a substantial amount of money" — more than Cox had ever paid for an entire collection in 18 years of buying and selling for The Dragon's Trove, which has had its hands on many of the largest and highest quality collections in the world…
…Stormberg said that "About 30% of the items are what I call product: published games, game accessories, periodicals, and books." The remaining 70% of the collection is "non-product": all those letters and scribbled notes, maps, objects, and personal and family items. There is Arneson's Smith Corona: Mark IV typewriter; a set of lead crystal goblets etched with Arneson's family heraldry; and a model ship made of metal. "Dave loved the age of sail and all things to do with naval military history. Indeed, one of his first published games was Don't Give Up the Ship which he co-wrote with Gary Gygax and Mike Carr in 1972."
Among the highlights: unpublished manuscripts that did not make it into the final draft of Dungeons & Dragons that date as far back as 1973. There are even older items from 1971 and 1972 "dealing with the Blackmoor campaign and the Castle itself," Stormberg said. These may reveal secrets about the game's origins.
Domesday Book Newsletter, among the rarest and highly sought after collectibles by Dungeons & Dragons collectors.
(Thanks, Ethan!)
