Sunday, March 12, 2006

eBayers are weird sometimes

Within the last week or two a lot of obscure old Classic Traveller items have appeared on eBay. I bid a fiver on the old set of ship deckplans pictured to the right. Deckplans aren't that critical for me, but I'm a fan of the FASA-produced Trav material and the Vlezhdatl class is one of the few canonical Zhodani designs. Considering that the Zhodani are often protrayed as the evil outsiders that threaten the fabric of life in the Spinward Marches, a surprisingly small number of official Zho ship designs have been published.

Anyway, I was the high bidder for almost the entirety of the first 6 days, 23 hours and 59 minutes of the 7-day auction for this item. Then in the last minute of the auction three sniper-bots leap into the fray and bid the price up to an astounding $52.99. That's crazy money for some old ship deckplans and a booklet. I'm no expert on the resale prices of old Trav materials, but I can't see how the Vlezhdatl deckplans are worth more than twenty bucks to anyone but the most obsessed completist.

I like how the fine fellows at FASA put the High Guard statblock for the ship right on the cover. (Better shot of that here.) Even without winning the auction I can unpack the Universal Ship Profile provided to get a lot of data. Or I could finall try out the High Guard combat system and see how a Vlezhdatl fares against a similar-sized Imperial vessel, like maybe a Kinunir class cruiser.

2 comments:

  1. Ah, F.A.S.A. classic Traveller supplements. Cue major nostalgia rush!

    Do you remember the Legends of the Skyraiders trilogy? This was one of the memorable Traveller campaigns of my youth, back in the early 80's.

    LotSR was one of those games where you could call the players last thing at night and ask them if they were up for a game, and they'd all be there within the hour, ready to play till dawn. Man, that was great roleplaying. And I got the girl too!

    Memories, sigh. ;)

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  2. I've not played the Skyraiders trilogy, but I've been looking to acquire it. Everyone I know who has played it said it was rip-snorting fun.

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