His original gaming dice. His original Dungeons & Dragons and Blackmoor campaign manuscripts. His first printing, woodgrain boxed set play copy of D&D. Letters from Gary Gygax. Other letters, notes, documents, artwork, photos, cartography, rare wargames and hand-made models and miniatures. And more.

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All these items were once written, crafted or owned by Dave Arneson, gaming legend and co-creator of D&D. But when Arneson died in 2009, his personal archives and game collection become lost. In 2011, they were found, in an abandoned storage locker in Minnesota.

Some 10,000 items comprising what is being called the Dave L. Arneson Collection — ranging from Arenson’s 1959 game of Risk to game designs he tinkered with up until his death — will finally be sold at a series of eBay auctions beginning Sunday, May 6.

Here, GeekDad provides an exclusive sneak peek of some of the items up for grabs, never-before-seen photos, as well as insights into the collection and its significance from the auctioneer.

“An unforeseen turn of events” is how Paul J. Stormberg, founder of The Collector’s Trove, an Omaha-based online auction agent, described how his company came to auction the items. “The management of the collection apparently became too much for Dave’s heirs to handle and they abandoned it in a storage locker.” The storage facility’s owner tried to contact the heirs to no avail, leaving the “fate of the collection in the hands of others.”

Then, “like an episode of Storage Wars or Auction Hunters ,” Stromberg said, “the owner of the storage facility followed the business’ standard protocol of auctioning the locker’s contents.” A local auction company won the bid and took possession of the collection, but its “enormity and eclectic nature” baffled them. They finally contacted Michael Cox, owner and operator of an online gaming store called The Dragon’s Trove.

“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.

“I really must give credit to Michael, who, based on my estimate from that three hours of rummaging through the collection in that freezing garage, stuck his neck out to make this happen.”

Stormberg said the collection filled 114 boxes. Along with “various loose items,” the boxes were loaded into a van “with nary space for the driver and passenger to move.” After nearly a year of cataloging, the items are now ready to be sold.

So what’s in the collection?

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.

There are also runs of Gygax’s Castle & Crusade Society and Domesday Book newsletters, and Arneson’s Corner of the Table newsletter which discusses his various campaigns, including his Blackmoor exploits. Stormberg said the Domesday Book newsletters “are among the rarest and highly sought after” D&D collectibles. “These newsletters were produced by Gary Gygax in 1970-72 to support his Medieval military enthusiast club, the Castle & Crusade Society. These early pages show the kernels of ideas that would eventually lead Dave Arneson to create Blackmoor . Indeed, the famed fantasy campaign is detailed in one of the later issues of the Domesday Book.”

There’s also Arneson’s personal copy of a book he created called “Dungeonmaster’s Index,” an index of all monsters, spells, rules, and magic items, which was published under his own name and without a license. “TSR was not happy, of course, and issued Dave several cease and desist letters mainly for the use of the term Dungeonmaster.”

There are “just so many treasures,” Stormberg said.

Another incredible find: Arneson’s locked briefcase. “We just managed to figure out the combination lock to Dave’s personal briefcase from the early to mid-1970s.” This dates to when Arneson worked at TSR wih Gygax.

Stormberg said that in 2010, after fierce bidding, Gary Gygax’s own locked briefcase was auctioned off for $1,400 to benefit the Gygax Memorial fund in 2010. “It is interesting to note that both men had nearly identical briefcases and both used the same scheme to devise their individual combinations,” Stormberg said. Like with the Gygax auction, the contents of the Arneson briefcase will not be revealed before the auction, and the combination will only be given to the winner. Stormberg promised that “we found some very interesting items inside.”

To deal with the thousands of items, The Collector’s Trove will run a series of auctions over the next several months (along with the auctions of a number of other game designers). Each of the Dave Arneson auctions, Stormberg said, “will feature up to 200 items from the collection, showcasing various materials from the various stages of his professional and amateur gaming life.” The first auction on Sunday, May 6, includes several rare wargames and role-playing games owned by Arneson, as well as inscribed and autographed copies, editorial and review copies of products, items from Arneson’s library, and his personal play copies. Among the “many special items” are a series of Empire of the Petal Throne books and journals autographed by the late game designer M.A.R. Barker, who died in March of this year.

But before you get too excited about bidding and winning some lost treasure and then making your first million by printing it and selling it on Amazon, Stormberg noted that the intellectual property of certain designs and manuscripts are still owned by Arnesons’s heirs or others who worked on the projects with him. “If an original manuscript of this sort is to be auctioned, it will only be for the physical item itself not for any sort of claim to any IP. Owning a physical manuscript does not give one the rights to the IP within.” He said that even if the originals of such items are sold, a scan will be made so that their owners will have access to the material and whatever IP it might contain.

It’s possible some of these items might see the light of day. A “dialogue has been opened” between Arneson’s heirs and Michael Cox regarding anything of potential value to the gaming community, in the hopes that might lead to the eventual publication of some items for all to see.

Stormberg had been in contact with Arneson in the years leading to his death, and he said that Arneson maintained his heirs knew the importance of the collection, what to do with it, and how to contact The Collector’s Trove. “Sadly, there was no communication from the family in over two years,” Stormberg said. While some might be shocked that Arneson’s heirs simply abandoned the collection in a storage locker, and wonder why they were not aware of its value, both monetarily and to the history of gaming, Stormberg sympathized. “No one can know what a burden it is to lose a family member and suddenly have that individual’s life’s worth of belongings dropped on their doorstep. It is a tremendous challenge to manage all that is going on around such an event.”

Both Stormberg and Cox’s companies will get commission, as is standard practice in auctions. Stormberg stressed that he plans to return certain personal family items to the heirs and to donate some materials to educational institutions. “We also are looking into ways where the heirs may benefit from the development of IP or a portion of the proceeds from the auction.”

Thankfully, the Dave Arneson Collection did not end up in that Dumpster. The Dragon’s Trove and the Collector’s Trove are legitimate and upstanding outfits, and it’s wonderful news that they saved the these 10,000-plus items.

Yet, while auctions of belongings happen all the time, in this writer’s opinion, it’s this unfortunate that this collection will be sold to individual collectors. There’s a better solution: the creation of an RPG, tabletop and strategy game hall of fame.

What if this country had a single repository with archives of gaming history, with permanent and rotating exhibits for the public to enjoy and appreciate, rather than collections being split up and and scattered to the four winds? The Strong National Museum of Play somewhat accomplishes this, but its broad mandate is to include all forms of play and games. So, Wizards of the Coast, want to cough up the start-up funds? Or how about a Kickstarter campaign to kickstart this RPG Hall of Fame effort?

Back to the auction. The first 200 items go up for sale Sunday evening, May 6, and the auction closes a week later, May 13. The Collector’s Trove will begin listing items at 7:30 PM CDT. The eBay link is here. For more information, visit The Collector’s Trove.

Bid high. Bid often. And play nice.