"Most Expensive Rulebook You Ever Bought?" Topic

I'm talking about just the rulebook, not the expansions or all the extras.

WH40K 4th. Edition limited hardcover in slipcase… no idea what I paid for it. Maybe $75 USD?

Advanced Squad Leader binder.

Advanced Squad Leader

Quite a few hardbacks near $50. USD

ASL. Hands down.

Little wars and Floor Games. Roughly 150 dollars each back in the nineties.

As for modern publications, probably the latest version of the 40k hardback.

Traveller5, from the Kickstarter.

Black Powder (which I later sold).

Et sans resultant – plus P&P from USA……………..eek

2nd hand copy of Black Powder…

Flames of War 3rd edition slipcase

Gamma World. No idea what it cost back in the day, but I was 10 or 11, spending my paper route money. That cost me more than donating ten GW starter sets to a local school would today.

I think is was Milgamex Ancient Warfare about 4 years ago.

FoW 3rd edition for me too. I bought it under the influence of the WWPD? podcast. We barely played FoW after that. Not because of 3rd edition, we were just on to other things.

ASL. Have been playing since SL was released (playtester).

Advanced Squad Leader.

Advanced Squad Leader

Black Powder. About $65 USD from a local hobby shop. Played only 1 game.

Maybe $25 USD for hard copy and PDF from THW. I forget what I paid for Starguard (edition 6 I believe) though.

I own so many old rules it takes a special set of rules to get my money.

By Fire and Sword. Worth it , but ouch.

Hmmmmm… So I can probably sell that copy of Black Powder I bought last year then… Hmmmmmmmm. Thanks!

Legends of the West…Black Library, 75 bucks…

ASL.

D&D 5e, all three main books, retail $49.99 USD each. Of course, I used coupons and gift cards, so my net cost was much, much lower.

Actual cash buy would probably be a used copy of Warmaster, which I think I picked up for $35 USD, IIRC. Whatever the price was, it was under retail. And it has been worth the expense. WM are my favorite commercial rules.

Black Powder – total waste of cash.

ASL- it completely ruined Squad Leader for me.

Not counting rulebooks that made me spend hundreds on figures subsequently, I probably have a few that topped out around $40 USD, but that's almost entirely because of the crappy exchange rate with the pound, not the original MSRP.

By Fire and Sword for me as well. After that I would guess Black Powder/Pike and Shotte/Hail, Caesar.

I bought Legends of the Old West as well but it was no where near $75 USD, I think more like $25. USD

Kampfgruppe Normandy, around eighty bucks from GW Historical.

Warhammer Fantasy 7th Edition Collector's Edition. I think it was either $90 USD or $100. USD

Empire V. I think I paid around 45-50 dollars, and that was in 1991 or so.

About $40 USD, I think.

Kampfgruppe Normandy and Et Sans Resultat 2nd edition.

Empire V. About £35.00 GBP years ago. I later sold it and don't think I lost any money on it.

Black Powder. Never played.

Ptolus (D&D setting) cost me about £60.00 GBP+ some years back.

Probably Empire back around 1990. At $50 USD in those days, it was a major investment. I've acquired other, more expensive rules, but only by cruising eBay till I got my price.

Should I feel bad? Ordered Kampfgruppe Nomandy from FW for 24 dollars plus three for shipping. Picked up Black Powder at a bring & buy for 20 dollars.

Black Powder at local hobby shop, $65. USD Total waste of money.

I bought By Fire and Sword for only $50 USD but that is still the most expensive – though I've used it a bunch.

Infinity 3.0 hardback in slipcase: $90 USD

LT

Actually, I did pay full cost for the 4E D&D books on release.
THe only RPG I ever did regret buying.

I understand why a lot of people loved it but for our group, it was absolutely not what we were after.

By Fire and Sword. Quite expensive, and not my cup of tea. But the artwork and format is exceptional! Bravo to the Poles
!

There are so many: WH40K 7th, Flames of War boxed set, By Fire and Sword. I have purged all prices from memory in case I am captured and tortured by my wife and forced to confess.

BF & S would have cost at least $100.00 AUD new, but I got a second-hand but unused, damaged copy for $20 USD One day I'll get around to completing opponents for my Ottomans and actually play it.

$40 USD or $50 USD, Black Powder, DBA 3, various hard cover rules with pretty pictures.

Empire of the Petal Throne original box set. I bought it second hand shortly after it came out. Cost me an arm and a leg. I later swapped it for a handful of Valley of the Four Winds Figures.

Chosen Men at 20 pounds and a $800 USD plane ticket. Regretted it as it was an impulse buy and I already had 95th rifles by 2HW.

I was going to say I had you all beat, but maybe not. Last year, in a fit of pure nostalgia, I purchased a first edition copy of Bunnies & Burrows for $170. USD This book had a transformative effect on my younger years (I was in love with Watership Down and was smitten with the idea of roleplaying with creatures instead of the usual elves, dwarfs, etc.), it dates from 1978 or so, and is in mint condition (at least as mint as a forty year old paperback can be), which is quite a rare thing; but the fact is it was something of an impulse buy and I've had a few twinges.

For a trip back to the dawn of rpgs, however, it really is interesting! Even the crude illustrations bring back waves of good memories, memories where trying to get past a hungry owl in a tree or crossing over a stream were as challenging as taking on any wizard in his den.