This happens a lot for board games, it happens for other things as well, but I think of it for board games. A print run is sold, distributed, and people grab up copies. Then, via reviews and word of mouth the game catches popularity. Now that game is off the shelves and gone until a new print run can come out. However, right now, when that print run might be, who knows? As cliche as it is to say, supply chain issues really make it hard to predict.

The interesting thing that comes from this is how it drives the secondary market. A game that is being printed again, Heat: Pedal to the Metal, sells for $150+ on eBay. It’s a $70 retail game. But it got popularity so that everyone wants it. So what games do I want that are out of print or had to find?

Hard To Find Board Games

Heat: Pedal to the Metal

This is one that is on my list. Heat is a racing game that is actually about racing. A lot of racing games are about betting on races. That is fun. I really enjoy Downforce and Long Shot: The Dice Game. I hope that Heat, though, it going to give me more of a racing feel. And, from what I can tell, it looks like it should. The card system is intriguing and turns our fast so you won’t feel like you bog down.

Aeons Trespass: Odyssey

This one is between print runs as they just announced a new Kickstarter campaign for it. And you will find that a number of these games are Kickstarters or crowdfunding games. It isn’t uncommon for them to completely disappear. They only come back if a new crowdfunding campaign happens.

Aeons Trespass: Odyssey is a big adventure, story, campaign game that I almost backed the first time around. But I felt like I didn’t need more. I should feel like that now, but it is getting great reviews. That’s the one thing nice about waiting. I often grab second printings of a game that gets a great review and miss out on some duds. But I want Aeons Trespass: Odyssey for sure this time around.

The Crimson Scales

This one is an interesting one as well. I hope that it will get reprinted. But The Crimson Scales is a fan expansion with classes, adventures, monsters, and more in the Gloomhaven system. And it comes in a massive box like Gloomhaven and is compatible with Gloomhaven. So a fan expansion for my favorite game, that is something I want to pick up.

But I wonder how I will track this one down. It is out of print, they have done two print runs. But, the creator of this expansion is making his own game, Rove, that is on my watch list. So is that going to mean the end of The Crimson Scales and I will have missed my run. Or is there enough demand to bring it back again?

Euthia: Torment of Resurrection

This is another Kickstarter game which means it is harder to track down. Though, it is interesting because the company that made it went under. Or they were close to, I don’t want to assume they are fully gone but I believe they are. They sold the rights to Euthia to another company, that company has produced a reprint. I skipped out on that one, but it is still a game that I want to get my hands on. I might even be able to late pledge it still, but it’s one that I want, but a campaign, so do I need it?

Vegetable Stock

This one is a different type of game. It isn’t a big game, but a small set collection, stock market game about vegetables. I know more about this one and how it works because of how simple it is. You draft vegetables and then the leftover vegetable pushes the value of that vegetable higher. It’s a clever and simple system that I hope will work for me like Point Salad works or something like that. Yes, they are both vegetable games, but I meant in weight and complexity.

Final Thoughts

I could spend a lot of money to track of these down. And the fact that Heat is selling for $150+ on eBay means that people are. But in that case of that one, especially, I know it is going to come out again. And when it does, I buy it then, I don’t need to pay extra just to have it sooner.

That said, I do have it on a watch list. If someone lists it for $80 with free shipping buy it now, I might get it. And with some of the others, or games that I left off the list, I might need to stumble across them in the wild. Or I might need to hope that my FLGS (friendly local game store) gets them in used. But is it something I need to track down, certainly not.

What is a game or two that you really want to track down?

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