That would be like getting your hands on the holy grail... if only I were in Illinois...

https://www.estatesales.net/IL/La-Grange-Park/60526/1469769

Look at this on eBay http://www.ebay.com/itm/262911348603

^ Here it is

But several items are for sale via eBay and this, if you ask me, has to be a prime item for the collecting and discerning Diplomacy player. I know it will end way out of my range, but I'm tempted to throw 350 or 400 on it just to see if I can get it.

Pretty cool. Always loved the original contour map look.

That would be amazing to own! damn no Canadian shipping... and being a broke college student...

You can ship it here and I'll forward it on to you.

Wow. It's already up to $300. That would be a cool piece of Diplomacy history to have.

@YCHTT I'm sorry we are on a diplomacy site... I can smell your stabbing knife from here xP jk jk but ya no I'd love to but the self funded college life isn't cheap :(

That's OK. It might have taken a decade or two to make it there. :-D

^ good plot xP though with some mail services I wouldn't be surprised either... would have been a Schrodinger's cat to me xD both not and is on its way...

Schrodingder's eBay purchase more like

So, interesting story...

I was looking at this and noticed that there are several photographs of the rulebook. On one of them, the section 'Playing with less than seven players' is visible.

It's very different to the post-1971 rulebook variants, in which you still play on a full board but people will control multiple powers. In these variants, parts of the board become impassable:

"With six players, eliminate Turkey and Bulgaria. Players may not move to these spaces. Fleets may move directly from the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea. With five, eliminate Russia and Rumania as well. With four, drop Austria-Hungary, Greece, and Serbia. With three, drop Italy and Tunis. Late comers take up the Great Powers in the reverse order in which they were eliminated."

So, these are officially the first Diplomacy variants - ever! Honestly they sound pretty terrible, but it's an interesting piece of Dip history nonetheless.

I'm happy to pay the $6.50 in the photos for the game.

Sorry, $6.95. I can scrape together the extra 45 cents.

I'm loving the additional cost to get more board pieces xD

OK, I need to go play some poker now so I have the winnings to buy this. Been on a roll lately, averaging about $400 profit a night.

It rose nearly $1k overnight, so you better be winning big...

:-( I win that big and I'm buying a new UHD 4K TV.

Getting harder and harder to justify getting a Diplomacy board that looks exactly like the two I already have...

It's up to $1500 or more than 200 times its price in 1959.

OK, so here is a request. I am the high bidder on the Hyper-Space game from the same estate on eBay. I want to use the game to develop a new extended version of it and dedicate it to Mr. Calhammer In Memoriam. So not only is it going to a games collector in general, but it will be used for the purpose of honoring the inventor.

If you really want it, be honest, but please don't snipe me on it because I can't even guarantee that I will be on at the auction's ending time.

Thanks,
YCHTT

I read about this space game in his obituary, didn't even realize it was up for auction (can't find it, so you're safe from me). You should post rules if you get it. :) https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9281/hyperspace

I'll do a full recreation (OCR it maybe) if I win it. Just from what I've read, I already understand it pretty well and have ideas for expanding upon it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1959-DIPLOMACY-1ST-EDITION-1-OF-500-From-Estate-of-Inventor-ALLAN-B-CALHAMER/262911348603?autorefresh=true

Holy cow! $5,234 was the final sale price! WOW!

It would be nice if the winner came forth to identify him/herself, and maybe show it off a little bit.

Just as a by-the-way, that little Sylvania company newsletter (where Mr. Calhamer worked at the time) which was mentioned as being stuck in the gamebox and was sold with the game has a picture of Mr. Calhamer and others Dipping. That might just be the earliest ever photograph on a game of Diplomacy in progress. Certainly, I have never seen an earlier one.

The cool factor is off the scale!

Did you manage to win the Hyper-Space game, YCHTT?

Look at this on eBay http://www.ebay.com/itm/262912852261

Ended up at $550. Damn that's steep.

Nope. I would have gone $200 and my last bid was the $100.01, but it jumped way up at the end.