Reasonable price for WoW Collector's Edition

[Elemental]

I'm interested in obtaining the original Collector's Edition of the game even though I know it will be a bit pricey now. New or used doesn't matter so much to me as long as all the contents are there in good condition and key is unused so that I can obtain the original ingame pet (which pretty well means I need a new copy).

Anyone have any idea what sort of price would be reasonable to pay? There is only one new copy currently listed on Ebay and it is listed at $2000. That's a bit too steep. I'm willing to pay around $500 but am not sure if that's even very likely at this point. What do you all think?


Edit - As an aside question - since I already have the standard version of the game and expansions, will I be able to enter the new CD keys to my current account to obtain the benefits with my original character?

 

[Rii]

I'm interested in obtaining the original Collector's Edition of the game even though I know it will be a bit pricey now. New or used doesn't matter so much to me as long as all the contents are there in good condition and key is unused so that I can obtain the original ingame pet (which pretty well means I need a new copy).

Anyone have any idea what sort of price would be reasonable to pay? There is only one new copy currently listed on Ebay and it is listed at $2000. That's a bit too steep. I'm willing to pay around $500 but am not sure if that's even very likely at this point. What do you all think?

I once entertained similar notions. However AUD $400-600 - which is what they were going for on eBay a couple years back - was way the hell out of my league. I've learnt my lesson and have the Starcraft II CE pre-ordered for 'only' AUD $150.

You should be able to check eBay's completed listings to see what they've been going for of late.

As an aside question - since I already have the standard version of the game and expansions, will I be able to enter the new CD keys to my current account to obtain the benefits with my original character?

You'll have to call Blizzard and they'll handle it manually. I bought the Burning Crusade CE after buying the standard edition and that's how it worked. Had no issues (beyond the time zone difference meaning I had to call at some godforsaken hour ) and the CS rep was a pleasure to deal with.

 

[Elemental]

Thanks for the info.

Does anyone know - if I were to acquire someone else's account who had originally used the Collector's Edition CD key, am I able to transfer the characters from that account onto my current one and then have access to those original pets?

 

[Rii]

No, transfers across accounts are only permissible if the two accounts are registered in the same family name.

 

[Elemental]

So, what do you think? Would I be crazy to spend $1500 on an unopened Collector's Edition?

 

[TheBrew]

Yes.

P.S. The caveat being that if you were in my financial situation. If you are rich, go for it. I wouldn't go into debt for it. I would rather get a set of drums. :P

 

[darthraidr]

personally, yes.

 

[Elemental]

I have one other possibly silly question. How exactly can you tell what quests are a part of the "main storyline" or is there even really any such thing? In Final Fantasy XI, it's spelled out pretty clearly, with a main set of missions for the original game and a new set with each expansion. This made it easy to chart your progress.

In WoW, I get the sense that there are main storylines to take part in (e.g. going after the Lich King in WotLK expansion), however, I don't know how you can distinguish them. As a mere level 15 character, all I can seem to find to do are fetching quests and kill a certain number of enemy quests, neither of which seem like they contribute much to any broader storyline. Am I missing something?

 

[kalysto]

There used to be an addon called 'Everyquest' that would tick off what quests you have completed. When used in conjunction with other addons (like 'Lightheaded') it would give you a full quest description, quests it leads into or are are part of etc.) I haven't played for a couple months so things may have changed a little.

 

[TheBrew]

I have one other possibly silly question. How exactly can you tell what quests are a part of the "main storyline" or is there even really any such thing? In Final Fantasy XI, it's spelled out pretty clearly, with a main set of missions for the original game and a new set with each expansion. This made it easy to chart your progress.

In WoW, I get the sense that there are main storylines to take part in (e.g. going after the Lich King in WotLK expansion), however, I don't know how you can distinguish them. As a mere level 15 character, all I can seem to find to do are fetching quests and kill a certain number of enemy quests, neither of which seem like they contribute much to any broader storyline. Am I missing something?

There isn't really much story in Vanilla for the first few levels. Just hints of plots (like the Apocathary Society) and generally more quests to flesh out the world and the current situation. Questing has gotten much better and more focused with each expac, which is why they are redoing the old world quests so much. You don't really start to get to any actual story until around 30 where you can discover what is happening with the dragonkin in Dushwallow Marsh or the Uldaman stuff in the 40s. It is not until the 50s do you start to get quests furthering a story as you push towards the raid content in Vanilla.

 

[darthraidr]

things start off slow in the early zones and when some quests do tell a story, they tend to span far too many levels (the defias chain). the blood elf and draenei starter zones have a much tighter narrative (and have a better flow, and better quest rewards). those zones will get you to about 20.

i'm torn on what to suggest playing. those are definately better zones to level in, but with Cataclysm on the horizon, it might be cool to take one final pass through the old world before it gets destroyed. i suspect the storytelling and questflow in Cataclysm will be a bit more directed.

 

[TheBrew]

Well, the best zones in Vanilla to level IMO were Dustwallow Marsh and The Plaugelands. Lots of quests, not too much running and interesting quest lines.

 

[LitmusDragon]

At level 15 I generally go to the Barrens until 20 or so, then on to Thousand needles. There's lot of options though.

 

[Elemental]

How long does it generally take to max out your level?

 

[darthraidr]

honestly it depends on what you are doing and if you have friends helping you out. i am a slow leveler... i tend to only quest, so it's not super fast. Doing only dungeon runs via the dungeon finder speeds things up a great deal.

sorry, not very helpful.

 

[TheBrew]

I would say about 10 days of playing time total for a first time character.

 

[DBR]

How long does it generally take to max out your level?

I'm level 72 and have been playing the same character for over two years--usually for a couple hours on the odd Saturday morning.

Some of my friends have (I'd guess) a half dozen or more level 80's, and it baffles me.