A little-known aspect of collecting Pirates CSG “things” are the pirate posters that Wizkids made during the production days of the 2000s. I happened across a Barbary Coast poster on eBay back in 2015 and bought it for probably $20 or $30. I had no idea how rare it might be. The most prominent collector of the pirate posters that I’ve seen is DoubleAAsauce/PirateCaptainAndrew. He’s got most of the poster variants known to exist, and told me that my Barbary Coast poster was the only one from that set he had ever seen or known about. I traded it to him for posters from Spanish Main and Crimson Coast, since I couldn’t pass up the 2-for-1 deal and I like those sets more than BC (still a good set though).
Here they are framed in all their glory!
Framing and Background
The posters are 17×22, so I bought frames according to that. The framing process was pretty simple and easy, and now I can have them on display all the time instead of hidden away in a binder or rolled into a cardboard tube.
I must credit Andrew for bringing my interest in these posters up a few notches. Before his posts about them in the Discord server, I didn’t give them much credit. However, now I see them as gorgeous and historical display pieces that bring my passion for the game to life on the walls of my room. Excited to hopefully acquire more someday, though they seem to be quite rare.
Here is the Pirates of the Barbary Coast poster:
Each poster has four identical quadrants on the back. Here they are in set release order (SM, CC, BC):
I hope you enjoyed this overview of the pirate posters I’ve had in my collection. I’d love to know which is your favorite! Leave a comment below with your thoughts! 😀
Questions of the Day:
(Ben) What would it take for you to come to Tampa next January for Gasparilla Pirate Festival and Pirates CSG events the day before and/or after?
(DHolub1) What is your passion? What would it take for you to help bring more interest to Pirates CSG and help the game come back?
Documenting my hoarding habits from purchases made in the time period of November 2020 through September 2021. Most of it is contained within this youtube playlist, with 18 separate videos showing the stuff I got!
Before it was all unveiled. The 11 boxes totaled 138 pounds!!
Phase 1 Comics and Games order:
The same order at the bottom right. 8 Ocean’s Edge Special Edition boxes from the UK at left, Troll and Toad order at upper right.
Packs of SM, RV, and OE along with some Plunder Packs:
Super awesome to get a set of Revolution from Holofernes himself. (one of the most legendary and complete supercollectors ever, and the main editor behind the Wikipedia page for the game as far as I know)
Finished the boxes with one from Matt L. Quite excited to finally get most of the CC LE’s, MI SR’s, the Independence and HMS Mirage.
This weekend it took quite a while to get everything sorted and organized. My way of organizing ships is by faction (based on a combination of history, preference, and size), then mast count (biggest to smallest), then ship type (ex: 5 masted square rigged before giant squids), then set (chronological), then collector’s number. In this way, English 5 masters from SM would be the first ships in my collection, followed by those from CC and so on until the 4 masters start with SM again.
Here are some in progress sorting pics. The big stack at lower left is 133 Unique Treasures. Left of that are a bunch of Ocean’s Edge megacard ships, with punched deckplates above those. In the middle section are each faction’s ship and crew piles, with the huge stacks at the back being the second stacks of unpunched ships for each of the Big 5 factions.
Sorting English ships by mast count:
Absolutely ridiculous towering stacks of unpunched ships and crew:
This is after I got the Big 5 into a 5000 count storage box. The box can hold over 1000 ships, as it is not full here with 970 unpunched ships in it. For now I thought it would be fitting to store the UT’s in the treasure chest tin. 🙂
I’ve always wanted to have a massive card box full of Pirates stuff after seeing artisturn’s collection, and here it is! Almost 1000 ships! O_O
And now it is time! The full grand pictures!
THE MOTHERLODE
The Numbers
So there you have it. 870 packs, 3109 ships including over 1100 not even in packs, 509 crew, 133 UT’s, and a dream come true.
I think this concludes UNBOXING THE MOTHERLODE. XD I am officially a Hoarder!!
Trading Pirates CSG – A Great Way to Expand Your Collection!
I acquired these pretty ships via trade!
One of my favorite ways to expand my collection is by trading Pirates CSG with other community members. Often when you open fresh packs, you eventually end up with some duplicates (dupes) of various ships, crew, and other game pieces. Unless you want to sell them or give them away, trading is a great option that can net you some brand new Pirates CSG plunder in return! How great is that!
Many Options Available
As of this post in late 2019, there are plenty of options available for trading Pirates CSG. I just released a Buy/Sell/Trade version of the Master Spreadsheet. It includes all of the game pieces and is ready for you to use. Just hit File>Download to make a copy for tracking your personal collection! Once you have your copy, you can edit it however you wish so the data appears the way you want it. In my opinion, an even better option can be to have your own shared Google Sheet (just like the one above) that you provide a link to. That way, people can simply click a link to get your full updated collection ready for trading, rather than having to download a .xlsx file/etc that needs constant re-uploading to be up to date.
The main reason I recommend trading so highly is because I have been very successful with it. Trading Pirates CSG has allowed me to grow my collection on a budget. It allows you to connect with various other “pirates” in the community of fans. When I first joined the Pirates CSG community in June 2011, I joined the (at the time) “Big Three” of Miniature Trading, Pojo, and BoardGameGeek. Most of my trades were through MT, though I did one at Pojo as well.
Just to give you an idea of the scope of potential trading operations, here is my record of trading at MT. 122 total trades, 73 references from fellow traders, and many dozens of ships and crew acquired, nearly all from duplicate stuff I had that other people wanted. Incredible!
I hope that you can have a great experience with trading Pirates CSG. Feel free to leave a comment below with your own experiences – if people share some great trading stories, it might get other people to post their haves and wants as well, furthering the community driven game that we love!
Most of this post is from 2017, when it was originally posted to Miniature Trading. Most of these average prices come from the time I wrote the post.
My 10 master story starts at Pojo, where sariouriel (the creator of Century of the Empires no less) linked to some Amazon stuff. From there I found a Plunder Pack for $25 (the original price I believe), which at the time was an absolute steal because the Delusion was going for over $60 a couple times on eBay. That was in February 2012.
Last December I became the forum moderator and xeriousone teamed up with wantkrakens to give me a very generous gift – the SCS SR’s from xeriousone, and the Celtic Fury from wantkrakens. An example of hard work and dedication paying off unintentionally for some extra unexpected benefit. And thus, my fourth 10 master.
Last week godmason posted an eBay lot on the subreddit, which I snatched almost immediately because I was afraid someone else would buy it first since it looked like such a good deal. Along with 60+ other ships including some very rare stuff, I had a bargain Guichuan. Broken, but already repaired and ready for action. #5!
I think my history of buying 10 masters is possibly the best example of my collecting strategy overall – possibly more patient than anybody and just waiting and waiting for years on eBay until I can strike to get my deals. (hence my large amount of “best memories” on there compared to the quantity of others)
Delusion: $25 but with 10 ships from OE and the Plunder Pack map (all-time average is $29.44 so I saved about $5 but more like $10+ when you factor in the OE megapacks and the higher cost of the Delusion back in 2011/2012)
Shui Xian: $19, saving about $10 off the average of $28.69 but again that all-time high listing of $61 was around that time so realistically I got an even better deal than the all time average suggests.
Baochuan: $26.02, only a little under the average of $27.53
Celtic Fury: free (saving me $30.71)
Guichuan: $49.99 but realistically just about FREE when you consider the value of the 60+ ships in the lot which included the Crypt, Monkey’s Paw, Samedi’s Curse, Soul Crusher, and two DJC SE’s, which combined could possibly sell for $50 by themselves if they were unpunched. Either way, still technically saving me about $15 off the Guichuan’s average of $64.35.
Zeus (acquired 2019): $10; was going to be free as a gift from a fellow community member, but I didn’t want to take it for absolutely nothing and the $10 helped pay for the shipping. (saving me ~$44.39 off average price of $54.39 as of July 2019)
Total 10 master savings (most conservative number): $105.10 (which could buy me another TWO 10 masters!)
Now I have all 6. 3 were acquired in the first half of 2012, followed by a long hiatus of about 4.5 years before getting the CF and Guichuan within the past 9 months. It probably goes without saying at this point, but getting all 6 has been a high long-term priority. Check out my 10 master collection in this video:
The Baochuan is my favorite for a variety of reasons. It looks the most realistic (and I actually think it looks very cool), it’s the first one released, and it’s an amazing ship overall. I love the biggest cargo hold in the game and how it combines with the Treasure Ship keyword. The ship also single-handedly makes an entire minor faction better, since the JR’s don’t have a ton of stuff. Just a perfect flagship, and the most historical of them as well.
Shui Xian is probably my second favorite due to the English being my favorite faction and having the potential for quite decent cannons with one of my favorite crew aboard. The Delusion would probably come next since it was my first 10 and glows in the dark, though I haven’t used it in a while. The CF is overrated and the English naturally have a rivalry with the French, while the Guichuan is completely new to me for playing purposes. I do love the Guichuan’s flavor text (and all of them, actually) and how the ship looks, but S speed and Cursed faction aren’t my favorites lol. Zeus is the best for gameplay but I’ve only used it on VASSAL since I still need to get my physical copy. For what it’s worth, I did enjoy playing the Zhanfu and Fortaleza from RtSS in CG2.
Feel free to check out my tutorial on how to build one of these behemoths:
