Catan Collector

Back in 2005, the 10th Anniversary Catan 3D Collectors Edition was released in limited nubers to celebrate 10 years of Catan. There were 5,000 sets in English, 2,500 sets in German and just 500 sets in Dutch. In my collection I am fortunate to have one of each language.

However while these 3 sets are great, the really special 3D set for me is the one I bought in 2006. It is the set I have owned the longest and it is the set we play most often. It is now a family heirloom. At the time things were hard with saving for a first home and earning minimum wage, so I had to sell my standard Catan set and the expansions to help fund the purchase. The shop manager was also very helpful and gave me a healthy discount and a great payment plan.

This original set has been dragged around from pubs to parks and a range of other places in between. After thousands of games it is still a thrill to lift the lid on the wooden sea chest it comes in. It is why I personally believe this edition of Catan is what i consider the most beautiful game set ever produced.

While this postcard quite small, it is very special to me as it is personalised and signed by Klaus Teuber himself. This card was arranged by Catan GmbH and it was a great surprise when it arrived. It has pride of place on my shelves and gets shown to all my visitors.

While most people call me Nigel for short, it is not my proper name so my goal is to one day attend a Spiel event and get another card signed with my real name, Nygllhuw. Sadly Covid has blocked me doing this for the past couple of years.

Link to blog article.

As well as collecting the Catan game, I also collect advertising and other memorabilia that interests me.

Of all my advertising, including many banners, this is probably the most important one for me. I am told these signs were used at Spiel 95 which was the launch year of Catan. Such an early piece of advertsing is getting hard to find, so I was very pleased when this was offered by a German collector.

I have always been impressed when seeing people post custom sets and pieces they use for thier own games. I decided I would like something unique in my own game so asked a local Jeweller to make me a custom robber and merchant.

As there is so little metal in them they were surprisngly good value, and they do look amazing when being used in a game.

Link to original blog article.

While I have many hard to find items in my collection, I think without doubt this might be the rarest. It is a pre-release test game used to finalise rules and prepare the game for launch.

I have never seen another and even better this set is autohphed as well. I am told there were probably less than 30 of these sets made and that usually they are destroyed when returned back to the factory. I do not know how this one managed to survive but I was very fortunate to find it in the collection of a passionate Dutch collector.

Link to original post.