ROCKY MOUNTAIN PATHFINDER SOCIETY

I was notified that one of the convention support boons I passed out at GalaxyFest showed up on ebay for sale and I thought it would be an opportune time to discuss the issue. Personally, I find this offensive.

I checked on the official forums and found this thread http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2nmjd?Boons-on-eBay where this was initially discussed.

There is a lot of material to cover in the forum, but the official word from Micheal Brock, the Global Organized Play Coordinator, is "It is heavily frowned upon to sell these boons. I provide them as a way to boost support to a con. At this time, there isn't much I can do about it. If it becomes a rampant problem, then we will reevaluate. This is similar to someone who wins a autographed book at a con and then puts it up for auction. Once it is in the person's possession, it is their property to do with as they wish. But, selling free boons doesn't sit well with me. It is the reason I don't make these boons better than they currently are. I can't tell you no to sell them. But, I would ask you to use some judgement and restraint in the matter as this kind of thing greatly disappoints me. Thanks to the seller for removing them."

Selling boons is discouraged, and selling photocopied boons is a real no-no for copyright reasons.

• Players, please do not sell or buy boons from anyone.
• GMs, if you suddenly have a new character pop up with an unusual race, check the source boon sheet for original signatures and other features that may prove the authenticity of the form.

Boons have no cash value and a statement to this affect is printed on the new boon sheets. Trading boons is totally allowed, but be sure you document your boons when you get one. Once you trade a boon you have no control over what happens to that boon, but please consider what may happen.

Pathfinders...
Starfinders...

We are investigating how the individual selling the boon go a hold of it, and at the conclusion of the investigation we will take appropriate actions. Because of this activity, we are taking actions to try to prevent this from happening in the future. Once we have concluded our investigation, I will let you know what happened.

I want to emphasize at this time that while we do encourage trading boons, selling them is not allowed.

Heh. Yeah I remember that "boons selling on ebay" stuff back then. I think the seller back then apologized and took it down. Kind of common sense not to do it. I do like how some of the recent boons I have received have "Not For Sale" on them. It should be done on each one.

Oh! I just remembered! Around the same time someone was selling their PFS PCs (with chronicle sheets!) on ebay. Lol!

Pathfinders...
Starfinders...

I've completed my investigation into this matter and here are the results:

A boon was posted for sale on eBay recently from a seller in South Carolina. The individual in question got a hold of the boon by reaching out to one of our GMs through the paizo.com forums and initiated a boon trade. This practice is allowed in Society play. In this case, however, the perpetrator from South Carolina traded a photocopy of a boon for the original that our GM traded in good faith. The perpetrator then put the boon up for auction on eBay.

Once we had discovered how he was able to get his hands on the boon, our GM was extremely forthcoming and cooperative in helping us by turning over all information he had regarding the trade. Further, our local GM did not do anything wrong, but was the victim of a dishonest individual that he tried to deal with in good faith.

In response to this, we have notified the leadership of the perpetrators lodge and actions are being taken through the Pathfinder Society to sanction him. Further, we have contacted eBay and let them know that the auctions in question are against the rules of behavior set forth by eBay. We expect the auctions to be taken down fairly soon as a result.


This is the first time that we have had something like this happen in our lodge, and it is very disheartening to me. The one good thing that came out of this incident is that no one from our lodge is guilty of anything besides trusting another person that didn't deserve it. While we do encourage trading of boons, please be careful if you are trading with someone that you don't know. The sad fact is that there are people out there that are willing to exploit others for their own gain.

Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Thank you for the update OJ. I am hoping that this will not curtail those of us who can enjoy the option of trading our boons throughout the Pathfinder society. I personally find, the selling of boons as offensive as selling at character in an MMO or something similar, however with the selection of Society play, I do think that having the ability to play what you want is very important.

I personally struggle with the idea of selling boons. On one hand, the boon is yours, and if you decide to sell if for money, versus trading it for a boon of equal quality should be up to you.

But then you get people like this person who start selling photocopies of boons and illicitly acquiring legitimate boons by trading forgeries. And there will always be someone willing to break society rules for financial game, so it makes sense simply discouraging the practice.