It went for a bit over $1400 as I recall. I'm not sure there's more than that one copy known, although I'm no expert (I see one user here owns it, but for all I know he bought the one on eBay).

There was also a Thinking Man's Baseball which existed only in prototype. I think one was auctioned years ago on rec.games.board.marketplace, but I won't swear to it (it might have been Basketball).

3M Germany had a prototype called Profi Fussball - copies may or may not exist.

It exists. I´ve seen it.

This is a worthwhile grab for any fan of the band Ween - this was used for the cover of the CD "Quebec".

Personally, I don't see this as much fun at all. As an attorney, I could see most of the verdicts from a mile away, which would probably be true for anyone else even moderately involved in a legal profession. Another problem is that a number of the legal principles upon which the verdicts in the cases are based on are now fairly outdated, leading to frustration as players guess a verdict which would be true under more current law, but which is wrong under the 1960's principles of law at issue. On top of that, some of legal issues in the cases are dependent on a state's or localities' particular laws. Because law varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, there is always some confusion (read disagreements/arguments) about whether the verdicts are right or not.

Speaking of lawyers-
Why do they bury lawyers 12 feet deep instead of the usual 6 feet deep?

I could, but I'd have to bill you by the hour for the answer!

Actually, the syndrome affecting the lawyer on the cover is all too common--after losing their souls upon graduating from law school, many attorneys, their bodies left a lifeless husk, gradually fade away into an incorporeal state of nothingness.

As an attorney, I can say its much more like the Lord of the Rings, see the Nazgul circling around the court house.

Dammit people, don't make me laugh in the middle of work!

I can't comment on how good a game it is - it's chess with concealed pieces (they are wooden cubes with the icon on only one side). However, it's certainly worth picking up for resale - it's not worth a fortune but more than you'll pay at a thrift store. On the other hand, you're not likely to find it at an American thrift store since it was only sold in Germany.

Whoa! Never seen this one.

This one sells for about $15 on ebay.

From this one also exists a very rare butterbox edition. Included is a die - for whatever reasons.

The rules as presented in this one make for a very uninspiring game. Basically, players get a hand of cards, and try to make the highest-valued equation for the round. Played over successive rounds, players begin by building addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems. Players rotate their hands so all players have an opportunity with one of the sets of numbers. The game really seems geared at the elementary set, though, since any rational adult should be able to spot the highest-scoring equation within a given set of cards rather readily.

A "sim" type game; it's much like "playing" the real stockmarket. Pretend the projections are right, spend your money and let lady luck take you for a ride.

You could call it a dicefest even though there's only 2d6

My sister's kids enjoy it as a "party" game.

One of the guys we played this with in college always won. If he was cheating, he was darn good at it. Maybe he is a financial wizard or something.

I played this game a long time ago. I recall it was alot of fun, but not the deepest game out there. Probably worth grabbing if complete and in nice shape.

I recently found myself NEEDING another copy of this game and thought, "no big deal...I'll just grab one at the thrift store." To my disappointment, none of the local thrifts or used game shops has one! Now I have to figure out a way for my old copy to be played two times simultaneously. This is a great game for my economics class-easy to teach, fun for the students, and a good intro to the basics of personal investing.

OK, this game may not be the most exciting 3M game out of the box. But I have worked on rules for short selling, junk bonds, buy/sell options, variable interest rates, etc. I like the game in general because downtime is minimized by the parallel play - rather than each player taking a turn in serial fashion (like Monopoly).

No idea on gameplay, and I don't think the gamette version is worth all that much, but if you see the butterdish version, definitely pick it up. I believe only one copy is known and that sold for $800.

As I already said, I was an enthusiastic US-ebayer from overseas the 14 months back or so.
During this time span I found two butterdish OCTRIX on offer. The first one was complete and fetched around 450 $, the second one I tried myself, not complete (the game,not me...), but went for around 350 $ also. Just sit and wait...

There are mainly two reasons to grab two versions of this game: The fat box for the large wooden tiles which can replace missing ones in the world map ACQUIRE, and the later edition, also with wooden tiles, to replace the ones in ACQUIRE standard box with wooden tiles.
You have to do a little erasing and handpainting, though...
Ah, and the bell is a nice gimmick also, you can use it for PIT or in a chess match to drive your opponent crazy or whatever...

Unfortunately both versions don't fetch high prices on ebay, even the last 2 or 3 fat boxes stayed below 10 $.

Not being a thrifter, this is one of my few "finds." Back a zillion years ago, I saw this in a remainder bin at a downtown drug store (in Clemson SC). Stuff they had in the back that never sold and still had the original price tag and shrink wrap on it. I think it was either $1.95 or $2.95.

Speaking of which... why did so many drug stores have these games back in the day? Another drug store (in Greer, SC) used to have wargames and 3M games and AH games and Parker Bros games. Someone told us about it back 20 years ago and we went to purchase gobs of games like SPI monster games and 3M games. I even got Landslide out of it.

Its not a bad game but a ton of luck. I played a couple rounds with my wife and in-laws, there was a lot of luck involved, you draw 6 tiles and try and make a 4-6 letter word by drawing new tiles and replacing the old ones. However, if you draw the right tiles originally you win immediately, which can be annoying. Plus the whole track thing doesn't work very well and can be just frustrating. However, if you like word games and you found this cheap I would say pick up.

For play purposes, sure, as it's probably an interesting variant (known popularly as "Chessgi"). I have the Abacus set (Mad Mate) myself. It does OK on the resale market. There are two versions which are somewhat different in size, I don't recall which is more valuable, if there is even any difference.

Japanese chess, aka "Shogi" has a rule like that. It makes for some interesting games....

Nothing to write home about, but not bad.

The first edition of this one also has wooden tiles, the smallest ones ever produced for a 3M game.
Box colour is light red contrary to the green one with plastic pieces.
If the advertising is right, the wooden version fetches around 40 $.
Again, if you know what you are looking for, you can get some for below 10 $.

As a game, for me it's a keeper, my kind of stuff with tile laying and a little calculating for optimizing your results.

I got this when it was new and think this game has a few things going for it.

Contains several interesting variations on Mancala. Has a nice faux marble plastic gameboard. The version I got came with lots of polished pebbles which adds to the ambience of this game.

This one is a keeper in my collection.

Agreed. A decent game. I play with my kids.

Look for the larger first edition big box.

I'll sit down to a solitaire game of this once every few months. Some strategy and a fair amount luck combine to make this enjoyable for a game on occasion if you don't mind swearing at the dice for hooking you into the rough. I've got a dollar's worth of enjoyment back out of mine so I felt it was worth it.

It would be interesting to see whether the "play this with your grandparents" spin worked better or worse than the "play this with a sexy girl" tactic employed by most of the other 3M paper game cover art.

It's an interesting idea for a deduction game, and isn't bad in practice, although nothing to seek out for the gameplay.

Not sure how you're searching on eBay - at least one was actually sold there quite recently. It did not go for nearly as much as it should considering it was still sealed - eBay prices for oddball items can vary a lot depending on how much the seller advertises.

I did bid for the aforementioned sealed version also. Unfortunately my ebay-bank-account was emptied the week before, so my funds were really exhausted.
The sealed version went for 28 $ excl. postage 5 days ago, because the innocent seller advertised it not with the magical "3M" in all his advertising text !

Awesome game!

Rules were way incomplete, (who moves first each turn?), and I like the flat-box version better than the bookcase ones. Also, the wind shifts are far too random. But it's a pretty good game nonetheless.

Nice metal boats, that tilt as an intergral part of the game.

Never got to play.

Sold for about $25 on Ebay.

This also comes in a flat box version. It was one of the first games that I really sought out on eBay after playing.

It's been about three years since I last checked, but back then, this one routinely went in the $30-40's range.

A truly unique abstract with excellent plastic components that should last many lifetimes...the pieces are of a substance that rivals the hardness of tooth enamel. Both this game and Twixt don't get near enough table-time to suit me.

Gg

Just thrifted one today. The components are very nice indeed! Love that funky sixties artwork too

How much is the butterbox version worth? I found one thrifting this summer. The box is in rough shape but the rest of it is in great shape. I knew it was worth grabbing but I don't have any idea how worthwhile.

The butterdishes alwyas go for more just because they are butterdishes. I sold one butterdish (not this one) for about $50, if I recall.

The non-butterdish can fetch upwards of $30 for good condition but the market for it is wildly random, i.e. the people who want it only pop up once in a while.

the past butterdishes I watched in ebay didn't rise over the 30 $ mark.
There was a first edition of the butterbox, a little larger than the one shown in the picture, with completely different top box design. If this is correctly advertised, it will bring for sure $$ in the 3-digit range into your coffers...

The 1965 version isn't particularly common and doesn't show up so often on Ebay; when identified as the 1965 edition (either variety), it earns a premium.

Very enjoyable two player game, however, and well worth buying to play.

To expand on Joe's comment a bit - the 1965/1966 version is a completely different game from the 1967/1971 version. The latter is the one people like.

The 1965/6 version is more or less a trick-taking game, and is not worth getting for the gameplay. It is certainly worth picking up for resale. The 1965 version has a chalkboard for scoring, the 1966 version has a board covered with dials for scoring. They have the same cover art as the later versions, but the boxes are not dark red - one is tan and one is a light brownish-red.

Again I only can encourage everyone to invest a little effort in ebay if you know what you are looking for.
I got the very first edition with the chalkboard 4 months ago in mint condition with the cards still shrinkwrapped.
The game sat in the middle of the "Buy-it-now" compartment for 19 $.

I like this light trick taking version, fast play and suitable for younger children.
the 1967 version I played long way back, but remember it a very good game to my liking. Have to put this on the table once more...

Indeed pick this one up. It has commonalities with both rummy (collecting sets) and a lot of newer Euros where you cumulatively build up to higher and higher levels. Had great fun with this in my younger years.

They spelled Nomad wrong.

Thus Nomad would want to destroy all copies of Monad.

(There was an epidose of Classic Star Trek titled "The Changeling" in which a robot named "Nomad" sought to destroy all instances of imperfection. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomad_(Star_Trek) )

Was Leibnitz the guy who thought the world was made up of independant, all-observing monads?

Vague rumbling of Philosophy 101 in my head.