A hurricane/flood/volcano/earthquake/hungry horde of grues strikes your home town. All of worldly possessions are gone. Finally, the insurance pays off. You have a new house, new furniture and, after budgeting for the necessities, $1000 to spend on your new gaming library. Let's assume that you have a gaming room set aside with comfy chairs and a table.

What do you spend that $1000 on? Which RPG books, reference books, miniatures, props, or other stuff? For old RPG products, assume that you can find it at a price you'd pay for a comparable current release, $30 for a hardcover, $20 for a softcover, $40 for a boxed set, or just make an estimate. We're talking actual play or reference value, not stuff bought purely to sell on eBay in 5 years.

Also, assume that you have a computer or laptop. It doesn't come out of your gaming budget.

I could probably get a lot of my Rifts/Palladium Fantasy collection replaced gratis, so I'll keep that out of the picture for a moment.
 
I know I'd definitely want to reacquire all my old Rolemaster books, a D&D Rules Cyclopedia, the 3.5 core books, Risus Deluxe, the Gygaxian Fantasy Series from Troll Lord, at least my old Classic Traveller reprints and JTAS, GURPS Basic Set, HARP, Iron Gauntlets, Cold Space, Roma Imperious, Nebulon, Planescape, FASA Earthdawn, the Barsaive boxed set, the World Book of Khaas, Cityworks, Wildscape, Seafarer's Handbook, Greyhawk Gazetteer, True20, Truth & Justice, Amber, Iron Kingdoms Character and World Guide, all my books from XRP's A Magical Society line, and my Epic RPG books. The big pain would be trying to find all my gaming maps again, as I have a pretty extensive collection.
 
After all that, I'd likely pay for a ton of D&D minis, another set of Tact-Tiles, some foam scenery from Dagoom, Fractal Mapper 7.0, a few large dicebags, a pound of Chessex dice, and a set of Gamescience dice for each player (and a few just for me). If there was anything left over, I'd see about maybe filling in some of the gaps of my Rolemaster collection, or, failing that, I'd keep the rest in reserve for convention purchases.
 
I know there's likely more than a few books I'm forgetting about...good thread, Mearls. Interesting to think about.

Well, If we're just talking about stuff I use: I'd recreate what I have now except I wouldn't re-buy all the stuff I had in the 1990s.  I have nothing against it, but it serves no purpose for me anymore.

So--

It would be mostly D&D 3.5 (I'd get everything, especially the various monster books, the complete series.. Libris Mortis, Book of Vile Darkness,  all of those). because we play that every week. I'd also get Eberron stuff because we're kinda getting into that now with RPGA stuff.

I'd get a double-sided hex-mat with square grid on one side for DDM.

I'd get (at least) 3 nice matched sets of Chessex dice.

I'd get some decent scenery pieces. A mix of Dwarven Forge and Grendel pieces. Also some foam stuff, like stalgmites and hills.

I'd get a nice collection of miniatures. I'd get plenty of D&D Miniatures (the plastic kind) for D&D, but I'd also put together a decent Lawful Evil warband centered around the Eldritch Giant. And I'd get a whole bunch of Reaper minis because they are high quality.

I'd get Hordes (the rulebook) and a decent Legion of Everblight warband too.

I'd get Mutants and Masterminds, and True20.

I'd get Savage Worlds, and maybe a couple of the settings books. I love Low Life.

Retro stuff I would get would include Gamma World (the 80s 2nd edition box set, with the vinyl map).

Dice

The nWoD corebook, Mysterious Places the nWoD core "bad guys" book (I forget the name)

The nMage corebook, just in case I ever get a hankering for Mage

If I get get hold of them, Destinies Price and the original Malkavian splatbook (for nostalgia and DP is a goldmine for ideas)

Feng Shui and the splats/adventure books, though if the splats are available on PDF I'd get them in that format

The XRP's A Magical Society line

Testament

That would probably be it, though I might take the opportunity to pick up the new editions of Shadowrun, Warhammer and Exalted

Complete Ars Magica 4th & 5th

Shadowrun 3rd

Amber & ShadowKnight

Fading Suns

Feng Shui

Unknown Armies

V.

Hm, let's see...

Wilderlands of High Fantasy
Lots of D&D 3.5 stuff (Complete Series, Core Rules, the Monster Manuals, the Tome of... books, a couple of adventures, Unearthed Arcana)
Every Eberron book available
Star Wars Saga Edition (just pretending it would be out yet)
At least three complete sets of dice
Cthulhu d20 plus many of the awesome german Cthulhu products

D&D Core books (90)
Ptolus (90)

Harnmaster (30)
Harn Manor (30)
Harn World (20)

Megatraveller (40)
101 Vehicles (20)
Rebellion (20)
Referee`s Companion (20)
Survival Margin (20)
Pocket Empires (20)
World Tamer's Guide (20)
Invasion: Earth (40)
Fifth Frontier War (40)


Battlemat (12)
Spacebattle Rug from Silent Death (18)

Counters for D&D (20)
Cardboard Heroes and Deckplans for Traveller (20)


Osprey books on the 1400s (200)
Historical Atlas (30)
Byzantine History Book (Norwich would be enough for gaming) (40)

Sci-Fi Vehicle Miniatures (175)

Some Dice (10)

_______________________________

$1000

D&D Basic through Master
All of Burning Wheel
Expeditious Retreat's Magical Medieval Society
RIFTS Core, Mercenaries, TRIAX/NGR, Vampire Kingdoms, Atlantis
GURPS Ultra Tech I-II, and Bio Tech
Star Wars D20
Exalted
And as much dice and Mutant Chronicles as I could get my hands on.

Sadly, I think I'd take it as a sign that my days immersed in the joys of roleplaying had come to an end and invest that $1000 paying off any remaining debts, investing in my childrens' college funds or restoring my reading library.

I love gaming, don't get me wrong, but when you get a clear-cut sign like you described, man, it's time to re-evaluate your priorities!  

All that being said, if I had to spend the money, I'd focus on core-rulebooks for numerous systems, primarily generic.  I'd do a lot of my purchasing on eBay and talk to various friends about what books they have duplicates and accept donations.

I would want:
7th Sea (PHB and GMB)
GURPS (3rd and 4th)
Shadowrun (3rd and 4th)
Star Wars (WEG version, 2nd ed)
Call of Cthulhu (percentile version)
Savage Worlds
Children of the Sun
Chartmaster ... er ... Rollmaster ... er ... Rolemaster
Fading Suns
Unknown Armies
HeroScape (only for the figures and terrain...)

I would probably complete my Forgotten Realms collection all the way to just after the grey box (which I have).

AD&D1 rulebook set (PHB, DMG, MM, FF, MM2, UA)

AD&D2 corebooks (PHB, DMG, MC + most of the expansions)

All Mekton books

Robotech set (for nostalgia)

TSR Marvel Super Heroes Basic and Advanced Sets, and all Gamers Handbooks of the Marvel Universe

1st edition Star Wars D6 and the Sourcebook

Set of current D6 rulebooks/supplements (Space, Adventure, Fantasy, Spaceships, etc.)

Sorcerer+supplements=$65
My Life with Master=$13
HeroQuest+supps=$200
Dogs in the Vineyard=$22
Pendragon+supps=$220
Prince Valiant=$25
Burning Wheel/Monster Burner=$40
Villains & Vigilantes=$40 (?)
Bacchanal=$4

Wow, that replaces all my games, gets me a couple I really want and still leaves nearly $400 for new stuff!

Mike,

Here are your answers:

1. D&D Rules Cyclopedia

2. The core AD&D books, which I consider to be: Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, Monster Manual, Deities & Demigods

3. Delta Green and its companion volumn Delta Green: Countdown

4. Fudge 10th Anniversary Edition

5. The Marvel Super Heroes boxed set.

6. Classic Traveller Reprint Books 0-8.

7. Toon.

8. The Dragon Magazine CD-ROM compilation of issues 1-250.

Fuck how much it costs, that's all I feel I need to game from now until the end of time.