Sometimes what you are buying is not exactly what the other guy is selling.

[loki]

Disclaimer  --  If your heart is set on a set of 6 phantoms and in the nice meeple shaped coloured storage box then read no further, this post is not for you.

In 2011 HiG released the Carcassonne Anniversary edition with everything in a large meeple shaped box and the standard 40 wooden Meeples (8 in each of the 5 basic colours) were replaced by clear acrylic ones.  Shortly afterwards these same clear acrylic Meeples were sold separately as the Phantom.

Hoard 'O Bits (http://hoardobits.com/) makes its business by apparently buying full sets of stuff then breaking them up and selling the individual components.  They are still trying to sell the translucent Meeples from the Anniversary edition. 

CARCASSONNE BITS ANNIVERSAY EDITION - 8x TRANSLUCENT BLUE FOLLOWERS

Now the catch is they are selling the individual colours in sets of 8 so you have to buy a set in each of the 5 colours.  Last time I checked they had between 8 & 12 copies of each set.

The price is very reasonable as each set is $1.86.  So 8 sets of 5 phantoms (black,blue,red,green,yellow)  will cost you $9.30 with shipping and handling at a flat rate (including International, they claim) of $8.25 for a total $17.55 US dollars.  Therefore it will cost you $2.19 U.S  2.05 Euro per set of phantoms.  You might want to pick up some other items at the same time to take advantage of the flat shipping rate but the Carcassonne pickings on this site are pretty slim.

If you are able to split the costs with 1 or 2 friends then it becomes very affordable.

Also the Phantom expansion is compatible with both the Winter Carcassonne edition and Carcassonne II, so you can have separate sets of phantoms for these versions.  I keep my winter edition in its original box separate from all of my regular Carcassonne stuff.  The extras I will keep and maybe able to swap for something I don't have, next time there is a board gaming event in town


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