Saved hundreds of $$ by improvising with my own collection and making some compromises (details inside)

Had all the Orient Expedition sets as a child, but no other Adventurers sets. Lots of people like them, so they're super expensive on the after market. Amazon Ancient Ruins 5986 in particular is hundreds of dollars for used sets (only European guy selling on Bricklink wants 800€ in fact). The raised baseplate is set exclusive and ludicrously expensive. Got a much cheaper flat baseplate instead that also has a river Did the rockwork using BURPs from my collection Got the printed columns, but...