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basically I want one.

I'm sat here going through this months finances and it aint looking good so I'm thinking of what I can sell and would like some advice.

first up, flea-bay. is it better to sell as an army or split into units?

What sorta thing sells well on ebay? does 40k or WFB sell better and which things in particular?

I have some really old classic stuff from the 80s

Minotaurs like this (this one and others from same range)..


and Realm of Chaos champions like these..


are they worth anything? if not I'll not ebay them as I'm quite fond of them.

Do non GW minis sell? I have some beautys from the likes of Heresy but dont know if they'll go for a pittence as they are not official GW.

I also have stacks of these fellas, worthless now?


Please help, any info will br great, I'm not jumping ship, just need some cash for boring stuff and have boxes of minis sitting there.

cheers in adv

ps just seen this on ebay http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/the-sabbat-worlds-crusade-collectors-edition-book-rare_W0QQitemZ290223723682QQihZ019QQcategoryZ90944QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247

thats gotta be a little optimistic? is that book particularly rare?

YEs very optimistic. It's a good book but they were selling it for £1 last year, which is when I got mine. It's just greed really. People see this stuff on Amazon for stupid (artificially) high prices and their grubby little palms start to sweat. £40 for that collected HH book is especially silly, that's £30 new and is still available everywhere.

As for your stuff I wouldn't say any of it was especially valuable, though you never know. I'm not really an expert. What sort of prices are you expecting?

Do you have the guy in the top left of the second pic?

Well, first off, depending on what OOP eldar you have, I'd be interested in at least taking a look at them.

I've been liquidating my stuff over the past few months, and I've learned a thing or two. First: almost nothing will sell for what you think it will. Some things will be higher, some lower, but eBay, even with a seven day auction, is lightning in a bottle. If 3 people each want a lot, the price goes realy high. If two of those bought a similar item last week, the price for guy three is lower.

For really old and rare stuff, things so rare there's not a lot of traffic on eBay, prices are very hard to judge. Keep in mind that truly OOP (as in, haven't been available in any retail form for at least a few years) will almost always got a for a few bucks a peice, and frequently will go for more.

Maximizing eBay profit isn't that hard, there are a few rules to follow, and then after that it's mostly experience:
1) Always take good pictures and provide complete descriptions/inventories. If a buyer knows exactly what's in there, he'll bid more.
2) divide what you're selling into sensible lots. Individual figures have too high overhead (fees and shipping) to make money on anything not propainted or insanely rare. OTOH, giant lots will generally go for far less then the sum of the parts because hardly anybody wants everything in a lot. Ideal lots are squads, individual vehicles, etc.
3) As a general rule, the ranking of sale price, highest to lowest, goes like this: Propainted > NIB > Well Painted > STripped > Primed > Poorly painted. This rule is more flexible for competent paint jobs in codex schemes.
4) Armies that are decently painted an tied together will sell for more than the sum of the parts, if, and only if, the army is completely playable and includes a currenly hot build.
5) Get free priority boxes from USPS, and for smaller items use First Class and ship in Trading card boxes (they're about 50 cents each in bulk)
6) Shipping to other countries is a hassle, but it's a great way to make more money and have more bidders.

thanks fo rthe advice so far, I have loads more stuff to shift than just the oop eldar.
To answer your question I think I have ALL of the eldar shown, most muliple times. I also have others from the same time such as the then odd looking d cannon and the all metal bikes., a lot was released as "Space Elves".

sleazy wrote:thanks fo rthe advice so far, I have loads more stuff to shift than just the oop eldar.
To answer your question I think I have ALL of the eldar shown, most muliple times. I also have others from the same time such as the then odd looking d cannon and the all metal bikes., a lot was released as "Space Elves".

I have sold a lot of stuff on ebay so I will share some advice.

1. October and November are really good months to sell stuff. People getting ready for Christmas and the holidays don't seem to mind spending stuff. And after Christams until about March seem to be pretty poor times to sell stuff.

2. I have found that almost everything I listed sold for at least what I listed it for and usually more. The key to this is knowing what something is worth and not overpricing it. It is better to underprice something then to have a starting price that is too high. Remember you want to get bidding started.

3. Indiividually each of those old metal miniatures is probably about 3 dollars but you need to consider how you are going to sell them. As singles you need to offer a very good rate for combining auctions. Remember they are only worth about 3 dollars apiece so you can't charge much more then $.50 cents for combining auctions because you will drive people away. Now as larger lots (say perhaps 5 miniatures) you will probably guarantee you sell all of them but you may end up getting less per inidivdual model.

4. Painted miniatures can be tricky. You really need to evaluate your painting honestly. Even ok paint jobs will often sell for less then the original cost of the miniatures. You are really only guaranteed to get good money back if you are actually a good painter. So if your painting isn't good you may just want to strip those miniatures down and sell them like that. I can not stress this point enough as it can really cost you some money. Just because you spent a lot of time and effort to paint your miniatures doesn't mean you are going to see any return on it.

5. Do not charge an outrageous handling fee and be upfront about the handling fee. I usually charged an extra $1.50 plus an additional $.75 for each auction won. I felt this was fair and never had anyone complain. But no matter how much you decide to charge make sure you are very clear about the conditions.

6. When you ship always get delivery confirmation. If you are paid through paypal this is the only way to protect yourself. I passed the additional $.55 off to the customer. Again this was very clear in my adds.

7. Be honest about what you are selling. Especially the condition or any damage that has been done.

8. Take very good pictures. If people can't see it they are less likely to buy it (or if they do they will pay less for it).

I have unloaded a lot of old GW stuff on eBay this year. OOP and "classic" stuff does have a market -- if you are lucky you can get some good money for it (maybe not more than you spent in the first place, but it's cash.) I would give the following advice.

1. Split the figures into sensible collections -- a unit, a related group (I flogged two sets of Squat Command) and so on.

2. Take a decent photo and describe the figures accurately. If they are still in print, mention the current cost and contrast how cheap yours are.

3. If the figures are well painted make this a virtue. If they are only primed or badly painted, you have the choice of stripping them yourself or say how they can be stripped.

4. Include the required bases.

5. Check the market before you put yours on. Do a search for your figures, you may find a very similar collection has sold recently and there are disappointed bidders. I got rid of a bunch of Judge Dredd stuff that way -- I found the just closed auction, contacted the losing bidder and alerted him to my auction. Then I put my figures up for a Buy Now price the same as what he missed the other lot for. If you put it on as a standard auction, list it at a low price but beware if there are not a lot of bidders you could lose out.

6. Once the stuff is sold make sure you pack it nicely and despatch it quickly. Keep in touch with your buyers -- it helps to build a good reputation.

7. Always do registered delivery on big sales and overseas sales. There is no protection from eBay, PayPal or the Post Office if your shipment gets lost, if you do not have the registered delivery.

8. Good luck!

Hey Sleazy, I see you are posting from two different locations. Did you see my question?

hey, yeah I answered it. I have all of those eldar yeah.

for some reason when I post from work it claims I'm American, I'm not I'm up in Newcastle.

Ah ok, I'm in WHitley Bay. Also I was asking if you had that Snakey Slaaneshi guy, but since you are in Newcastle I will assume your reeding/noomeracy skills have sent you down the wrong path.

oh sorry, I was looking at the wrong pic!

Sorry I dont have that one, I'll have to take pics of the chaos champs I have cos theres others thats arent shown there.

Whitley Bay? Well I can't say much bad about the place, I actually work nearby in Shiremoor and am a fan of the Whitley Warriors.

I just went hunting thru my spare room which is chock full of minis and the first thought was "Aha! Chaos Dwarfs! I know they go for a bit".

Now I've dug them all out I was overcome with the desire to paint them and have started on them and I now dont wanna sell them.

God I'm useless

As a frequent buyer on ebay, I can share this bit of info for you:

Polonius wrote:like this: Propainted> NIB > Well Painted > STripped > Primed > Poorly painted.

"Propainted", to me (and MANY other people I know/have talked to), is the first sign to skip that auction. Everybody and their mother thinks their stuff is "propainted" and they list it as such. Generally, I have found that either;

A) The seller is lying. He put "propainted" in the title to garner more hits.
B)The seller is stupid. The models are not very good or table-top standards at best. Either way, I can paint better than most "propainted" auctions I see. I am no where near a "pro."
C) The miniature is actually painted to standard that exceeds most people's skill with a brush. This truly is a professional-lookign paintjob.

In all three cases, "propainted" is a death sentence for your auction, in my book. Even in the case of 'C' above, the model is likely too expensive to be worth it for me. I prefer to paint my own stuff anyway...


SO, yeah. That's my $0.02.



Ghidorah

That's a really good point. Actually propainted quality miniatures will sell well. Calling a turd a cake wont' help, because people that like cake know it's a turd. Meanwhile, people shopping for turds won't find it because you're calling it cake. This is eBay, people buy turds, but only when they're shopping for turds.

what a strange but great analogy Polonius, its like something from Team America and has given me a smile.

Another thing to avoid: using the word "Cheap!!!!!!" to advertise your auctions. It's an auction, you have no control over the final price, only the initial bid. The only reason to advertise the item as cheap is either: if you're selling multiple lots and want to sell them all, or to increase the final price of a single lot, at which point it hopefully won't be cheap. it's a self defeating prophecy.

It also takes us back to bad old days of eBay, when people would bulk buy Cd-roms full of crappy programs, and list them endlessly on ebay for like, $7. The auction title usually looked like "676 PROGRAMS-GAMES!!!!! CD-ROM!!!! CHEAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Seriously though, don't insult your audience. The people buying OOP GW figs off of eBay know what they're buying and know how to buy on eBay. Tricks and smoke and mirrors won't help you.

Yeah CDs are awesome. If you have a spare 1 or few I would be interested in buying some (just for my cabinet, I don't paint armies). That one in the "25 best WFB minis" thread got some nasty comments but I love them.


Polonius, good point about cheap. tbh it wouldn't put me off bidding, but I always feel a little insulted (mainly in titles of advertisment threads - "eBay woodelves cheap!!!" etc).

nah looking through my CDs I could do with a few more to round off units.

am gonna try and scrape through the month without selling too much or stuff I still like. Maybe some of the vast horde of 360 games can go. My problem is I never trade them in so theres over 50 of the bleeders sat on a shelf!

Just to reinforce my previous statements about "propainted" in auction titles, this guy has the subject line as:

crimson-fenix wrote:Warhammer - PRO Painted High Elf Army lot (2000 points)

and, as if to legitimize his claim of "PRO painted" minis, he adds in the description:

crimson-fenix wrote:...and PRO Painted (Professional tattoo artist - 5 years experience)

Because weilding a tatto gun is SOOOOOO much like weilding a Windsor & Newton 0000.








Also, just for our viewing pleasure, here are a couple of pics of this PRO painted army by this gifted painter/tattoo artist:








So, yeah. For anyone reading this, unless you've taken Gold or the Sword in a Golden Demon (or are comparable in skill), don't waste our time with "pro painted." You just get laughed at on forums...



Ghidorah

I wonder if that pro-painter is the same tattoo artist that did this:


and in an attempt to keep it on topic, if you are selling stuff on ebay then the best way to drive interest is to pimp it on forums as much as possible. If you have a lot of unplayed xbox (and other) games, or unwanted DVDs, then that is usually a better thing to sell first of all as they are easier to get back if you regret it 5 years later.

As a frequent eBay buyer (god Sisters are expensive) I really think Polonius and Kilkrazy nailed it.

One thing I would also recommend, which might seem silly, is that you really are careful with your title. eBay thankfully recognizes 40k and 40,000 as the same thing, but "Warhammer" and "Warhamer" are not. I have gotten some dirt cheap minis by virtue of searching for misspellings.

Also, I really agree that painted miniatures do not really merit much attention unless they are both really good, and in a color scheme that matches what I have. Something like a greater daemon can be pretty much whatever color it wants and it is fine, but a squad of marines painted up in a day-glo orange color scheme is of no use to me, or at least not more than primes/bare plastic.

Something I would recommend as well is putting a link to the figure one either GW's site, or someone's site that has a nicely painted copy. I don't think there is anything wrong with that legally, though I could be wrong. The reason though is that looking at baremetal in a smallish eBay picture sometimes leaves a lot of questions in my mind as to what it actually looks like. I don't even buy off the Warstore without finding a bigger picture somewhere online if I can. Now, things like "Space Marine Squad" probably don't need that, but "Rogue Trader Era Eldar Exarch" probably does.

Good luck man!

This is more of a question to other sellers: should delivery confirmation simply be a required purchase on every auction? I currently have a buyer wondering where his Wraithguard are, and I mailed them first class on the 19th. They shoudl have been there, and I still have my reciept showing that I bought postage to that location, but what actual protection do I, as a seller, have if a buyer simply claims to never recieve an item?

Additionally, now that negative feedback can't be left for sellers, has anybody actually had any luck with a feedback abuse claim with eBay? I had a buyer neg me for not including flying bases in a lot of tau drones when they weren't mentioned in the decription or included in the picture. I reported him, but I haven't heard back yet from eBay (this was 4 days ago already).

Until just recently I've had nothing but great experiences on eBay, but I've had one buyer be a total dick, and another who is either pissed at USPS and will take it out on me, or is just working me for free stuff.

Personally, I will ALWAYS send items with Delivery Confirmation. No question. for just such a reason as you have mentioned.


Ghidorah

Generally, ebay seems to be "Buyer Beware". I don't think you have much recourse as a buyer to hold the seller to anything. That's why the feedback is so important, the community judges the seller. I personally don't buy anything from a seller with less than 99% rating and frequently see many sellers with 100% ratings and thousands of transactions.

Ozymandias, King of Kings

OKay, another question for the peanut gallery. I'm trying out the multi-shipping option that paypal offers for usps labels, and it appears that delivery confirmation is simply free. Is this simply a free service USPS offers because I'm saving them time by not going to the post office? I guess there's not hidden fee or anything, but I like that everything I send with that is tracked.

This thread has now been archived into an article in dakka's article system: http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/A_Guide_to_Selling_Miniatures_on_Ebay

But sometimes, PROPAINTED!!!1! is actually a good source of cheap miniatures.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/WARHAMMER-SPACE-WOLF-LORD-LOGAN-GRIMNAR-PRO-PAINTED_W0QQitemZ300220034013QQihZ020QQcategoryZ44124QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

The abuse of the term pro painted forced the talented ebay painting crew to use such terms as "master painted" and "amazingly painted"

the 'pro painters' haven't caught on yet as far as we can tell.

I hate it when the seller misrepresents what he's selling.

That is a Prince August balrog with the whip clipped off. it is NOT an oop bloodthirster of Khorne.

Yeah that booster of unpainted Pig-Iron kolony troops are "buy it now" at ten bucks cheaper than you'd see from retail(and that's nice) but for some reason YOU told me they were Forge world deathkorps of Krieg. There are no eagles or lasrifles or heavy weapons or powerswords/chainswords. They are not made of resin. They are not hyperdetailed (though they are anice). It's okay to put a suggestion of what you feel they "might" be good for in the notes but why lie to me? If you lie about what you've got then surely you've at least considered lying to me about other things (like whether or not you plan to send me the thing when you get the money!)

If you don't know what something is then describe it in general terms. "Big multi-part horned winged flaming demon with sword and broken whip" is fine. "WW1/2 germanic inspired sci-fi Soldiers with boxy rifles, greatcoats, stahlhelms and gas masks" is fine.

Also why is there always such astronomically high shipping ? How is it ever going to be a bargain if you require that the buyer pay through the nose for supposedly super ultra-fast mega deluxe courier shipping?

palaeomerus wrote:I

Also why is there always such astronomically high shipping ? How is it ever going to be a bargain if you require that the buyer pay through the nose for supposedly super ultra-fast mega deluxe courier shipping?

Some of it is simply greed, to wring a few more bucks out of somebody by hoping they don't see the shipping cost before bidding. Some of it is simply folks who eyeball shipping and tend to guess high, so as not to eat the cost. Some of it is an attempt to recoup eBay and paypal fees, which are in no way inconsequential. Finally, some of it is just asshats being asshats.

palaeomerus wrote:

Also why is there always such astronomically high shipping ? How is it ever going to be a bargain if you require that the buyer pay through the nose for supposedly super ultra-fast mega deluxe courier shipping?

Generally its to do with the amount of time it takes to pack it and ship it as well as the actual shipping fee, plus there are paypal fees, the fact that shipping is a standardised cost etc

I always have a surcharge with my shipping because alot of the time it can take quite a while for me to actually carefully wrap up the minis individually in bubble wrap and get them to you in one piece, that time could be spent studying, working on comissions etc.

then again people don't come to me for cheap bargains so I can't speak for that part of the ebay crowd

(like whether or not you plan to send me the thing when you get the money!)

thats what the feedback system is there for guy. Regardless, I'm p sure scammers on ebay find more lucurative markets than second hand miniature selling

The feedback system won't get you your money back and apparently lots of people on ebay sell a bunch of small stuff to build up their rep and then rip somebody off on something relatively big and then start a new account.

And wrapping ten or so figs "well" is about three minutes work at most assuming you have opposable thumbs. It's less when the stuff is already in a box or blister. The item really ought to be ready to ship just as soon as you put it on e-bay for sale.

Other than hard to find stuff ebay is mostly ABOUT bargains for most people. Otherwise people'd order from the the wasrstore or some other retailer or leave a wanted add on a trade site.

I think Polnius has the right of things . May he forever be on the look out for the careless ire of morose Hamlets.

BTW I got ripped off by a guy in Canada who was selling a VOID 1.1 box through an e-bay store. I left bad feedback. His rep is like totally ruined now with 3% bad feedback and all he got for it was $50. Sucker! I really took him for a ride! He didn't know who he was messin' with!