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Hello!

I was thinking about the lack of stuff I buy from GW, because a load of my stuff is 2nd hand off eBay. So I was thinking how much of your army is off eBay?

Oh, and in the long term, is constantly eBay buying the most effective way to bulk out an army?

Because of people being picky about the title, it is the percentage for EACH of your armies, to see ARMIES off eBay, not total of PEOPLE's minis!

Thanks

Progreen10

Most of my stuff these days is from Ebay. If by effective you mean cheapest way I would say yes it is.

To be honest GW retail is too brutal for me.....I search ebay once per day for items that I want. They come up sooner or later and then I tend to get them...ebay is your friend lol

All of my current IG army is either eBay or bought off people from my FLGS.

I only have one model from ebay, but a good 50-65% of my main army is second hand from bartertown -90% of my secondary army. Refurbishing second-hand models is like a secondary hobby by itself.

I can't say how much, I've been buying for years now. But I used to do almost all ebay shopping, especially when I lived in northern Japan. I don't anymore though, at least while I live here. My store is a very good one, so I make sure if I have any business that I can give them, they get it.

Most of my stuff is bad paints from ebay I strip then paint. Unless you catch a good deal NOS you do miss out on the putting together and customising part of the hobby a fair bit of the time. Invaluable for cheap bulk though. Ive had deals such as 40 space marines for £10 they are not in the best conditon but the amount you get for the price is crazy.

I buy from my FLGS as much as I can (cuz if he goes out of business I have no where to play). I buy the stuff on eBay that he just can't get. Stuff like auto cannons and special bases. If I played in a garage or at the house I would never buy at full retail.

Often the best way to start an army is a bulk army lot on ebay

I agree, Basic foot troops you can get off ebay. and expensive elites. But when you get too vehicles it seems sometimes better to buy retail.

About 50-60%.

Second hand as I DON'T BUY from ebay.
Usually through the "bring and buy" tables at local tournaments (so I can physically assess the models).
Vehicles, troops, you name it. Bad paintjobs can be stripped.

Plastic or metal, makes no difference. I rarely buy second hand resin (and then only solid pieces - no spindly, fiddly breakable bits. Vehicle hulls, turrets, etc are fine).

Started doing this about 10 years ago when the cost of GW models stopped being "reasonable" and it just reinforced it last year when they brought in their embargo/price rise/finecast triple whammy.

My Orks: 50-60%. I've incorporated other waaghs into mine as people have moved on from Orks, and picked up some old-school models i needed on Ebay and Bartertown

My Daemons are all second hand, just about, picked up in army trades and similar as an eventual painting/modelling project as i have time.

My DE are almost all bought new, with my FLGS's discount easing the prices a little (5 of every 30). The new DE models have to be put together well, or they look terrible. When you're buying second hand the odds are too high that it'll be damaged or so on by the time it reaches you, especially with how fragile the blades and bannerpoles etc are. Maybe 10-20% second hand.

Umm... lots?

I buy paints and the occasional new shineyness from the FLGS, but .. it seems like every time I make a purchase from the GW Website there is an issue with the sprues in the boxes. (always plastic, no finecast).

Needless to say, the VAST bulk of my armies are BT specials.. or local Craigslist rescues..

Barely anything. I prefer to do my own modelling.

A lot of my army comes from ebay GW prices are just to unreasonable

I think a distinction needs to be made between purchasing new kits off eBay and purchasing second-hand stuff off eBay. While my second-hand stuff is less than one or two percent of my total army, my eBay kit purchases are well over 90%.

Most if not all of my Guard and SMurf armies have either come from eBay or through trades on other forums. With the exception of two Russ and a Chimera which were payment for building a website.

I clicked the 65-80% box for my dollars spent, but by value it'd definitely be the 80-100%

That said, I don't do a ton of Ebay deals. I mostly do trading sites/forums like TMP, Dakka, Bartertown (awsome!), etc and at swap meets.

IMHO, unless you are looking for the latest/greatest (more likely on ebay) you can find better deals if you're patient on sites other than ebay.

Trading is also a great way to get what you really want, especially if you know what kind of figs trade well on what forums. I snap up great deals on figs I don't need, and then trade them for stuff I really want later.

I have very little interest in 'new kits', and prefer my armies to be OOP, classic or rarer models, or conversions.

So I'd say 85-90% of my armies come from second-hand trades or bitz sites...

I do buy a lot off eBay, but never paints or glue. I just can't tell if they are dry, 1/2 empty, or are even the real product.
Also, as much as I love opening a new, fresh box brand new from GW, most of the time, I can buy 4 times as much stuff from eBay...

I mostly get new on sprue stuff which can anything up to 25% cheaper than retail. However, like others have said, boxes of core troops are the easiest to find.

While not exclusively from eBay, a very large amount of what I buy comes from secondhand sources. My Crimson Fists are about half stuff I found on eBay, flea markets at game conventions, or here on Dakka. My Valhallans are so far made completely using models from Dakka and eBay. If I do buy anything new, it's from The Warstore or my FLGS, both of which have a nice 20% discount.

I can't resist a solid price and usually start my day with a cup of coffee and digging for incorrectly listed miniatures. It gives me the same thrill as digging for lost and unique music records at the swap shop.

It's always been pretty funny to me how FW holds listed price. I've always thought it had something to do with the egregious shipping cost from the UK.

aosol wrote:I can't resist a solid price and usually start my day with a cup of coffee and digging for incorrectly listed miniatures. It gives me the same thrill as digging for lost and unique music records at the swap shop.

It's always been pretty funny to me how FW holds listed price. I've always thought it had something to do with the egregious shipping cost from the UK.

What do you mean? I definitely meant to put up these Warhemmar Spice Maurines!

There are also some really curious auctions, where people who just can't do research or buy into the title of the auction. For instance, I saw a Commander Chenkov for sale at one point. It said something like "OOP GW COMMANDER CHENKOV" or whatever, and I watched the auction. It ended up going for over 40 dollars. Forty dollars. You can buy him new from GW for $13.

Most of my Grey Knights are second hand metals, and more than half of my Tyranids I got from a buddy.

Again, about 70% of my Lizardmen are also secondhand. GW prices are far too ridiculous to build armies at full MSRP.

^ That and the brittleness of the finecast, but this is not a hate thread so I shall say no more on that matter.

chromedog wrote: Bad paintjobs can be stripped
.

It amazes me how cheap a bad paint job will sell for on Ebay..... it isn't all that hard to just strip it off.

Are we talking about like, unpainted kits off ebay, or fully painted units\armies? I've bought tons of kits and bits off ebay, but I've built any painted every single model I have myself.

Ouze wrote:Are we talking about like, unpainted kits off ebay, or fully painted units\armies? I've bought tons of kits and bits off ebay, but I've built any painted every single model I have myself.

I don't think it really matters as long as it's from Ebay

For my Tau, I only got a quad of kroot off ebay, and a tank second-hand.
My inquisition stuff has bits off of ebay, and a second-hand land raider, though nothing else.

My orks however, have all kinds of bits off of ebay, and as many cheap second-hand beaten-up tanks as I can get.
gotta love the orks.