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hi guys,

i was hoping to pick your collective brains about selling models on e-bay. Recently i painted an Imperial Fist chapter champion (which made the what's new today article on games-workshop.com ! ) and i was rather proud of, but some of the friends i mentioned it to said i should try and turn painting into a career. Obviously after i had picked myself up from the floor from laughter, i pointed out that my "skills" weren't good enough to do that, but after having looked on e-bay some of the models described as being "pro-painted" are a little misleading in their description imo.

after having looked at some of the finished auctions i can see that there really isn't a lot of money to be made at selling models on e-bay (i'm under no illusions in that respect!) but was hoping you might be able to tell me if someone at roughly my level of painting could at least re-coup what the miniature cost (as i tend to find painting the most enjoyable part of the hobby). Though i doubt i would ever sell the chapter champion - he is just too special to me!

also if anyone has any general experience of either buying or selling models on e-bay that would be prepared to share, i would be very much interested to hear them!

C&C very welcome and if anyone could rate the pics i would be most grateful










Mike.

Very good - I would suggest it is probably a million times better than the usual crap that is listed as 'pro painted'. I would suggest that if you do start selling stuff, you take plenty of good quality pictures so that prospective buyers can judge the standard for themselves.

As long as you sell popular stuff and choose reasonable colours you should be ok. As much as people say painting models and selling them on ebay looses money I have seen units of 20 BFSP NGs sell for £50+ and they weren't even that great.

I wouldn't make it a full-time career, but it's certainly a nice thing to do on the side. Especially when people offer to send you their already bought models for paint.

Ugh, 'Pro painted' is a joke on ebay.
Get yourself on CMON, if you're not already. It's all a bit abitrary, but it does help in making sales and generally rating your skill level, once you have a few pieces up. On their scale I reckon this piece should hit a 7.5 easily enough, given photos without the distracting background.

I reckon the fig you've done there would sell on ebay for about £30 (possibly £40 if you make a point of it having been seen on the GW site), if you're lucky, including the model cost. I'd charge about £55 (looks like a minor conversion for the t-hammer) for it as part of a commission, not including model cost. Direct selling on ebay is generally low money, but you can get follow on work from it, which is nice.

That is a very well painted mini.
I've seen some mini go for silly prices ($100s) but if you were able to do a couple of squads, a dread & a character you should fetch a pretty penny.

Also as 4M2A says, the subject is very important.
EG female nudes like Hasslefree's Artemis (http://www.hasslefreeminiatures.co.uk/pack.php?pack=816 WITH NIPPLE ALERT, painted - http://www.coolminiornot.com/143895 - which was one of those silly ones) can cross interest boundaries and so can fetch good doe.

My only real tip is to anounce any auction on as many forums as possible (here, forum of doom, bolter & chainsword etc) - any that have a large number of members.

Good luck!
BTW if you managed to paint that quite quickly, it IS up to GW standard IMO.

I would suggest painting colours, but leave off any Chapter Symbols and offer to do that AFTER they have won the auction, so you have a slightly larger audience. For example, yellow could be either Lamenters or Imperial Fists quite easily, but a big black fist on a white background is never Lamenters, and a heart dripping blood is never Imperial Fists!

That is one very well painted miniature

Before you have a go at becoming a full time painter you need to ask yourself a few things.

Are you happy to turn a hobby into a job? For many people this can kill of any enjoyment as a hobby is normaly a good way of escaping the presures of work

How quickly can you paint? if you can knock out several models of this standard a week then great, but if it takes you longer will it be viable.

How much will it cost you? It's not just the miniature itself but the paint, glue, space, listing fee's, packaging and posting that you will need to take into account before setting a price.

Can you handle painting miniatures/schemes that you don't really like? Remember that its about what sells not what you like to paint, people will tend to go for whatever army has been released that month so it could be Dark Eldar one day then Ogre Kingdoms the next.

In terms of pricing your models starting auctions off at 99p is a great way to spark interest but then you run the risk of selling too cheaply, vice versa if you price them too highly then this will kill off interest. For a character miniature of that size and standard I would see it getting at least £10 on top of the cost of the figure itself, maybe more.

With your listings be as honest as possible, take plenty of photos (these can be put in the description box to keep costs down) and be fair with your P&P charges.

well gees thanks guys you're positive comments really have made my day!!

R.E what i would hope to get from selling miniatures on e-bay, i doubt very much i would ever want/fundamentally have the skill to make it into a career, but i would certainly say that the most enjoyable "part" (for want of a better word) of warhammer would have to be painting, and if i could at least re-coup the model cost then it is something i would seriously consider doing.

i am a little nervous of selling something with a description of "pro-painted" tho, purely on the basis of what if i were to sell a miniature and the buyer was then disappointed by it when they received it - clearly i'm not suggesting i would try to "over-sell" something i have painted and i would certainly provide as many photo's as possible, just what if there was a bit i missed when painting?? or something like that!!

i think you're spot on squilverine, making it into anything more than an aside would fundamentally change the level of enjoyment - it would become something you 'have' to do, rather than "i quite fancy doing this" (if you see what i mean!!)

i may well have a think over the next couple of days about getting a miniature i fancy painting with a view to painting it up for auction, do conversions get on better than regular miniatures? (obviously not a rubbish conversion!) and would you be interested in seeing any progress?? (not trying to be big headed)

seriously thanks for you're advice and sorry to keep firing questions at you all!!!!

regards

Mike.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
oh and forgot to say, he took about a week at a very leisurely pace.

I will make a couple of comments having sold literally several thousand items on ebay over the years.

1. Your painting is very good. But instead of selling just on Ebay I would suggest taking commissions instead.

2. Start all of your auctions at .99 because the way to make money on Ebay is to get people bidding. Lots of times you can get people to act rather irrationally if you can just get them bidding.

3. NEVER describe your item as professionally painted. You can obviously take a good close up picture so jsut label it as painted and let your pictures do the talking.

Now as far as the painting goes you really need to decide if you really want to do it for a living and how fast you can do it. Most professional painters I have talked to don't really make that much per hour so you really need to think about that.

Sorry I don't have any advice on painting for money, but EXCELLENT work.

What technique did you use for the eyes?

well i have already had a PM regarding possibly doing a tutorial of some kind on faces - so watch this space, nothing is going to happen in a hurry tho, am a little snowed under atm! but when i get a min or two i will do my best


Mike.

Thats a very nicely painted mini - if I wasn't so incredibly poor I'd commission you to finish my Iyanden army. I hate painting yellow

I've sent off the odd mini to be pro-painted over the years (usually character models). My advice would be get a good portfolio of work to demonstrate your ability.

Also, consider offering different levels of service, some might want a large force done relatively quickly, while others may just want a character or elite unit, but painted up to a higher standard.

well i know this sounds strange given the title of the thread, but it's not really about the money per say (just hear me out! ) it's more that i really enjoy as the main part of the hobby painting up the individual character pieces (i.e the IF chapter champion) rather than mass painting minis to a table-top standard, so i was hoping i might be able to at least make what i had paid for the mini in the first place! the notion of actually making a profit is something that delights me, but also concerns me slightly - like i say before taking on a commission turns it into something i am then obliged to do, whereas if someone were to give me a mini to paint without paying, would mean i wouldn't feel the same pressure - after all you get what you pay! "a slow no frills service" - i feel my company slogan developing

Currently i am trying to force myself (for want of a better word) to paint up some marines to a lesser standard so that i can actually use them in a game, as things stand i have a collection of mini's painted up pretty well but not really an "army" if you see what i mean!!

here's a couple of shots of a Kor-sarro Khan conversion i did for a painting competition at my local store (again poor photo's i'm afraid) i can take some better pics if you would be interested to see them?






Mike.

Again, excellent work.

I remembered something my friend who used to own a game store told me about selling painted minis. Sell them as painted figures or some such to the general public outside the hobby community. He said you get a much better price and sell much faster than if you limit your self to the relatively small group of players who play Imperial Fists that are in need of figure X and who are willing to pay a reasonable price for the paint job.

He said my stuff blew away the stuff he said was selling quit well and your stuff blows my stuff away. I was never interested in selling my stuff so I never looked into it. So consider this secondhand unconfirmed "advice".

It all comes down to having good pictures and plenty of them. You can definitely make a profit but you have to be realistic, it won't be a career, the margins are too small.

zimmerman - are there other similar games/miniatures to warhammer which would be a good alternative to painting? i don't mean to sound naive, but my current painting experince has been limited to Games Workshop mini's

I'll echo the sentiment that eBay is not the way to make money painting. Sure, it's a good place to get rid of unwanted models, but you'll never make a solid profit.

The real money is in commissions. This is largely because no one really wants a one-off awesome mini on the table next to their crappily-painted force. Commissions allow you to book entire armies, units, or detachments for gamers who want stunning armies and have the cash tos pend on them.

eBay is a way to get rid of your early works for some cash, and build a portfolio of one-off works you can showcase on your eventual website.

Ebay and 'pro painted' are subjects that come up on Dakka every few months. The mistake people make is in equating 'pro' with 'well'.

Anyone that gets payed for something is doing it professionally. It has no bearing on there skill level, only that they get payed for what they do.

if you are selling mini's on ebay, they are all, by definition 'pro-painted'. Don't be ashamed of using that title. Your minis are very well painted and you should be proud of them.

MikeVG8 - Keep in mind I have no actual experience sellling mini's all this is what I remember a game store owner telling me 10 years ago. From what I remember the company didn't matter since these were sold as "painted figures" to people with no interest in gaming it all had to do with whatever struck their fancy with no regard to game mechanics or company.