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i think it depends very much on where your selling it-if your selling it to someone at a club/store then chances are you'll get more then if you put it on ebay. stuff just dosnt get good money on there-you can buy 2 leman russ for £25.

IMHO you cant actually factor in your costs-time, paint, etc as unless its a commissioned piece, its harsh but i dont really care about your time do I? i just want to buy your army! and unless you do this for a living then youve got a large enjoyment from building it.


personally i think that if you sell anything over 2 squads, you should be happy if you get 80% of what you paid for it. but thats just me.

its crazy the stuff you find at car boot sales-its the 15 year old boy buys army, gets bored, mum sells it at carboot. she dosnt know its worth £200 so when you over her 25 for the lot shes just happy to get rid of it!

Another thing to keep in mind is if this is an army someone else will want to play. I wouldn't mind paying for an army that is done that is one that I will play right out of the box. This means options, alternate units, and other stuff like that. It's also a pain to have to add on units later and then try to blend them into the existing paint scheme since it's hard to match it up to make it look like it's a part of it.

Largely it's down to paint job. If it's better than most them people will pay for that benefit. If it's only fit for stripping then it's worth a good bit less than RRP.

I buy almost all of my GW models used. Most of the time they get tossed in the simple green immediately. The only time I keep them is if the paint job is better than what I could do or if it's a rank and file unit that matches my army pretty well. I always end up paying around 10-30% of retail so the paintjobs are usually pretty bad. When I go to sell them I always get at least 50-100% of retail depending on the model. The model is more important than the paintjob. Try selling a beautifully painted war walker sometime. Then try selling a badly painted wraithguard. You'll probably get more for the wraithguard. It also depends on the army. It's hard to get good money for well painted marines or Eldar because the color schemes have to be pretty precise. On the other hand, it's pretty easy to sell well painted orks because the color schemes don't have to match for them to look right on the table.

krazynadechukr2 wrote:Hm. I still see my topic is not being heard correctly. I am not asking the percieved value of ones army by others. Or what others might pay for your army.
What do YOU see is the value of your army?

I wanted to know how you would determine the value of your army.

For example, I paid $400 is boxes & bits. I used $10 of black primer, I used 20% of my 15 paints (15x$3.00 a bottle=$45.00x.20)=$9, I used $10 in green stuff, I used $5 in super glue, I used 20% of my flock $2.00, I spent 48 hours in labor work (x current national minimum wage is 6.55) $314.40......making my army worth $750.40......

Your trying to quantify 'value', which is mixed up with personal opinion, and being vague about it. So yeah, you won't get the answer you want. Then again, no one every said that you would.)

I determine the value of my army based on replacement cost, which I think is what the OP is looking for. My models have a certain value, the materials have value, and either my time to paint a new army, or the cost of having it professionally done (whichever is cheaper) all factor into it. As i'm now unemployed (well, studying for the bar), the value of the paint job is a bit less, but even then it's safe to say $10 or so an hour. With 300 painted IG to replace, I think the paint job might be more costly to replace than the models (although finding 240 praetorians is no simple task).

krazynadechukr2 wrote:Hm. I still see my topic is not being heard correctly.

Are you sure your topic was written correctly? I and just about everyone else thought you wanted to know how to determine a resale value.

Here's how you determine a resale value - figure out what $$ value you can sell it for. I can say my army is worth whatever number I want but I'm not the only person involved in the sale. To get a resale value you have to figure in the potential buyer. The buyer isn't going to care how much glue you used. The buyer isn't going to know or care that you spilled your Enchanted Blue so you added $3 for a fresh bottle. The buyer only knows what they are willing to pay.

Many others have already told you what yo need so I won't go into great detail here:
Materials - don't expect to sell the models for retail
Paint job - multiple award winning is a plus, any other paint is a liability
Complete army - can be a plus especially if its a tested tournament winner for those turnkey people

Also keep in mind where you are selling. People visiting that Popular Online Auction Site That Charges Lots of Fees are there to look for a deal or something really specific. They are NOT going to say, "Oooh painted! I'll pay double price for that!"

There is no such thing as determining the resale value of an army. It's not like a car where you can look up the fair market value on Edmunds or KBB.

It's resale price is going to be based on the preceived value of the potential buyer. You will only ever get what someone else is willing to pay for it.

IF I were to sell my army, I would price it maybe 10% higher and sell it as a bulk item (entire army). I would explain it as 10% of effort placed in painting and assembling. Of course the price would be negotiable but I would try not to go below retail value. I love painting and having painted that many figures is enough to cancel out any profit I am hoping to get.

The precived value of my armies when/if I sell them is to get as much as I can and anyone not going by that is probably economically independent. If that value gets to low its not worth selling, at least in my eyes.

When buying i prefer to pay 50-75% of the starter price, usually for unpainted or partially painted armies. I leave the master class armies that goes for 2-3x(or more) retail prices for someone with crapload of money and crap painting skills.

Ok, heres a crazy related question. My Orks are painted fairly well, have a nice mix of units and have some neato conversions. theres just one little issue... they are blue.

Does that just lower retail value, or make my orks virtually unsaleable, assuming that most people don't want to strip models?

nintendoeats wrote:Ok, heres a crazy related question. My Orks are painted fairly well, have a nice mix of units and have some neato conversions. theres just one little issue... they are blue.

Does that just lower retail value, or make my orks virtually unsaleable, assuming that most people don't want to strip models?

this is a good example. if you put it on eblag and someone who wanted them found them, you could get a decent price, as oppsed to someone who wants them to strip and to sell/re use, who would want it for a steal.

nintendoeats wrote:Ok, heres a crazy related question. My Orks are painted fairly well, have a nice mix of units and have some neato conversions. theres just one little issue... they are blue.

Does that just lower retail value, or make my orks virtually unsaleable, assuming that most people don't want to strip models?

Find the right person and it will be a selling point. It's all subjective. That's the entire point of this thread. What you think your item is worth is no more important than what a potential buyer thinks it's worth. If you find someone who's willing to give you twice retail for it then that's great. That's not very likely, though. I don't think that winning awards makes much of a difference. That's all marketing. If you have a lot of awards and you start offering your services then more people who might be willing to spend a lot on a painted army will know your name. Paint up a few of them nicely and they'll spread the word about you. The more people that come to you knowing how much they're going to have to pay beforehand the more you'll make.

krazynadechukr2 wrote:Hm. I still see my topic is not being heard correctly.

What do YOU see is the value of your army?

I wanted to know how you would determine the value of your army.

Like any other artwork, the most basic value is mostly based on what someone else would pay for it. And that value is usually no higher than the retail value of the models. In the vast majority of cases, more "work" on a model *decreases* the value of the model.

Or you could look at the insured replacement value of the army, which then becomes equal to the price of the models plus an allowance for having a 3rd party build & paint the army to the same built & painted standard.

If some pieces are out of production or actually "rare", then there may be some additional collector value. But this is unlikely. This is mass-production stuff, and it is easy to buy pretty much anything.

Now, sure, it's easy to inflate things with sentimental / heirloom value, but that's pure puff.


In my case, I think I would look at the insured value as a fair median value. I buy at 20+% off retail, am meticulous in assembly, and assembly-line paint to a tabletop standard, so, I'd gather:
. 80% for the models
. 80% for the building
. 100% for the painting
= 250+% total

That's about as big of a number as I can toss at it and still defend.

80% for building? those must be mighty nice conversions, giving that putting a box of Boystogether takes me an and hour and a half tops. Of course, I do my converting after the first build...

nintendoeats wrote:Ok, heres a crazy related question. My Orks are painted fairly well, have a nice mix of units and have some neato conversions. theres just one little issue... they are blue.

Does that just lower retail value, or make my orks virtually unsaleable, assuming that most people don't want to strip models?

I would bet that it drops the retail value, but it depends on how large your army is. Someone likes the idea, buys your army as a start for theirs and paint up the rest in your scheme, they may pay a lot. I wouldn't buy your orks at a steep discount.

The comparison of armies to cars is misleading. Army's values aren't similar to cars, or houses, they are similar to art. The final price of an army is so subjective it isn't funny. At the end of the day, if someone likes it, it sells for how many dollars the buyer is willing to part for it. If the buyer is only willing to buy cheap, then

I think the OP wanted to know, if you had to put a dollar amount on what your army is worth, how would you do so. How much money would you sell your soul for sort of thing. Because I've never sold anything Ive painted, I personally think of my armies' value as what they are insured for, because I had my house broken into awhile back and someone stole a good bit of my painted stuff. (I'm not a great painter, nor am I a wackjob who insures his models, I had home owners insurance) I got 3x the retail value- the adjuster was great, marked my loss down as irreplaceable artifacts or some other such nonsense.

Edit: dang you Johnwangg, putting up a post compairing minis to art as I was typing mine

nintendoeats wrote:80% for building? those must be mighty nice conversions, giving that putting a box of Boystogether takes me an and hour and a half tops. Of course, I do my converting after the first build...

I originally got into 40k as a modeler / painter.

I file every seam, gap-fill, resurface when needed, pin all metal, drill all barrels, etc. Very solid prep. Like I said, I'm meticulous about building.

As for conversions, I do those, too. Especially Tanks.

I usually do a lot of design work, but I didn't factor that into the cost - any 3rd party builder/painter would be given spec to work from.

sleazy wrote:

You may not like it but Linkdead is right, how many times have you resold regular still in production GW minis and gotten what you paid back?

I have always made a profit when selling my armies...I have painted armies for GW stores and I sold many individual models for 2x-6x the blister cost.....One of my buyers even won bronze at a GW gamesday.....I never got credit :(

Anyway, the original point of my post has gone way off track. Many people are on one mind set I see, and are stuck in it.....

*SIGH*

Oh well....

Conformitty of the masses....

to answer your question, My army is priceless, but I suppose I would have to say it is about as valuable to me as my computer, PS3, or anything else that has video game saves on it. I have put my life equally into those. Does that answer your question?

nintendoeats wrote:to answer your question, My army is priceless, but I suppose I would have to say it is about as valuable to me as my computer, PS3, or anything else that has video game saves on it. I have put my life equally into those. Does that answer your question?

If my house was on fire, I would grab my girlfriend, my army, photos, and clothes, in that order.





Maybe army first. I spent more on it than my girlfriend so far, and she can run on her own.

Being a professional artist since I was 13, I have to concur that the amount of money that you can sell something artsy for is VERY subjective. That being said, I have sold a few armies in the past and made out pretty good. I take the cost of the models and then add in the same amount I would charge to assamble paint them. Usually it runs around $4-6 per infantry fig, vehicles are cost + %50 as are characters/monstrous creatures. Granted this can get pretty pricey, depending on the army, but, you are getting an army that looks great, is completely based, all chapter/unit markings are hand painted, etc.

J'santai Khan wrote:cost + %50

That's not a bad price, and roughly what I charged for tabletop when I painted for hire.

I agree with the whole, it depends on how it looks. I dont care if youve spent $100 on an army, if it is painted badly and converted badly and just put together badly, I wont be paying 100 bucks. Much less even lol. But if its decent to good, it again depends on how well. An army that looks nice and painted well will fetch more then what you put into it for sure

This thread caught my eye, since I'm contemplating selling my Dwarf army once I finish it.

Having never sold any of my own armies, I would hope that the sale would cover the costs of the miniatures and cover a little of the hours and hours it takes to paint it.

A 2000 pt, fully painted and based fantasy army for $600-$700? I don't think that's unreasonable.

J'santai Khan wrote:Being a professional artist since I was 13

not trying to go sideways but;
how old are you now

and what exactly qualified you as a professional artist?

As far as I'm concerned, painting and assembling REDUCES what they're worth, as I'll have to strip them and reassemble them how I want. And the fact that it's a '2k army' is irrelevant either. I'd just be trying to amass models for my own army list, not play with someone else's...

I don't tend to buy models unless they're around half retail value on eBay or something. If they're any more expensive, I'd rather just pay full whacvk and get a shiny new box...

Maybe, if they're painted by an absolutely AMAZING painter, then some lazy people who don't like painting will pay more for them, but they'd have to be pretty good.

Paint, flocking, and conversion decrease value in my eyes. It means more work for me once I receive it.

Unless that is specifically what I am looking to buy, in which case I wouldn't be buying some random guys army off ebay anyway. Instead I would have contracted a service to get exactly what I wanted.

ArbitorIan wrote:As far as I'm concerned, painting and assembling REDUCES what they're worth, as I'll have to strip them and reassemble them how I want. And the fact that it's a '2k army' is irrelevant either. I'd just be trying to amass models for my own army list, not play with someone else's...

I don't tend to buy models unless they're around half retail value on eBay or something. If they're any more expensive, I'd rather just pay full whacvk and get a shiny new box...

Maybe, if they're painted by an absolutely AMAZING painter, then some lazy people who don't like painting will pay more for them, but they'd have to be pretty good.

I gotta agree - soon as you break 'em out of the pack, they've lost a good chunk o' value as far as I'm concerned. I'll pay a bit more for out-of-print miniatures, but I'm afraid I have to admit that I simply don't love your SPAES MARIENZ as much as you do...

dirkthe1 wrote:

J'santai Khan wrote:Being a professional artist since I was 13

not trying to go sideways but;
how old are you now

and what exactly qualified you as a professional artist?

I am 40 years old, and have been tattooing professionally for over 20 years. Before that I had a very successful pinstriping/sign painting business, that I ran out of my uncles body shop. I've also been doing commissioned miniatures since I was in high school (mostly Napoleonics & english civil war stuff, graduating to the current Citadel lines) & have done quite a few large scale murals. Not to go sideways myself, but last time I checked, if you are being paid for a service, you are a professional. Since I had a business license and paid taxes on said painting business, I'm pretty sure that made me a "professional", even though I was only 13.

The first army I sold off was my Imperial guard army about three years ago. I calculated its retail cost and multiplied it by 1.5. The army sold instantly and I realized I had significantly underpriced my army.

The second army I sold was my Necron army. This army was the second I ever painted and I felt the quality of my painting was crap. I sold this army at about cost.

The third army I sold was my Emperors Children army shortly after the new chaos codex came out. It was at a weird time when blastmasters and sonic blasters were unavailable so I doubled the price of each model. However, I elected to sell it off piecemail instead of as one large army.

The fourth army I sold was a plague zombie Lost and the Damned army. I had given up on there ever being a Lost and the Damned codex any time soon. I elected to sell it off piecemail because I figured fantasy players would want my plague zombies and chaos hounds while 40k players would want my defilers and nurgle champions. I sold this at just above cost balancing the quality of the army against the fact that NO ONE CAN EVER PLAY THE ARMY.

The fifth army I sold was my Eldar jetbike army. The paintjob was extremely good and I spent a lot of time making it. I sold this army at 2 times cost. I figured the current economic situation would prevent me from getting any more.