Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

should i?? i am new to the game and i found it really pricey to build an army.
in order to reduce the saving money part, should purchase troops from ebay?
what are the advantages and disadvantages?

eldar_lenn wrote:should i?? i am new to the game and i found it really pricey to build an army.
in order to reduce the saving money part, should purchase troops from ebay?
what are the advantages and disadvantages?

Well you live in Aus like me so it aint all that bad buying stuff from the US. I personally buy figures and sets off Ebay and have generally get 30% cheaper then what GW sells them for.

Heres a link to a ebay store I go to. Red Dragon Games: http://stores.ebay.com.au/store=703099571

Go for it. Just don't always take everything at face value. If your also new to Ebay check the sellers history. Be sure to see if photos have everything for sale in them. The only really hangup can be shipping costs if its cross continental. Great to find some deals though on. Remember there's also online discount retailers selling GW products for as much as a third less sometimes if your looking for larger army deals.

I order from the UK, because GW is picking on Australia. I'm getting 40-45% off GW price here from the site I order from. They also offer free shipping...

www.maelstromgames.co.uk

Took about a week for my last order to get here
I've been put off ordering from ebay by everyone saying "oh, look out for counterfeits"

eBay is good if you're bidding on something and its shipping thats cheaper then Maelstrom's offer.
A friend of mine started with only eBay purchases and had a 1500pt Iron Warriors list after 1.5 months of surfing eBay and didn't have to touch a brush. Not saying he's a bad painter, just didn't have time to do it then and he's also the laziest non-obese person in history.

Maelstrom doesn't charge shipping, ships ASAP, offers mass discounts, and even with the exchange rate its like they're some kind of Anti-GW that loves customers and wants them to live fulfilling lives.


On a side-note regarding eBay:
I once saw an unpainted Ork Army with 4 battlewagons, 6 trukks, 140 AoBR boyz, 60 Boyz, 2 Stompas, 20 Lootas, 3 AoBR bosses, 30 AoBR Nobz, 24 Nobz, 5 mek boyz, 20 Deffkoptas and Ghazkghull with no arms. The bidding price was at $430, buy-it-now for $930 and made it up $800 before it was taken down when the seller realized they could make more money selling them one at a time. Idiot hadn't even thought of what the shipping price would be, had it at $40....

Ebay is the way to go. Period.

A good way to get troops at a really good price is to buy armies or units that have a HORRIBLE paint job, and then turn around and dip them, so that you can paint them yourself.

There are much worse ways to come about an army for sure...

Observer some auctions and buy when they are cheaper than form online shops.

Virtually all my Warhammer stuff is from ebay, second hand or from ebay stores. The thing I find you miss most by doing things this way is bits - many models will come with loads of bits if you buy them new but often when you buy second hand you only buy the model.

Though this can be partly solved by buying bits bags.

SilverMK2 wrote:Virtually all my Warhammer stuff is from ebay, second hand or from ebay stores. The thing I find you miss most by doing things this way is bits - many models will come with loads of bits if you buy them new but often when you buy second hand you only buy the model.

Though this can be partly solved by buying bits bags.

Ditto

Simply can't afford the full whack.
Don't mind if I haveto strip and repaint or add things as enjoy the modelling.W
With some buys it has been good just to get the stuff and go with it, as I have a lot on my plate at the moment.
Can always sort it later if I want.

Also some LFGS's sell second hand stuff.
and might be worth checking out the sales here on Dakka. If you can trust this lot


Automatically Appended Next Post:
ps If you do get stuff off eBay a word of warning.
It is easy to spend and spend

be patient and set yourself a highest bid and don't get caught up in a peeing war

Also make sure you factor in the postage costs!

If you miss an item there are usually several others, and one will be posted sometime.

My tip for saving money is to collect Dark Angels.

For £12 you can get the Chapter Upgrade which contains enough bitz to make ten marines (as well as a whole ton of other cool stuff). From a fluff perspective you should use the robes on senior company members. You also get ten boltguns with arms.

If you buy all of your "specialists" (Devastators, Command Squads, etc.) from discount retailers, you can do a simple swap, use the bodies from the specialists with the DA weapons and you have your un-robed tactical marines sorted... Then you can use your robes on your specialists (just say they're veterans) and you'll have a nice, cheap and fluffy army.

The DA Codex even allows you to have an excuse for using robed tacs... DA Veteran Squads take tac squads "slots" (up to six) in companies (as Veterans aren't from the first company in the DAs).

So let's say you buy two devastator squads, a command squad and a five-man marine boxset, as well as three chapter upgrade sprues:

That's three tactical squads (one veteran... dw that's just an aesthetic change, they still count as tacs), enough heavy weapons to equip said squads as well as make a full devastator squad (in robes) and your command squad sorted out... That'd only cost me (as a Brit, dunno about Oz) £87 from Wayland Games (with the DA sprues from GW). I know that's still pretty steep but that'd give you a nice core to an SM army and you could get your vehicles from e-bay!

As for terminators, Assault on Black Reach is a godsend for those. Be it from ebay, bitzbox or wherever you can easily get your hands on some Terminators for roughly £2 each, just stick on some new arms or heads from bitzbox

Hope that helps.

eldar_lenn wrote:should i?? i am new to the game and i found it really pricey to build an army.
in order to reduce the saving money part, should purchase troops from ebay?
what are the advantages and disadvantages?

What army?

You can certainly get cheap tactical squads and ork boys if you search for Assualt on Black Reach. However, they're kind of boring and don't have all of the options. But, if $$$ is an issue, they can get you started.

I use ebay a fair amount. I prefer to support my friendly local game store as much as possible, but I can't turn down a sweet ebay deal when I find one. In my group of friends, ebay purchases and other online discount store purchases are fairly common, but we play at home, not at game stores. The few times I have played at a game store, I have always made a point to bring a list of things I'm looking for and pick up a few items (or at least place an order).

Go for it.
1. Just make sure you read all of the details. Is it assembled, painted, primed, or what? Don't go by the picture, as a lot of places use stock photos.
2. Make sure that shipping $$$ is plainly spelled out before you purchase. A few bad apples will try to stick it to you. I haven't had problems, though.
3. If you are unclear what is in the photo(s), ask.
4. Pull up the Games Workshop page and see if you are really getting a good deal. Again, make sure you factor in the shipping cost.
5. You generally won't find too many deals that are more than 20% off the retail price. That quickly drops when you add in shipping costs.
6. Shop around.
7. "Pro Painted" is a very subjective turn. If that matters to you, make sure the pictures truely represent the paint job.
8. Read people's feedbacks. If they have a lot of negative reviews, beware.

Good advice Kronk

Also check out Codex/Army books.
Got the current Dwarf and O&G books recently,

As a case in point the former was in excellent condition and with postage £10 less than retail.

The latter was not as described in the listings as being worn :(
Was a bit dog eared but cost £7 with postage and tbh I couldn't be bothered with the hassle of quibbling over a couple of quid. It'll pay for the lesson learned

In my experience buying on ebay, most people are jolly decent sorts just flogging stuff, but be careful as Kronk said.

eBay is where it's at. As long as you're a smart shopper you can get things for wicked cheap. I got about $180 worth of Tyranids for $100 this week, all unpainted and many still on sprue.

Before dropping money at feebay, I'd check out Bartertown (I always do). Sometimes, you can't find what you're looking for but, when you (usually) do, it's almost always a far better bargain than feebay.

Eric

Plus, the Admin staff there are REALLY COOL!