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Hey guys I'm inside ring creating an ebaystore stocking solely FW bitz. Just wondering how many people would be interested in purchasing things lil early MK space marines bitz and DKOK and what sort of prices is acceptable.

I was thinking at first buying 5 squad of each MK of armour to get it started with and later expand into special characters vehicles, dkok, elysians etc. Iv noticed that there aren't many online stores that regularly stock FW bitz and if they do they are priced ridiculously: for example one torso for a space marine would be like $4.50 which is obserd. So I thought I'd help out by undercutting all those rip off stores and price my items less. But I thought I may aswell ask around on dakka if it would even e worth it, if there's even a market for it, incase it's just a dead end.

Basically what I was thinking was listing my items with prices such as:
Torsos for $3. // legs for $3.20 // left+right arms for $2 // 2x shoulder pads for $2 // heads fr $2.50 // and back packs for $2.50

Obviously there will be combined shipping, a 24hour shipment after payment guaranteed. And obviously will have some specials from time to time for dakka members.

So yeh, the question is, would YOU purchase these items? Do you think these prices are reasonable? And do you think that a cheaper source for FW bitz is required?

All help and comments would be greatly appreciated!!

I would definitely be interested in an ebay store that sells just FW bits.
Bitzbox UK sells FW bits, but the main problem is they are nearly always out of stock. I recommend you go and check the prices on their website.

Good luck!

Would be interested if you could get them being sold cheaper than forgeworld lol.

Why would I want to lose money? The idea to this is selling BITZ individually not whole sets

God yes!

But then the question WILL arise, how original are these pieces....

And will you buy the Barbed Hierodule Body i have?

Everything will be bought straight from FW and no miscasts will be sold, I'm basically going to treat the customers asif they were me, and if the cast is not good enough fr me then it obviously wont be sold. Simple as that.
As I said, ATM I'm looking at just marine bits as they are the most popular to move around. This way I can establish myself financially and gain a reputation in te process and then can move onto other armies. - makes sense don't it?!


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I mean as I said I'm looking at getting 5 x every mk of armour that's already £500+ investment

There is quite a bit on EBAY already, I just search "FORGEWORLD" on Ebay.co.uk.

It's upto you, but it's a pretty saturated market and your P&P from AUS is going to be a bit steep. It might be an AUS only market.

It's a good idea, and while you need to make a profit there's not a chance I would buy from you if they are anything like the prices they put them on ebay for currently, you may as well buy a complete kit

That would be awesome, defiantly ordering FW bitz rather than kits!

If you are buying straight from FW your prices are going to be pretty high. Plus shipping from Australia is pretty steep. I'm not telling you to not give it a shot but there really isn't going to be much money in it.

There is no money in this. imo

You will get stuck with many many bits that no one wants.

For example, you buy a Command squad, everyone wants that 1 guy out of it, or the weapons, and the rest could just set there.

You can bit out GW kits, as a retailer only pays around 51% of the cost of what is listed on GW's site.

(Yes, your local stores are making a 49% ish profit per kit)
Of course unless things have changed since i last had access to the price list.

anywho, when you get almost 50% off you can afford to break the kits up for bits.

Spyder68 wrote:
(Yes, your local stores are making a 49% ish profit per kit)
Of course unless things have changed since i last had access to the price list.

As a disclaimer: They only make 49% profit if the store magically operates itself for free. That 49% gets eaten into with a lot of costs like:
* Rental of store space (Consider that gaming space doesn't hold product, so...)
* Utilities (Lights, water for the toilet, etc.)
* Employees (Yes, some stores pay employees in product (which may not be legal anyway...), but that's still a cost.)
* Shrink (Stuff gets stolen, the store may have to occasionally eat a miscast blister the manufacturer won't give them credit on, etc.)
* Misc. Expenses

Running a retails tore is expensive. Most of the above apply to online stores, but much less so: Rent on warehouse space is cheaper, utilities for a warehouse can be less, less staff required, less shrink due to theft (hopefully) but still not nil.

Yes but the ideal plan is to be supplying people with BITZ obviously of you want to buy a whole squad you go pay retail for the squad, this market is projected at the people who are looking for individual peices, for example let's say someone wants 1 Marine of each MK of armour, they arent going to go spend £100 to buy each squad, but they could possibly spend £30 to get those bitz. Or for people who are missings parts or who just want the helmets or legs or torsos. This isn't intended for people to buy a whole squad. But to buy specific bitz, singularly or in bulk. Plus shipping for a little bag of bitz anywhere in the world is not THAT expensive. Yes it's better to buy from within the uk if you live in the uk etc, but some people aren't that fortunate.

Anywho I'll update in the near future with regards to what is happening.

Brother-Captain Scotti wrote:It's a good idea, and while you need to make a profit there's not a chance I would buy from you if they are anything like the prices they put them on ebay for currently, you may as well buy a complete kit

there used to be bits actions starting at 99 cents. i got so many sets of 5 legs for like 3-4 bucks. now iv noticed all of those auctions are gone because of the simple fact that people dont like paying on ebay.

with all the snipers chances are you will be selling at a major loss usually if you go the auction route.

I'm curious having just bought some FW last week and needed some replacements issued.

Buying directly from FW allows you to call them and get replacements from miscasts on specific pieces of the model you purchased. Which happens a lot. You give them your order number, and the batch numbers from the bags they come in. All in all a pretty painless process. When you purchase direct.

How are you going to address the sometimes necessary returns of pieces on a customer service level? Is it your intent to check out all of the kits prior to posting on eBay?

It's not necessarily something you need to answer here/now but it may be something you want to think about internally with your business partners as your trying to get this whole thing off of the ground.

I've been looking at some bitz on ebay, and when I sat down and calculated it out, it only took a few bits before I had totaled the squad price from FW. I might as well buy the full squad for the price of 2-3 I'd pay bitz wise, and thats even just the US to US shipping. I am sure theres impulsive buyers out there who just click buy rather then being willing to wait for a FW order, but to me it seems like they price themselves out of the market.

@wolf13: That's how bitz sellers make their money. That's the point.

I don't want to discourage you, Nrljm, but I don't see how you could make much money on this deal. The first strike against you is that you're in Australia, which means most of the world will have to pay for more expensive shpping. Also, Forgeworld doesn't cut deals for retailers. You might save on shipping by taking advantage of FW's free shipping, but I think you'll soon realize that those savings won't be enough to cover the fact that you'll be buying kits, selling a few of the most popular bitz, and then building up a bunch of stuff people just don't want.

MightyGodzilla wrote:Buying directly from FW allows you to call them and get replacements from miscasts on specific pieces of the model you purchased. Which happens a lot. You give them your order number, and the batch numbers from the bags they come in. All in all a pretty painless process. When you purchase direct.

How are you going to address the sometimes necessary returns of pieces on a customer service level? Is it your intent to check out all of the kits prior to posting on eBay?

It's not necessarily something you need to answer here/now but it may be something you want to think about internally with your business partners as your trying to get this whole thing off of the ground.

Nrljm wrote:Everything will be bought straight from FW and no miscasts will be sold, I'm basically going to treat the customers asif they were me, and if the cast is not good enough fr me then it obviously wont be sold. Simple as that.

I think this will be your biggest stumbling block. If you start getting into the business of doing FW quality control, you're setting yourself up for heartbreak.

pretre wrote:@wolf13: That's how bitz sellers make their money. That's the point.

oh, I don't disagree, they have to have return. But where is the balancing point where it makes it worthwile to buy bitz versus the whole squad? I only need 1 entire + about 5 various bits (helmets and standard guns) total, but at the price they offer, that is only a 2-3 dollars short of buying the whole squad of 10 from FW. They just priced themselves out of making that sale to me. If I could have saved the price of a good chunk of an entire squad, that would might have been worth sacrificing FW's good will on the return (though in this case I will be buying full squads anyway from FW, its just a matter of finishing out the numbers I need).