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Afternoon all

After deciding to have a right good clear out I've got quite a fair bit of stuff that I'm going to sell. I've sold stuff on E-Bay numerous times but never quite in these quantities before.

As the stuff I'm selling represents a large amount of both money and time to me I want to make sure I'm taking the most sensible option.

I'm selling a relatively small sized Lizardman army, my excess Marine stuff and a large Dwarf army.

Selling stuff seperately has it's advantages, I believe you generate more money than if you were to sell them all as one lot.

The disadvantages to selling individual bits as I seem them are:

1) Waiting for 20 different people to pay as opposed to a few can be frustrating. I like to post all my stuff in one go and get it done, waiting on a couple of people to pay means multiple trips to the Post Office.

2) Certain items may not sell. I'm looking for a fine balance of shifting my stuff and a reasonable return. Unsold items just means relisting them over and over. Not ideal.

I would prefer to sell my stuff in large lots but I fear alienating potential buyers who may not want to buy a full army and as a result do not bid as they only want one or two component parts.

Any of you have experience selling large lots on E-Bay? Are there enough potential buyers out there to warrant selling them in large lots or am I better breaking them down?

I dislike having Buy It Now prices on stuff so would want to avoid putting them on my items but would feel a little bit paranoid my stuff might go for a ridiculous cheap price. How do people feel about reserve prices? I have never bid on items that have a reserve and would be worried that others may not for my stuff.

Any help is appreciated.

Boar

Larger lots with higher values tend to, as far as I have experienced, go for less than they would if you split them up.

There are plenty of people who can afford to bid £20-50, but fewer who would want to put down £200-500. As there is less competition at the higher end of the scale, you may only get 1 or 2 bids and there will be fewer people who will "top out" your bids.

For example, I bought a massive 5000 point eldar army on ebay for about £200, split it up and have sold about 3000 points of it for about £400 by splitting it up into smaller lots.

Yeah good point, I'd better be wary of you bidding on my stuff

Joking aside I'm happy if someone were to buy it and make a bit for themselves by breaking it up. It's just that I don't want to get stung really.

I'm probably being a bit over anal about it all. I have probably only ever played 3-4 games of fantasy in my life so the models are pretty useless to me. It's just that the Dwarves alone would retail at near £500. Whilst I am obviously not expecting anything like that amount if it all went for £30 I wouldn't be laughing

you might want to put a summary and some pics on swap shop first, see if anyone bites. could save on listing fees and it's probably less of a hassle

(you wouldn't happen to have metal longbeards, or the last classic wheeled grudge thrower in that dwarf lot, would you? )

Yeah, send me a list of the SM stuff you have an what prices you have in mind. You might not even need to go to eBay.

I'm afraid not my only 'classic' War Machine is the Flame Cannon. All the others are the new style. I'm also sorry to say the Longbeards are upgraded from the current plastic Dwarven Warriors sprue as well so I'm little help I'm afraid!

Yeah was considering putting the stuff on here but there is very little (and pretty specific) stuff I would like to swap. I'll have never traded on here before so might have a quick butchers at the Swap Shop rules and put my stuff on here. Suppose if nothing comes of it I could always put it up on ebay in a few weeks time.

Ah, bugger
well, there's plenty of buying/selling going on in swap shop, so good luck

When i sold my army, i broke it down into 5-6 smaller lots, and sold them for a modest price each. I doubt anyone would have dropped £200 on the army.

But a little advice, when you break down the army in certains groups to sell as one, put the 'high demand' stuff with the 'unwanted' stuff. for example, i had 10 assault marines. Realistically, they would not sell, as assault marines aren't great. So i put them with a LRC and sold them as a lot. Needless to say, they sold. If you dont do something like that, you'll be left with a pile of models you cant shift because they are undesirable.

My biggest issue with selling in smaller lots is that I don't want to be stuck with unusuable pieces.

My buddy wanted to buy my Skorne off of me, but wouldn't buy the army as a whole, simply wanted bits and pieces, but basically would have left me with 4 warcasters, 2 light beasts, and a unit or two. Yes it's still a playable army, but it would be a severely gimped army.

Yeah both valid points, I agree that selling them in one hit is probably not the best idea, particularly with the models I have. I've posted a thread in Dakka Swapshop as I'd rather trade for stuff I want rather than get money anyway. When it comes time to shift my Dwarves and Lizardmen I will probably do the same.

Thanks for the input guys.

No-one has yet touched on the point I made about Reserve prices. Whats the general consensus? I have never bid on any items that carry a reserve, what about you guys? I understand the security it poses for a buyer but do you find it a deterrent from bidding? same as BIN prices as well really.

Ta

Boar