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.

(this isn't my photo by the way)

So I was given this starter set by a friend who stopped playing 40K, and I was curious as to the resale value on it as I'm not too into the models (I don't play DE and the other models don't help with my true scale marines).

Any one have any ideas?

Probably the same price that was paid for it originally.

Any (very small) appreciation in value because it's vintage is going to be more than made up for by the fact that it contains older, uglier models. Plus, there is inevitably a loss due to having so much stuff that can't even be used anymore.

Yeah, 3rd edition isn't something that people are wildly nostalgic for, so the rules aren't really in demand.

The Dark Eldar are the original plastics, and quite ugly. Worth something to people still collecting armies from that vintage, but not attractive to anyone with newer DE.

And the Marines are the same models as are available in the Tactical Squad box now, but without most of the extra gubbinz. Likewise, the landspeeder is the current kit without the extra weapons, although a lot of the early casts were really prone to warping and so were a real cow to assemble.

SO... not particularly valuable as a collectible, although it might go for retail value to a die hard collector if you get lucky.

I'll take it off your hands. My buddy has a ton of old DE.

Based on the GW price increase over the last few years, and the nominal amount of interest attrition?
1 bazillion dollars.

Kidding aside, that'd be an awesome thing to have...

I wouldn't pay anymore than $20-30 for it. Most of the box is pretty unusable/unsellable. The marines, landspeeder, terrain and dice are about the extent of the useful stuff in there.

I second most of these opinions here. Probably not worth much. GW itself was GIVING away those plastic Dark Eldar models at a Games Day I went to in 2007 or so. I've got sprues with 25 of the ugly things in my closet somewhere.

If even GW is giving models away, you really know they are worthless.

If I were you, I'd open the box and sell the marines and that little terrain kit separately. I figure you might make in the neighborhood of $25 - $35. Personally, I couldn't even give DE away to members of my local gaming group.

I always want to get some old Dark Eldar models for variety, but then I look at them again and come to my senses.

If those were modern DE models, I'd take it off your hands. As it stands, I imagine the others are right and it won't go for much.

This thread is also interesting vis a vis people who constantly whine about GW price hikes. If you were to build an army with the same stuff in it out of new boxes, you'd likely have to spend some $200 for it.

The fact that the people here aren't willing to part with more than $20 or $30 is really rather telling. Apparently, the quality of what GW produces has gone up some tenfold since this box set came out. If it was just pointless, greedy price hiking with no other changes, you'd expect to be able to sell it for a whole lot more.

It's about $126.90 at current prices for the contents. The speeder, templates and marines are pretty okay. The DE are really what sink the boat ($46.4 of that $126 is DE).

The quality of the marines, landspeeder and templates have not gone up ten-fold in that time. The quality of the DE certainly has.

The reason I wouldn't pay more than $30 is that the Landspeeder is about $15-20 used and tactical marines/templates are basically free to very cheap used. The fact that those three things cost new about $70-80 has nothing to do with it since they are low-demand second hand items.

If your actually interested in getting rid Of it I would possibly be interested

I'm perfectly ok with current GW prices, I find them fair and reasonable with the exception of some models being finecast that shouldn't... Grotesques are just too expensive money wise to use, for instance. Incubi are fine as Finecast because they come in 5 and you won't need more than that. Meganobs likewise are too expensive to field for me. But finecast HQs and plastic everythings? Those are fine.

I think this is more a matter that a large number of those models are now useless, and Dark Eldar are the only line I think was EVER too ugly to field. The others always looked good to me, which was a shame for the longest time as I really wanted Dark Eldar, but I spend more time painting and building than playing. Thankfully 5th edition made it so.

The templates are slightly smaller then newer ones. Also, some of the early 3rd ed rulebooks were poorly bound and the covers fell off.

 Nevelon wrote:
The templates are slightly smaller then newer ones. Also, some of the early 3rd ed rulebooks were poorly bound and the covers fell off.

I didn't know that about the templates. I definitely knew that about the 3rd ed rulebooks though. Ouch those things exploded.

 pretre wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
The templates are slightly smaller then newer ones. Also, some of the early 3rd ed rulebooks were poorly bound and the covers fell off.

I didn't know that about the templates. I definitely knew that about the 3rd ed rulebooks though. Ouch those things exploded.

If you aren't laying one template on top of the other to compare, you'd never notice. My 3rd ed flamer template is about 1mm shorter, and blasts are similarly smaller. I used to toss both the 3rd ed and the 4th ed templates in my gaming bag when I went out. When the new fancy ones came out with 6th, some of us got to talking about where to measure, and in the process of checking the new ones, I noticed that my old ones were not the same.

I paid $50.00 for one on ebay about 9 months ago, still in shrink wrap.

I sell a ton of crap on ebay, and if you have patientce, anything new in the shrink wrap can go for a premium.

As stated above 3ed stuff is in low demand, would have been better if it had that special edition Black Templar captain in there, but it's still a good collectable.

Even so, if I were you I'd list it at $60-$80 with appropriate shipping. Do a buy it now option 30 day listing, not an auction, and then just let it run till it sells w automatic turnover every 30 days.

Sometimes it astounds me how much you can get for older models simply because they are NIB.

Hope that helps

(wolflord2002 on ebay)

There's the "shop price" and the "auction price."

As Instictual points out, if you have the time to sit on it for months, you might get closer to retail.

the actual auction price on eBay, which is as close to fair market value as anythign collectible gets, is likely to be lower for the reasons pointed out.

The 3rd edition rulebook is actually pretty cool in terms of fluff, and it also includes army lists for everything but Tau and Necrons (and, really, grey knights). But it's an item with very low value, and the DE models were bad. Not 2nd edition box set Ork bad but charming, but just bad. The Tacticals are ok if you have the weapon bitz you want, as is the speeder.

Realistically, somethat wanted 10 tactical marine bodies and a landspeeder hull is your biggest potential customer, and they'll likely pay ~70% of retail for those two items, including shipping. Which comes out to about $50.

 Ailaros wrote:
The fact that the people here aren't willing to part with more than $20 or $30 is really rather telling

'People'...?

So far, one poster has mentioned paying $20-30 for it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Nevelon wrote:
The templates are slightly smaller then newer ones. Also, some of the early 3rd ed rulebooks were poorly bound and the covers fell off.

It's not just from this box. GW's templates have varied by anything up to a couple of mm over the years depending on which plastic they were using for them... There have been 4 or 5 variants so far, and most of them have been very slightly different.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Instinctual wrote:
As stated above 3ed stuff is in low demand, would have been better if it had that special edition Black Templar captain in there, but it's still a good collectable.

It's really not.

GW re-issued that miniature half a dozen times after the 3rd ed starter, and in 4th edition was selling it as a general release alongside the Captain from the metal Command Squad box. As GW 'limited editions' go, it's about the least collectible.

 insaniak wrote:

 Ailaros wrote:
The fact that the people here aren't willing to part with more than $20 or $30 is really rather telling

'People'...?

So far, one poster has mentioned paying $20-30 for it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Nevelon wrote:
The templates are slightly smaller then newer ones. Also, some of the early 3rd ed rulebooks were poorly bound and the covers fell off.

It's not just from this box. GW's templates have varied by anything up to a couple of mm over the years depending on which plastic they were using for them... There have been 4 or 5 variants so far, and most of them have been very slightly different.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Instinctual wrote:
As stated above 3ed stuff is in low demand, would have been better if it had that special edition Black Templar captain in there, but it's still a good collectable.

It's really not.

GW re-issued that miniature half a dozen times after the 3rd ed starter, and in 4th edition was selling it as a general release alongside the Captain from the metal Command Squad box. As GW 'limited editions' go, it's about the least collectible.

I totally agree, its hardly a real limited edition, however, I was just pointing out it would have made the box worth a bit more.

I've bought this box three times during gaming flea markets. I paid $30, $20, and $10 for it, year after year. It was really valuable to me being new to the hobby (the rulebook was full of amazing fluff and pictures, and the models inside were my first multipart plastics) but it's frankly not worth a ton. The Marines are the same quality as the current ones, but Marines are dime a dozen on eBay. Most people won't find value in the rulebook, the Dark Eldar models are lousy, the Speeder is a pain in the ass to assemble, and the templates and terrain are as usable now as ever. All in all I'd say you could maybe get $40 for it. That said, nostalgia colors my vision of this set, so you might not end up with quite that much.

 Brother SRM wrote:
The Marines are the same quality as the current ones, ...

Actually, this isn't entirely true.

Sometime after GW recut the Marine sprue, they switched to a slightly softer, darker grey plastic. If you compare a current plastic marine to the early 3rd ed version, the 3rd ed one will generally have slightly sharper detail.

The quality difference isn't enough to bother most people, though, if they even notice in the first place. I only did because I was selling bits at the time, and so was staring at an awful lof of marine sprues around the time they changed.

I wouldn't mind taking this off your hands...