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My brother is really looking to get into the game but doesn't have the money since its so expensive. I have a little spare cash to spend and was wanting to get him a substantial army for a lower cost. I was looking to e-bay for this but was wondering what peoples experiences were buying 40k armies from here? I have not heard any horror stories but am curious what you think about it. Have you done it before and if so how was your experience. Thanks for the info.

It's not what it used to be... The second hand market on eBay is a pale shadow of its former self, and the site has largely been taken over by stores.

That being said, you can still pick up some bargains. Stick to sellers with good feedback, and make sure you know what you are buying - be wary of anything that doesn't have pictures of the actual miniatures.

Depends on the army. I have orks and tau, both with opposite reactions from ebay.

Tau are a big flavor race right now, so all i got my hands on (outside the bit i got before the new dex) were really, really badly painted or constructed models. I spent 2-3 days on each of my 7 crisis suits i got from 1 guy trying to get them built properly and the sludge he called paint removed lol. Anything not in that lousy condition are either entire armies being sold (thus, rather huge and might be pricy) or are not really cheaper than buying new in box.

Orks on the other hand......lol....orks are a very unfavored army except to those like me that love to build them and find playing the army fun as hell even if they usually lose in a competitive scene. Because of this there are a LOT of deals. I am still unboxing the last deal i got lol - 1250USD worth of orks new in box for 700USD. Before that i had a similiar yet way smaller deal of 450 new in box for 300 lol.

Anything you get prebuilt expect to have to do some renovating, but USUALLY its not that bad. My crisis suits were an unusual beast, usually its not that horrendous of a job.

Go to the local hobby shops where the 40K crowd plays and post a card for anyone selling off one of their armies. That's where I have seen some of the better deals recently.

I have got tons of good deals on ebay.

of course, you have to be patient and look for good deals.
Some people post up stuff at just silly prices - so do comparisons.

Unpainted models (or kits) usually go for a lot more - as you don't have to strip them (see the other 437,692 threads on stripping...).

I have bought a lot ....(over 700 transactions to be precise) and ebay has a lot of buyer protection programs and just make sure to ask for shipping with tracking.

Oh, and there are about four active threads on getting armies for cheap - so look around for other ideas.

best of luck!

I have been pretty happy with my many eBay purchases, for many kinds of armies, new stuff and out of package items.

From the other side, I have been selling old codexes, too. No complaints.

What army are you looking to get him? I'm planning on offing my Slaanesh Noise Marines and Black Templar style Space Marines, and we could probably do a fair deal for the SMs. The Slaanesh marines are all OOP, and fetch a decent enough price online, so they're probably not what you'd want to go for from me. Marines would include the book. Anyway, if that's something he'd be interested, we can work something out-even if he puts together an army list of stuff he wants and we work out a price from there. Just don't ask for Libby's, Centurions or Thunderfire Cannons and we're good. Lol

I just bought 1.5k points of Grey Knights for ~$200. 20 terminators(which would be $200 by themselves), plus two dreads, plus an HQ, and 15 strike GK. It was all prebuilt and painted, and so I can play GK with those while I actually build and paint my models up. Definitely worth it, though they are old metal models(nothing wrong with them at all though!)

The thing is that you have to be willing to take your time, and set limits for yourself. As long as you are okay taking time to look, rather than assuming you must get it now, you'll be fine and can get a ready to play army pretty easily.

My Ebay buying experiences have been quite well. I bought my entire Gk army from ebay and saved 150$ from actually buying at the store. I bought them still in their actual boxes and sprues though, this way I knew there was something missing+ I wanted to make my models with their own individual poses and give them their own wargear.

NeedleOfInquiry wrote:Go to the local hobby shops where the 40K crowd plays and post a card for anyone selling off one of their armies. That's where I have seen some of the better deals recently.

That is a really good idea. I will have to do that.

timetowaste85 wrote:What army are you looking to get him? I'm planning on offing my Slaanesh Noise Marines and Black Templar style Space Marines, and we could probably do a fair deal for the SMs. The Slaanesh marines are all OOP, and fetch a decent enough price online, so they're probably not what you'd want to go for from me. Marines would include the book. Anyway, if that's something he'd be interested, we can work something out-even if he puts together an army list of stuff he wants and we work out a price from there. Just don't ask for Libby's, Centurions or Thunderfire Cannons and we're good. Lol

I showed him a list of the armies and the three he was interested in were: tyranids, space wolf, and dark eldar.

Well I have bought a lot of my miniature online because I don't want to spend money on full priced miniature.

I have never bought a whole army before because I like to paint them up from scratch. I have bought a few units for warhammer fantasy for a sweet deal ($1.10 for 10 Skaven gutter/night runner + $5 shipping).
I think the key is to look around every few days and just hold off and wait to buy something when it has the stuff you want.

Depending on how much he wants to save he might want to consider discount games store (look them up on ebay or facebook) they give awesome discounts on new models so its easy to get a great deal on new on sprue stuff.

Tyranids might be harder or easier to get now with their upcoming new release. Lots of people will see oppurtunity to sell their armies off quick as they will be the flavour of the month soon. BUT people will be buying them quickly if they turn out to be good. I can't say much else on Dark Eldar or Space Wolves.

I've actually got alot of experience selling on ebay (wolflord2002, almost 2k feedback now), and can offer some advice on how to succeed.

1) Know what you're budget is before you get on there. Its easy to get distracted by all the neat do dads and items you'll see, and its easy to blow a budget. Don't bid on more than you can afford, and for the love of god stay away from "buy it now" auctions unless its a steal.

2) Stay away from "rare", "limited edition", "oop" items to begin with. I do all my selling as "buy it now" simply to snag sales by tempting those with fat wallets and little patience. I sell rare models that are not in print anymore, and charge through the nose for them, but the collectors are willing to pay. For a new player, stay away from this kind of stuff. Buy cheap off the shelf or used models that you won't care about selling, and can get on the cheap, till you learn if you really love the game. You can buy rare stuff down the road when your love of the hobby and your wallet have matured.

3) Know what your looking for and learn the key words to narrow your search. For instance, typing in "40k" will net you about 33,000 results, so you need to learn to narrow it down. The easiest way to do this is to first search for "space marine 40k", then when you get in the auction click on the "40k" category at the top, and then search within the 40k sub-directory. You can search for units, ex: "Thunderfire" or "crisis suit", or just use key words like ex: "plastic marine", "Eldar" or "lot". You can even go buy armies, for example search "space marine wolf" to find the bulk of space wolf models, or "ultramarine" to go for the boys in blue. You can also sort by price, end date, or most recently listed models (to name a few options) that will let you narrow your search to things you can afford or a time frame you're willing to work within.

4) If you're unsure of what army you want, I'd suggest just buying a cheap lot of used plastic marines and proxying them for the models in the armies you want to test out. Plastic marines from the starter sets are some of the cheapest models in the 40k line, and can be had for a song on ebay at almost anytime. Just use them as stand ins as you test out the army rules, then sell them once you've made up your mind on what you want. Maybe buy one squad of the real models to test out how easy they are to work with / paint, but use proxies till you find out what you really like.

5) Figure out if you want painted models or new ones, and search accordingly. Also, don't buy more than you need. Its easy to fall into the trap of buying too much and then never getting around to working on them (I've literally got over 10k points worth of marines sitting in a box I've had for 5 years since the last time I got bit by the collecting bug). Especially if you're just starting off its a good idea to take the "Don't buy more until you've finished painting / assembling what you have" oath. Its almost impossible to keep but it helps. Also, don't be afraid of badly painted models. Even plastic can be cleaned (plenty of threads on here on how to do it) and it will save you tons of money if you have the time to invest.

6) Its a good idea to stay away from buying the Flavor of the Month armies on ebay, as they tend to skyrocket in price. However, 6 months or a few codexes later, you can get them much cheaper as people offload their armies for the newest shiniest army. This is a great way to pick up an entire army on the cheap, just be patient and be willing to wait for your army to come around on the power scale again.

7) Once you find an auction you might want to bid on, figure out what you're comfortable paying before you bid. For example, if you see a nicely painted squad of wolf guard, think to yourself, what are they worth to you? If you think, hmmm, $35 would be fair, then simply subtract the shipping price from that amount and bid that much. Then, WALK AWAY! Don't go back to check on the auction near the end, don't re-bid, just let the clock run. Its easy to get caught up in trying to win an auction when someone bids at the last minute and snakes them, but you'll wind up driving the price far higher than you will be comfortable getting caught up in a bidding war at the last minute. Stick to your first evaluation, it will save you a ton of money in the long run. Yes, you'll lose far more auctions than you will win, but it will save you a tone of money, and will keep you free of regrets.

Well, I hope that helped. If you have any specific questions feel free to contact me, I've got alot of experience on ebay and am always happy to help.

With the release of Dark Vengeance you can get a lot of Chaos Space Marines and Dark Angels for ridiculously low prices compared to what they would be in games workshop. I know they have limited poses and they don't come with different weapon options but that shouldn't be too much of a problem for someone getting into the game.

I bought 5 Dark Angels terminators for £8.50 including postage from eBay. In GW they are £35, granted, the £35 box allows for different options but it was £26.50 cheaper so it's about preference :p

I know of an excellent ebayer who sells Chaos and Dark Angels (I get mine off him). Excellent postage costs, excellent delivery time and comes properly packaged with instructions and a letter on what to do if you are not entirely happy.

Send me a message if you would like to know more

If you are considering dark angels or chaos marines, forget ebay. Buy the box at a GW or a local hobby store. You get the rule book, templates, a bunch of models of the two armies, and unlike ebay, you are supporting a local store, one that you might actually end up spending time in.

I didn't see it mentioned, but a search for "warhammer" on craigslist can lead to a bargain as well. I buy and sell frequently on eBay, I think I've got like 30+ items listed right now, but as said above be wary of sellers with little or no feedback, or negative feedback. Also, the better pics/description are a sign of a better seller, although there are bargains to be had if you take a chance (which I strongly suggest against here). Otherwise, lots of good advice above.


PS if you find what looks like a good deal but are unsure, don't hesitate to PM a member on here and ask for a second opinion.