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Well, my battle with grey plastic is not going well, the grey wave is slowly growing, filling the drawers and boxes in my living room, and now I'm faced with the certainty that I need to get rid of something, but apart from my Tau that I'm quite happy to part with, I don't know where to start...

What I have:

-4000 pts of craftword eldar, which I never played in totality
-1000 pts of harlequins, which I'm more interested in keeping
-500 pts of Ynnari, for which I'm waiting on the next codex...

-4000 pts of orks, that are actually my son's army, but he never plays... He is in the slow process of converting and painting each boy, boss, nob and grot into characters from superhero comics, a project that I cannot, in good conscience, interfere with. I love pop culture mashups, and the idea of an ork Waaaagh that decided to emulate the marvel universe based on a stash of old comic books they found on a space hulk is just too cool for me...

-1500 pts of genestealer cults, that I will keep with love, care, and many games...

-3000 pts of 30k Alpha legion that I will take with me to my grave...
-2000 pts of 30k Word Bearers that I find fun as a crossover 30k/40k force...

-2000 pts of Various Chaos marines and chaos deamons, including some miniatures painted by my kids that I'm not keen on letting go, and a bunch of diaz deamonettes that I won't let go...

-500 pts of imperial knights, because giant robots are cool...

-3500 pts of DeathWatch, which is just too much to be practical, especially since I also have
-2000 pts of Grey Knights, for which I currently don't have the new codex...

and last, but not least,

-about 1000 pts of adepta sororitas based around the raging heroes miniatures...

So, do I get rid of the armies I don't play entirely? Do I just thin out the armies that are becoming too big?
Have you faced the same situation? How did you go about getting rid of miniatures?

Thanks for your insight!

So I am slowly sorting through my stuff to offload it. I have too many Orks, Chaos and Space marines and Eldar that I will never use.

Orks will be cut down to what I what for GorkaMorka, kill team, shadow war, speed freeks, fun models, etc. Chaos will be cut down to enough for kill team, scenario forces, fun models etc. Space marines being cut down to rogue trader models, Deathwatch and heresy board games. And so on.

In short mostly dropping apocalypse armies, but keeping enough to cover everything for the smaller games I prefer. This typically gives me enough for a 'big' 40k game (up to 2000pts - Orks, Chaos, Knights, Space Marines and Tyranids) if I already have it (so not enough Eldar, Tau, Necrons, Dark Eldar, Ad Mech and Grey Knights that stay strictly boxed game, skirmish and scenario) but not enough for apocalypse.

Note my 'big' armies - Imperial and traitor Guard and Army, 'Stealer Cult and Deathwatch are staying big and they wouyld likely be the ones I use the most anyway.

Plus a space marine battle company. Because.

The "moving away from apocalypse sized armies" seems like a wise move...

And sticking to the armies I play...

If I'm excited to see the models when I open up the case I keep them, if not than it's the trashcan.

Wish I was so rich.

No idea about most of the armies, but GK are going to be hard to sell. Eldar on the other hand sell fast, there are always people wanting to buy some. There maybe some problems selling some eldar models, what people here do is just added them to a deal as a bonus. Someone wants to buy 2 falcons, tell him if he buys 3 he gets scorpions for free.

I’d say you’re ripe for culling each army down to keeping a hair over 2,000 points.

Actually, it sound like your son’s orcs would be among the easiest to start with; sound like he only needs a handful of figures (maybe 12-20) to paint.

Eldar might be next to tackle, keeping maybe 1500 of the CW and all the Harlis and Ynarri.

The Chaos army should probably be trimmed to 2500-3000 points from the 7000 it currently is.

Same for the Deathwatch/GK - consider trimming it to 2500 total between the two.

Doesn’t sound like you’re really using the Knights, I’d consider letting them go.

I miiiight thin down the infantry in my Guard Army; I've got enough troops for 12 infantry squads (13 if you count Vostroyan vets), and 5-6 Scion squads, along with some extra bodies. And that's before the Starfleet Marines I like to use on the tabletop. Might keep most of it in case someone complains about me using Starfleet Marines as basic Guardsmen.

I'm in the process of thinning what I have for games people in my area don't play, but keeping anything I've painted or anything that looks cool. Main sore point right now is my 30k army; they're in storage that would be perfect for my Emperor's Spears army, only 4 players in my area play it (myself included) and I've unintentionally gotten almost more than any other player in my area points wise (almost 4k when another guy has exactly 2 2k armies). Main decisions now are what to keep 30k, what to donate to my Spears army, and what to sell.

 ChaosDad wrote:
I don't know where to start...

So, do I get rid of the armies I don't play entirely? Do I just thin out the armies that are becoming too big?

I have been thinning the herd for a while, and got more aggressive about after watching the Marie Kondo show Lay out the pile out so you can see the entire collection at once. Go through them all one-by-one, and decide what you really want. I did that with my Guard, my Dogs of War, my Empire, and Inquisition forces. I'm very happy with what I'm keeping.

At a high level, I'd suggest that you trim your armies as follows:

KEEP
* 1,500 pts of Genesteaer Cults - you love this army, so keep it
* 3,000 pts of Alpha Legion - keep this one as well, but strongly consider whether 2,000 or 2,500 pts would be "enough"

CHOP
* 2,000 pts of Craftworld Eldar - get rid of half of this, just keeping the stuff you really like and intend to play.
* 1,000 pts of Harlequins - they're fine
* 500 ps of Ynnari - also OK, but plan to keep this to 1,000 pts.

* 2,000 pts of Orks - get your son to accept reality, and focus on the 2,000 pts of supers that he wants to keep.

* 1,000 pts of random Chaos - keep the sentimental stuff, and the Diazettes; get rid of the rest

* 500 pts of Knights - fine, keep a big robot.

* 2,000 pts of Deathwatch - keep what's practical
* 1,000 pts of Raging Heroes Sisters

CLEAR
* EVERYTHING still in box
* ALL Tau
* ALL Grey Knights - you don't love them enough to get the Codex, so that means they can go.
* ALL Word Bearers - you only need 1 30k Chaos army, so unload the one you don't love

If there are other armies that you just don't play, get rid of them.

Put the excess on eBay and sell it.

Whilst awaiting the Ynnari Codex, I’d keep your Eldar. You don’t want to sell it, only to find out you’ve already got a killer combo!

Other than that, perhaps give each a game under their belt before you decide to sell them on. It’s a bit Kondo like, but if you don’t particularly enjoy the game, you’ve got a stronger candidate for a sale.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
But not your conversions. Never sell your conversions. You will regret it.

 Crimson Devil wrote:
If I'm excited to see the models when I open up the case I keep them, if not than it's the trashcan.

Has someone been watching netflix?

Karol wrote:Wish I was so rich.

No idea about most of the armies, but GK are going to be hard to sell. Eldar on the other hand sell fast, there are always people wanting to buy some. There maybe some problems selling some eldar models, what people here do is just added them to a deal as a bonus. Someone wants to buy 2 falcons, tell him if he buys 3 he gets scorpions for free.

I've been stockpiling models for about four years, now, and I've had really good deals on used armies for the orks, eldar, and chaos armies, so it all was a rather thrifty process... The GK are almost all metal, so I don't think that they are going to be easily sellable either...

Crimson Devil wrote:If I'm excited to see the models when I open up the case I keep them, if not than it's the trashcan.

Thrashcan? I could never do that... If I'm parting with them, I want them to go to a home where they are going to get loved and played...

Stormonu wrote:I’d say you’re ripe for culling each army down to keeping a hair over 2,000 points.
Actually, it sound like your son’s orcs would be among the easiest to start with; sound like he only needs a handful of figures (maybe 12-20) to paint.
Eldar might be next to tackle, keeping maybe 1500 of the CW and all the Harlis and Ynarri.
The Chaos army should probably be trimmed to 2500-3000 points from the 7000 it currently is.
Same for the Deathwatch/GK - consider trimming it to 2500 total between the two.
Doesn’t sound like you’re really using the Knights, I’d consider letting them go.

For me the orks and the chaos are probably the easiest to cut down and to cull down to a more reasonable 2000 point...
The Deathwatch/GK being cut down to 2500 points between the two would also allow me to get everything painted and make me a happy hobbyist with at least one finished army...
As for the knights, I only have an Errant and an Armiger, with the errant being my proudest painting achivement so far, so that one is not going anywhere...

Arcanis161 wrote:I miiiight thin down the infantry in my Guard Army; I've got enough troops for 12 infantry squads (13 if you count Vostroyan vets), and 5-6 Scion squads, along with some extra bodies. And that's before the Starfleet Marines I like to use on the tabletop. Might keep most of it in case someone complains about me using Starfleet Marines as basic Guardsmen.

I'm in the process of thinning what I have for games people in my area don't play, but keeping anything I've painted or anything that looks cool. Main sore point right now is my 30k army; they're in storage that would be perfect for my Emperor's Spears army, only 4 players in my area play it (myself included) and I've unintentionally gotten almost more than any other player in my area points wise (almost 4k when another guy has exactly 2 2k armies). Main decisions now are what to keep 30k, what to donate to my Spears army, and what to sell.

I feel your pain for 30k... I'm collecting my Alpha Legion pretty much only for myself, as I am not in contact with other 30k players in my area. But I am in love with the lore and background of the horus heresy, hence my army... I'v played my Alpha Legion as Loyalist astartes in 40k a few times, and there are a few things that don't match in unit composition that make for awkward things in 40k, but at least they see some play...

Some absolutely terrible advice in this thread, don't listen to it, get a bigger house.

I sold my dwarf and orc armies on eBay. My ork army to a friend. A few other things on Facebook. Most of the random stuff just goes on eBay though. Dropzone all went in one big box. Battlefleet gothic got parted out.

It was hard at first, but now I’m glad they’re gone. It freed up space and I no longer had piles of plastic I don’t use cluttering up shelves.

I kept my space marines and my ig. I get games with those now and then. And they’re fun to paint.

Necromunda is looming like its next on the chopping block I think.

 Daedalus81 wrote:

 Crimson Devil wrote:
If I'm excited to see the models when I open up the case I keep them, if not than it's the trashcan.

Has someone been watching netflix?

No, I came this conclusion myself a couple of years ago. I used to spend a lot of time and energy trying to get something out of my old models, but it hit me that I was overvaluing the plastic/metal and undervaluing myself. If I think someone might want it I ask first, but more often than not I throw it away. It's quite liberating, I can understand why it's a show now.

You could always lose your collection in a fire like I did.

The better alternative is to simply find a buyer for the army you don't care as much about.

So in essence my process is this.
If I open foam and forgot I had it....I sell it.
If I have not considered running it in like.....5 years I sell it.
If I just don't like it anymore I sell it.
And for the love of God, sell an army for a dying game before it is too late.

 Crimson Devil wrote:

 Daedalus81 wrote:

 Crimson Devil wrote:
If I'm excited to see the models when I open up the case I keep them, if not than it's the trashcan.

Has someone been watching netflix?

No, I came this conclusion myself a couple of years ago. I used to spend a lot of time and energy trying to get something out of my old models, but it hit me that I was overvaluing the plastic/metal and undervaluing myself. If I think someone might want it I ask first, but more often than not I throw it away. It's quite liberating, I can understand why it's a show now.

I think this depends on what you've collected, etc.
* If those minis are high demand rare things like Necromunda Escher, Mordheim, etc. then it makes sense to sell them.
* If they are the old cheap plastic monopose plastic, then don't feel bad if you trash them.

Basically, if you can net several $100s for the old minis, then you probably should. OTOH, if the minis aren't worth the shipping charge, toss them.

In any case, it's a great feeling to be rid of stuff that you won't play.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:


Lay out the pile out so you can see the entire collection at once. Go through them all one-by-one, and decide what you really want.
At a high level, I'd suggest that you trim your armies as follows:

KEEP
* 1,500 pts of Genesteaer Cults - you love this army, so keep it

It was one of the forces that I had 25-years ago when I played and I read the lore in the original publication... So yes, it is going to be kept...

* 3,000 pts of Alpha Legion - keep this one as well, but strongly consider whether 2,000 or 2,500 pts would be "enough"

For now it's a matter of keeping options open... (and now I'm rationalizing the "but you never know, I might need it" mentality that makes me keep too many armies...)

CHOP
* 2,000 pts of Craftworld Eldar - get rid of half of this, just keeping the stuff you really like and intend to play.
* 1,000 pts of Harlequins - they're fine
* 500 ps of Ynnari - also OK, but plan to keep this to 1,000 pts.
* 2,000 pts of Orks - get your son to accept reality, and focus on the 2,000 pts of supers that he wants to keep.
* 1,000 pts of random Chaos - keep the sentimental stuff, and the Diazettes; get rid of the rest
* 500 pts of Knights - fine, keep a big robot.
* 2,000 pts of Deathwatch - keep what's practical
* 1,000 pts of Raging Heroes Sisters

That is painful, but fair, I'll have a close look at all of that...

CLEAR
* EVERYTHING still in box
* ALL Tau
* ALL Grey Knights - you don't love them enough to get the Codex, so that means they can go.
* ALL Word Bearers - you only need 1 30k Chaos army, so unload the one you don't love

If there are other armies that you just don't play, get rid of them.

Put the excess on eBay and sell it.

I don't really have a lot in boxes, I tend to build things quickly when I get them...
The Tau are a given in terms of getting rid of them, they are the starting point of this 'clearing out' process...
For the Grey Knights I have a soft spot since they were also one of my original old miniatures armies from back in the day, although I agree with the idea that not getting the codex is quite telling... Although the inflation of the number of codexes in my bookcase is also one of the reasons I'm clearing stuff away...
For the word bearers, I'll wrap it together with my chaos army, they are indeed not needed as a second 30k army...

Now I need to get going on the taking pictures and putting up ads part of the process...