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Made in gb
Mighty Vampire Count






UK

For many years I had a great electronic friendship with someone who built and painted my miniatures to a very high standard.

Without warning he passed away and havign sent my condelances at the time - I just contacted his family again about the possibility of retreiving my figures. The son rang me and thanked me for the letter but sadly related that he and other members of the family had been clearing the house and he was really sorry but much of his collection had been chucked and likely mine with them.

I was a bit sadened by the news, but also realised that they had no idea about the value of the models and whilst they understood he treasured them as a hobby, had never thought of them as having any value (!). I carefully related the news that as his collection was vast (I knew of half a dozen 40k scale Titans, unique and one off models, some painted for other companies) - many painted to the very highest standard and conveyed that if they had any left - please not to throw them but let me know and i could advise them of value as they might still have a susbtantial contribution for the future of his widow and family.

They were really nice and pretty shocked by the news - but are going to email with pics of anything thats still left - Sadly I would think thats a collection of hundreds of models and tens of thousands of pounds gone.....

Which brings me to the point of the thread - do your family /spouse etc actually know how much money your collection is worth? If not it might be a good idea to tell them in case of a sudden accident or similar, it might not only give them some much needed resources at a difficult time but an insight into their value to you......

This message was edited 5 times. Last update was at 2019/06/29 19:11:47


I AM A MARINE PLAYER

"Unimaginably ancient xenos artefact somewhere on the planet, hive fleet poised above our heads, hidden 'stealer broods making an early start....and now a bloody Chaos cult crawling out of the woodwork just in case we were bored. Welcome to my world, Ciaphas."
Inquisitor Amberley Vail, Ordo Xenos

"I will admit that some Primachs like Russ or Horus could have a chance against an unarmed 12 year old novice but, a full Battle Sister??!! One to one? In close combat? Perhaps three Primarchs fighting together... but just one Primarch?" da001

www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/528517.page

A Bloody Road - my Warhammer Fantasy Fiction 
   
Made in us
Did Fulgrim Just Behead Ferrus?





Fort Worth, TX

As a bit of a lighthearted response, if my wife knew how much I had spent on my stuff, I would be a dead man.

On a serious note, yes, she is aware that there is value to my stuff. She knows where she can go and who she can contact to get help with identifying and selling things. That's probably the key thing right there, being able to identify the stuff. It's not like our little toy soldiers are all obviously labeled "Baneblade" or "Tactical Squad" in order to Google them easily. They're not action figures mint-in-box or Magic cards with easily searched names.

"Through the darkness of future past, the magician longs to see.
One chants out between two worlds: Fire, walk with me."
- Twin Peaks
"You listen to me. While I will admit to a certain cynicism, the fact is that I am a naysayer and hatchetman in the fight against violence. I pride myself in taking a punch and I'll gladly take another because I choose to live my life in the company of Gandhi and King. My concerns are global. I reject absolutely revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method... is love. I love you Sheriff Truman." - Twin Peaks 
   
Made in ru
Virulent Space Marine dedicated to Nurgle





As someone who also maintains prolific long range electronic relationship with my artist, I shepherd online spreadsheet with every model i have, price paid for the model itself and the paintjob.

The total sum under the bottom line is something I rarely scroll down to myself, but it will be easily accessible upon my demise.

Informing my spouse of all my current hobby spendings would be a very traumatic experience. For me at least.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2019/06/30 06:32:29


 
   
Made in ca
Painlord Titan Princeps of Slaanesh





Hamilton, ON

I'm sure Mrs. Excommunicatus will greatly enjoy the £4.50 my drybrushed nonsense sells for on ebay.

The Fall of Kronstaat IV
Война Народная | Voyna Narodnaya | The People's War - 2,765pts painted (updated 06/05/20)
Волшебная Сказка | Volshebnaya Skazka | A Fairy Tale (updated 29/12/19, ep10 - And All That Could Have Been)
Kabal of The Violet Heart (updated 02/02/2020)

All 'crimes' should be treasured if they bring you pleasure somehow. 
   
Made in us
Commanding Lordling





Nah. They don’t know. Especially the other half. I guess I should tell them which friends to contact before tossing my minis heh.
   
Made in gb
Longtime Dakkanaut




Ex of mine threw out youngest lego, because half of it came from e, he said to ebay it but apparently because it came from me it had to actually be destroyed (I gather she actually burnt/melted a fair bit before throwing it out).

he did try and tell her it was worth a bit, she mentioned it to me, to gloat about how she had destroyed it, I just shrugged and said if she wanted to wreak a few grands worth of stuff that was up to her.

on a more serious note, this _also_ matters for stuff like house insurance, this is where a detailed list and photographs will be very useful
   
Made in us
Daemonic Dreadnought





Eye of Terror

My wife and I had the conversation a month ago, with relation to homeowner's insurance. I had to inventory everything to put a price on it.

Her response: we could each be driving a Tesla.

   
Made in gb
Longtime Dakkanaut




In the UK it varies, but it pays to ask. some insurance companies will see an army as a load of individually low priced items and file them under "other". some will see they are related items and thus file them as a single "item".

in either case its worth having an inventory, it can also be worth asking if they cover items outside the home - they may be thinking of stuff like laptops but its worth asking if they cover collections or if you need to arrange something more specialist.

in either case "new for old" will either see you with a lot of unpainted grey bods or vouchers at best - trying to get the value of time *you* put into painting is unlikely (you may be able to claim the cost of the paints & brushes though, which can add up) but if you have had stuff professionally painted keeping records will help, as will reasonably detailed photographs.

if you stick in a claim for an army and say its worth £2k it won't be taken seriously, if you submit a pretty detailed inventory of purchases however its a lot harder for an insurance company to argue about
   
Made in gb
Longtime Dakkanaut




Nottingham, UK

*I* have no idea the value of most of my stuff. A lot?

There are things that are obvious enough checking through Stuff of Legends and eBay sold listings (1990 Games Day Marine Captain - about £60), but some are not.

My Nurgle army just hit another completion milestone - I now have at least one of every original Plaguebearer, one of every Nurgle champion. I don't think I've seen another Snotsprayer come up for sale in about 8 years of looking. The axe Nurgle champion similarly is rocking horse poo. Individually those models range from £8ish up to £60ish, but as a complete set, painted to display quality? I don't think there are many comparable collections.

Luckily, my wife is now starting to understand these toy soldier things have a lot of collectors and resale value and I'm now allowed (or at least not argued at) for making 'investment' purchases. :-D



 
   
Made in ru
Virulent Space Marine dedicated to Nurgle





Well "investment" or not, but I've bought a GW case with Word Bearers army with 2nd and 3rd edition models on ebay sometimes between 2004 and 2005 for 110$.
In early 4th edition it was enough to field 1500-1850pts army and was decently painted.
In 2014 I've sold it for just under one grand - not a huge sum, but I thought it would go for much less.

Also around 2006-2007 I've bought Death Guard army from Australia (it was featured in one of the australian white dwarf issue) - for mere couple hundreds.
I was later offered 5 times more for it several times, never considered selling the beauty, though...

But my best "investment" was to buy old necron raiders I think 12 years ago.
Some guy on ebay sold it without minimum value and i've got around 3 kilograms of metal for just a few bucks.
I soaked them in aceton to get rid of the paint, painted a few for myself (god there were DOZENS of warriors and immortals and quite a few destroyers) and the rest was sold to local gaming store owner for around 700$.
More than 10 times on what i've paid! In less than a month.

Alas the golden days of ebay are gone, haven't found anything underpriced in years.

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2019/07/01 07:31:55


 
   
Made in gb
Executing Exarch





London, UK

My parents know/have a general idea, while my girlfriend definitely knows considering I drag her to Warhammer shops on a semi-regular basis.

I happen to have a good collection of metal Eldar models that go for surprisingly high prices over their finecast counterparts.

   
Made in gb
Aspirant Tech-Adept




UK

My video game collection is worth quite a lot. My Mrs knows the value, and how to dispose of it should the worst happen. I guess my 40k collection is gathering in value pretty quickly, so I need to formulate a plan to get rid of that as well if something should happen.

My insurance company only asked about individual items worth over £1200, which none of my games have quite reached yet, although I suspect next year there’ll be a few arcade boards that will need putting on separately.

Imperial Soup
2200pts/1750 painted
2800pts/1200 painted
2200pts/650 painted
217pts/151 painted 
   
Made in gb
Decrepit Dakkanaut




UK

There's really a few aspects here to consider
1) Value of model collections is somewhat relative. Once they are out of the box their value diminishes and even secondhand sales of "new inbox" models often diminishes value (because people buying secondhand are after a discount). The only ones that can stabilize or go up are metals and out of production "new in the box" models.


2) Speed of sale. You see loads of people shove stuff through local auction houses when they have a death in the family or send it to the charity shops or throw it out. Part of this is a lack of understanding value, but the other part is speed. Selling models for a good value can take time, it requires you to invest time in selling them and finding buyers and that iwll often mean postage. If you want to sell whole armies at once that's going to take even longer, whilst broken down you've got a lot more to faff around with.

Sometimes its simply prudent to get rid of stuff quicker.




As for me my family is aware there's value in the models, but likely wouldn't have any desire to get maximum "profit" out of them if I were to suffer some kind of terrible demise. They'd likely send them down to the local auction house in a box; or if they were feeling energetic they'd likely try to see if the local GW store would take/sell them on (which they likely won't but it could spark enough conversation to send them to a local 3rd party store).
Insurance wise its again a case that they don't see value in the collection, they only care about very high priced individual items. The rest is simply written under blocks of value.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2019/07/01 10:11:42


A Blog in Miniature

3D Printing, hobbying and model fun! 
   
Made in ca
Ancient Venerable Black Templar Dreadnought





Canada

Moral of the story:
Complete your darn armies.
Take pictures of them.
Stuff all info on it to an attached memory stick or CD or some easy access media storage.
Give estimate of possible value at that time.
Update on occasion, I am sure that Squat army will sell well.

Some of the best items I bought was finding improperly categorized or spelling of estate sale models.
I am pretty sure my friends would be happy to relieve my family of the extensive “burden” of my models.

I too would say if they knew the full extent of their worth... I am uncertain what hell would be visited upon me by my wife.

A revolution is an idea which has found its bayonets.
Napoleon Bonaparte 
   
Made in fr
Veteran Inquisitorial Tyranid Xenokiller





Watch Fortress Excalibris

My family know in at least general terms what my stuff is worth.

IMO, if you're actually hiding how much you are spending on your hobby from your spouse/partner/whatever, there is a serious problem in your relationship.

A little bit of righteous anger now and then is good, actually. Don't trust a person who never gets angry. 
   
Made in gb
Ridin' on a Snotling Pump Wagon






Mate, I don't know the value of my collection!

   
Made in gb
Towering Hierophant Bio-Titan





Bristol, England

There's a fair chunk of stuff in my collection. If anything sudden were to happen I'd hope that my friends would dive on it like vultures and help themselves to anything that they wanted.

I'd be leaving enough value from other items, car, properties etc for my family that they wouldn't need my toys to help ends meet.

Oli: Can I be an orc?
Everyone: No.
Oli: But it fits through the doors, Look! 
   
Made in us
Blackclad Wayfarer





Philadelphia

No but this is a good time to write a few things down. I have an unbuilt titan in a non descriptive box I probably should label

   
Made in gb
Fixture of Dakka






Like others have said, I've not valued my collection.

Having said that, I'm not particularly bothered if it's ditched or sold for pennies in the pound; I'll be dead, after all.

Perhaps I can be buried with them, like a Pharoah or that Chinese Emperor with his terracotta army.
   
Made in us
Fixture of Dakka





My wife has a pretty good idea of what I spend on the stuff, but I am also under no delusion that its worth much more than maybe 5% of what I bought it for, so....
   
Made in be
Longtime Dakkanaut





No, they don't know. But to be honest, it's the same as with any other collection - only those who give them value know there is some.

And sure, you can always make money of a dead man's belongings, but it often takes time (and also a lot of space). And when death comes without warning, it's usually hard for the relatives to take care of everything by themselves. It's a good thing you offered them help, Mr Morden.

I know that if something happens to me, my relatives will certainly put all of my miniatures as garbage.
   
Made in ca
Painlord Titan Princeps of Slaanesh





Hamilton, ON

 LunarSol wrote:
My wife has a pretty good idea of what I spend on the stuff, but I am also under no delusion that its worth much more than maybe 5% of what I bought it for, so....


Ayuh, I read this and told the missus to not even bother trying to sell it; that it would be a massive hassle and she'd get pennies back.

The Fall of Kronstaat IV
Война Народная | Voyna Narodnaya | The People's War - 2,765pts painted (updated 06/05/20)
Волшебная Сказка | Volshebnaya Skazka | A Fairy Tale (updated 29/12/19, ep10 - And All That Could Have Been)
Kabal of The Violet Heart (updated 02/02/2020)

All 'crimes' should be treasured if they bring you pleasure somehow. 
   
Made in ch
The Dread Evil Lord Varlak





 Excommunicatus wrote:
I'm sure Mrs. Excommunicatus will greatly enjoy the £4.50 my drybrushed nonsense sells for on ebay.


I'd give her 10!£ and porto!

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/766717.page
A Mostly Renegades and Heretics blog.
GW:"Space marines got too many options to balance, therefore we decided to legends HH units."
Players: "why?!? Now we finally got decent plastic kits and you cut them?"
Chaos marines players: "Since when are Daemonengines 30k models and why do i have NO droppods now?"
GW" MONEY.... erm i meant TOO MANY OPTIONS (to resell your army to you again by disalowing former units)! Do you want specific tyranid fighiting Primaris? Even a new sabotage lieutnant!"
Chaos players: Guess i stop playing or go to HH.  
   
Made in us
Fixture of Dakka





 Excommunicatus wrote:
 LunarSol wrote:
My wife has a pretty good idea of what I spend on the stuff, but I am also under no delusion that its worth much more than maybe 5% of what I bought it for, so....


Ayuh, I read this and told the missus to not even bother trying to sell it; that it would be a massive hassle and she'd get pennies back.


My father in law recently passed away and left behind a pretty incredible collection of books that I have absolutely no idea what to do with. It's enough that I could probably open a small store and some of it might be legitimately valuable, but realistically there's just no way I'm going to be able to do it justice.

When it comes to my minis, I think I'm way more concerned with getting them to someone who would play and love the army over recouping anything in terms of the value of them.
   
Made in us
Ultramarine Terminator with Assault Cannon






W40K collections are worth $0.00. I've come to terms with this a long time ago.

1. None of this stuff appreciates with age.
2. No one ever pays the original purchase price (or more) for 2nd hand goods for this stuff; even if it's new in box.
3. Outdated, non-vintage items are completely worthless. No one wants outdated, non collectible product.
4. Even if the model(s), army(s), etc. are masterfully painted, they still will not sell for an amount of money that accounts for the time spent painting them - selling painted models is always a loss.
   
Made in gb
Mighty Vampire Count






UK

 oni wrote:
W40K collections are worth $0.00. I've come to terms with this a long time ago.

1. None of this stuff appreciates with age.
2. No one ever pays the original purchase price (or more) for 2nd hand goods for this stuff; even if it's new in box.
3. Outdated, non-vintage items are completely worthless. No one wants outdated, non collectible product.
4. Even if the model(s), army(s), etc. are masterfully painted, they still will not sell for an amount of money that accounts for the time spent painting them - selling painted models is always a loss.


Not sure about that - I spend alot of money on ebay purchases of painted models and often outbid....equally often well painted stuff goes for good money, sometimes it doesn't.

In my experience.

1. try getting OOP models on ebay - it can be difficult and expensive
2. Yep they really really do. Well painted stuff can go for good money - I have got stuff and been outbid.
3. Nope not true. I have sold older models for good money and bought them as well.
4. Thats more difficult to argue against as difficult to value someones time and ability..

I AM A MARINE PLAYER

"Unimaginably ancient xenos artefact somewhere on the planet, hive fleet poised above our heads, hidden 'stealer broods making an early start....and now a bloody Chaos cult crawling out of the woodwork just in case we were bored. Welcome to my world, Ciaphas."
Inquisitor Amberley Vail, Ordo Xenos

"I will admit that some Primachs like Russ or Horus could have a chance against an unarmed 12 year old novice but, a full Battle Sister??!! One to one? In close combat? Perhaps three Primarchs fighting together... but just one Primarch?" da001

www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/528517.page

A Bloody Road - my Warhammer Fantasy Fiction 
   
Made in ca
Fireknife Shas'el






 LunarSol wrote:
[
My father in law recently passed away and left behind a pretty incredible collection of books that I have absolutely no idea what to do with. It's enough that I could probably open a small store and some of it might be legitimately valuable, but realistically there's just no way I'm going to be able to do it justice.


Surely you can have someone come in and appraise it. Chances are that it's just a private library and not super valuable, but if he was a legit rare book collector, it could be quite valuable.

   
Made in us
Ultramarine Terminator with Assault Cannon






 Mr Morden wrote:
 oni wrote:
W40K collections are worth $0.00. I've come to terms with this a long time ago.

1. None of this stuff appreciates with age.
2. No one ever pays the original purchase price (or more) for 2nd hand goods for this stuff; even if it's new in box.
3. Outdated, non-vintage items are completely worthless. No one wants outdated, non collectible product.
4. Even if the model(s), army(s), etc. are masterfully painted, they still will not sell for an amount of money that accounts for the time spent painting them - selling painted models is always a loss.


Not sure about that - I spend alot of money on ebay purchases of painted models and often outbid....equally often well painted stuff goes for good money, sometimes it doesn't.

In my experience.

1. try getting OOP models on ebay - it can be difficult and expensive
2. Yep they really really do. Well painted stuff can go for good money - I have got stuff and been outbid.
3. Nope not true. I have sold older models for good money and bought them as well.
4. Thats more difficult to argue against as difficult to value someones time and ability..


We're discussing some incredibly relative points here, but...

2. Well painted models selling for good money. What's "good money"? This question aside, consider the fact that it's natural for anyone spending money on 2nd hand goods to want to get a bargain. So there's pressure driving the price down. This ties into...
4. How much does one person value an item vs. another? How much does one person value their time vs. another? Personally, I would want to be paid $1,000.00 for one Imperial Knight. Why so much? Because I value my time immensely and I have the skill, but no one... NO ONE... would ever dare to pay $1,000.00 for an Imperial Knight. The buyer doesn't care about the time investment, it's irrelevant to them. They only care about the quality of the product in relation to its price and will make compromises in an effort to get the best quality:price ratio they can.

   
Made in us
Nurgle Chosen Marine on a Palanquin





Livermore, Ca

I made the mistake of mentioning that my magic the gathering card collection appreciated in value to about 18k when I initially thought it was only worth about 2-3k, she asked me to sell it to to build the bathroom that she wanted built.

We still don't have the bathroom :p
   
Made in gb
Decrepit Dakkanaut




UK

I've seen stuff at auction rooms make next to nothing and I've seen stuff make a fortune. Sometimes its purely the luck of the day. Even if you can list on ebay your'e still at that whim though online you've a much bigger target audience (provided you title and key word it right and have some decent photos and description).

Heck the other week we got a few hundred pounds worth of plastic pots and trays for only £40. Had there been a few more keen gardeners or a company and someone with a trailer those could easily have gone way higher in price.


That's why selling for a good price sometimes requires patience to find the right buyer. Fast sells are nearly always going to sell for less. However fast is often what many people want - they don't want a long process, a drawn out hunt for the customer etc...



As for Warhammer metal models of a good and popular design certainly hold their value well. Metal is tough, durable, paint strips dead easily and is pretty high detailed. So it really is a fantastic secondhand material. Heck many of the metal models I've bought have cleaned up nearly as good as new (even some complete with the mould lines still on them ;P). Finecast is generally hated even when new, whilst plastics are good but can suffer more wear and tear and are often seen to be not as easy to paint strip.


A Blog in Miniature

3D Printing, hobbying and model fun! 
   
 
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