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Firstly let me start by saying I considered whether or not this post should be in the buying/selling section, but with it not being an actual purchase or sale have put it here instead, mods please move if you feel it necessary.
I have been collecting for 30years and now it's time to start selling some of my older/unused stuff. Is there any advice on selling on Ebay? I appreciate I could Google it but thought I'd start here. I've been a bit reluctant to ever get rid of anything but I'm going to need a bigger house if I don't start clearing some of it out.

 Huron black heart wrote:
Firstly let me start by saying I considered whether or not this post should be in the buying/selling section, but with it not being an actual purchase or sale have put it here instead, mods please move if you feel it necessary.
I have been collecting for 30years and now it's time to start selling some of my older/unused stuff. Is there any advice on selling on Ebay? I appreciate I could Google it but thought I'd start here. I've been a bit reluctant to ever get rid of anything but I'm going to need a bigger house if I don't start clearing some of it out.

Here's my pro tips:

-Anything you have that is metal, strip the paint off using LA's totally awesome or some similar cleaner. Metal models strip very easily and sell for more than painted metal models unless you really truly are a museum-quality painter. Bare, original metal models are basically the only thing that's going to sell for more than MSRP. Plastic is enough of a pain to strip in my experience so you may as well just not.

-Include either a release year, edition, or if there was only ever one sculpt in metal for the figure 'metal' in the description.

-Include both the old and current name of the faction if applicable. All Eldar I sell I use "Eldar Asuryani" in the description for example. "Imperial Guard Astra Militarum" "Dark Eldar Drukhari" etc.

-Usually I try to sell lots in the original unit size/configuration. So rather than selling 30 old kabalite warriors I'll sell 3 lots of 10.

-Take photos that show models clearly and show the relevant weaponry theyre armed with if applicable on sergeants and special weapon guys.

My rule of thumb for Buy it Nows (i almost always start the bidding at like, the price I would accept to just get rid of it, and the 'buy it now' to a fixed percentage of MSRP) is

Bare Metal - 100% MSRP of current model sold by GW or if OOP of a current analogous kit
Painted metal - 75% MSRP
On-sprue plastic - 75% msrp
Assembled plastic - 50% msrp
painted plastic - 33% msrp
Anything visibly broken or parts missing or poorly glued in lot - 25% msrp.

Excellent tips, thanks for the info. I'm certainly not a pro painter and I have the ability to strip anything I sell so will do so.

I sell a lot on eBay and also suggest searching through the "sold/completed" listings for the type of items you are selling to get an idea of what price to list them for. I tend to just use "Buy it Now" for my listings these days based on my research of current and past/sold listings.

A lot of good suggestions already; I have used quite a bit of LA's Totally Awesome and it works very well for metal models and is pretty good for plastics depending on the paint used and how long you let the models sit in the cleaner.

 Gnarlly wrote:
I sell a lot on eBay and also suggest searching through the "sold/completed" listings for the type of items you are selling to get an idea of what price to list them for. I tend to just use "Buy it Now" for my listings these days based on my research of current and past/sold listings.

A lot of good suggestions already; I have used quite a bit of LA's Totally Awesome and it works very well for metal models and is pretty good for plastics depending on the paint used and how long you let the models sit in the cleaner.

yeah LA's works on plastic, I've just found the returns for assembled plastic basically the same as for painted plastic so I don't bother with the scrubbing it takes to strip them.

Spoiler alert - basically you will not make much from assembled or painted plastic. People will only buy if it's a very small fraction of MSRP, with shipping that typically works out to 1/4 to 1/3 depending on the unit. ESPECIALLY if it's an old sculpt, or a unit thats competitiveness is highly contingent on loadout. Only real exception is if you have something that's presently "meta hotness" on your hands, like dark eldar stuff.

Try selling on Facebook groups first. Easier communication and Facebook doesn't charge you to do so. Use ebay if you don't get any takers on FB

Here is an example of an ebay listing and use of LA's Totally Awesome to clean up models. These models had been painted in the 90's in the typical vibrant blues/yellows/red/greens of that era. For the models I cleaned up, nearly all of the paint was removed easily from most of the metal models and the original plastic Guardians (a particular red paint on the Avatar was extremely persistent even after soaking for some time).

https://www.ebay.com/itm/255003961863

(This is my listing so mods feel free to remove if this violates rules.)

I've used Troll Trader before and they were pretty good, sold a bunch of stuff all in one go. Might not have got maximum cash money compared to eBay bidding but I found eBay was more effort than it was worth. FB groups are a pain the butt in my experience. Too many people flake out at the last second or just ghost you for days.

If you watch ebay listings the most important things in order are:

1. Keywords
2. Images & Photos
3. Total price
4. Reasonability of total price


Here are the reasons and implications:

1. No one can find your liati g I'd the keywords are not there for searching
2. With no image you have no trust, with an unclear or poorly lit image you ha e little trust.
3. Expensive lots(1k+$) rarely sell. They need to be a really good value to do so. There are many 40k and WHFB armies that are huge and for sale and cost 3k+ and have been posted for multiple years. Break thing into lots people are willing to buy, there are a lot more people buying 300-750 dollar army lots than 2k+
4. Look at comparable prices, this is a marketplace like any other and the customers are seeing multiple listings when they search, if they don't find it on eBay there are Facebook groups, here on dakkadakka, Etsy, Google search results for things. If you ask more than everyone else for the same products why is someone going to buy it?

I use facebook for local cash in hand sales. Quite aside from not having to give Paypal a cut I have had sales where the seller subsequently raised a problem (unjustly I feel) and been refunded, then not returned the model with no consequences.

Handing over things locally means everyone can see what they are getting and you don't need any further comms.