sourclams wrote:DarthDiggler wrote:When it comes time to sell off an army I will list it for a fair price. Never equal to the retail value of the miniatures. Rarely will anyone buy retail value for the miniatures.
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The old army is like selling a used car. The minute you open the shrinkwrap the value of the models decreases dramatically. So I get my money's worth in enjoyment by playing the army for a while.
Your post and Redbeard's
OP tie together ideas of liquidity and demand quite nicely.
Redbeard has no desire to sell his army, and no incentive to do so. He can literally name his price, and command a lofty premium. The work put into those models (specialized bases, painting) is able to add value because he feels they have greater intrinsic worth and tosses a premium on to justify the worth.
In his case, the market is going to have to pull the models out of him, doing so with a high price.
You do desire to sell your armies, as it has fulfilled your needs and you no longer wish to have it any longer in preference of something new or different. You generally have a time constraint (you're not willing to hold inventory for a year until the market comes to your price) thus you have to give up premium to get your volume moved. Whereas the market has to expand to pull Redbeard's inventory, you're causing it to contract by pushing your inventory actively. You feel that your price are realistic because in practice you know you have to give up margin in order to get your offer accepted.
Neither method is right or wrong, it's simply the philosophy one has to take in an illiquid market; if they need a certain volume moved in a certain time frame, they will have to give up price.
What an awesome post... this is indeed what I see.
Some people are willing to wait a long time to sell an army, and have a set price in mind that is usually at or even well above the retail value of just the models alone. Captain Chronos is a fellow Dakka poster whose listings I've watched with interest, as a fellow wood elves player (I even bought a model from him earlier this year through ebay). Here's his threads started history:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/recentTopics/showTopicsByUser/5387.page
You can see he's been offering the same wood elf army since 2007! However, I believe it sold recently (couldn't find the auction at the moment). If you look at his ebay feedback, you'll see he also successfully sold an army for over $800, and another for over $1600 this year. However, at least with the wood elf army, he was willing to wait a long time to get his price.
I just sold my wood elf army, and wasn't willing to wait a long time. I ended up getting about 75% of retail, which was a bit shy of what I was hoping, but definitely something I was willing to accept. On the other hand, I bought a large portion of this army originally for just over retail price.
So, "liquidity and demand" indeed... in action!