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So its time to slim out the things im not gonna use ever ever ever and get some new pretties. when it comes to selling on ebay nib and nis are the way to go but is parts (complete) or assembled a more pref way for the buyer?

dude you have no idea. You can even sell broken models or models with horrible paintjobs for 60-70% of retail price and people will still buy it... just browse the ebay listings if you dont believe me. There is virtually no possibility to make savings buying second hand these days unless youre a fan of auctions

Not necessarily, I got 15 Kabalites and a converted haemonculus for about a dollar a model. Just takes patience, a lot of it.

On topic. Yeah, assembled will sell, as will painted.

I can attest to the fact that old models sell well, regardless of condition. here are a few of my tips:

Always sell unit by unit, don't list an army in one go. pretty much no-one wants the exact units you happen to have collected as a bundle.

List more large units than small ones, it saves time listing and postage costs. I generally sell space marines in batches of 25, which I find is the sweet spot for max value.

Make it clear that you will combine postage for multiple wins, this lets people bid highly more freely.

Offer worldwide postage (after having worked out how much it will cost you for overseas shipping). My biggest buyers tend to come from out the country.

Take clear photographs, and lots of them. Buyers don't like the unknown, so picture each side of each tank etc.

Mention any shortcomings in the models (loss of detail with paint or any damage). This doesnt decrease the value in the eyes of buyers to any great extent, and it is far better than dealing with an unsatisfied customer later.

Write a good description of exactly what is included in each listing. Clarity earns more money!

If you have any other questions then ask away. I run a small eBay business buying, repairing and selling models and I've gained a fair bit of experience of how to get the most value out of used mini collections. I've sold over 2000 lots and posted to 40 countries so far...

Good luck with the sales!

As a buyer, DoomMouse is absolutely correct on all counts. That is exactly what I look for when I buy models. and if you do auctions, don't split up the squads. There is nothing more frustrating than bidding on two lots competitively when they are clearly the same squad and losing one means the buyer may as well have bought new somewhere else.

DoomMouse thank you so much for the advice. Ill start on it when i get a chance. It makes my inner hoarder sad to let anything go but I really have way too many models that most of them are just dust collecting.

I have a csm army that i tried to give some love closest i got was to cut them off the sprue clean them down and undercoat. didn't even bother assembling before i realized how much i just didn't care about them at all. Would my best option be to knuckle down and assemble and sell them?

When i buy off ebay i always look for squads so SM i look for 10. would that be ok? or should i just sell everything together?

As to bits should i just group them all up in faction like SM/GK/CSM then sell the pile of bits or would i be better selling them in a smaller fashion.

Dont really want to do this very often so im hoping to just clear out what I have and get some spending money for more lol

Nah, you don't need to assemble them. Just sort them so that there are no parts missing, maybe arrange them so they a buyer can see there's no parts missing, and sell as basically the full sprue even though you cut them out. Assembly isn't needed. If there are instructions though, make sure to include those. I wouldn't know how to build a Forgefiend and not having it built already or not having the instructions would really turn me off to the item, on the other hand though, having you build it with three ectoplasm cannons would turn me off to it too. It's a fine line there but I'd say Unbuilt w/ instructions > Built > Painted and Built > Unbuilt w/o Instructions.

Selling in standard squad size is perfectly fine. Just, again, don't split up a squad. If it's meant to be fielded together, sell it together.

I'm not sure if selling just the bitz would do much good. Might add the appropriate bitz to the units they came with, especially if you have unassembled minis. There might be some luck in random bitz but I don't know how much.

Sweet as Ill add all that to my notes. The CSM stuff was just a battle force and some bikes lol. As i said i tried to find the love for them but i just couldn't.

Hmmm i might have the instructions for the ghost ark around here. I think that would be the only thing i have that isnt just glue together at random and itll all work out

Once again thanks for the advice

Yeah i think i may just do that get rid of some skulls for the skull throne kinda thing haha

No worries, I do tend to hoard things a little too. The good thing about models is that when you're eventually done with them they can still sell for similar prices after years of use! I've even had a few new boxes sell for significantly more than they were bought for due to GW price inflation haha

For the chaos marines I would keep them unassembled. Just group them on the photos to show how many marines you can make from them. Give a proper description of where the parts came from and how many complete marines you can build from them too. In my experience, I think you would get more from unassembled marines provided they are well organised and not just a random bits listing.

10 marines would probably be OK, I tend to find I get more for listing bigger numbers together though. eBay does tend to be a little random - I've had 10 marines go for great prices before and some really flop. On average I prefer selling in batches of 20 or 25 but it's not going to make a huge difference either way!

Another thing that I like to do is to group any SM missile launchers I have into one squad and sell them as a devastator squad. In general this really tends to go quite well

For bits lots I'd just group them into factions to sell them as job lot for each faction. If you have some rarer parts (e.g. a loose predator turret or a few melta guns) then they can be worth selling in small bits lots and can be surprisingly lucrative. I suspect GK parts might be the most valuable, they are a bit harder to come by than SM or CSM

Hope it all goes well

And it seems I have been thread ninjad!

 DoomMouse wrote:
If you have any other questions then ask away. I run a small eBay business buying, repairing and selling models and I've gained a fair bit of experience of how to get the most value out of used mini collections. I've sold over 2000 lots and posted to 40 countries so far...

How do you figure out international shipping?

Given how this is also dependent on weight and the dimensions of the box you're packing the models in, do you have some sort of chart at home or do you pack whatever miniatures you want to sell and then go to the post office and ask them to weigh it and give you an estimate? Are there flat rates for continents or does literally every country have its own shipping rate?

I was given the advice to write "send me a PM if youre interested in buying so I can tell youwhat the shipping cost will be" in the product description which might save a lot of work asking around, but I wonder if there is a better method.

I know ebay has a shipping calculator but was told they tend to estimate the prices too high.

 Sir Arun wrote:
dude you have no idea. You can even sell broken models or models with horrible paintjobs for 60-70% of retail price and people will still buy it... just browse the ebay listings if you dont believe me. There is virtually no possibility to make savings buying second hand these days unless youre a fan of auctions

Not true in the least. For my Eldar so far, I have bought three secondhand squads on Ebay : 10 Rangers, 5 Dark Reapers, and 5 Fire Warriors, all because I refuse to buy Finecast. The latter two were had for less than 20 bucks apiece as "Buy it now", from various sellers. The Rangers were about 25, but for double the models of the currently available squad. I just bought a fully assembled and primed Great Gargant for Epic for 25 bucks, the same way, which is 10 bucks less than retail (from a decade ago).

@ Sir arun:

eBay lets you set a blanket charge for outside the country. I'm based in the UK and use Royal Mail for international shipping, so I have one price for home auctions (£3.50), one for Europe (£5) and one for the rest of the world (£6.50). As models tend to be quite light this usually suffices. If I'm selling something particularly heavy like a land raider I'll up the prices on each a little. I'm not sure what services you guys have access to though if you're not based in the UK

It does help to have experience with posting things I guess, I can judge roughly how much it'll cost to post something by guessing. It's fine to charge a little over the actual shipping costs - it also includes you packing materials and the hassle of packaging up and posting.

@Aegis

yeah, I'd say on average the the average I tend to get out of reselling models is around 40-50% of their current price from GW if they're assembled and previously painted. There really is a lot of variability in auctions though. I've had an old tau commander go for £35 before, and a SM captain go for £19 (both discluding P+P) but then you get plenty of flops as well to counterbalance it. Got to play the numbers I guess

@ OP

Another couple of things, be sure to use the 10 day auction option for ebay if youre selling with auctions. Its free sale time. And post a link to your auctions in the 'swap shop' area of dakka dakka. Its free advertising!

I sell and buy units in 50% retail values when painted. This way selling times are fast.