Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hello,
I have a large army around 7000 points without upgrades I am looking to offload. Is it better to sell single models or sell squads together or sell the whole complete army together? The paint jobs are high standard (not golden daemon but better than average)

The advice here looks sound to me

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/A_Guide_to_Selling_Miniatures_on_Ebay

Perfect just what I was looking for, thank you

Intercessor wrote:
Hello,
I have a large army around 7000 points without upgrades I am looking to offload. Is it better to sell single models or sell squads together or sell the whole complete army together? The paint jobs are high standard (not golden daemon but better than average)

This thead has some good pointers as well:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/631721.page#7515952

Your situation is a fairly extreme case: your army is really 2-3 armies of normal size. Selling it one go will be very challenging. The trick is to balance how long you are willing to wait for a buyer with how much you want to maximize the returns. You also need to keep in mind your own time. If you can do something productive with the 20 hours you spend selling your army, do that, and dump the army for pennies on the dollar.

For collections that large, you generally have two approaches. The first is to showcase the army, with good pictures, both as a group and indiviudal squads, as well as a comprehensive inventory. You take this and show it everywhere: Dakka Swap Shop, Bartertown, etc. Set a price that's feasible, and let it sit. You'll probably get no real offers on the whole army, but you might get lucky. What you will get, almost always, are offers for chunks. After a bit, you may want to consider breaking up the lot and selling it. Or you can take your show to eBay, and let the market do the work for you. Any army, of any size, will eventually sell on eBay. Pick a price you like, let it ride for a week. Drop the price a bit, give it another week. Repeat until it sells or the price is lower than you'd possibly accept.

If it hasn't sold in one go, or you don't want to spend a month or more selling this thing, than break it into bite sized lots. The odds of somebody wanting 7000pts of one army, no matter how nicely painted, are pretty low. A lot more people might be induced to buy a 2000 point army broken out from it. And even more are interested in buy a squad or tank at a time. Here, instead of price being your limiting factor, make it the time you spend packaging and shipping the stuff. Selling a squad at a time brings the most money, but will take forever.

Generally, if you are selling a full army, you call into one of two broad archtypes. First, you have simply moved on from the hobby, and want to get something out of your army. Convenience and speed will control. Second, you really need money, and see your army as an asset. You are willing to take the time to milk it for all its worth. Throughness and effort will control.

Figure out where you are, and approach it accordingly. If you want to wring every cent from it, then start taking squad pictures and posting them on eBay. If you want it gone relatively quickly, break it into 1500-2000 pount playable armies, and sell them all at once.

Don't sell it in large chunks. Yes, someone might buy the full army, but generally, you'll get more money per squad than in one lump sum. Selling squads the way you play them on the table is the best bet. Chances are, if you're a good player, someone else will agree with that playstyle and pick up the squad right away.

Veteran Sergeants or equivalent for whatever army, the unit leader that is above and beyond the normal, can be sold alone. I'm actually looking for single models like that and I know from the amount of auctions I've lost out on that I'm not the only one.

 SharkoutofWata wrote:
Don't sell it in large chunks. Yes, someone might buy the full army, but generally, you'll get more money per squad than in one lump sum. Selling squads the way you play them on the table is the best bet. Chances are, if you're a good player, someone else will agree with that playstyle and pick up the squad right away.

Veteran Sergeants or equivalent for whatever army, the unit leader that is above and beyond the normal, can be sold alone. I'm actually looking for single models like that and I know from the amount of auctions I've lost out on that I'm not the only one.

that's true if you're trying to make the most money, but every additional lot you sell is another box to pack up and ship. Shipping will eat into your profit margin as well, as savvy buyers include it in their budget.

It's good advice, but only if the seller can afford to spend lots of time selling the army. I've done it both ways, and honestly, I'd rather make less on the sale, and spend the time doing something else, but I can work extra hours at a pretty decent rate. YMMV.

Thank you all... I will try the barter sites like barter town and swap shop for a while first.

The army actually wasn't painted by me. It was a paid commision. Some of the larger models have very nice looking special effects on them. I'll probably need a decent image hosting site for all the pictures.

What ever you do, in your ad, do not say "PRO PAINTED".

 danpieri wrote:
What ever you do, in your ad, do not say "PRO PAINTED".

exalted!
Man I see the words PRO PAINTED all over the place and it really is annoying. Just say "painted" and let the pictures speak for themselves. As for image hosting, there is always photobucket. Free and can host ALOT of pictures.

And yea, 7000 points is a big army. You will most definitely be given offers to buy it piecemeal. Depending on the makeup of the army you could possibly break it up in to a couple smaller chunks. Like a few 2000 point armies and a 1000 point list.

I can only speak for myself on this, but I went on an eBay binge a few months ago trying to find a nicely painted apocalypse sized army. I looked for months and saw dozens of huge armies that were excellently painted but all sold piece meal. Almost any of these armies I would have bought if they were bundled together. And on the rare occasion a 4,000+ point army did get posted they would generally get bought up within a day or two of being posted (they almost always had a "Buy Now" option).

So while what the others have posted on this thread may very well be true, there are people out there surfing eBay looking for a large army to purchase. And yes, you can probably get more money if you sell the squads individually, but then you'll need to take into account the time to sell, pack, and ship each squad. And do you want to see your brothers in arms split up?

If you decide to sell the army as one I would recommend pricing out the army if it were bought new and making sure your price is well below what that cost is. I saw soooo many armies that were listed at a premium because they were painted (to various degrees of quality). And not once did I ever see any of those armies get a single bid. So if you want the army to move, make sure it's priced appropriately.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And although I am not in the market for a new army, I would be curious to see what you've got, if you don't mind posting a link once you get your army listed.

 Icculus wrote:

 danpieri wrote:
What ever you do, in your ad, do not say "PRO PAINTED".

exalted!
Man I see the words PRO PAINTED all over the place and it really is annoying. Just say "painted" and let the pictures speak for themselves. As for image hosting, there is always photobucket. Free and can host ALOT of pictures.

This, so much this! Yesterday I came across a seller on eBay that uses the term "pro painted" well... let's say liberally. People who just label all miniatures dipped in a paintbucket and maybe quickshade as pro painted are really annoying because they make it a lot harder to search for actually well painted stuff. Take a look for yourself: http://www.ebay.com/itm/WARHAMMER-SKARR-BLOODWRATH-on-scenic-base-pro-painted-by-seller-/261979259614?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cff2e42de

I'm no Golden Demon painter myself and my hands are so shaky that painting small details is a real pain... but it doesn't take me 5 minutes to do a better job on those miniatures than that.

Edit: On the actual topic of the thread, you have to take into account possible import charges etc. if you plan to sell outside the EEA. For this reason it might be easier to sell the army in smaller portions. If the paintjob is actually really high quality a lot of people won't really care as much about the costs involved but I thought that this was worth mentioning.

You must consider shipping expense when dividing your army.

I can usually sell 2 small squads or 1 large squad in a single small USPS box for$5.60

A medium box can fit much more. I often designed my lots according to what i can fit in a medium box.