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The other day, while digging through my bits box I found an old WHFB plastic Wood Elf archer. The old ones that came in the box, every model the same pose. I stopped playing fantasy years ago and tossed a lot of figures into the pile. However, when looking at the figure, a flood of memories came back...I just graduated and started my new career...a client had no $$, but offered to buy me something with his credit card. I picked these figures. He looked at me like I was insane.

Then I started thinking of my little workshop in my first house where my wife and I started our lives together....before the kids when i could spend hours doing what I wanted. I could hear the cd that I listened to over and over as I painted my first REAL army up. I eventually got into other games/things and put these aside, embarrassed by the amateur paint job. But looking at it now, this figure, this style of painting, represents a snapshot of my life. The figure is now on display in one of my kids room..crap paint job and all.

I think of this whenever I read someone nerd rage about " selling their models" because GW pissed them off about this or that. I am not a sentimental person, but don't those people see these as being more than juts toys? The guy who burned all his figures...all that time spent for nothing? To get a few pennies on the dollar rather than keep them? I don't get it.

This is honestly how I feel. Even if I stop playing an army, I usually keep the figures just in case I ever change my mind. So it is that I still have some orks, space wolves, and dark angels all lying around my house. I don't play them now, and I have other armies that I'm planning to start and I have plans to expand my current armies some more still. But I keep those old models still, as I never know when the urge to restart one of those armies will hit.

I still have a High Elf army I don't use because the damn models are unsellable (AoS made fantasy models worthless)

Yes, keep your models. At the very least, there's always another ruleset you can play with them. I kept plenty of WFB (and 40K) models because they're not worthless. Not for gaming. In fact, I coincidentally started buying more when WFB sank. (But no, not for AoS)

Because the flipside is, if you sell them, you're only trying to hock your old tat, not divest your jewel-like items of wonder. You might look at your old armies with a purely mercenary eye, but face it, your badly glued, paint-encrusted collection was never going to rake in big bucks, whether WFB was alive or dead.

Im in the process of liquidating alot of my models. My cases are running out of space and I need money. Win-Win if you ask me.

It's not a single answer to response.
- Assembling, painting, and getting a few games in some models is the part that some people enjoy. Models sitting on shelves or in storage boxes don't bring that happiness, and eventually a person can reach the "I have too much stuff" point. It's perfectly okay to try something, have some fun with it, and decide that you're done and want to try something else without needing to hold onto everything.
- There's a subset of my figure collection that I would never, ever, in a million years be willing to part with.
- There's another section of my figure collection that I still have simply because it would be too much work to sell, and I don't want to just destroy them.
- There's no reason at all to feel bad about selling off your hobby backlog if you decide you don't want it any more.

I'd only sell them to make space. Never understood why anyone would want prepainted models in a lackluster game.

It's usually the models that get me into a game.

I only PLAY the game because I liked the models enough to buy them. If the game later sucks, it doesn't change that I liked those models, even if I never play with them again. They can live on the shelf.

I'll bin the rules or give them away - but the mandollies live on as "the indians in the cupboard" (or in my WHFB case, "the elfs on the shelf").

I've sold stuff to mates starting off, but only to downsize when I've had way too much of the stuff to ever use in a single game outside of 'poxy-clips (which I loathe) - cutting it back to one or two each of the models I liked.

I got rid of a load of my models 15 years ago, when I thought I was too old and too cool for war games. 5 years later I regretted it. They were not well painted, but I had some cool stuff. Now I would not get rid of any of my minis. I have stopped buying because I don't play, but the time I have put in to buying, building, converting and painting them is worth far more than I would get back for them.

At one end of the scale people buying the latest toys with mum and dads money and selling it off as a lump of unwanted gray plastic later for a game/army they are no longer playing. They have no emotional investment.

At the other end there are people, like me, who have invested a lot, purchased models they like, put hours of work in to them and come out with something they love and playing the game is secondary.

There is a vast range of people in the middle.

I no longer play, I don't often paint, but when I do I get a lot of enjoyment out of a few hours. Sometimes I buy a new mini (and every time I tell myself no more until I have painted my backlog). I will never sell most of what I have. There are a few bits that I might sell to make some space, but not much.

Never sold any minis except a few unwanted bits that came in eBay lots.

I'm far too attached to my old minis. The paint jobs not so much so have stripped much of it over the last year. This was done with the intention of making Old Skool Dwarf and Undead armies for WHFB 9th Edition but AoS stopped me in my tracks. I don't mind the system but am torn between mounting them on round base or sticking with square to get some OldHammer in.

I've only sold stuff when I had real financial issues that made it necessary

(and only unpainted minis and bits, I've still got most of my painted stuff except for the ones I've given to friends)

Even in the years when it was all boxed up in my parents attic I was glad to know I still had it

of course it does depend a bit on your attitude to 'stuff' if you're a genuine minimalist letting go could be a good thing (rather than somebody who thinks they should be one when you'll feel good for a few weeks/months then get hit by big time regrets)

Keeping something because it might be useful someday is the sign alongside the on ramp for Hoarder Highway. I'll keep an army around for a while, but eventually there comes a point where I recognize that I'm not getting any monetary OR entertainment value out of them, so I might as well get something from them and get them out of my house.

 Jimsolo wrote:
Keeping something because it might be useful someday is the sign alongside the on ramp for Hoarder Highway.

I think that depends on what specific genre of wargaming the miniatures are for. If they're very specific sci-fi/fantasy miniatures, then yeah, get rid of them once you've lost interest. I'm trying to do that with my WWX minis at the moment.

But I've got a bunch of WWII Brits and Germans that I'm keeping, because I know someone's going to come out with a system that I like and that I can use them for. The only debate there is do I want to rebase them from FoW style to single bases.

infinite_array wrote:
I think that depends on what specific genre of wargaming the miniatures are for. If they're very specific sci-fi/fantasy miniatures, then yeah, get rid of them once you've lost interest.

Or get an inclusive ruleset that allows you to use or make stats for any minis.

There are minis I've sold, or want to sell, because I've no chance of adding to them to make a viable force, or lost interest when I only made an initial, small investment in them, or because I wanted to replace them with other versions. But when I sold minis and whole forces because I thought I'd lost interest in a game, genre or setting, I've regretted it later. I still miss my BFG fleet...

spud wrote:
I am not a sentimental person, but don't those people see these as being more than juts toys? The guy who burned all his figures...all that time spent for nothing? To get a few pennies on the dollar rather than keep them? I don't get it.

I sell very few of the figures I paint. There is some emotional attachment. Also, my club uses alot of rules that accommodate many brands of figures so even if a game dies or an army is nerfed that may not be the end of the figure's usefulness.

However, if you're not using something and you can get a good price (Considering what I paid, I'd usually make a profit) why not sell it? I've sold a ton of figs that I really wanted (even rare vintage stuff), bought and later decided I didn't want to paint. I've also sold a fair amount of terrain and vehicles, even ones that I put alot of effort into painting and converting.

Eilif wrote:

spud wrote:
I am not a sentimental person, but don't those people see these as being more than juts toys? The guy who burned all his figures...all that time spent for nothing? To get a few pennies on the dollar rather than keep them? I don't get it.

I sell very few of the figures I paint. There is some emotional attachment. Also, my club uses alot of rules that accommodate many brands of figures so even if a game dies or an army is nerfed that may not be the end of the figure's usefulness.

However, if you're not using something and you can get a good price (Considering what I paid, I'd usually make a profit) why not sell it? I've sold a ton of figs that I really wanted (even rare vintage stuff), bought and later decided I didn't want to paint. I've also sold a fair amount of terrain and vehicles, even ones that I put alot of effort into painting and converting.

I'm a quick painter, so for me to sell a painted army isn't as big a deal. I've also lived in apartments and moved multiple times, so limiting the sheer number of armies has been helpful, especially as I branch into more and more game systems.

Verviedi wrote:I still have a High Elf army I don't use because the damn models are unsellable (AoS made fantasy models worthless)

I'm sure WFB stuff took a bit of a dive, but as a KOW, I still see WFB armies going for a decent amount. Not compared to what you paid, but how often do you get that back?

I only sell armies I dislike the fluff for, anything else I acquire that isn't a duplicate, I add to my untouchable collection that I'd never sell. I also don't care if the sculpts are dated or not, my armies are a big mix of current and ancient stuff.

Painting my IK right now fellas, making good progress. Have a good one all!

I ended up selling a lot of my older CSM that I'd started when I was in high school - this was after almost ten years of not playing 40K at all. I don't really regret it - I liked the army at the time, but I'd long since moved on. All they were doing is taking up space. I've since started orks, and I can't imagine selling any of these.

If you dont use it, and don't realistically plan to use it then get rid of it (Can apply that to most things in life).

I don't understand how on one hand people overvalue the time in painting and assembling their collection and then undervalue their time to sell their figs.

The time and money are gone. The plastic is of limited value after purchase. You buy the kit for it's potential, not the physical material. If you can find some shlub to buy it, well more power to you. Was it worth the time it took? With a few exception probably not. I enjoyed most of my time and effort and no one can take it away from me.

What will happen to your collection if you die? Family will keep a few pieces to remember you by. Friends might get a bit more for gaming. Most will end up in the landfill because most of it's potential is already used up. All of the real value left with you.

i have a hard time selling off my unpainted minis...
so much potential for enjoyable paint jobs...

once i have painted a mini, however, i don't regret having to send them off at all...
i've spent so many hours cleaning, prepping, daydreaming, and painting the thing, i am happy to see it go...

cheers
jah