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.

at what point does buying 2nd hand become more hassle than its worth??? picked up a mixed box of half undercoated half made CSM stuff yesterday. in the box was a spawn, possessed, 3 bikes, a rhino, bezerkers, regular csm, bits of rubic marines and a random few tyranids and a box of fantasy skeleton warriors. all in it cost me 30 euro

the rhino despite missing some tracks and the entire bottom floor has been salvaged as have the possessed. the spawn was mostly unmade so that was fine.

but the rest seems to be a bit of a mixed up mess. its hard to tell what anything is or should be. most of the minis came in a battleforce so a lot of the made bezerkers have parts from the regular marines and the bikes are just horribly put together!!!

i'm not looking to have an award winning army here but i like my stuff to look half decent. is it worth all the effort just for a good price???

Never worth it IMO for in-production stuff that you can get NIB from a store. If you value your time equal to a decent-wage job you're going to spend so much on repairing someone else's trash that it would be cheaper to just buy them NIB. The exception would be if you can be 100% certain that they're in NIB condition and don't require any repair work. But that's pretty rare, most of the time if you're getting a "deal" it's because the models are trash and the only way they're going to sell is by dropping the price to next to nothing.

It depends heavily on what you get and how well it's built.

Metals? Absolutely, unless they're genuinely broken. Unless plastics, metals can be stripped super easy and disassembled with ease. You essentially get a new model once you're done.

Here I show a rescue of a squad of miniatures:
http://myminiaturemischief.blogspot.com/2016/06/step-by-step-spiders.html

Plastic is another thing though. If properly assembled with plastic glue, it can be nigh impossible to disassemble poorly built minis. So if the person before you built them lazily, or wrong - you're kinda screwed. Likewise, plastic kits often benefit from being painted in portions or primed/sprayed while disassembled, so you can face a lot more challenges re-painting something like a vehicle. Generally you can strip paint pretty well off plastic, but not anywhere as easily or thoroughly as metals.

I generally do not bother with 2nd hand plastics unless they're very well built, or built by someone I know who is a competent modeler. Just not worth my hassle. Used metal figures? All day long.

You absolutely have to be very picky about condition. Some of the stuff people do is boggling. (we had someone on here asking how much his minis were worth and he had things like a rhino with rhino tracks on one side and chimera tracks on the other side...)

After very critically assessing the condition of the models you then need to ask yourself how much the extra time required to get them where you want them to be is worth. If you've got a surplus of time and shortage of money then your answer to that might be different to someone in the opposite position - only you can answer that one.

It has been for me, but I usually only go for specific pieces and usually metals, at that.

That said, 5 of my 9 eldar war walkers came 2nd hand (primed in a light black coat) with the specific weapons that I was after and cost me $10 each (Metals when they were selling NIB for $60) and a few falcon hulled tanks (FW night spinner, old metal bit fire prism) base coated in mid-blue around the same amount.

My elf army was possible only because of 2nd hand purchases, all metals.

Tiranoc chariots, sword masters, bolt throwers, silver helms and dragon princes. All from 5th/6th ed, and of the aesthetic I preferred. All for a fraction of what even the plastics sold for. All in the same basic scheme as my own (helps that I went with the boring blue and white elf scheme).

Make the most out of second hand miniatures. If you pay 30 Euro for 120 Euro worth of models, you're still getting a deal if half of them don't work out. The leftovers just become bits.

I personally have no issue buying something off eBay, stripping it, modelling it the way I want, and painting it up. That is the hobby, there are no shortcuts.

yeah i guess in what i've salvaged so far i have made back the money. possessed retail at €26, rhino at €31 and spawn at €33 so for €30 not bad

Its worth it if they can assure you they are in excellent condition, and if they have high res/good photos of them.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
but buying brand new from shop is more exciting, and you can do the assembling/painting. But if they look great etc etc and are on sale then definitly i say yes.

Since almost all my models come from buying off of others I am in the camp that it is worth the effort and the savings. I would never have been able to afford entire armies if it was not for others deciding they had had enough or were looking to sell off extra models.

My two cents,

CB

It's a cost/benefit analysis, as Peregrine pointed out. If you spend time stripping or repairing models that could spend working, than you'd better save enough money to make up for the lost wages.

Now, assuming you're working as many hours as you can, than it comes down to how you like to spend your time. I can afford NIB stuff, and even painting quickly I have enough unpainted to last me a while. Still, I love stripping, disassembling, and reassembling models. Many people do not.

 Polonius wrote:
It's a cost/benefit analysis, as Peregrine pointed out. If you spend time stripping or repairing models that could spend working, than you'd better save enough money to make up for the lost wages.

Now, assuming you're working as many hours as you can, than it comes down to how you like to spend your time. I can afford NIB stuff, and even painting quickly I have enough unpainted to last me a while. Still, I love stripping, disassembling, and reassembling models. Many people do not.

Btw, what method do you recommend for taking apart plastic parts that are super glued. Because i also like taking apart n stuff, and i was doing the freezing method but mabey you have a better one?

 Stormatious wrote:

 Polonius wrote:
It's a cost/benefit analysis, as Peregrine pointed out. If you spend time stripping or repairing models that could spend working, than you'd better save enough money to make up for the lost wages.

Now, assuming you're working as many hours as you can, than it comes down to how you like to spend your time. I can afford NIB stuff, and even painting quickly I have enough unpainted to last me a while. Still, I love stripping, disassembling, and reassembling models. Many people do not.

Btw, what method do you recommend for taking apart plastic parts that are super glued. Because i also like taking apart n stuff, and i was doing the freezing method but mabey you have a better one?

Freezing works pretty well with superglue. the only other real technique is brute force. Get some screwdrivers or other sturdy, slightly sharp implements, and just dig them apart.

And some stuff you just can't unglue or strip. That's when you work with what you have.

I have the luxury of living in an area with a pretty active minis scene, so I frequently buy used from swap meets, flea markets and such - so I get to check out the goods before i buy. I once came home with a box of five Eldar Grav tanks and three vipers for $30. One grav tank had been stepped on, but everything else was excellent! I found a massive AT43 red blok army for $40 - scores of models (have i ever played the game? well, that's another question...)

I've also had great luck with ebay, but don't buy too much there.

New stuff is so expensive, I just can't imagine buying anything new unless I *really* like the model.

It is worth it if and ONLY if:

1. They are OOP and can't be bought in a store.
2. They are still on the sprue.
3. They are nicely build and unpainted.
4. They are nicely built and nicely painted in your colours.

Otherwise I would never even consider it.

Best regards, Fredrik

gaza4 wrote:
at what point does buying 2nd hand become more hassle than its worth???

If it's been poorly assembled. That for me is the main problem. Mold lines everywhere? Forget it. Janky poses? Forget it.

If it's an OOP metal model, totally worth second hand. It's easy to strip metal by almost any method, and metal models practically disassemble themselves.

If it's plastic and well cleaned/assembled, an ultrasonic cleaner and the right chemicals can sort it out with minimal effort.

I had a unit of old plastic Tau Fire Warriors abandoned by someone who used to play the game (briefly). They were put together with superglue, but badly. The only reason I bothered salvaging them is that they were OLD Fire Warriors rather than the new kit. It probably took twice as long to strip, disassemble, clean and prep them than building them off the sprue would have been.

Gotta agree hardcore with the saving of metal miniatures. It's absolutely 100% worth it. Particularly since many of these models were sadly put into Finecast/resin production (and that gak is awful). So digging around on eBay and finding a good metal miniature is easy and rewarding. Here's a sample of a metal Avatar purchased and stripped. It's a brand new miniature at that point - zero different from getting one new-in-box.

Well... having a second hand will definitely be worth it as a lot of tasks require two hands...

What's better: Dr. Dre or avacados?
Really depends on what you're looking for. Personally, I build mostly Orks and some mutant Chaos scum so second hand is my preference. Especially love the cheap and poorly built stuff, nearly limitless possibilities.
Of course, this sounds like a nightmare to others. Both are correct.
BTW, while Dre was certainly a front runner for the next generation of rappers, I find his newer stuff lacking. Like he opened a door but only half walked through it. That said, avacados look and taste like Shrek poop so Dre wins hands-down.

I don't like fixing other people's messy models and I don't like stripping and prepping models at the best of times.

So I only buy 2nd hand if it's something OOP that I can't get new or the savings are really massive.

There used to be a store that traded used models, I did occasionally buy 2nd hand from them if I could see that'd actually save me time vs buying new, but I don't bother buying stuff online except for the aforementioned OOP stuff.

Oh, I once did go halves with a mate buying a whole army off eBay, but that was already painted and we didn't have to touch it, it was just so we could play games without waiting a year for us to put an army together ourselves.

If you have the resources, buying second hand saves a whole lot of money. There is a house hold cleaner (purple jug I forget what it's called) that will eat paint and glue from used models.