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So my folks have had a clear out of the deepest crevices of my old bedroom, and, alongside some total junk, have uncovered a literal bucket of models.

I've gone through it this afternoon, and found some more unusual stuff (early Blood Bowl, Ral Partha, some Epic etc etc) that I'll look to sell, as much as to get them back into the community as to make a few quid.

The thing is, much of it was painted by teenage me, 20 or more years ago, so I was all set to undertake a large amount of work in the coming weeks stripping and disassembling as much as was practical to prepare them for sale, when a thought occurred whether it was worth it or not?

So, while I expect the general answer will be a resounding "it depends" I though I'd take the temperature of the community as to whether you'd be more interested in buying something cleaned and disassembled, to the point of paying notably more for it, or whether the time and effort I'd spend doing it would be unlikely to generate a return and your priority would be that it was something you wanted or found interesting and cleaning and preparing it yourself would only be an incidental thing for an old model?

I admit upfront I'm a Batertowner and a bit of a cheapskate, but I wouldn't pay more than like 75% of retail and even then it would have to be something I really wanted.

But if it's still painted that, to me, lowers it's value significantly since it means there's an element of risk. What if I can't get the paint off? What if even after thorough stripping there's still obscured details and other issues?

So to me stripped is worth more than painted, but not worth the original value of the mini.

Cleaned up, stripped and generally clean probbly best way.

Maybe just file down mould lines or fill any big damage in so they are best as you get them to original.

And id not pay more than retail unless they where onebi utterly wanted and was oop.

Yeah, I'd pay a bit more for clean than painted... but not a whole lot more.

I think stripped and reprimed is probably better than stripped which is better than caked with paint

If it's something LE or w/e, I'd bet it's worth refurbishing it. If it's common stuff like marines, just throw it up there and hope for the best.

Only thing id add that might make me pay more is complete.

Marines have pads and back pack etc. I may swap em, but complete marines for example, not missing arms ad that's just work for me to replace.

Same with pads or such.

Id rather at least have option to use the model as is without having to dig for extra bits to make them complete.

If we were haggling in a face-to-face setting and you told me "for an extra few quid I'll strip it for you" I'd likely just as soon do it myself. If you had already stripped it and were asking more than "normal" because it was cleaned I'd also likely decline. The products for stripping paint are not particularly expensive and probably in supply with most hobbyists (especially ones looking for "vintage" stuff).

Disassembly is a harder one to answer. If the models are complete and fieldable, I'd likely leave them as they are. The value is probably not going to be shifted noticeably in either direction and at that point why bother? If they're incomplete or bits have broken off, then that's a different equation.

Overall though, my feeling is it might be a good thing to have as an enticement to seal a deal with someone on the fence, but it's not something I'd particularly prize as a value add baked into the price.

Either leave them as is (I'd know i'd have work to do) or strip them and sell them like that (I might pay slightly more)

I hate re-primed stuff on ebay etc as I can never really tell if its been stripped and cleaned before priming (fine although I still might prefer a different colour or primer)

or if it's primer on top of old layers of paint and shoddy glue/putty work which I'm going to have to strip again anyway

(and my suspicion would be the latter)

I'm never going to pay more than 50% of retail (including shipping) for anything I could get at my local game store. (Including most oop versions of current models/sculpts.)

However, that being said, I am definitely willing to pay more for models that I have to do less work on. Any additional work I have to do on a miniature is going to make me feel like paying less.

Just for clarity, the stuff I'm talking about is decades OOP for the most part, not some tactical marines or an AOBR Dreadnought or somesuch.

For a few bucks you can buy a gallon bottle of Simple Green concentrate. Take that concentrate, dump it in a bucket with a sealable lid, place your models in, seal lid, and come back in a month or more.

Your models WILL be 95% clean with almost no effort and negligible price. I'd say you'd likely more than break even.

Check the prices on ebay to get a feel what people pay for oop stuff

Unless you've got them gold daemon standard, strip them. Then listing them individually rather than in squads or groups will maximise the money you get back for them.

I don't mind assembled or not as long as all the parts are there, or it's a bit cheaper if something is missing. Then unprimed is usually best as you get a better look at the model itself and see if there's any damage to it.

Tabletop/Already painted/Professionally painted means SFA to me as a buyer. Sprues - even random sprues that have only got leftovers attached - included in the army bundle are more likely to catch my attention than anything about painting or stripping.
You want to nab a bit more for your stuff throw random junk in with it.

 Azreal13 wrote:
Just for clarity, the stuff I'm talking about is decades OOP for the most part, not some tactical marines or an AOBR Dreadnought or somesuch.

Stripping may be the best option for OOP models.

I've sold undercoated ones before and have been challenged by prospective buyers (or busybodies) as to whether or not they were recasts.

If the models are stripped people can see the quality of the cast, type of metal, absence of additional mold lines and so on.

Apart from that, pray to the supply and demand gods. I've had stuff listed three or more times with no interest then out of the blue, two or more people are interested at the same time and the bidding war breaks out.

If it metal strip it. Metal is easy and quick to strip.
if its plastic sell it as it is. Stripping plastic isn't worth the time nor effort spent. Plastics aren't worth all that much anyway.

If that mass of time and elbow grease (and corroded hands) on your behalf is worth it for a few extra bob, well... When I flog old models, I never found it worth the time to be honest. But that's because I'm lazy and there's no guarantee that they will go for more than they would if they were uncleaned. Saying that, when I'm chasing down old models on fleabay, I'll usually pay a lower price for painted or partially painted pieces because I know I'll have to do cleanup. But, even then, it's not by much because if I want that model, I'll have it as long as it isn't damaged!

As an aside, what do you have coming up for sale Epic wise?

Echoing those above, I would pay less if the models are painted and I'll need to invest time into cleaning them up. Only once did I buy a painted second-hand lot that I suspected of being a recast, but they were stupidly cheap so I didn't raise a fuss. Bare minimum, I'd recommend you dump them into a bucket with your preferred cleaning agent, give them a rinse, and then list them for sale.

I'd probably dump the metals in a bucket of simple green for a week or so then rinse them off and sell them, but I wouldn't put any more effort into it than that.

I definitely wouldn't prime them - people will assume it's done to disguise them being recasts, and may want to strip & re-prime anyway if you used the wrong color.

When I've sold stuff (none of it that long OOP) I've always just put it up as-is and it's done well enough.

I'd pay more for stripped models than unstripped because I hate stripping models myself.

That said, if they're painted half decent and complete armies, I'm sometimes inclined not to repaint them at all.

Unpainted and unassembled for me. That way, it reduces shipping costs too.

 zedmeister wrote:


As an aside, what do you have coming up for sale Epic wise?

I'm trying not to turn the thread into a proto-swap shop thread, so I'm trying not to be too explicit with what I've found, but as you asked..

There's a Phantom with distort cannon (iIRC) and power fist too, but he's in pieces as it was the process of trying to prep that for sale that promoted the thread.

I've like to pay bottom dollar for painted stuff and strip it myself.

However, I've sold hundres of old models and almost without fail I get more buyers and higher prices when stripped. This especially holds true for old collectible stuff, but even for less desireable minis.

Get yourself a big jug of Purple Power and get those minis soaking!

I think you get the best prices for stripped because it's the easiest way to see the model's condition.

I'm always willing to take a flyer on big lots of poorly painted stuff, but I pay the most when I'm comfortable I'm getting exactly what I want.