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Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut




Central California

Hello, I have been playing collecting for a very long time. I now have TWO seperate IG armies beyond 2k points (silly I know, but the IG have multiple builds etc). I am thinking of selling one of them. It is fully painted to tabletop standards. Every unit has a camo scheme slightly off from others, each has unit numbers and identification (from squads to command squads) and comes with a unique commander/conversion including wound counters magnetized to the base. Half the tanks have magnetized weapons and sponsons. The chimeras are also converted and have weapon choices. See most of it here:

https://edwardmystcreations.weebly.com/imperial-guard.html

(Edit) I now realise some of the models on this website have been sold already seperatly. Here is the simple list of what I would sell: 4 leamn russ tanks (two demolishers) 4 Chimeras, 4 squads of guardsmen (3 cadian all with plasma gunner 1 with lascannon, one converted to be vets with more armor) 1 vostroyan unit, 3 sentinels, 1 heavy weapons squad (missile launchers), 3 command squads, 2 junior officers, 1 senior officer, 1 primaris psycher conversion, 3 ogrynns converted from ogre kingdom models
It includes a LOT of conversions, modifications (such as magnetised tanks etc). It also includes a unit of VOstroyan Firstborn with heavy bolter, a rarer lead model selling for 6-8$ each. The price bought new on ebay adds up to a lot to me (580$ roughly, and that is no mark up for my work. I also know this can change given ebay, but I took lower numbers and factored in buying the starter kit etc. If you disagree with this assessment for the base miniatures, that is reasonable.))
It is a full, ready to play 2k army list, although not optimized (I realize I have not pointed it after CA 2019 so it might be short now)

My question is, I have never sold a batch this large, and am not even sure if there is a market out there for a ready to play army of this nature. I know responses are anecdotal and opinion, but would I be wasting my time to even throw this up for sale? I would be happy to get 15% proffit but know this is massively subjective, and I am not claiming pro painted, just tabletop.
I'm looking for thought out advice, please.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2019/02/23 17:28:34


Keeping the hobby side alive!

I never forget the Dakka unit scale is binary: Units are either OP or Garbage. 
   
Made in au
Longtime Dakkanaut




You would be lucky to get even price of kits for less than pro painted.
You may be able to find someone that wants a full army willing to pay more. But that would probably be more worth than the time it would take you :(
   
Made in gb
Horrific Hive Tyrant





Agree with the above.

As soon as you take it off the sprue you are reducing value. A 'good' paint job doesn't change that. It has to be fantastic to add value. Otherwise most people will be looking at it as something they will redo, and it being already painted decently can even be a disadvantage in that regard.

Add to that, the market for a full army is tiny compared to the market for individual units. You'll either have to reduce price to account for that or be prepared to wait a VERY long time.

Personally I would say aiming for 70% of RRP would be achievable. But you'll sell way faster if you break it up into smaller lots.
   
Made in us
Powerful Phoenix Lord





You're definitely going to have an extremely hard time shifting that army, particularly in one piece. Having sold $15K of used 40K for the local club recently, here's the honest truth.

From best value to worst:

1) New in box.
2) New on sprue, open box.
3) Built (properly), unpainted.
4) Built and well painted.
5) Built and poorly painted.
6) Custom and poorly painted.

And then chop all of that down further when attempting to sell it in a complete army.

Glancing at the blog you have a bunch of random kit-bashed and home-made stuff with a low to low-medium paint job, in a bizarre and unique aesthetic, AND based with heavy snow effects. It's a very safe bet that you will not find a single person wanting to purchase that army and put it on the table and run it. That means, like 90% of painted stuff that is purchased on eBay you're looking at people who want to buy something cheap and used and strip it down and re-build and re-paint it. However you've used a ton of green stuff and non-GW looking components, which means your market is even further diluted.

I'm not trying to be a dick, I'm trying to save you time and effort. Your army as posted on that blog is essentially something you'd more or less give away for $200-300 just to get rid of it. Keep in mind that normal GW products painted to a tabletop or tabletop+ standard frequently go for MSRP or less on eBay.

You will make more if you split up the army, but then you'd have a bunch of units which would not sell, while others (vehicles etc.) will probably go, but expect 50% MSRP or less, most likely.

The metal figures (Vostroyans etc.) could be your gold mine since they're discontinued. Metal miniatures are easy to strip down and recover. A single Vostroyan squad should go for $45-50 a pop if you haven't modified them.

As a commission seller for used models on eBay, I admit I'd turn down 70% of what you have posted on that blog. It wouldn't be making money for me or the owner.
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut




Central California

I completely appreciate the honesty here! The points seem valid to me. It looks like my best bet is to either keep it for use, or sell the useful parts.
Thanks for the time and responses.

Keeping the hobby side alive!

I never forget the Dakka unit scale is binary: Units are either OP or Garbage. 
   
Made in gb
Regular Dakkanaut



United Kingdom

my experience of eBay is that is it far more profitable to sell individual models/units rather than big job lots.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? 
   
Made in gb
Horrific Hive Tyrant





Isengard wrote:
my experience of eBay is that is it far more profitable to sell individual models/units rather than big job lots.


If it's an auction style lot, absolutely. The chances TWO people bidding against each other that put a decent value on the whole lot come along within the time of the listing is fairly slim.
   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut




Label it as pro painted so that everyone has it pop up on their search.

CaptainStabby wrote:
If Tyberos falls and needs to catch himself it's because the ground needed killing.

 jy2 wrote:
BTW, I can't wait to run Double-D-thirsters! Man, just thinking about it gets me Khorney.

 vipoid wrote:
Indeed - what sort of bastard would want to use their codex?

 MarsNZ wrote:
ITT: SoB players upset that they're receiving the same condescending treatment that they've doled out in every CSM thread ever.
 
   
Made in us
Ship's Officer





Dallas, TX

After looking at your pics I would confirm that they are standard TT painted, therefore would probably not get you any extra value.
This would be my suggestion as to how to move your army: you must be patient when selling otherwise you’ll be fire saling them. Try your local gaming group first, thus save on shipping and eBay(10% of final sale price including shipping)/PayPal fees(about 4%, can never quite determine it accurately).
Use only your free eBay listings to save on listing fee, if you don’t have one, make drafts and save the template, list it when they do promotions to list for free.
Take current images of the product you’re selling, images from years ago may not be sufficient to accurately describe the stage your models are at thus giving room for returns.
Sell them individually, it always make you more money than in bulk, do a quick search for similar listing and determine where your listing lies; I suggest listing as buy it now with best offers in a 30 days format rather than auction.
   
 
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