What is the best way to sell 40K models these days.

[Stucarius]

I think I am going to sell off the last of my 25+ year collection of 40K models including my beloved 100% converted Imperial Fist Army. Its just time and I've been holding out a long time but....

The problem is that from what I am seeing the prices people are getting is just terrible. I have already gotten rid of several thousand in models but what I got for them was appalling. Is the market that bad? Please give me some ideas if you will. My understanding is that it is ok to post things like this on BoLS and the figs are not officially for sell yet I am just trying to figure out what to do. I might also throw in my huge collection of 40K rules going all the way back, codices and a nearly complete 40K Black Library collection. (say 70% because I stopped buying last year when they went to all the collectors crap)

I've got probably 12-15 grand in models left including several boxes full of terrain kits. Forge World, painted ( as in some of the models were in Golden Deamon and other paint competitions and the Imperial Fist army won several Best Army Awards) a ton of Imperial Guard including highly customized and magnetized vehicles a one of a kind Space Marine FLyer that fields as a Storm Raven and is a converted kit.Boxes full of bits several Land Raiders FellBlade Tank etc...

I don't expect to get anything close to their value but I would rather not take the bath I took on my Eldar and Ork collections.

I would be willing to take just a single lump sum of even just 1/3 the actual value but I honestly have no idea what the best way is of selling models these days. Not sure I want to do this on Barter Town and it seems like Ebay is the only other route but the fees and what people are getting is just unreal and I would prefer not to get screwed.

For example I sold my brand new Eldar Army of 2500 points. An army that had won two painting contest and had also won 4 tournaments. The models alone for the army were $1,150.00 but I only got $600 for the army after multiple listings on Ebay and that was to an Australian buyer. FOR A PAINTED ARMY THAT HAD WON AWARDS!!

Please turn me onto a better route for gamers like me to get rid of nice collections.

You are welcome to email me personally with ideas or if you have local boards or clubs I could list the collection with ( [email protected] )

[Vlad78]

I think I am going to sell off the last of my 25+ year collection of 40K models including my beloved 100% converted Imperial Fist Army. Its just time and I've been holding out a long time but....

The problem is that from what I am seeing the prices people are getting is just terrible. I have already gotten rid of several thousand in models but what I got for them was appalling. Is the market that bad? Please give me some ideas if you will. My understanding is that it is ok to post things like this on BoLS and the figs are not officially for sell yet I am just trying to figure out what to do. I might also throw in my huge collection of 40K rules going all the way back, codices and a nearly complete 40K Black Library collection. (say 70% because I stopped buying last year when they went to all the collectors crap)

I've got probably 12-15 grand in models left including several boxes full of terrain kits. Forge World, painted ( as in some of the models were in Golden Deamon and other paint competitions and the Imperial Fist army won several Best Army Awards) a ton of Imperial Guard including highly customized and magnetized vehicles a one of a kind Space Marine FLyer that fields as a Storm Raven and is a converted kit.Boxes full of bits several Land Raiders FellBlade Tank etc...

I don't expect to get anything close to their value but I would rather not take the bath I took on my Eldar and Ork collections.

I would be willing to take just a single lump sum of even just 1/3 the actual value but I honestly have no idea what the best way is of selling models these days. Not sure I want to do this on Barter Town and it seems like Ebay is the only other route but the fees and what people are getting is just unreal and I would prefer not to get screwed.

For example I sold my brand new Eldar Army of 2500 points. An army that had won two painting contest and had also won 4 tournaments. The models alone for the army were $1,150.00 but I only got $600 for the army after multiple listings on Ebay and that was to an Australian buyer. FOR A PAINTED ARMY THAT HAD WON AWARDS!!

Please turn me onto a better route for gamers like me to get rid of nice collections.

You are welcome to email me personally with ideas or if you have local boards or clubs I could list the collection with ( [email protected] )


You're dropping your IF army? You? :(
How sad. Private reasons or just fed up with GW inability to produce a good ruleset compared to some of the rising competition?

Do you leave 40k for good or are you just waiting a bit to see how it goes and potentially decide to start anew later?

Do you have pictures of your army, I might be interested.

[Lord Manton]

I have been thinking the same thing. I'm trying to get up the nerve to sell a Red Scorpions Army, with heaps of forgeworld bits. There's a full battle company plus a bunch of characters etc etc. But I just know I'm not going to see anything near what I paid regardless of how nice the paintjob is (granted most of it isn't painted).

But if I think about myself when I'm looking at second hand models, and honestly anything beyond an undercoat and I'm not really interested at all. I play this game because it's my creative outlet. I spend more time painting and reading on forums than I do actually gaming and although it's not the same for everyone, the trend I have seen from watching a few swap forums is that most people don't want a pre-painted army. They've already got their own army that they're working on and don't want to have to strip models or add models that are just that little bit different. It's strange to think, but I bet no two Imperial Fists armies in the world are the same shade of yellow. And especially with a beautifully painted, award-winning army, no one is going to want to strip that.
My 2cents

[Stucarius]

You're dropping your IF army? You? :(
How sad. Private reasons or just fed up with GW inability to produce a good ruleset compared to some of the rising competition?

Do you leave 40k for good or are you just waiting a bit to see how it goes and potentially decide to start anew later?

Do you have pictures of your army, I might be interested.

I know. Its shocking.I'm about as big an IF person as there could be. It's really a long line of things to be honest. The marketing, the with drawl from the community, not having a clear well balanced game you can play competitively as well as have fun with on a hobby level (7th is a great hobby set of rules even though it is still a stale old set of mechanics), the prices, the endless collector releases, that they are going to plastics for everything which kills me as a hobbyist because I want the higher detail (Although Forge World really does great there)

There are so many reasons. I think one of the biggest is that the nature of the gamers playing 40K has changed so much. I know this is not the case everywhere but more and more I find the only people I can play are 20 somethings who know little or nothing about the universe, have never really played any other table top miniatures game and come at gaming with the mind set you find among the card gamers.

I actually decided I would give 7th a chance and BANG! my first experience is that what is left of the local community is playing this no holes barred version of the game that the rules present as the core game. The whole thing was just turning into an arms race of buying increasingly smash mouth figures. So I listened over the last few months to Podcast from all over the community and it seems like that is becoming the new normal. The people who are still playing seem good with that so more power to them. I simply do not want to just be fielding my armies like that and knowing that if I don't I will be run off the table. That's no fun.

Everyone I know who liked to just play the game on a hobby level, except one or two, have left the game and gotten rid of all their stuff.

It just feels like 40K has moved in a direction I really don't like and I simply don't see it coming back any time soon.

If I cannot find a way to sell the stuff off that is not just giving it away

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That's my concern exactly. Back in the 90's and early 2000's the community was so big and healthy you actually got decent money when you decided to sell off an army. These days you can not even get close to model cost for even a nicely painted army. It's just sad.

Heck if I found the right buyer who appreciated what they were getting I might even give them a great deal but freaking Ebay seems like a train wreck. After what happened selling my Orks and ELdar models and looking at pennies on the dollar everything seems to be on Ebay it may just not be worth it.

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Do you have pictures of your army, I might be interested.

Sure I can take pictures of all the stuff. I'd be willing to sell it all for a really great price if I knew it was getting a good home. I would however like to get rid of everything. All the boxes full of bits and unbuilt figs, all the boxes full of 40K buildings and the new defense networks etc...all at a great price of course.

send me a reply at [email protected] and I will put together some pics.

[inquisitormack]

With the higher cost of postage and eBay taking a bigger % over the last few years, I've found that eBay is not as attractive as it was five or six years ago. What works for me has been my FLGS has a yard sale every six months or so where everyone can bring their stuff in for a weekend & try to sell it. The store collects the money as items sell & then the seller gets store credit or cash back. The store will keep part of the cash, but most of us just use the store credit to buy more plasticrack.

I don't know if you have a local store that would be willing to try this, but we all look forward to that weekend as a way to clean out the basement & buy more stuff. (My FLGS is the Whiz store in Worcester Massachusetts & their yard sale is this coming weekend.)

[Mr Mystery]

There's groups on Facebook which seem quite well run - and don't take a cut.

Just remember - make any transaction as safely as possible. Use PayPal or similar for payment, and always always do tracked post. Mutual protection is important, especially on the interweb where it's far too easy to commit fraud!