Packs pack packs always with the packs!

[FramFramson]

The tendency of many manufacturers to offer minis only in packs is beginning to drive me batty, as I will invariably only need one or two of the minis in question - worse still if I need duplicates of that one mini! It is immensely frustrating to see a mini I would like to use in pack for $20 or whatever. Sometimes I grit my teeth and eat the cost but others I must abandon, especially if that one figure is the usual reason anyone buys a given pack (meaning I'll never get anyone to split it with me).

I was accepting it with grumbling tolerance until I went to look at an mini tonight that USED to be for sale solo and which is now only sold in a pack.

ARGH.

[/end rant]

[goon3423]

Agreed, I can't tell you how many odds & ends that I want but will probably never own for just this reason. To make it worse some companies keep making the pack/sets larger & larger so it goes well past the reasonable "sacrifice cost" to get said one or two minis.

[Lowtardog]

I cant blame them annoying though it is. I am sure it has been discussed before about molds, spins of the lead etc so it has for them economy and also the added bonus-pitfall of selling more than the 1 figure . For many years now I have based buying armies up around the packs on offer. There are very few now who do single miniatures, Frontrank and Redoubt (even they have pack creep) are the only two for large unit amries that I can think of now

[zizi666]

Loungelizard once told me that a miniature shop in Brussels (now long gone) used to sell miniatures per piece. The owner simply opened the blisters
(I recon prices would have been a bit higher) I believe the shop was simply called Figs.

[grant]

I cant blame them annoying though it is. I am sure it has been discussed before about molds, spins of the lead etc so it has for them economy and also the added bonus-pitfall of selling more than the 1 figure . For many years now I have based buying armies up around the packs on offer. There are very few now who do single miniatures, Frontrank and Redoubt (even they have pack creep) are the only two for large unit amries that I can think of now

I ways thought this was the reason.

Some companies do sell individually, Warlord does (somewhat).

Even beastly GW which used to be famous for its bits service cancelled it. That was a sad day!

[Bergil]

The simple reason is that Moulds contain around 10-12 figures on average. Now whilst it's worth selling off a whole moulds worth of figures as a pack and at a decent price (or a mould split into several packs) if only one to two of the figures where to be sold and the others left on the shelf it actually costs us sellers to do that.

Whilst most of us truly just want our figures to be played with, we live in a system where money is king, and we need it to live, so we simply cannot afford to fork out cash so that everyone can have that one choice mini. It's either the pack or nothing in most cases!

Some companies that know they are going to sell alot may have a master mould made with 12 figures in, then use the copies to make another 12 moulds with just one type of figure in each which makes selling them individually much more viable. (I reiterate, if they know they're going to sell enough to make it worth their while)

But to do that would cost roughly £780 - £800, without taking into account the time to sculpt the figures or comission them as well....

So, packs it is then! 

[Calimero]

It’s all well to rant once in a while (I’m about to do so myself on another subject). But maybe you can take a shoot in the dark and ask for the figures you want. After all not all wargames are interested in exactly the same figures… maybe the figures you want aren’t that popular and maybe some one out there doesn’t want them…

I’m pretty sure some kind of exchange boards would be feasible /interesting /useful… no?

[carlos13th]

It frustrates me a little too. I totally understand why they do it but it can be frustrating.

[FramFramson]

The simple reason is that Moulds contain around 10-12 figures on average. Now whilst it's worth selling off a whole moulds worth of figures as a pack and at a decent price (or a mould split into several packs) if only one to two of the figures where to be sold and the others left on the shelf it actually costs us sellers to do that.

Whilst most of us truly just want our figures to be played with, we live in a system where money is king, and we need it to live, so we simply cannot afford to fork out cash so that everyone can have that one choice mini. It's either the pack or nothing in most cases!

Some companies that know they are going to sell alot may have a master mould made with 12 figures in, then use the copies to make another 12 moulds with just one type of figure in each which makes selling them individually much more viable. (I reiterate, if they know they're going to sell enough to make it worth their while)

But to do that would cost roughly £780 - £800, without taking into account the time to sculpt the figures or comission them as well....

So, packs it is then!  

Well, there's a bit of a wrinkle there. Let's say you have a pack with six figures. If ninety percent of the time people are consistently buying the pack for one figure and tossing the rest (or putting them on the lead pile or whatever), maybe we can stop pretending that that isn't a case of one desirable mini being used to sell five much less popular ones. And that's not good really good business either.

I'm not saying that all miniatures need to be equally cool or popular, but if it's at least up to two-fifths or half the pack, you feel a lot less stupid for buying (or may buy when you wouldn't). As goon3423 stated, there are packs many of us just won't buy at that rate. Which is money the seller loses out on too.

For instance, Mark Copplestone has done a pretty good job of selling smaller packs, with at least two out of the four seen as "cooler" or similar (except for the infamous "Bolshevik Heroines" pack, ). So most of the time when I look at his packs, I don't mind half so much even though I'm not going to use all of the figures in them.

It’s all well to rant once in a while (I’m about to do so myself on another subject). But maybe you can take a shoot in the dark and ask for the figures you want. After all not all wargames are interested in exactly the same figures… maybe the figures you want aren’t that popular and maybe some one out there doesn’t want them…

I’m pretty sure some kind of exchange boards would be feasible /interesting /useful… no?

Believe me, I've tried.

It's not all the minis I'm looking for (tried not to ask for too much at once), but I've had a thread in the Wanted forum for a month with no bites for even one of the minis.

[Conquistador]

I don't want singles, I want custom packs designed to my specifications!   

Gracias,

Glenn

[FramFramson]