What happens to your collection when you're gone?

[thebinmann]

PS clearly in the spirit of LAF any non gamers listing here would be adivsed/given a fair deal.

[thebinmann]

I share your thoughts. I guess the only rational thing would be to start cataloging all the stuff with photos and estimated value for, hopefully, a very distant ebay, or better LAF sale. The only option would be to start selling now

You know this should be done for insurance any way....

[former user]

maybe I should test it...

[joroas]

Ditto, Geoff, no idea what'll happen to it, either.........

[maxxon]

I hear what you are saying but if someone's hobby was maybe collecting paintings and he had a Monet would you say the same about selling it off? Like it or not what we have amassed has a pecuniary value. Or in the case of the art collector a Monet-ary value.

My father actually did collect paintings. Not real famous stuff, but classic pieces by less known artists nonetheless. Real antique, several were over 100 years old. The walls of my childhood home were plastered with the stuff.

When he passed away, we were nearly begging people to take them because we had nowhere to store them. I had a couple of auction houses refuse to take them to sell. People's tastes change and they just don't buy art like they used to.

I actually once contacted one of those "we'll buy your minis" guys that advertise in wargaming magazines. He was offering 25% of retail (yes, one quarter of original price) -- for unopened kits. Anything I had already messed with would be less. Plus I'd have to foot the postage since he wasn't offering pickups outside UK.

I figured it would be cheaper for me to just give the stuff away if I had to.

The business model of these vulture operations relies on buying really cheap in bulk, quickly separating wheat from the chaff, having buyer contacts for the really hot stuff but also very much in having ample storage capacity for the stuff that needs to wait for the right buyer to come along.

I've sunk thousands into my collection but I don't really expect anyone to get a dime out of it.

[joroas]

transit van  Laugh Laugh

You're only taking the Ancients then?

[v_lazy_dragon]

how much does one get for 2nd hand miniatures or painted ones (by the regular wargamer, not pro painters like Cubs etc)?
would it pay off the work put into selling it?

On that note - I used to do the Lincombe Barn wargaming table-top sale and had a stall at Reveillie every year to clear off my 40k, pulp/colonial and sci-fi/post apocalyse collections and would regularly make £400-700 a session. Over the course of the different shows over 3 years I atended, I must have made around £2,500, and LAF sales across the same period would probably total another £1000. I sold a lot  (somewhere between 500 and 1000, but no idea exactly how many) of figures, but no where near my whole collection... Painting was goot table top at best, 9 year old learning to paint at worst....  Based on that and the size of some of the collections that people on here mention, I would say that it's definitely worth persuing a sale...

[former user]

could it be that GW resells better than everything else because they have so many crazed fans and so high prices?

[maxxon]

could it be that GW resells better than everything else because they have so many crazed fans and so high prices?

Yes, definitely, but it mainly applies to the most recent stuff. Older versions are not so easy and obsolete versions are landfill material. Nobody wants it if isn't in the latest army book.

The other sellable items are ready to play DBx armies (or whatever the hardcore anc/med tournament crowd plays these days). There you'll also find people who are interested in just the game and ready to buy the necessary equipment so to speak.

If you have a collection of, say, old BattleTech minis they might fetch a good price -- but you'll have to wait for the right buyer.

Things are also probably best if you are in the UK. Elsewhere you'll have to deal with much lesser gamer densities.

There are local differences. Over here in Finland basically no one will pay a dime extra for painted. The first question in mind when buying second hand is "how easy are they to strip and repaint?" Recently a big lot of painted 15mm was offered for less than the cost of the metal. Last I heard the seller had to ship it out to UK because no one here was willing to pay (it didn't help that he insisted selling it as single lot).

[Relic]

Good topic! I have thought this also and I will let my friends to sell the stuff and give the cash to my family. Some things will be given to my best friend. Selling this kind of stuff takes time and rarely you can sell all in one go with a good profit. So it will be a long process to get rid of everything.

If my son shows interest in miniature gaming, then he will get the stuff.. Time will tell.

[Cubs]

how much does one get for 2nd hand miniatures or painted ones (by the regular wargamer, not pro painters like Cubs etc)?
would it pay off the work put into selling it?

hardly my experience, but I am willing to learn better

My work obviously goes for thousands, partly due to the breathtaking quality, but also because of the sexual aura that people assume is absorbed into the model.

But the simple answer is, it depends.

The long answer is, sometimes it goes for crazy money and sometimes for peanuts and then everything inbetween. It's really hard to predict, because all you need is two bidders, anywhere in the world, who want something and you have yourself an eBay bidding war!

Unless I am specifically 'flipping' something on eBay (ie. I've bought it at £X and need to sell it for at least £X x 2, for profit) I will go for a bidding auction with a low-ish starting price, not a 'Buy it Now'. Statistically you tend to get higher end prices.

If you set the auction up properly, with good photos, put in the work to make it available worldwide, with clear postage options, you can get maybe 3 or 4 times the retail value for miniatures painted to a good (not exceptional) standard.

As an example, I once had a client who had bought a 15mm Napoleonic Spanish Army (basically painted for gaming) and immediately suffered buyer's remorse. He asked me to sell it for him, being an eBay novice, and said he wasn't looking for profit, just some of his money back. I split the army up into individual units, touched up some bits of chipped paint and gave them all simple, but uniform, bases and then relisted the lot. I took a 25% final price fee and even taking that into account, plus listing final value costs, plus postage, he came out with a 10% profit on his initial investment.

The way in which you go about selling something affects its price a hell of a lot more than most people appreciate. In essence, if you make it accessible (break it up into smaller, more affordable chunks and also do your homework with postage costs) people are more likely to bid. The more work someone has to do, or the tougher it is to justify to themselves, the less likely they are to bid. It sounds obvious, but you'd be amazed how many people neglect to break an army up for selling (listing fees are usually minimal if not free), or who don't want to bother with overseas postage, then come out with a disappointing total.

[former user]

My work obviously goes for thousands, partly due to the breathtaking quality, but also because of the sexual aura that people assume is absorbed into the model.

have You been at the Absinthe again, Vincent? careful with the ears  

[Cubs]

[v_lazy_dragon]

could it be that GW resells better than everything else because they have so many crazed fans and so high prices?

Actually, no. It was the non-GW stuff that typically went first and for the best prices. I still have a (big) box full of 3rd Ed 40K era Orks which noone has touched despite being at near give-away prices. Pulp, some dark ages stuff, colonials and zombie survivor tpyes all did well. Vietnam stuff did not...

[Doomhippie]

When a friend of mine passed away his girlfriend invited all his gaming buddies over to take what they wanted for free. She believed that would be in his interest. That was a great gesture