Kuffy's Painting Log. 2007-2010

[King Ulrik Flamebeard]

Ok, taking an idea from my girlfriend, though I had already considered this before. Would you say I could get away with selling minis on ebay? It gets me a bit of money, and makes my hobby pay. I wouldn't exactly know what to start an auction at or anything like that, or even if people would buy my minis but its an idea, and I'd like to see what you all thought of the idea.

Kuffy

[Canew]

I've certainly considered it myself, though my research, both on LO and EBay, shows that massed models don't do so well, so I'd stay away from the "Professionally painted 2,500 point army for sale!" idea. I've also noticed that it's a good idea to stick with established color schemes. In other words, it's a better idea to, say, sell a Wolf Priest painted in "correct" Space Wolves colors than, say, a plastic generic SM commander with a made-up chapter and color scheme. Right now, I have a few metal old-school CSMs and a blister of Dante. I expect the painted Dante will do better in the auctions, but who knows?

Right now, I'm kind of in the same boat you are: I have a few blister packs of models that I know I'll never use, so maybe if I paint them for fun someone'll give me a few bucks for it.

I don't know what you'd get for it, but in trying to sell unpainted blister packs, I tried to set minimum prices and found the auctions crashed and burned -- not one bid. Course, I noticed auctions with no minimums by other sellers usually resulted in people making somewhat reasonable bids for unpainted models/box sets, etc.

This SUGGESTS (in a very non-scientific analysis) that a painted mini would, at the very least, get you back the money you originally paid for the model in the first place, but it MIGHT (seeking confirmation here) be a good idea NOT to set a minimum price. Not sure on that one.

As to whether YOU should sell painted minis, I'd have to say YES! I can't think of one badly-painted model of yours that I've ever seen. Your stuff is consistent high quality, and I can't believe you wouldn't do well auctioning off one or two.

My advice: go for it, and get back to us with how you do! I'm curious, in part because I've thought of doing the same thing (though I don't expect my painting would do as well in auction as yours would).

[danjones87]

I was asked to do some commision work a couple of times here and there. I must say I was definately interested, the only thing I see is is the time invested into each model. If you are painting a model and selling it for about the retail price then its not worth it, you must take into account paint and time.

If youre selling to get money back from not so wonderful purchases then go for it.

Dont sell Imperial fists, they arent any good.

Dan

[minus_t]

Well, it's an interesting thing really, innit?

I've given it a bit of thought in the past, and my conclusions were thus:
If you're actually after making any money, commision painting is the only realistic way to do it.
Selling on eBay is ultimately too random to be truly and reliably profitable over any real period of time, IMO.
Of course, with enough momentum behind you, anything is possible (just look at scribor's sculpts, or some of the 'Eavy Metal teams works...).

If you're selling them on because you enjoy painting one-off minis, that would otherwise just clutter up your desk/case/whatever, then I think eBay is a much better way to do it, although you need to accept that you probably won't make much profit from any individual mini, and that in terms of £/hour you are not well off...

T'will be interesting to see what you get up to...

-t.

[Jared van Kell]

Well Kuffy can always make sure that it does not sell for anything less than a certain price. This way he gets what he feels the model deserves.

JvK

[GLD1]

I was thinking about doing this as well...mainly because I have lots of plastic spares and I'm trying to save up for the new Space Marine Strike Force...

I'm a bit gutted having read Dan's post about Imperial Fists however as I've always wanted to paint them so figured I'd paint up an Imperial Fist apothecary and put it on ebay, as well as maybe the trader zone here, and see how it goes...

I've also got a 2 base coated assault marines that I was going to do in Fist colours but may actually do in Blood Angel colours instead now...

Overall I'd say go for it, but like -t said, you may not earn much in comparison to the paint, materials and time you put in...

I started a thread in the general forum about how much people were willing to pay - I'd hope to get around a fiver to seven quid for my apothecary...

As for ebay, I'm using it to get rid of a lot of stuff in order to afford said Strike Force, and i find that if you start an item at 0.99, it gets more attention, and can get more bids than if you started at say 9.99. A big plus from starting so low is the ebay fees you incur as well...you pay a lot less by starting an item at 0.99p than at 9.99. Also bear in mind that with mini's. good pics will really sell, but each additional is 12p, again adding to the fees. I used to use HTML for all my auctions and use pictures hosted on my webspace, therefore circumventing the extra image fee, not sure if you can still do this however....hope that helps a little...

[PAw]

Kuffeh if your thinking about selling or some such maybe you should do some small amounts of commissions? Doesn't Cool mini or not! have auctions?
by the way your stuff is excellent! I need to paint more like you and less like a drunken mule

[danjones87]

I'm a bit gutted having read Dan's post about Imperial Fists

Its not the truth, Im an Iron Warriors player and there are serious animosities between these two legions. Im sure they would sell well.

Dan

[GLD1]

Hahaha lol...dammit early morning wearniess - didn't make the connection :-p

[King Ulrik Flamebeard]

Hm, thanks for the words all. I might try putting something on ebay and just see how it goes, being as most GW minis are £6-10, I'll start somewhere around there in prices. It'll be an experiment really, I have sold minis once on ebay - the LOCS project (and we made a bundle for charity). I dunno when I get around to this, maybe soon, but I'll let you know how things go.

And Dan. I will do you a deal, give me your address, and I'll send you a bunch of Imperial Fists. You know you want them. XD

As to current painting, well. You might, or might not, have noticed a subtle change in my signature. Yes, my current project in the greenskin menace...the Orks. I plan to have a 1500pt (or maybe 2000pt, for options) army ready in time for the next LO meet. I have already brought my first squad/mob - 25 shoota boys. I plan for another of these, then 20 sluggas, 10 nobs, and we'll see how it goes from there. I also have an Imperial Guard Leman Russ. This will be my first heavy support, a Looted Tank plus Boom Gun and 'Ard case. I'm also heading good things about Lootas.

Kuffy