Chest of Colors forum

I'm looking into selling painted miniatures as a way of getting a better price for some of the stuff I've got in surplus. I'm not too bothered about getting the money back for the hours put into the painting - experience has taught me this doesn't happen - but it would be nice to get a little extra and paint some variety.

Is it best to get critique and comments on miniatures I'm intending to sell before I sell them, and if so would you be willing to do this for me?
Are there any particular miniatures that will command a higher price and any I should avoid?
Do I have to paint and sell the newest miniatures out there, or can older miniatures still make it?

This might seem like an odd set of questions to be asking, but I don't want to commit too heavily to painting miniatures if there's going to be no return or worse a loss to be had out of it. As long as I get more than the miniatures cost to buy, it could be a great way of helping me earn a bit of pocket money and clearing second-hand stock at my local wargames store.

I am planning to only paint and sell stock miniatures since converted pieces tend to be more fragile which isn't great for posting. Any tips, hints and advice are very welcome on this.

I have also thought of doing this and used to work for eBay (the company itself), so I've done my fair share of research. Seems like the figures that do best are either A) Really high quality showcase pieces, B) Fully painted squads (Ultramarines for marine chapters) or C) Entire armies at tabletop quality.

A lot of people use CMoN to receive feedback on their miniature and advertise by linking directly to the eBay auction. This can be good or bad depending on the quality of the figure. Obviously if your miniature is receiving a lower rating on the CMoN site people may take that as it being a less quality piece and thus lower it's value.

As for selling in general, you mentioned having a surplus of figures and I would agree that it's a lot better to paint them up if you want to get their retail value. It seems rare to see unpainted figures going for their full value on auction websites unless they're hard to find (Legion of the Damned, promo figures, etc). This is mostly because retailers get a huge discount when buying GW in bulk and thus can sell excess figures for wholesale or less which floods the market.

What really deterred me from doing this myself is I really couldn't see it paying well. I researched average prices and a single "tabletop quality" figure could go for anywhere between $15-50 not including fees and miniature cost. If it takes 10 hours to paint a figure that sells at $50 (which I would consider high-end), that's about 1/3 of what I was making per hour at my last job. Personally that's not worth it to me, although that equation completely changes depending on how fast the figures are being churned out and their quality.

My advice would be to go to eBay (or where ever you plan on selling these) and check average prices or sales trends. On eBay you can see previously ended items and what they've gone for. Another way to go about it would be to mention in your auctions that you take commissions and generate revenue that way. The main problem I foresee with that is it's a verbal agreement with a complete stranger who could potentially back out if they don't like the finished product.

Anyway, just my personal opinions on the matter. Hope that helps.

Unless we're talking about very high quality non-playable stuff for collectors, my quick suggestions would be:
- warhammer stuff seems to selling best (fantasy/40k - no difference)
- popular/strong armies tend to sell better
- new armies tend to sell better
- rare models seem to sell a bit better
but (which seems more important)
- clean and neat paintjobs seems better then heavily weathered ones
- bright colors tend to sell better
- high contrast tends to sell better
(why? because what you're showing is only a photo, and these things tend to be more eyecatching on photos)
and
- clean armies sell better than dark and dirty ones (maybe because people believe they can paint the latter by themselves?)

as for me there's pmonly one good advice for selling stuff on ebay: it's name is space marines

...or High Elves...