Bartertown.com

Is it just me but does every posting now has either have or want pay-pal..??
I remember the day when cash was the last option, now its the first..
People still do trade on the site but it just seems to be the going way of
only seeing people interested in buying or selling their stuff.

It is just easier to sell then trade. Everyone has a very particular set of wants and chances are you don't meet them, but you still want to get their minis. So either you hang your head and look for someone else who has exactly X and wants Y, or you buy it off them.

And yes, there are certainly more folks who are here to sell, but that's just because the market is there and much larger than it was 10 years ago.

You're partially right, Gene. There's a lot more selling going on. It's not everyone and, though I'd say the majority are WILLING to sell, the truth is that there are more ads with Trades in them than without.

I think it's because we've gotten so much bigger, really. It used to be that the majority of what you saw here was GW, RPG and card game related. There weren't a ton of other games out there, like there is now. Frankly, it's quite often the fact that nobody who wants what you have has what you want, or the opposite. Not a lot of people (in comparison) are going from Kingdom Death to Infinity. It's often easier to sell your Kingdom Death models then buy the Infinity you want.
More often than not, that's what I do, myself.

Eric

What I've noticed more is that it's all but impossible to get a single mini or a small trade any more. I used to be able to do that all the time. Now it's just "full lot only" or "min $100". So it's been back to EBay for me when I'd rather be dealing here.

Shimekiri wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 29, 2017 1:57 pm

What I've noticed more is that it's all but impossible to get a single mini or a small trade any more. I used to be able to do that all the time. Now it's just "full lot only" or "min $100". So it's been back to EBay for me when I'd rather be dealing here.

Really? I do single items all the time.

Shimekiri wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 29, 2017 1:57 pm

What I've noticed more is that it's all but impossible to get a single mini or a small trade any more. I used to be able to do that all the time. Now it's just "full lot only" or "min $100". So it's been back to EBay for me when I'd rather be dealing here.

I think part of that is that I am seeing more full armies lately. When I am trying to move an army, I really do not want to break it up too much, lest I get stuck with a dozen or so random models at the end that I cannot get rid of, yet still take up space in the basement. (FWIW, one of my long-term goals is to actually figure a storage solution for second-hand models that I maintain for trading/sales purposes, but I'm nowhere close to having that space yet. Thus, full army deals when I sell/trade.)

pretre wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 29, 2017 2:02 pm

Really? I do single items all the time.

Yeah. It might just be the Privateer board since that's where I mostly hunt.

It comes down to cost on shipping small lots for me. If I am selling a $20 figure for $10, most of the time the buyer wants free shipping. Take $7 off the $10 and I am getting $3 for a $20 figure. If I insist the buyer pays shipping, they are paying $17 for a $20 mini. That is not much savings and generaly the decline to buy it. It is just more cost effective to sell in bigger lots. Sames goes for trading just a few figures, it not worth it.

$7 shipping? You know most minis fall into the First Class (less than 13 oz) category, right? I ship a lot of my stuff in the $2.77 to $4.29 range.

I normally ship priority because people want them quick. I dont used padded envelopes to save weight, because of the cost, and they dont protect the mini as well as I like. I just use whatever box I can find that fits and that adds to the weight. I am not a business, I am just a gamer with the "oh shiney" syndrome, so I try to save as much money as I can.


EDIT** I also use the USPS website to print labels, the only service the offer is priority mail. I do not have time to go to the post office during the day to wait in line for first class postage. I just drop them off prepaid.

ChaplinXavier wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 29, 2017 4:56 pm

I normally ship priority because people want them quick. I dont used padded envelopes to save weight, because of the cost, and they dont protect the mini as well as I like. I just use whatever box I can find that fits and that adds to the weight. I am not a business, I am just a gamer with the "oh shiney" syndrome, so I try to save as much money as I can.

Just get small boxes. You can get them really cheap, even if you go to Walmart or a office goods store. The 0.25 to 0.50 you spend on a box will save you $3-4 in shipping a lot of the time.

Also, First class is generally 3-4 days. Priority is 2-3 for double + the price.

ChaplinXavier wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 29, 2017 4:36 pm

It comes down to cost on shipping small lots for me. If I am selling a $20 figure for $10, most of the time the buyer wants free shipping. Take $7 off the $10 and I am getting $3 for a $20 figure. If I insist the buyer pays shipping, they are paying $17 for a $20 mini. That is not much savings and generaly the decline to buy it. It is just more cost effective to sell in bigger lots. Sames goes for trading just a few figures, it not worth it.

I know what you mean, shipping from Canada to the US almost a,ways starts in the 15-18 buck range so selling or buying singles for me is almost out of the question.

ChaplinXavier wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 29, 2017 4:56 pm

I normally ship priority because people want them quick. I dont used padded envelopes to save weight, because of the cost, and they dont protect the mini as well as I like. I just use whatever box I can find that fits and that adds to the weight. I am not a business, I am just a gamer with the "oh shiney" syndrome, so I try to save as much money as I can.


EDIT** I also use the USPS website to print labels, the only service the offer is priority mail. I do not have time to go to the post office during the day to wait in line for first class postage. I just drop them off prepaid.

You can ship thru paypal and use paypal shipping from it's site. It uses the USPS rate calculator for pricing. You but postage for 1st class mail on it.

As far as using non-paddeed envelopes and cheap boxes, you get what you pay for. Everyday we throw away items that are put in these. Yup. Thrown away. because the box or envelope shredded and there's nothing left of it to identify either address.

kturock wrote: ↑

Thu Jun 29, 2017 11:18 pm

You can ship thru paypal and use paypal shipping from it's site. It uses the USPS rate calculator for pricing. You but postage for 1st class mail on it.

As far as using non-paddeed envelopes and cheap boxes, you get what you pay for. Everyday we throw away items that are put in these. Yup. Thrown away. because the box or envelope shredded and there's nothing left of it to identify either address.

Absolutely on the first class, you don't even need to do the transaction through paypal, just use their shipping engine and pay using your paypal balance. Waaaay cheaper than priority.

Cheap boxes are relative. I use corrugated boxes from amazon for most of my stuff and in the last year or two, I haven't lost anything to package incidents or had any problems. And I ship a LOT of stuff. I would not recommend non-padded, cheap envelopes or non-sturdy boxes though.