Bartertown.com

Hey Guys

I've been on here for quite some time but i've never sold an entire army. The army i'm selling is painted nicely and assembled with care. Do painted armies usually sell for more than unpainted armies?

I was asking $350 for a space marine army and thats about 85% of retail and i've had really no bites and i'm wondering if it's worth keeping the army or keep trying to sell it.
Captain
Librarian Plasma Pistol
Chaplain Powerfist
10 man Tactical Squad Alpha(10) Missile Launcher, Flamer, Rhino w/ hunter killer missile
10 Man Tactical Squad Beta(10) Missile Launcher, Melta gun , Rhino
10 Man Tactical Squad Charlie(10) Missile Launcher, Melta gun
5 Man Assault Marine Squad (5) Sgt w/plasma pistol, flamer
5 Man Assault Terminator Squad(5) 3 lightning claws, 2 Thunder Hammers
Dreadnaught T-L Lascannons, Missile Launcher
Predator Side mounted Lascannons, Turret Lascannon

Just speaking for me, the opinion of one person.

A painted army is worth less than half of retail to me. In descending order of value here's an idea.

NiB - I'll trade 100% retail for it.
NoS - If all parts, 95% or so, if missing some parts, down from there.
Assembled - 60% or so, unless I can get pictures that prove they are assembled with no flaws.
Painted - 40% or less. Most painted stuff will need to be stripped, regardless of the quality of the paint job. Either it won't match my color scheme, or it will be painted badly, and in both cases that means stripping, which means work.

About the only way I'd pay retail, or even 60% of retail, for a painted army is if there were a Golden Demon standing next to it.

I don't think most folks have as stringent a scale as Zeppo. In general, here is my experience:

NIB/NoS - will trade for 100% retail unless not in demand, or more if in high demand. But for sales, you can expect about 70-70% value including shipping. If people can get it new for 80% retail, they won't pay 85% retail.

Assembled / Primed - varies, but I'd expect 50-60% retail if done well. Expect to provide pictures.

Painted - this has the most leeway. Expertly done, bases done well, etc... you could get more than retail if it matches an existing paint scheme or is a new army for someone - but expect to provide good pictures with close ups. Not likely to get much with bad pictures. If just tabletop quality, again, someone might pay 50-60% retail, with similar qualifications as expertly done. Bad paint jobs and/or no pictures will often net you below 50%, possibly significantly below. Stripping paint jobs takes time, effort, and money - sometimes risking the models in the stripping process depending how a person does it. The key here for painted armies is plenty of pictures that show close ups and the quality of the paint job.

will279802 wrote:The army i'm selling is painted nicely and assembled with care.

Says who?

No disrespect intended, of course. Just making a point.

The problem is that there are countless definitions of "painted nicely" and "assembled with care."
For me, "painted nicely" includes no less than 4 or 5 layers of paint/highlight on every surface of the model and "assembled with care" means every tiny piece of flash or sprue has been removed, join lines have been greenstuffed and there's no gobbed glue or weird poses. For others, "painted nicely" might mean 4 or 5 COLORS and a dip or coat of Devlan Mud and "Assembled with care" means it was glued together in such a manner that the arms line up where they're supposed to (no flash cleaning, etc.).

Potential Issues:
1) What color scheme? Are you using a common chapter and the normal color scheme? Is it the "Emperor's Lap Dogs" chapter? If you're not looking at a codex chapter painted to codex schemes, you're hurting your resale value.

2) HOW nicely are they painted? REALLY nice stuff might fetch 85% of retail here. I buy painted stuff regularly, when I'm in the market. The more I have to do to them to bring them up to my basic standard, though, the less I pay for them. Typically, 50% to 60% has been my limit, but those have needed work.

3) I don't have a codex here to calculate points, but that doesn't look to be a full sized army. If I'm looking for a whole army (usually 2000+ points), I'm passing you right by. This hurts you even more if it's a custom chapter or non-traditional paint scheme.

4) Your list isn't very exciting. There's a lot of basic stuff there; no power weapon/fist sgt's, no details on the Cpt, Rhinos instead of R-backs, basic Assault Marine squad with no P.Weapon options listed... It's all very basic. Even if you have Ultramarines in codex paint, those who are looking to round out their armies by adding painted stuff are looking for more than the basics. Chances are, they already have what you listed. It's probably pretty close to what THEY started with.


You just might be better off on feebay. The problem there is that you have to set a minimum bid or reserve, of you could end up getting half of your desired price for the army.

Something tells me that, if you lowered your price to about 75% of retail ($310), you might get more interest.

Eric