Trade and Sale pricing

[quickfuze]

Just got to vent this....it's not just a thing on bartertown, but rampant on all trading sites. People who list their unwanted stuff for full retail or almost full retail. Ok first, most LGS (at least everywhere I have lived) offer some form of discount off of retail on GW products. This ranges from 10-15% normally and as high as 25% during the holiday season with prepay or large orders. So let's say you list a troop box for $30, that retails new for $35 and you still want me to cover shipping...why in the world would I buy it from you? I am taking the risk that the trade will go bad, I have to wait for you to get to the post office to ship. Let's be honest, we have all dealt with or known someone who has dealt with a slow shipper, and I have to wait on UPS to transport. So why should I buy from you and not run down to my FLGS and support them? I mean they are actually cutting me a better deal than you anyway, and NO WAIT. Second is charging extra for painting, even if you paint decent, most likely your models are going to have to be repainted to fit into an existing army. Others just plain have no business charging for their painting. Don't believe me, look at ebay and type the words "40k pro painted" and look at the garbage that people throw that tag onto. Be honest! just say painted to a table top standard, or just list it as "40k painted army". If you say its pro painted, then I better see some frigg'n Jennifer Haley looking stuff in that auction. Okay...that's my soapbox........

[aurak_merc]

Yep, it has been noticed before. It is rather silly, much like when people offer 10% retail and want free shipping. So you get to pay to send them things! YAY! (Yes, that has been offered to me TWICE, by the same trader on two different threads).

Just try to ignore the dopey listers (or actually ingnore them if the given forum has that option) and wait a while (or go to the LGS).

[Gaijin18]

My favorite has to be when people want almost retail plus shipping for used stuff minus all the extra bits and what not

[kturock]

Some people price stuff EXPECTING people to haggle with them.
Other price their stuff more reasonably.

My FLGS sells everything at full retail. Only when they have store wide sales, is GW discounted.

At one point they were going to charge us to play there also. [since the ccg players spent more than we do/did.]

[MagickalMemories]

I agree, re: illogical pricing structures/offers.

I disagree here, though:

Second is charging extra for painting

Sometimes, the models are worth it.
I've got a pro painted (truly pro) set of BT Sword Bretheren models that I'm ONLY asking double retail for. These sell from the pro painter for up to triple the MSRP, easily. Nobody wants them.
::
They're of high enough quality to shine in your army, and they're standard BT scheme, so there's no reason to strip them.
Another would be certain armies, like Ultramarines or Salamanders. If you followed traditional codex colors & scheme, and did a good job, I think your paint job might just be worth paying for.

If it's something I'm going to have to work on, though, to fix it? H*ll, yeah! Discount that stuff! LOL


Eric

[HarlequinZero]

I see painted armies selling more than painted units. Even if the unit has been painted professionally in a standard scheme it's still not likely to look exactly 'right' when compared to the other units in the army. Take the BTs for example, there's several ways to effectively highlight black. If I use a dark blue method and you're trying to sell something highlighted with greys the units just won't mesh.

[starslayer]

My favorite tactic I see here (and I see it ALOT!!) is when someone quite obviously has the contents of a battalion/battleforce in there army. But they list the contents individually at retail price when listing their army.
Also, most can get stuff new in box with all bits for 20-25% off and very low shipping. Why buy your assembled figs for the same price?? Makes no sense.

[Norseman]

It something is painted well I don't mind paying extra, but people listing crap painted minis as "pro painted" bugs the heck out of me.

I think it is just a case of taste and a bit of delusional thinking. It could be that they are the best painter in their area, and locally everyone LOVES their work. Unfortunately it just doesn't hold up on the internet. It could also be their photography skills suck or the lighting just messes up the look. I know this personally. A few of my pieces look amazing in person but look TERRIBAD in the photos I took of them for the Staff Painting contest. I am talking UGLY. I have been a little more forgiving since I have experienced this myself. Flash photography does not work on minis!!!

As for cash pricing. Anyone wanting more than 65% of retail for bare or primed minis has to get their head examined. Most can get this pricing shipped to your door NIB.

For an actual propainted army. I can see retail to double retail depending on quality.

But you know what they say...There is one born every minute.

[MagickalMemories]

I see painted armies selling more than painted units. Even if the unit has been painted professionally in a standard scheme it's still not likely to look exactly 'right' when compared to the other units in the army. Take the BTs for example, there's several ways to effectively highlight black. If I use a dark blue method and you're trying to sell something highlighted with greys the units just won't mesh.

To be fair, then, if "your" black highlighting isn't the same as the black highlighting on "my" models, then they're not right for you. IMO, that doesn't devalue them. It just means that they're better suited to someone else's army.

To reiterate, though, I'm not taking that stance for ALL painted models. I've seen enough on here to know better. LOL


Eric

[WyvernEye]

I tried selling "well painted" minis years ago. Didnt sell a darn one. Oh well! Now selling off my figs on ebay or here I dont expect much of anything. As someone said, if it doesnt match your army it doesnt look right. I have 3 really cool looking Kroxigors I bought (hair over retail). Right colors, nice looking; about to strip them as they paint different then me with definative layers and it drives the heck outta me! Hate to waste someones hard work though...

On a side note, noticed alot of newer posters (<10 feedback) insisting everyone else pay and ship first. How's that work now??? I did my time thank you! (Well, still plenty/most of people out there are higher than me so I ship first, just that I am not the "New kid on the block" anymore)

[Norseman]

On a side note, noticed alot of newer posters (<10 feedback) insisting everyone else pay and ship first. How's that work now??? I did my time thank you! (Well, still plenty/most of people out there are higher than me so I ship first, just that I am not the "New kid on the block" anymore)

Simply put: They are delusional...

Actually these guys are the guys that ARE setting themselves up for failure. They are basically limiting themselves to trading with other new traders because not high ref trader is going to give them a second look. Most problems are generally associated with newer traders making honest mistakes due to inexperience.

The way guys are supposed to do it is newbies trade with the secure high ref traders until they get a few refs under their belt.

[jul]

i'm so bad with the pricing that i'd rather let people make me an offer and start from there. I know some people like to have an idea or price range i'm looking for so in that case i made an easy table i use as a base:
NIB or Unassembled, unpainted, on sprue...etc : 30% off retail
Assembled Unpainted: 40% off retail
assembled, painted...etc: 50% off retail

All that got modifiers depending on primers, assembling...etc. i do not take into account the paint job, as i will strip them anyway. this has worked quite well.
For hard to find minis (i.e limited edition, FW, OOP...) i tend to offer/value a bit more. sometimes i even don't mind dropping the cash/mini if this is something i want or it is really hard to get.

What i think is an issue is using Feepay as reference for pricing, while it might be sometimes useful for some specific items, it is like using Google shopping or Amazon Stores to get an estimated. small exemple of that:
Google
and
Reality

it works with thousands of items...

i tend to believe that people come on Btown in order to find stuff under ebay prices and without the painful fees. Also i find that 90% of the time ebay doesn't reflect the value of good (bad pics, misleading description....) and rarely in a good sense (i did score a couple of stuff underpriced, but a typo in the title helped greatly....) Btown is not ebay, i do not think it'll turn into it quite soon, if people wants to sell at a fixed price, ebay is there, for the rest there's Btown.

and in anycase, if i'm not satisfied with the estimation, offer.. nobody is forcing me to conclude the deal.

my 0.02

------------
a point on 'Pro Painted', unless you have a studio or you are living out of painting minis, it is not pro painted. Also pro painted doesn't automatically mean it's well painted. I've seen some studios offering pro-painted but the quality is far from above table top. Most of the well painted minis are sold outside ebay anyway, a small world of collectors exists and the prices are quite high, like over 1000$ for a model, goes up if it wins a deamon or the like, also it is not unusual that those pieces are sold even before they are finished or presented at a contest.

Cheers

J

[spiralingcadaver]

Google
and
Reality

...woah.

[starslayer]

I partricularly love new traders who have absolutely no clue about a value. I was looking for some Skull Pass Night Goblins. I was getting offers of $1.00 each and $75 for a set of Skull Pass Goblins. (just the 60 Gobbos, minus spider riders, & heroes yet) Ummm...yeah...not buying.... good luck with that.

[starslayer]

Heres another guy with a mighty 18 rating who wants you to send him $600. LMAO.

His words from his ad-
-I don't care if your rating is higher than mine you have to pay first through Paypal and after the money transferrs I'll mail out the package confirmed priority shipping.