"Pre-painted Saga Warbands" Topic
11 Posts
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Fonzie | 26 May 2014 6:21 p.m. PST |
I've been playing with the idea of offering pre-painted metal warbands for Saga but there are a couple of things holding me back. The first is cost: metal Saga Starter warbands are expensive to buy and I would need to invest considerably to stock them in sufficient numbers. Not sure that I can sell enough of these metal warbands to cover these costs and still turn a decent profit. I could of course go with plastic warbands but they have there own set of problems. First of all the choice is limited, you cannot build a Scots or Welsh Warband in plastic for instance without doing a lot of converting as there are no figures for it. A second thing that makes them less interesting from a commercial point of view is the time needed to put them together. I have just assembled two 4 point plastic warbands for my own collection and it took me about 4 hours per warband. My time is not free and I don't work for peanuts so 3 to 4 hours assembly time per warband plus the cost of the figures plus painting costs would make these plastic warbands not cheap as well. Again the same question arises: would plastic warbands sell well enough to cover the costs of stocking them and turn a profit. So what I would like to ask you to help me make up my mind gentlemen is this: Would you buy pre-painted, based and "ready to use straight out of the box" METAL or PLASTIC 4 or 6 points Saga warbands if I would have them? What would you be willing to pay for a such warbands? Thank you, your input is appreciated. Fons mmps.asia |
RazorMind | 26 May 2014 6:33 p.m. PST |
Use Old Glory minis, the paint up real nice and way cheaper than the Gripping Beast models. And yes, I would buy them if reasonable/ |
Buck215 | 26 May 2014 6:59 p.m. PST |
Yes to both plastic and metal pre-painted war bands. Some people would buy more plastics due to them being cheaper than metal, while metal figure enthusiasts would buy the metal ones no matter what. Either way, Fons, you cannot lose. Somebody would buy both plastic and metal (I raise my hand) just based on the quality of the paint job. I am getting too old to keep painting, yet I can get money to purchase quality pre-painted figures. I may be buying from you very shortly if you keep adding more ranges to your catalog
- Scott |
Henry Martini | 26 May 2014 7:19 p.m. PST |
The Somerled range is one of OG's best; every bit as well sculpted and detailed as the competition, better proportioned than most, and posed naturally and dynamically. The only thing you need to watch for is quality control. You could buy an army card, or if you're serious about operating on a commercial scale, you could avoid the $50 USD fee and still get 40% discount by buying $1,000 USD worth of stock. |
Grelber | 26 May 2014 9:29 p.m. PST |
While I think there are 15-16 "Official" Saga armies, I'm sure some are more popular than others. You might want to scan for tournaments and see which armies show up the most often, then start by providing painted versions of these. If this works out, you could press on to provide all the "Official" armies. My guess? Vikings and Normans are most popular, followed by Anglo-Saxons/Anglo-Danes. Grelber |
LordDredd | 26 May 2014 9:31 p.m. PST |
I paint and sell prepainted warbands using OG figs and they work very well. |
WarWizard | 27 May 2014 3:50 a.m. PST |
You can also get good buys on Black Tree Design Vikings and Normans metal figures. |
Chortle | 27 May 2014 10:18 a.m. PST |
Napoleonics works for your business because of large units, and lots of them. There is also a large market for Nappies. If there is an expensive brand of SAGA figures then it might make sense to buy them and sell them for a lot more than your Naps (per figure). But you might have to start another site for selling those, so you can set a new price point. Plastics, as you say, are tricky because of the skill cost of putting them together. You have to sell them to a market which is willing to pay for the variability possible with plastics. That is a problem from offshore. Other people may be doing this as a hobby, which isn't the same (as you know) as doing it for a business where you have to pay the bills, employees, the wife, several girlfriends.. Its more fun in the Philippines ;-) |
James Wood | 27 May 2014 4:32 p.m. PST |
And which Saga armies sell quickly on Ebay might give you a way to figure what's hot; or simply ask GB or OG. Seems to me that well-painted 28mm figures already properly organized could sell for $3 USD-4.00 each easily and horse more. Or mimic a kickstarter and have pledged pre-orders each with a nominal no-return deposit. Good luck. |
Fonzie | 27 May 2014 5:30 p.m. PST |
Thanks gentlemen, a lot of food for thought. Chortle, I wish I was still doing this as a hobby
Doing business here as a foreigner means having to pay the highest cost for electricity and internet in the world and yet we're having brownouts all the time and very slow and unreliable internet. Not to mention the "lunch money" that you need to "donate" at every level to get anything done around here and workers that are as loyal as a fly, have no work ethic at all and show or no show whenever they want unless you pay them a fortune. Yeah, my blood pressure agrees, it's more fun in the Philippines. :-) Fons mmps.asia |
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