"Ebay questions" Topic

Im thinking about cutting down the collection a little.. making some space in the house and trimming down the bulky 28mm collections to mostly small skirmish based forces.

Im thinking about E-baying some well painted and unpainted miniatures.

My concern though is that I live in Japan and what ever good prices I offer folk will not buy them due to the shipping costs….

My collections include Naps, Sci Fi, medieval, ancient and fantasy figs..

Ive not e-bayed stuff before, do I need to invest much in packaging?

cheers for any advice..

Good sturdy box and rice krispies will do the trick. Buy the cheap cereal or you can even pack them in rice. Have used both. Cost will be high for shipping more than likely so you have to think about that in your pricing. Good luck.

Higher international shipping costs do put you at a disadvantage compared to US and UK sellers in their respective countries, so to remain competitive you may have to settle for a bit less.

It's also a buyers' market so unless you really want to get rid of them I think you should just keep them.

I don't know how much you need to invest in packing, but people expect things to be well package, especially if the box is going half way around the world.

Speaking just for me, you'd have to be just about giving the stuff away for me to even think about ordering figs from Japan--there are just too many local options with a lot less hassle.

I make purchases on a fairly regular basis on Ebay. What I can tell you is the cost of shipping does factor in. I always pass up good deals from New Zealand and Australia because the shipping is outrageous. Canada is another one for some unholy reason with outrageous shipping costs. Oddly enough the UK and the rest of Europe is very reasonable. I would research what it would take to mail something from Japan to the USA or Europe, they might have reasonable shipping prices.

I strongly suggest you conduct some research by watching bids on similar items you are trying to sell. You will get an idea of what their market value is. This way you can set a minimum bid or a buy out price.

If you have something that is rare or highly sought after and OOP it might go for a small fortune.

Another thought is to have a service take them on consignment and sell them for you.

Living in Thailand I'm used to paying insane shipping costs, many times they exceed the cost of whatever it is I'm after. As such, like 79thPA, unless it's something I really, really need, I do not buy.

When I do buy, then packaging and speed of response are what I'm looking for. That's something the pirate paint shops in Hong Kong are good about. Sturdy cardboard boxes and foam padded interiors with cut outs for figures and they ship the same day.

Cool. I might just send them to the UK and ask my family to eBay them from there. Might cost me at first but be easier to make money back on.

Cheers for the advice.

I found that Rice Krispies break up and the models can get damaged. Small pieces of foam work better, but are not biodegradable.

As a frequent ebay buyer to supplement my armies I would suggest you simply MUST provide good packaging. If a buyers fugures arrive damaged then you will gather negative feedback on ebay and since its a buyers market at the moment people wont deal with a negatively rated vendor.

Postage costs are important. I'm in Australia and postage is outrageous from the US so I just skip over US based vendors. I find that Hong Kong, the UK and Europe offer low cost postage and are my preferred sources.

I also find many US vendors refuse to consider customers from outside the US (even other 1st World nations!!) and because I find this insulting I don't buy from US vendors. So make sure your ebay descriptions include details about postage and who you're prepared to sell to.

I also find many US vendors refuse to consider customers from outside the US (even other 1st World nations!!) and because I find this insulting I don't buy from US vendors. So make sure your ebay descriptions include details about postage and who you're prepared to sell to.

Don't take it personally. Most miniature buyers reside in the US (or UK) anyway and some sellers just don't want to deal with the hassle and risk associated with international shipping. Overseas shipping with tracking (if available) and insurance could add tremendously to the cost which make it unlikely that the international bidder would be the winning bidder anyhoo.

I usually offer my items to overseas buyers as well as domestic ones, but I always indicate in the auction's shipping details that the overseas buyer pays actual shipping charges to be determined after the end of the auction, not before. This may serve as a deterrent to those who believe it's going to cost too much. Maybe one out of 20 times one of my auctions is won by an international bidder who's willing to bear the yet-to-be-determined shipping cost. It's an irrelevant percentage, really.

Use puff rice for packing. You will find it in the cereal section of the store.

A 36-figure lot of competently-painted Elite Miniatures 28mm Austrians ended today on the 'bay at £38.00 GBP plus £3.90 GBP:

auction

I find that extraordinary. OK, not everybody goes for Austrians and you don't need many grenadier battalions. But that price works out cheaper than buying new unpainted figures from Elite direct! (£41.90 versus £42.08 GBP).

Painted figures cheaper than unpainted? Excuse me?

My stuff mostly sells on TMP marketplace in seconds. Mostly.

Sell here.

I'm done with Ebay selling. Fees, holding payments, and some TMP freinds end up paying too much after bidding ends and I feel kinda bad.

yes. Its crazy.
Ive bayed stuff in the UK before. I had a DBA 15mm viking army that I bought for i think fifteen pounds… after a couple of years of it sitting there and having lost a figure or two it was sold on ebay for about 25 pounds. they could have bought it from old glory direct for cheaper…

that said My dad put my warhammer empire army up for bidding, three 40 man well painted infantry units (one in Scottish, two in English colors), a 12 man pistoleer unit a 12 man knightly unit, 2 cannons unpainted with a mounted general, wizard and engineer… sold for less than a tenner.

I wonder if this is because people just don't like other people's painting styles, or feel that it's cheating if you got someone else to paint this stuff?

Has anyone here ever kept a timesheet and worked out how long it takes to paint a 36-figure unit to your own standard?

You have to:

- straighten out / untwist limbs, weapons, etc
- trim off flash and mould lugs
- sand away mould lines
- wash the castings, dry them and prime them
- paint them
- varnish them
- base them.

I would guess it would take about a month of evenings to do all that for 36 figures, which is at least 1.5 hours per figure. Minimum wage is £6.70 GBP per hour so roughly £10.00 GBP per figure if you paid somebody to do this.

That seller didn't get £10.00 GBP a figure, he got minus half a penny versus buying new. His work was worthless and subtracted value.

Maybe it is because it's eBay.

Yeah. Pitched himself too low.

You can put them on at a high price. I've seen guys selling average quality work for bout 40 quid a figure. And sell it. I've had people bidding on some appalling early work of mine and pay way more than Id have felt comfortble taking money for.

Painted models can sell for a low price because part of our hobby is assembling and painting models.

Painted models need to be stripped, rebased and they might have been assembled with weapon options you don't want or glued the models together badly.

So the seller might have spent hours painting the models but a buyer might want a lower price to make up for the time needed stripping a model so the buyer can get his/her hours painting.

Not to say you can't sell for a higher price but there is a group of buyers who consider painted models significantly less valuable.

I buy unpainted lead on eBay typically. Painted figures I'm less apt to buy for a myriad of reasons, most already spelled out above. Selling is pretty much the same gambit. I know I'm going to take a beating, but if I'm not using the figures, I cut the losses. Finally, as stated above also, the eBay fees are exorbitant. I have some units I'll be selling soon, and this seems the the venue I'll use.

I'd rather give a customer a lower price than just fill eBay coffers.

Edwulf, are you on facebook? Join the wargamers in Japan page and you might get some bites. I'm in Japan myself, and would be interested in hearing what you are getting rid of. Drop me a line on prufrock DOT japan AT gmail DOT com if you want to talk.

Cheers,
Aaron

I'm on Wargamers on Japan. I might put some offers out there first.

I'm in the UK but am partial to an ancient mini or two… simonmiller60 at gmail DOT com.

Australians are so used to getting shafted on shipping you'll get some sales down here!

Nice one Zoring – know exactly what you mean :D

You can also sell through yahoo auctions over here too, so that might be a good option to look at if you can set up an account or use a partner/relative/friend's one.