"What is the state of the 28mm Napoleonics market" Topic

Is 28mm Napoleonic popular? Golden Age or looking back on past glories?

The reason I ask is I inherited a few boxes of 28mm figures and I'm trying to figure out if they are better played, sold, or donated to Goodwill.

I'm an ACW player, so I have no knowledge of this niche! Any help accepted!

No. Donate to me now!

Very popular. Golden Age. Plastics and metals all over. Play or sell. If you want to donate donate to a gamer not the scam known as "Goodwill."

What do you have?

Spoiled for choice nowadays.

It's truly terrible – the others are living in the past. These figures need to be donated…

Oh and ACW is the niche, Nappies the only true way. What do you have?

It appears to be a lot of everything. It's 80% plastic (Warlords, Perry) and 20% metal (looks like modern high quality.) Russians, Prussians, Brits, enough French to drain a lake of blue paint…

I am not sure how many figures there are. Between 9 and 10 thousand, estimated by the number of figures per box, and number of boxes per bin. More than anyone would put on one table. I don't know if my friend had a side business painting and selling them (I found fewer than 20 painted figures, but they were really well painted), had hording tendencies, or if the phrase "plastic crack" is more literal than I imagined. I have a CR-V and with the back seats taken out I filled it 3 times over with this stuff.

There are 20 laundry bins of the stuff. I'll start putting a bin at a time up on eBay. All the money will go to the widow.

WOW!

Yes put those figures for sale online and help the widow. Not sure how much you will get for them. My suggestion is to look at maybe going for a dollar a figure to encourage quick turnaround or setting up lots at X price. Given the number of figures you should be able to raise a tidy sum for her. I would also recommend getting a one month membership here on TMP so you can offer the figures here and be garunteed a direct market of interested buyers. Ebay will rob you blind with its hidden fees and fees within fees. Also if you do not already have one set up get a Paypal account to again better facilitate selling the models. Paypal will take a small fee (2.9%) for each sale but it is far better than dealing with ebay. Also figure in how much shipping is going to cost as you are going to ask the buyer to cover that cost. YMMV. Good luck.

Oh and P.S. Agree with Extra Crispy do not give the stuff to Goodwill.

Leipzig at 1:20? I'd get them sorted by type and nationality (hopefully most are still packaged).

Pictures always help. Possibly rent a trailer and take them to Historicon?

What's wrong with Goodwill ? I've had some good
and CHEAP finds in gaming stuff from Goodwill.

Pete, let me know if you need more than 3 months

Yes, please sell them. There are a lot of people who would love to have them. If no one wants them on TMP, then go ebay as a last resort.

I agree with what kallman said.

You should be able to find out what the sets sell for, then decide on a price you think fair. If you want to move them fast, sell them have retail.

I'm not a Napoleonic gamer, but there are a lot of folks who are. Nice thing you are doing to help the widow.

If you go the GoodWill/Salvation Army route get a receipt. the $1.00 USD per figure is a good base for the amount on the receipt. Of course they may not take them due to the mass.

I agree with kallman, get a membership here on TMP also put them up on LAF or Bartertown, both free.
There are lots of Napoleonic gamers. Our group alone can put 7000+ on a table of just Austrians and French.
Find out the manufacturer's price and take off 30%. Most gamers would go for that. If you realty want to move them take off 40 to 45%. Also mention you are doing this for a friends wife. I would buy just because of that.

Ed, some of the guys tell me that the charity operations are getting snooty about "war toys." One of my regular flea market sites used to sell off stuff they weren't allowed to sell in the shop--and now, they're not even allowed to give it away to him. Lead soldiers are being treated as a form of Hazardous waste. Not to say you can't pick up trees and houses there, but I would be too worried that a donated casting was going to a landfill and not a table.

The stuff described here should clearly be sold. But if you want to donate and don't have a local club, I'd say the "Toys for Tots" auction at Fall In would be a good choice, followed by a "free to good home" table in a convention flea market.

"A few boxes" he says… :)

Would you sell to the UK? I'd be very interested in the British.

(I'm still a few short! link

Agreed with comments from wrgmr1. Sell them for 50-70% of retail and they'll move. I tend to go for 50% if I just need to offload stuff.

The time consuming bit is sorting them so people know what they are buying, then shipping and selling. I did this once in similar circumstances and it was basically a fulltime job for two weeks (luckily I was unemployed at the time). If you don't want to do that then you can just offer a significant bulk discount for someone who is prepared to pick up all the bins.

I would buy twice as much at 50%. I have been wanting peninsular troops for a while and was just getting ready to place an order.

I would buy more 28mm Napoleonic figures at 50% off even if I do not need them at the moment. If you need help sorting people are often willing to help and they would get first pick at the collection. Or take it to Historicon, set up a table and watch the feeding frenzy. If you need help please feel free to contact me adrianmandzyATgmailDOTcom.

I have just, last night, finished painting my 18th box of plastic Perry French Infantry in the last seven months.

That is 756 figures.

I'd say the market is doing pretty well.

I'd start 'em out at $10 USD a box and let the bidding wars go from there. Don't make your lots too large; you will find a lot of guys who can come off $20 USD-$50, but not many guys can come off hundreds of dollars at a whack. If you want to start with a quick infusion of cash for the widow, spend a few dollars to get a supporting membership (perhaps Bill will waive that requirement considering the reason) and post an add in the marketplace. At the right price, I'll jump back into Naps as well. This a great time to unload Napoleonic figures. Sorry for the loss of your friend.

First to answer Ed's question,

It is not the Goodwill stores per se it is the attitude and lack of accountability for what is supposed to be a non-profit organization that is supposed to fund other non-profits that help people in need. Instead there have been multiple scandals both at the national level of the organization and local level of CEOs and other executives being given outrageous salaries and compensation, demanding favoritism or donors and businesses that have annual fund raising drives for Goodwill and an overall culture of mismanagement and missed opportunities. Goodwill has also engaged in aggressive practices to shut other charitable organizations especially on the local and grass roots level. They will never get another dime from me until there is evidence of a complete change in their operational culture.

Back to the figures

Given the potential of the collection I will again urge you to get a membership and post here on the Napoleonic Marketplace here at TMP. There are some folks who may buy simply because they are on the fence and this would give them a reasonable way to get into collecting and gaming Napoleonics.

The suggestions about flea market at the cons are also great suggestions.

I will echo Pictors Studio, I painted up 700+ Calpe Prussians in 8 months.

My record is 750 figures in 4.5 months. Last year I painted about 1000 28mm Napoleonics total. I'm up to about another 500 so far in 2016. Always more required! :)

Good man! Think they should sell fairly well here on TMP.

I would think so, and you don't have to worry about pics or ebay fees.

First of, super thanks to Saber6 for the membership. I am honored. Second, thanks for the millions (well, dozen) of helpful replies!

So my plan is to skip eBay. I'll put items up on my web page and create PayPal links. I should be able to sell as many or few as you need. The plastic will go first since it's still NIB. The metal was sorted into small bins and is out of box and I honestly have no idea of the value, make, or even year/nation of the figures! I will post photos and maybe some of you can help figure out what they are.

I'll give good discounts to start. Buy a bin of figures and I'll give Crazy Eddy kinda discounts. I figure a bin has over $500 USD USD worth in boxed figures. I just have to make sure the right mix is in there or ask people to mix/match. It will require some coding to figure out the shipping/discounting but it won't be too hard.

I appreciate the enthusiasm and I hope by the end of the Summer we can reduce the lot to remainders. I can see also doing a raffle on some bins as well, just to make it fun.

Just to get started I'll get something set up this weekend and post in the marketplace here. I need a Napoleonic name for this sale… something catchy.

Hello

If all these figures are boxed and unopened plastics, you can earn decent money on eBay from them

I can easily get £18.00 GBP a box for Perry, and £15.00 GBP a box for Warlord on e-bay.

Good luck with your sale

J

Most of the metals will be fairly easy to determine by those who posted on this thread. Except for Foundry/Perry as the Perry's used to sculpt for Foundry. Post some pics or send a PM to us and I'm sure help will be forthcoming.

CorpCommander – I'd be very interested in all British and 1815 allies

send me a mail if you like:

info at waterloomen dotcom

CorpCommander – a buddy and myself would both be interested in French, Brits and Russians.

Can you please get in touch with me at…

elcid1099-tmp AT yahoo DOT com

All the best!

G'Day Pete

If you create a mailing list…I would like to be on it…

lasalle@comcast.net

Best Regards
Art

Just another suggestion. It is often hard to figure out the maker and even nationality of odd lot wargame figures. If someone specializes in a maker- then fine, they can tell you BUT odd lots are often from obscure manufacturers that have gone out of business. Trying to figure out in detail--- that way lies madness.

Why not do the following. Lay out about 25-75 figures (so the price might be some fraction of $100 USD) with a lot ID card visible and a metric ruler in the view. Take several pictures- the whole lot and a few closeups. Post them on some picture posting site on the internet. Then post them in the TMP marketplace with your price and the link to the pictures. Let the buyer figure out what they are getting.

If I was the buyer and got something that maybe wasn't exactly what I wanted, I could resell or trade them in the future.