"Selling Old to Buy New?" Topic

Do you sell your old figures and use the money raised to buy new figures?

Previously, when I was a poor college student with period attention deficit disorder, I would sell painted figures to fund new periods. Now that I have disposable income greater than $1.16 USD'a week, I buy and paint for the long term.

I did once but still regret it. My wife was pleased at the $ made. Sadly for her, I turned around and bought new stuff with it!

All the time. As I lose interest in a project or period.

Sell off discarded projects, yes. I do that all the time.
Selling off units in a current project? Only to pay for the mortgage.

Well, normally yes. As tastes change I sell some old ones and get new ones.

But it's going to get interesting once we finally get the ok to check our house. We might be able to see it in the next week or so.

I know for a fact that I'm going to have to give away or sell a lot of figures because we are going to be living out of a furnished one-room one-bath mini apartment and won't be able to bring with us any non essentials we salvage from our house.

Storage facilities in the immediate area flooded too. And the other ones I've called are already full.

So in a week or so I'll have to pick out which of my "children" are my absolute favorite, and then give away or sell off the rest into bondage. :)

Dan

Occaisionally, most of it gets sold because I know I will not be getting around to using them.

I sell & don't buy more now, trying to downsize my Pile of lead/plastic.

I've previously sold off stuff such as 15mm Traveller figures; 20mm Cold War (they were 'Ultramodern' when I bought them…) and very early WH40k.

This was mainly because (in no particular order) a) a lot of 1980s figures were poor sculpts compared to today; b) They were 'awkward' scales that I never really got into, and now most of what I have is 28mm; c) I got caught up in the excitement of a range in my youth (WH40k), but actually, spikey orcs in space with an underbite problem weren't really my 'thing'.

I also used to manage making the hobby 'cost neutral' by, say, buying and painting three tanks and covering the cost of the two I kept by selling the third; but I don't have the time anymore; no-one wants to pay what it costs to do a decent job on a finished model these days, and online auction fees/ international shipping costs have risen to a level where there's no profit to be made.

So now I fund the lead mountain by reducing the kids' portion sizes, and sending them to school in winter wearing jacket potato skins for shoes! ;)

I have downsized and now am selling old to buy new. I am also reducing my book collection to buy figs for my new (desired for a long time) army. (Arthurian) I keep reviewing my books and asking the questions, "Do I need it for reference?" and "Will I ever read it again?"

Nope. Continually adding to the pile!

I've sold armies/collections to finance the filling out or completion of other, favorite armies/collections and to down size. The majority of figures for which I still search are older than the ones I sold. It's probably a mixture of nostalgia and appreciation of the unique charm certain manufacturer's figures hold for me. As far as down sizing goes, I've reached a point where my wargaming interests have narrowed significantly. For example, I recently sold my 15mm ACW collection, approximately 800 figures, because I lost interest in the period. I hadn't played with them for 20 years. Next up will probably be a large collection of 15mm Greek galleys. Same reason. They haven't seen the light of day in eons. It's kind of odd. Most of my friends are expanding their interests, periods and collections while Mine are narrowing dramatically.

All the time. I have often considered having an open door garage sale for anyone passing through the DFW area. I have a lot of stuff that I would sell if I had a good offer but have not been motivated to take the time to advertise and/or catalog and pack. I also have a lot of non-shipable stuff like 1/300 galleons.

You know, hardly ever as such. I've sold because we needed the money or the space, or--these days--because if I don't the estate sale will be even more troublesome for the next generation.

Also because I can't find anything. I have this vision of a golden future in which I can actually lay my hands on any toy I want to play with. This should take about eight more flea markets, I think.

Not to say I haven't sold and bought over the same weekend, but finding the money for new stuff wasn't the point.

In theory, yes.

Often. Especially on models from abandoned projects.

I need to sell duplicative project items--I have multiple 28mm castles, for example, so intend to unload a bunch of Mage Knight castle items because I acquired Miniature Building Authority castle pieces.

There does come a point when you need the space, and you know you will never use something.

No. The old get stored for reuse in due course – they are bound to be needed at some time in the future, and the cost and time spent replacing them would be resented.

Tried it a few times but discovered a distressing tendency for urgent expenses to crop up just after selling the old and prior to buying new which has somewhat discouraged me from the practice as I never got to buy the new.

Robert

Yes with a bullet.

It's amazing how much stuff I've collected over the years.

Some things I would never pay that much for in real money – trade money doesn't feel the same. – cast from Predator.

I try to keep some funds in PayPal just in case someone here put out a great deal. Those archers I alway wanted to add to my fantasy army.

Full replacement trade. – 1/72 ACW in plastic replaced by 20mm in lead or my old balsa wood dungeon replaced by plaster model.

I usually sell old so I can redo the project, so I guess that's the same thing.

Yes, from time to time. I try and sell or donate stuff I don't really want and sometimes that generates funds for gaming. But I don't usually link my gaming spending to how much I get from sales.

I sell figures from stalled projects to start new projects that usually end up as stalled projects!! A depressing circle.

A lot. Although I am starting to get down to the stuff I'm not particularly willing to part with (even if I will never get sound to finishing them).

If I had never sold or traded off any minis, I shudder to think how many I'd have now.

Unwanted figures make great fishing weights.

Whenever I go through and determine there are projects I will no longer get to I move them on to those that can use them.

When I start a new project that I had previously purchase I think about replacing the figures if something better has come out since then.

Sometimes. Now that I'm approaching 60 and have identified hobby items to sell, but I'll tell you, it ain't easy to let go.