#hobbyneutral - Turning minis into money?

It sounds like the perfect solution to our "pile of shame*", doesn't it? Just sell stuff off and your pile gets smaller and your bank balance gets larger. But there are some significant problems when it comes to doing a money run on your pile.

No one wants me!

In theory, there are enough miniatures wargamers out there that it should be possible to find someone who wants whatever you've got, however badly-painted, bashed-about or out-of-date it is. There are enthusiasts for classic minis of every era out there, somewhere. And they are prepared to strip off paint, chip away glue and generally do whatever it takes to restore an old mini of any kind.

But finding these people can be really hard work. How long do you have to list something on eBay before you accept that you're never going to find that one person?

More trouble than it's worth

This sees more minis go into landfill than any other factor, in my opinion. When a miniature - or collection of miniatures - could theoretically find a buyer, but the price they would be willing to pay and the hassle of carefully parceling up and shipping the item to the buyer don't combine to make the effort worth your actual worthwhile, we ought to just throw stuff away, but...

OK, so some of us don't like putting stuff into landfill under any circumstances if we can avoid it, but even if we have no interest in reducing waste, it doesn't sit well to throw something out that we know has value. In these cases, it is hard to do a rational cost/benefit analysis and we end up clinging onto boxes of minis we don't want and which we'll never use but which we can't sell because they possess an emotional resonance that feels like value - but it's a value that others without that resonance can't detect.

Classic value?

Of course, the other dangerous thought in these cases is that miniatures will reacquire value eventually if we just hold onto them long enough. Who hasn't seen some ancient Citadel mini selling for ten or a hundred times its original price and kicked themselves because they used to own that very mini, but lost it, traded it or... just can't remember where in the pile it's actually lurking, right now.

This kind of thing leads us to believe that holding onto old minis is rational because "one day, they'll be classics".

Practical Reality

We need to face some facts: selling your old minis is hard work and will never make as much money as the work involved in shifting them is worth. The time you put into listing, packaging and shipping your minis just isn't worth it when you could be spending that time painting minis you actually want or - better yet! - playing games with the minis you've already painted and which still make you excited.

So having burst some important bubbles, what are the best options for selling off old minis you don't want?

1. Maximize their value!

Unless you are a Golden Demon level painter, your minis are always worth more brand new on their sprue than they are in any other condition. But you can still maximize the value of a miniature in one of two ways: either strip it back to as close to new as you can make it, or paint it to the highest standard of which you're capable.

Personally, I think the latter choice is better and the former should be done as a prelude to the latter. That's because one of the reasons we get into this hobby is supposed to be because we enjoy it! So if you enjoy painting minis, for heaven's sake paint them.

But the other way we maximise the value of a mini is to make it not just one mini on its own. A squad has more value than a single mini. A regiment has more than a squad. A full army has maximized its value. If you want to sell off minis, get them organized and sell them as a well-defined batch - perhaps a party of RPG heroes, or a squad for a specific game, or a full set of minis from a board game.

This not only maximized their monetary value, but also makes them more likely to find a buyer, and makes them vastly more likely to be actually played with by whoever buys them.

(Incidentally, you might wonder who would buy a fully-painted collection if we've just established that part of the reason for being in this hobby is because we like painting stuff - well, the answer is that not everyone has time to paint whole collections, so people buy a collection and then paint one or two new things to add to it and make it "theirs". Of course, if this includes you then (1) you may not want to paint a whole army to be able to sell it, but (2) you should also stop buying armies-worth of unpainted minis if you're never going to paint them and, instead, buy complete collections from people who do.)

2. Manage Your Expectations

I would generally say that, if you are undertaking this exercise to clear a pile of promise into something smaller and more manageable, then you should begin from the assumption that you are prepared to actually give stuff away. Making money is good but, if you look at a set of miniatures, optimized for sale, and can't imagine handing them over to someone for nothing, then you're probably not really ready to let them go. On this basis, you'll sell them to someone for any reasonable offer, even if it's a low-ball one.

This is to do with the aforementioned emotional resonance. You can't go into a process of selling off unwanted miniatures... if they're not actually unwanted. And if they are wanted, then you shouldn't sell them!

3. Focus Your Attention

It is tempting, when looking to shift miniatures in small or large numbers to think the smart thing to do is to spread your net wide: to post their availability to multiple platforms, but this will end up being an admin nightmare - and most folks realize this. So pick one platform at a time and go with it.

The obvious place to sell miniatures is eBay, the world's increasingly-tatty outlet for second-hand crap. But it has a few drawbacks:

- It charges fees.

- You can get scammed.

- It's easy to be overlooked.

- You still have to parcel the stuff up and ship it.

There are other online marketplaces, such as Etsy or Facebook Marketplace, which offer similar utility at greater convenience (FB) or control (Etsy), but they basically suffer from the same problems.

By far the best way to sell is face to face. Your customer can see exactly what they're getting. You get paid - usually cash in hand - straightaway and your customer can handle the hassle of carrying the stuff away themselves. Also, if you're selling at a local event, the odds are good that you either already know the customer or will see them around. Just the knowledge that you might see the person you're dealing with again provides a degree of surety not available in other selling media.

4. Out of Sight, Out of Mind?

If I'm selling some stuff, I find it super-helpful to parcel it up the moment it's up for sale, or at least to put it into box on its own and stash it somewhere as far from my hobby space as I can. Psychologically, it's a good move to keep your "stuff for sale" away from your "stuff to keep". It gives you the instant high of having less crap around, plus it avoids seller's remorse and should mean you can dispatch said goods much more quickly when you sell it.

If you plan to sell at a local or other in-person event, bag up your for-sale stuff, put a price tag on it and put it all in a box, ready to go out of the door. The more organized you are about being ready to sell, the more likely you are to follow through with minimal hassle on the day.

5. Garbage Out, Garbage In!

This is probably the hardest part of this whole article to get right.

When we have fresh hobby funds in our hands, it's easy to think that this is money to spend on new minis. But stop! What do we really achieve if we just replace one pile of promise with another, slightly different one?

That doesn't mean that we can't spent our hobby money on hobby stuff, but if you, like me, are sitting on a vast pile of promise, then we need to do something with it, not just shuffle it from shape to shape! So if you do have new hobby funds to sell, here's what I think you should prioritise:

a. New Games - Ideally, ones that are either designed for the miniatures you already own or miniatures-agnostic games which can be tailored to your collection.

b. Hobby equipment - We can always replace our brushes or buy new paint, but what about exploring new tools, techniques or materials? Why not get some oil paints? Or upgrade your airbrush? Or a new desk lamp? Or even - say it quietly - a 3D printer?

c. Hobby events - Why not put the proceeds of your sales towards a ticket to an event? If you make enough, it might even pay for the hotel room, or the train ticket, or dinner.

d. Hobby subscriptions - I know you already subscribe to this Patreon, but what about other campaigns? Or magazines? Or website communities like On Tabletop? You can often get an annual subscription to stuff like this for less than £50, and won't that new content feel that much more exciting when you know you paid for it with the fruits of your hobby sweat?

e. New minis - Yes, I know I said we were trying to avoid buying new minis, but the point isn't to never buy new minis. Rather, it is to make us think with clearer minds, less clouded by FOMO and the manipulations of our corporate overlords, about where we put our hobby money. If your pile of promise is under control, if you have nothing unpainted, they for heaven's sake treat yourself! And if you want double brownie points, go and find a company you've never heard of before and buy something from them. Let yourself be inspired!

In Conclusion

I tend to think that the "sell your minis" option is the least good of the alternatives - painting them, using them, then bartering them with others is how I think it should work. But when the situation is dire, sometimes the only good option is to sell, just to get things under control.

Next time, I'm going to talk about possible models for barter.

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*That's the last time I'm going to use that term in this context. I don't like it. We're going to start calling it a "pile of promise" (POP) which also handily aligns with the name of Precinct Omega's publishing arm!