What's your army REALLY worth?

[rpricew]

So I was browsing on the web today and I came to Blue Table Painting's website. They have some interesting battle reports and the owner is a big Tyranid fan.

When I was checking out the items that they have for sale they have an entire 2K army posted for $1,295. (now before any haters go and report me I'm not advocating anyone go and purchase this army, this comment is for reference only!) As I'm looking through the pictures (which are not the best) I'm thinking who would pay $1,295 for a 2000 point Tyranid army?

This led me to my next thought, since I'm close to the 10,000 point mark myself after 2.5 years, what would my army sell for? What would someone REALLY pay for 10,000 points of Tyranids that are OK painted (table top standard)? What's my army worth? What's your army worth?

Now I hate to disappoint anyone, but my Tyranids are definitely NOT for sale by any means, but it's a valid question. I know what I've spent for them, and I know how much time I've invested in assembling and painting them, but I just can't imagine what they would sell for.

Have you ever considered what's your army worth?

TL;DR - If you sold your army today, what would you ask for it and what's it worth?

[wisdomseyes1]

Nothing. Badly painted, mold lines are still there... More work to deal with it than to jut get a new army.

Weapons are glued, not magitized for the most part. My bits are jut in a giant box not sorted in any way.

When I said "I am only into the fluff and the game" I mean "if there is a D&D model that works As a model, I'll use that over the real model"

[greatescape13]

I'm always of the position that an army is only worth what someone pays for it. They might list the army for $1,250, but it's only WORTH that much if someone actually pays that amount of money.

Pricing "pro painted" armies is always a bit fiddly, as there are definitely buyers who are looking for a new, spiffy army for a tourney or are willing to trade their wealth for time (essentially what buying painted models is...). There is probably always a market for them.

In response to your initial question, I think the larger the army the worse the returns, unfortunately. It's not like an equation where 2,000 points = $1000, so 10k points is $5000. I think you'd be better off slicing the army into consumable chunks, at prices that are within the realm of expendable income.

Cheers.

[zephoid]

I have a lot of nids, but most are still just base coated. Probably 6-8k points in nids that i acquired over 3 years through ebay and bits bin at the lgs. Its a quite sellable lot, but im not sure selling it as an army would actually make a good value. Most people who buy armies want it decently painted or NIB.

My eldar though, they are worth a lot. I have a good 4000 points scheme painted and probably 12k more that are painted but not in my army scheme. Used to paint my army in colors of their aspect with their transports also the same color, but recently i switched to tan with crests and pads painted to the aspect to give the army a sense of unity on the table and it looks a lot better. Multiple thousands of dollars in eldar, but i probably paid $800 total for my eldar army over 2 years. Some of that was also tourney proceeds since i have been winning a lot with my eldar in recent tournies. Picked up a razorwing to use as a nightwing fighter from the proceeds of the last tourney and some harlequins without spending a cent. My Rev titan is also mostly scratch built with only the head being purchased since i like the cockpit of the rev titan.

I have been meaning to run an itinerary on my eldar. probably around 50 fire dragons at this point, which would be funny as heck to run in an apoc game. Make all those super heavies and GCs weep.


The problem with evaluating armies however is simply that certain buyers will pay more than others. Most players look for the best deals. As players get older and have more money and less time, they look for the better painted armies. If you have an incredibly painted army, you can often charge exorbitant amounts for it because some people have that money to throw around. However, mid quality painting is often not in high demand. It really matters the buyer.

[Hive Carnithrope]

£150 at the most. Dunno how many points. A fair few. Meh painting.

[demoric]

I would tally up the cost of buying it new and figure between 1/3 and 1/2 of retail. However if you find the right buyer 75% isn't un common.

Myself, I buy some 40k models new but usually I am not the first owners of the models. For my nids I have actually been keeping a running total of how much I spent on the models (not counting time and hobby supplies like paint). I have bought all but 3 models un painted and have 3000-4000 but have spent less than $500 (usd).

[dirkspair]

well, someone was (is?) really after my nids army, he likes the look and how i perform with them. so i finally told him a price ( $0.33 per point=$1000 for 3k) for the paint and conversions, plus replacement of the minis so i can redo them.

he is not so pushy anymore

[Xantige]

Well, in terms of the money I've put into my small 1,500 or so sized army, I'd say it's over $600, about 50% of that was gifted to me. If I resold it... I don't think I'd get much unless I fully painted the whole army. I wouldn't call myself an amazing painter, but my models go beyond the 2-color-and-wash models you tend to see, and the uniqueness of the colour scheme could be a selling point... toss in that my models are all carefully checked for mold lines, and magnetized, and I might be able to get something close to 75%... maybe less. But I don't really know the market, and in terms of playability, mine isn't a competitive army.

[aihtin]

I have around 6k+ points of Nids and about 3k+ points of SW. I have no plans on selling my Nids but i would consider break even on them but would not go for less than that. They are painted well and I get complements every time I play them.

My SW army I would sell in a heart beat. I only got into them following trends and so forth. Watched many Youtube videos that made me get them. Most of them are NIB still and none are painted but the ones that are put together are magnetized with every option in the box. Again I would only ask for break even and then break even plus a forth to half value for the ones I magnetized. My GW would also allow me to trade in the NIB ones for store credit as long as I got everything that same day though I would just lose the TAX part.

Honestly I wish I had not started my SW army and I wish I had either picked my first army back up, Necrons, and not because of their new codex the choice was made before that came out, or just bought more Nids, or even just started a fantasy army. Having to magnetize and paint my friends SW army did not help me like them any more either.

Anyway in actual dollar amounts I think it would come close to $3k but would not go over that, and yes if I were to sell them I would break them up into easier to sell groups of either 2k point armies of just individual models/squads depending on what they were.

[vecuu]

Frankly, comparing my army to the EBay prices people pay, I would be shocked if I broke $500.

I might be able to squeeze out a bit more if I sold my 2nd ed models individually, but unlikely.

I'm a pack rat, and am unlikely to sell anyway.

[nalathani]

On a scale of 1-10, I'd put myself on a 4 for my painting skill. I would be lucky if I could get a thousand dollars for my 5k of nids. They'd all need to be stripped and re-painted most likely by whoever bought them.

[gloomfang]

My Nid army is insured for $3K USD, but that is replacement costs. If I was going to sell it on EBay I would probably be lucky to get $900-$1K. Most folks don't pay for paint as they are just going to strip them anyway.
If I sold my DA, probably $300, but I only have 2K pts for them and most of them are in need of paint.

[swarmy]

I'd take a shot in the dark and say probably close to $2000 (less if I fire-saled the whole lot in a hurry) of fully painted, based, neat and tidy models ...That scares me now...how much money/time I've sunk in this hobby If I put the same amount of time into playing games I'd probably be a better player too

[hierarchmark]

I have never added up the value on purpose. If the wife ever asks how much money I have "wasted", I can honestly say I have no idea.