Ebay finitum

[ochoin]

After 10 months of selling select parts of my collection, I'm finished with ebay - probably or at least for a while *.

In this time, I've shed nearly 3000 painted figures - plastic & metal. These include complete armies - ECW Parliament, ACW union & Confederates - but figures from every period I game ; Bronze Age, Punic, Late Antiquity, Royalist ECW, SYW, Napoleonic & WW2. Four dioramas, a rule book & some terrain were also sold. Only AZW wouldn't sell (why??) and I did not list any Mahdist War figures.

All of this represents stuff I did not like, did not need or wished to replace (I've probably bought about 100+ metals in this period). My armies are leaner but also meaner. They look better. My storage area has space in it.

I've "made" a surprising amount of money though I do acknowledge the sums taken after the voracious bites from ebay for fees & Australia Post for P&P certainly don't offer anything for painting time. Roughly, 50 plastic figures (a box worth $14) would earn me about $35-40. Keep in mind, nearly everything appeared on a gaming table & that I mostly enjoy painting so I did get my money's worth *before* I sold them.

I had no difficulty with customers, no issues with ebay & only one postal issue when I tried using an alternative to Australia Post (it did get sorted though). I've had plenty of 'one off' sales but I also have my "regulars" who, for some reason, like my figures & kept asking for more.

So, the verdict? I'm 100% satisfied with the process & outcome. I will NOT regret selling any or all of the items and I still have plenty (!!) to continue gaming with.

donald

* I may start selling rule, modelling & history books.

[Penda]

The failure to sell the AZW doesn't surprise me as earlier in the year the sale of my whole collection fell through when the buyer baulked at £2.50 a figure!

[ochoin]

Your figures are far better than mine but my Zulus were very nice - I was disposing of Esci figures because they were too slight compared to my preferred Newline & HaT ones. And I was asking a lot less.

So all I can think is Colonial warfare is not popuar out there in ebay-land.


donald

[Paul]

The failure to sell the AZW doesn't surprise me as earlier in the year the sale of my whole collection fell through when the buyer baulked at £2.50 a figure!

It's weird but i've had difficulty selling some really nicely painted 28mm at about £2.50 a figure. I think it may be that people have less disposable so are buying into the false economy of getting unpainted figures that will never see the table!

[Willz the Wargamer]

I am with Donald I have no major problems with Fleabay, only the rare buyer wanting to get something for nothing.
The Royal Mail has been very good over the past couple of years, I use 2nd class signed for. Every parcel arrived within 5 days, (sadly I have one parcel at the moment that still has not arrived after 12 days, 3 postal strikes are delaying it) .
Near the end of my sales also, only a couple of dozen items left to sell.

Willz.

[Paul]

I've still got plenty left to sell but mostly smalls: individual rulebooks odd bits of scenery and small lots of figures etc...