Selling your minis ??

[Spaztica]

So, I have a question to those out there that may have had success selling your minis. I have had some random success selling a few of my painted figurines on Ebay, but is there any consistency that comes with it, other than having the necessary skills to "pro-paint" ?? I just wonder if I need to expand my selling to possibly international, but I also think its about presentation with the picsand such, but Ijust dont quite know what if anything that I am doing wrong to get more business. I think that I am pretty good at what I do and getting better all the time, but in no way do I consider myself one of the elite, but this is also why I dont charge crazy amounts of money for my painted figurines.

 

So this is a shout out to those out there that might have any suggestions or ideas on how to make my selling a bit more consistent or a bit more profitable, because after all is said and done, I only make a couple bucks on each one I have sold...which basically just feeds my hobby/habit...

[Inarah]

Have no experience with it on ebay, but the more successful painters I have seen locally have all done it by networking heavily at the local game shops. Have cards printed, develop a good relationship with the shop owner, hang out on weekends painting, chat with people, offer to run paint classes, get your best work in the display cabinet, get a table at local game cons, bring home the odd trophy from GenCon or Games Day...

[wildbill]

...bring home the odd trophy from GenCon or Games Day...

 

Does it have to be an odd trophy? Can't it be a cool trophy?

 

 

[Voladilk]

No, you get better sales with the odd ones. Everybody has a cool trophy.

[Bruunwald]

Have no experience with it on ebay, but the more successful painters I have seen locally have all done it by networking heavily at the local game shops. Have cards printed, develop a good relationship with the shop owner, hang out on weekends painting, chat with people, offer to run paint classes, get your best work in the display cabinet, get a table at local game cons, bring home the odd trophy from GenCon or Games Day...

FLGS are a great way, if you're lucky enough to have a willing store to work with. I'm not so lucky. The closest FLGS has been jaded by slow sales by previous artists, whose stuff was not great and did not move. They do still keep stuff in the case, but it doesn't move and they don't take any more from new artists. The previous artist does get advertising on their case, but from what I understand, they are taking his rare commission and paying him in store credit. Not an ideal setup, and typical for this area, especially in tough economic times.

 

You're better off staying as independent as possible. Most of my commissions come from connections I meet at conventions. I also do most of my sales there. The simple fact is, painting minis is like any other business. You must spend money to make money. Improve your skill, pay for convention tables, paint lots more, add some other items (like terrain), get a GoDaddy or other online store account (ebay is too random), and use Facebook and face time at conventions to drive people to your store.

 

And don't forget to bring business cards.

[Spaztica]

thanks everyone for the good advice !! I do have a couple local gaming/hobby shops in the areathat I may be able to check with for getting some space in a case for selling some, plus I like the idea of getting business cards made up !!

 

Thanks again !!

[Wren]

There is a section of these forums called Auction Experiences (under the Craft Corner section) that you might want to check out. When you first look there, you probably won't see many messages. The forums are set to display only stuff from the last 30 days. If you look at the message list, under the title of the subforum at the top of the page, you'll see a red bar. The last option on that bar is Custom, which will allow you to look at different time periods of messages, including All. Browsing through there for a while will give you an idea of people's experiences as sellers and buyers of mini auctions over the past few months, and years.

 

The most valuable thread for you is probably this one. I'm starting you at Vaitalla's reply, but it's worth going back to the beginning and reading the whole thing. (And read forward from where I start you, Vaitalla posts additional info later.) http://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?/topic/19590-thinking-about-selling-minis/page__st__30__p__308269__fromsearch__1#entry308269

 

It includes tips like having a regular day when you start sales, what models to pick and so on to help you build up a clientele of people who follow your work. If you're not familiar with Cool Mini or Not (http://www.coolminiornot.com), that site gives you a way to advertise your sales directly to mini fans (you link your auction with your display of that mini on CMON, and they feature auction items on the front page.) Though of course you pay a little for the privlege. I know I've seen a couple of people who post regular auctions through there, so I'm guessing some people are still doing all right with it. It might be worth you watching the auctions there and the frequent sellers for a while to get a feel for what they might be doing right.

 

I paint display level figures (and slowly even for that), and I'm pretty leery of Ebay at the moment. I think that the market for high-end collector minis really dropped a lot when the economy tanked. I'm not sure whether the same is true of gaming miniature collectors. I also feel like Ebay's pricing model has shifted to hurt small and one-of-a-kind sellers like us in favour of encouraging the high traffic big store sellers. Unfortunately there hasn't been an alternative like Etsy that mini collectors have shifted to, so as far as I know it's still the best place to go if you can still make a profit after Ebay takes its larger slice of the pie.