Is Reaper going to do anything special for Christmas?

[Pally]

Theirs is probably 3500 yen. xP

[Panzer_Engel]

It is, and I beleive the cut off is 35 "Currency" so if you're AUD, it's 35 AUD, or 35 GBP, or 35 Euro, or 35 Canadian, 35 USD, etc.

 

Hm, it seems '35' is the magic number then; More reasons to get those boneyard bits. . . .

 

And thank you for the swift reply.

[ced1106]

I'm kinda wondering which of these would be the best investment. Obviously some of them retail for $24.99 but I've noticed some, like the Halloween art. con. Sophie, go for $35+ on eBay. I know it's kinda scroogy of me to ponder value over desirability, but I already have all the different Sophies except for the Halloween art. con. Sophie, and I'm not really sure I like that one.

 

Might not want to bother looking at these as investments. You're probably better off selling the Bones KS mini's piecemeal to those who didn't didn't have the cashflow for $100 of miniatures. Those two Storm Giants alone are fifty-cents in the KS and I'm sure you could get at least $5 for each of them. Cthulhu and Kalidrax (?) were sold for $10 and should also make some money.

 

My favorite quote from the KS comments about the Limited Edition Sophie: "It's interesting to note that there is an entire set of Sophies on offer in this very kickstarter that were limited to Reapercon attendees, yet I haven't seen one complaint about those being available here." -- Darsc Zacal

 

More importantly, I'd like to know what you're coming up with from the Boneyard! I'm nowhere near conversions, so am curious about what people are putting together from different minis!

[redambrosia]

The only thing i've used boneyard pieces for thus far is props for my minis. Like a cauldron for a witch when I really don't want the coven. That sort of thing.

 

I have ordered conversion set though, mostly the dragonman set, but also fairy wings (making a fairy dragon ) and weapon sets.

[buglips*the*goblin]

Might not want to bother looking at these as investments.

 

I'd have to second this. Even within more collectable lines that generally have greater "assured" value potential, demand and prices can fluctuate wildly. I now get multiple emails a day from Partha TSR sellers offering me stuff at 50-75 percent discount just to move some product, and that line was, as a whole, the most robust collectable investment. It's great for me, pricewise, but I know for certain some of these folks are taking big hits on things they invested in during the heyday only to see the market shrink considerably since.

 

Some of this is the nature of the miniatures hobby, and some of it is the nature of the eBay beast. But the bottom line is that there are too many wild variables to count on minis as any sort of profitable collectable investment no matter what they happen to be.

 

It's a different matter if you acquire extra pieces on the way to filling your own ranks out, and selling the excess to make some money back. Say, for example, if you needed RCon 2004 Sophie and had to buy the boxed set to get her - well, it'd make sense to sell off the others you don't need. But to actually acquire in the hopes of selling them for more, I think that's a risky bet. I don't think the supply/demand equation works out favourably for it.

 

My two coppers on the subject.

[Heisler]

Although I'm not into the investment aspect of the Sophies. The packaging will tell you, more or less, whether the Sophie is a convention run version or came in a later production run.

Although the 2004 Sophie has now been spun up for the 5th Anniversary box, the Liche level box and for the twelve days of Christmas I can still tell my convention version apart from all the others because of the packaging.

Edited December 12, 2012 by Heisler

[Halberkill]

 

I now get multiple emails a day from Partha TSR sellers offering me stuff at 50-75 percent discount just to move some product, and that line was, as a whole, the most robust collectable investment.

 

 

I envy. How did you arrange that? Fortunately I got most of my partha stuff from closing down hobby shops and trading, but there are a few holes that are just too pricy for me to fill, as well as certain ones I want multiples of that are not cost effective to buy.

 

Could you send some of your contacts my way?

 

Halber

[Pally]

It was rather unexpected to see replies saying that minis can't actually have a collectable value. Wow...

 

I have been buying and selling minis on eBay for several years now, and I just can't say it's true. I could never believe that because I know it isn't true.

 

First, I should like to point out that most exclusive Reapercon & artcon Sophies seem to sell for $25 to $35 on eBay. I believe the UL (nude) graveyard Sophie is worth something like $100+.

The mouslings tend to fair better. Well at least better than poor Pirate Sophie, who seems to be rather common and only worth about $10. Probably overproduced. xP

If you really want proof that some minis can go way beyond their value, without being limited editions or whatnot, then you need only look at Reaper's own Doom line.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/200826021947 (Link won't last forever, so... : Cyberdemon, sold for over $400!)

Well to be fair it's a prototype. But still most, even loose, Reaper Doom minis sell for roughly $100+.

 

A little mini that originally sold for.. what? Less than $20? And yes, any one of us could have easily ordered hundreds of them and made $$$.

 

I'm not done yet. Reaper's ID license is very similar to what other line in minis?

Surely you wouldn't forget Ral Partha's AD&D line.

 

Partha's non-licensed minis probably aren't worth that much. Why? They're still producing them! You can get any non-AD&D Ral Partha mini from Ironwind Metals. Well mostly.. aside from other licensed things like Elfquest, Werewolf, and some Elmore stuff they sold to Dark Sword Miniatures. But I can easily think of three things off the top of my head that will make most Ral Partha AD&D collectors cringe and clutch their wallets.

 

1. Dragonlance Heroes

2. Remorhaz

3. Dragons

 

Just common stuff, again, that sold for a pittance in those little blister packs.

 

Admittedly their loose prices have been on the decline, but if you have a minty blister pack, then you've got a treasure in your hands. =]

 

Just a few more honorable mentions:

Retired Warhammer metals (Daemonettes for example).

Grenadier sealed box sets (Gamma World "")

Heritage sealed... well.. almost anything!

 

I'm sure metal gaming minis' prices have gone down in recent times. You know why? It's because of all the garbage (aka plastic gaming miniatures) that has shown up in the past few years. I can remember when that stuff wasn't even on eBay.. and when it started! (That icon is not evil-looking enough to show my utter disgust and hatred at the arrival of WotC plastic (censored multiple excrement expletives) on eBay).

 

 

 

 

 

I now get multiple emails a day from Partha TSR sellers offering me stuff at 50-75 percent discount just to move some product, and that line was, as a whole, the most robust collectable investment.

 

 

I envy. How did you arrange that? Fortunately I got most of my partha stuff from closing down hobby shops and trading, but there are a few holes that are just too pricy for me to fill, as well as certain ones I want multiples of that are not cost effective to buy.

 

Could you send some of your contacts my way?

 

Halber

 

I'd like to see that myself. It's rather hard to believe unless their prices were already exorbitantly high. xP

Edited December 12, 2012 by Pally

[Wren]

I think what people are getting at is that if you're buying miniatures specifically as an investment, that's probably not the best plan. Particularly if it's just a small number of them and buying and selling them is not typically part of your hobby. It's like comic books. Sure, some go for fantastic sums of money. Most don't, and there's no real reliable way to guess which is going to hit. The fact that someone calls a miniature a rare collectible or puts it out in limited supply doesn't mean that consumers are going to go ape for it and still want it years later for vast sums of money. You'd be far better off buying something you like and might use, or as someone else mentioned, putting the money towards a pack that has something you want in it and selling off the bits you don't want.

[CashWiley]

There was no way to know when we were buying early Grenadier that they would be worth money down the road. If someone kept a sealed box I'd have thought they were nuts. And if you really look at inflation from then until now, it would have been a pretty crappy investment vs the amount of pleasure derived from several decades of painting and gaming with them :)

 

I used to be a comics collector in the 80s, and the whole collectors edition thing really went stupid in the late 80s, early 90s. My best friend went all in for it and lost his shirt. I stuck to buying quality stuff and made a ton of money, even if I didn't get as many spikes in value. My full run of early McFarlane spidey stuff along with early run Punishers and the Wolverine mini-series financed my relocation to the west coast.

[buglips*the*goblin]

It was rather unexpected to see replies saying that minis can't actually have a collectable value. Wow...

 

Nobody said that.

 

Surely you wouldn't forget Ral Partha's AD&D line.

 

 

I suppose you might say I have a somewhat passing familiarity with that line, yeah.

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, two points:

 

1. Both of the high end lines you list, TSR and DOOM, were licences that went out of production under sudden circumstance without warning. This makes them rare, and they were popular, that's why they're worth more. (note that Reaper's Exalted minis, also an expired license, do not trade for big money)

 

Outliers do not equate to the mean.

 

This is not the same as Reaper producing a limited edition, where everybody can get however many they want for as long as they last knowing that they'll be going OOP (and not all of them stay that way).

 

CashWiley's comic book analogy applies here, it's variant covers all over again. Speculators just like you buying motorbike sophies hoping to make a profit later. That's all kinds of bad market. Maybe not if you're prepared to sit on them for ten years, I guess.

 

Moreover, Ral Parthas trade now for a fraction of what they used to - even ones mint in blister. Remember, listing price doesn't equal sale price. I see plenty listed at over $100, I don't see many (if any) of them move at that price. You can list a Motorbike Sophie for $10,000 if you want to - doesn't mean she's worth that.

 

2. It's your money to risk if you want to. I'm cool with that, hope it works out. But if you want me to sit here and say it's a good idea, I won't do that. I don't think it is. I think it's all kinds of bad risk. It's still your risk to take, and if you do and it works out then I invite you to come back and tell me I was wrong. You may even point and laugh, if you wish. I'm a big boy, I can take it. I've been wrong before. But I will make my case for why I think it's a bad idea, and leave you to make up your own mind.

 

 

As for my contacts, I'm not offering them. If this lack of proof means you don't believe me, I'm okay with that. I worked hard to earn those, I'm not just going to give them away.

 

 

 

ETA: I realize you're not talking about motorobike KS Sophie, but as she's the only one we're pretty sure isn't coming back for another round, all the other ones are even worse risks as investments. (Buglips is stoopid, read following post)

 

 

ETA 2: However, since these minis are "free", assuming the rest of the order is something you'd have bought anyway, then I guess any money made from them is profit anyhow. So I'll grant you that.

Edited December 12, 2012 by buglips*the*goblin

[buglips*the*goblin]

Actually, now that I think about it while patting myself on the back for my sound arguments, insofar as we're talking about the free ones then those arguments don't apply. If you sell it for one cent, you made a profit. Since any one of those will make a profit, then I'd have to agree they make a sound investment.

 

But only for the free ones.

 

<---- me having forgotten, and then remembered, that the discussion is about the free 12 days minis.

 

 

 

Reading is hard!

 

 

****so embarassed****

 

 

ETA: You may use your free "point and laugh" card now, or save it for later use.

Edited December 12, 2012 by buglips*the*goblin

[Reaperbryan]

The 'Twelve days' models offer is available to overseas customers, is it not? (The £35 total for free postage exeeds $35 regardless)

 

I assume all of your posts are 90% made up words. Even if you're using real words, you use them in new an unique ways, so they might as well have been made up.

 

All my posts are composed entirely of authentic words; No guarantees, however, can be offered that they will all be English. . . .

It is, and I beleive the cut off is 35 "Currency" so if you're AUD, it's 35 AUD, or 35 GBP, or 35 Euro, or 35 Canadian, 35 USD, etc.

If that is the case, Japan gets an awesome deal at 35 Yen (about 0.40 USD) ;-)

Since we do not offer Yen as an option, it won't work. At this time we only convert to Canadian, GBP, Euros, and AUD. Transactions to other countries are defaulted to USD, thus $35 USD

[Reaperbryan]

My favorite quote from the KS comments about the Limited Edition Sophie: "It's interesting to note that there is an entire set of Sophies on offer in this very kickstarter that were limited to Reapercon attendees, yet I haven't seen one complaint about those being available here." -- Darsc Zacal

Note that very nearly all of our ReaperCon Sophies were made available on the website for sale to non-attendees during the con. It was limited by time, not quantity, or geography. And we have never released quantities on how many Sophies are actually shipped or sold for each version, although we have said that some sold more than others, etc.

 

Interestingly, Artist Con Sophie (the one with the cauldron) was one of the least popular when it was available, and has been our biggest day of the promotion so far. It is more desirable now simply because fewer people bought it then. We have never placed a limit on how many we would make or sell, and in fact, I always start casting batches for these at a fixed minimum, and add to it if needed, or melt extras if needed. If you* buy 10,000,000, I'll make 10,000,000. If you buy 3, I'll make a few thousand, and remelt all but 3.

 

*generic You referring to all buyers.

[Pally]

I was rather confused too when Ced quoted me about the 12 days minis, but started talking about the KS minis... Huh? But I responded anyways, since I kinda invested in those too. Having spent over $1000 on it. It's a sound investment though. Retail on anything purchased from the KS is likely double the initial cost. The vampire sets were an outstanding value. My only bad investment was obviously the KS Sophies, but I plan on opening 2 of those (1 of each) and keeping the other 4 (2 of each) pristine for sometime in the future. I think people are silly to sell them now. Should wait till people are more desperate to get one. xD But that's just my two coppers. xP

 

Well for starters, my post where I inquired about the value of these minis is, well, outdated. I had intended, initially, to purchase a single order of $35 on the day of the most valuable mini. I ended up deciding on Halloween Artcon Sophie since:

A. I'm a Sophie nut. xP

B. I don't actually have that one.

C. She's worth $35 on eBay. SOLD for $35 on eBay. The price was in green, which means she sold. I find it rather infuriating when someone tries to tell me how eBay works when I have been buying and selling on there for over 10 years. Only dumdums consider current listings and unsold listings. It's just not done in my book. If anything then you can look at those prices and think, "Well, it's not worth THAT!".

 

I can understand your wanting to keep your Partha contacts to yourself. I use to do that. Nice little online shops.. going out of business.. greedily buy up the good stuff as they're dying. So delicious! Sad though when they're gone. But I have all those deliciously cheap metal tyranid critters. <3

 

Nowadays I only keep them to myself if they currently have a discount item that I can't afford yet. xD

Like that one -redacted- for only -redacted- on www.-redacted-.com. Sure they could profit from their unbeatable Reaper minis prices, but I want to buy about 20 of those.. xD

 

I already purchased all the $10 Dark Sword Miniatures Triceratops and Ceratosaurus (overstocked I guess) from http://frpgames.com but they might have some other good deals on stuff. Ya'll have fun.. well not too much fun. You need to shave some $35 bills for Reaper. =]

 

Exalted? Hmm.. Oh more Legend of the Five Rings stuff.. wasn't there another company that did some of that stuff? Seems like it was oriental with a bunch of snake men, etc..

The void guard is neat. I may get that one sometime. I could see these possibly being worth something in the future, but they're probably not worth investing in unless it's a discount price. I've learned that if you want to invest in something, then do it on the cheap. That way you can't possibly lose since you got it for half (or less) of retail in the first place. x]

 

Ugh.. comic books... I still have a bunch I need to get rid of. xP I've been getting rid of all my old investments for the past 10 years. xD Actually it's mostly toys that I purchased in my youth, and I was raised to properly know the value of things... well aside from the Gi Joes I crushed.

 

I suppose you could say these "free" 12 days of Reaper Christmas minis aren't free, since my original intention was to get only one, since I already blew the last of my paypal cash on those dinos.

 

It's funny really, I had no idea what I'd buy when i started browsing. Figured I'd just get a bunch of the 25 cent stuff (which is an epic deal IMO). Had a cheap dragon neck in my basket, some dragon heads, all sorts of stuff that I thought, "Well this might make a good decoration.. and I'm always buying parts, pieces, etc... maybe I'll need this!". Then I started thinking about how I might use these boneyard pieces to make unique critters! Thought about getting 3 pair of beetle legs, use some epoxy stuff for a body, put a dragon head & neck, some stubby arms, etc.. But that was all too costly and made me think of that -redacted- from www.-redacted-.com. So I decided on the Shaerelith / Latissula conversion thing and now I have to place two orders, don't have Tabitha & gang, so I'm getting that too.

 

$70 for a bunch of bits (which will give me 4 Deathspinners for approx $12 each, literally + the Shaerelith torsos thrown in for free), an interesting conversion opportunity, and a couple of freebies (which I will sell for $35 each if possible, and keep and use if not). Hardly a bad investment. And if you're curious, it's 114 total items ordered + the freebies. Haven't placed the 2nd order yet though.

 

I know my post is already wayyyy too wordy, but just want to reemphasize that I don't normally invest a lot in any one thing (maybe buy one of each) unless it's a super good discount like Reaper's Vampire level in the KS.