My Tips on Buying, Selling, Trading Warhammer Miniatures

The Problem

There’s way too much stuff in here. I come in to hobby and spend all my time thinking about what to work on instead of actually doing it. Time for a purge.

Four Safe Options (North America Focused)

1. eBay

Great place, very easy to post auctions. Even with zero feedback, if you post good quality things, people will eventually buy. Just might be a waiting time at first.

2. Reddit r/miniswap

Great place to find deals on abandoned projects. Usually people cutting down their piles of shame or giving back to the hobby—not people doing it as a business.

3. Game Community Discords and Facebook Groups

Find the trade forum, find someone with what you want, trade or buy outright. Great way to get deals from actual community members.

4. Facebook Marketplace (with caveats)

Raw Marketplace is usually scalper territory—overpriced or scammers. You’ll get bots hitting you. Stick to the specific groups and communities instead.

THE GOLDEN RULE

Only ever use PayPal Goods and Services. Period. If someone asks you to use something else or Friends and Family, they’re scamming you. Period. The end. Don’t do it.

That deal that’s too good to be true? It is.

Trading Safely

I actually don’t like trades because it’s easy to get scammed. Here’s the only way I’ll trade:

If we’re trading $500 armies, I PayPal Goods and Services you $500 plus fees, and you do the same to me. We both ship. Instead of a trade, it’s like we both agreed to buy each other’s armies for the same price.

That’s the only way you’re protected. Otherwise they might ship a box of rocks.

My Selling Process

• Set a Buy It Now price for the longest term
• Accept offers with a minimum I’ll accept
• Include shipping in the cost (free shipping)
• Ship Priority so I don’t have to buy boxes
• Make sure ONLY the item you’re selling is in the photo (people will claim they thought other stuff was included)

Bubble wrap does get expensive—include that cost. If someone wants cheaper shipping, you need to buy a box, so factor that in.

You don’t need perfect pictures or lighting. Just clear a spot, take a photo, post it from the eBay app on your phone.

Transcript

I have a two hours. I’m gonna get a ton of hobbying done. >> >> Uh, today I want to talk about hobby pressure and what I’m going to do to deal with it. There’s no way around it. Uh, there’s just way too much stuff in here.

Uh, I come in here and I sit down to hobby and I’m just sitting here spending my time thinking about uh what I’m going to hobby on but not actually hobby anything, you know, and uh it doesn’t feel good at this point. I It’s just like a monument of a short attention span really. So, uh I’m going to do a purge. Okay. So, this is going to be North America focused uh just because that’s what I have the most experience with.

Um, I used to do a lot of stuff like bringing it in from the UK and Europe, but with tariffs, uh, it’s just not worth it now because I’m not going to I’m just not going to pay it. So, uh, there’s really three options to buy, sell, and trade that are safe and work. Um, and save a ton of money, too, right? So, or actually four. Uh, first one is eBay.

It’s a great place. You just, it’s very easy to post auctions. And when I post stuff later today, I’ll record that process and show you how fast you can do it. And it’s very easy to get started even with zero feedback. Like you just post it and if you have to post good quality things and eventually people are going to buy it.

So it might just be like a a waiting time. The other one is Reddit/r/mis swap. That is a great place to find great deals on like abandoned projects usually. Uh there’s some people who you can tell have stores and they like throw some stuff on there too, but you can usually get a really good deal there if you’re buying. only ever use PayPal goods and services.

And that applies to the rest. Never purchase anything that’s not using PayPal goods and services cuz that’s how you protect yourself. If somebody asks you to use something other than PayPal goods and services or to use friends and family, they’re scamming you. Period. The end.

Like don’t do it. It’s you’re going to have that thing like this deal is so great. It’s too good to be true because it is. So do not use anything other than PayPal goods and services. you move into specific game community discords and Facebook groups.

So like there’s there’s a great one for War Machine for both Discord and Facebook groups where you can buy and sell and trade. I’ve I’ve done a ton of wheeling and dealing on those. Uh you just go to Discord, find their trade forum, and you find somebody who has the things you want and you trade them the things you want or you just buy them outright. It’s a great way to get deals. The thing that I want to emphasize on trades, and I actually don’t really like trades for a multiple reasons, it’s very easy to get scammed on trades.

And the only way that I’ll do a trade, which makes a lot of people like not want to trade with me, which is fine, is if we’re like trading armies and say our armies are worth 500 bucks, I will PayPal goods and service you like 500 and whatever the fee is, and then you PayPal service me 500 and whatever the fee is. We both we’re it’s a wash on the actual money and then we ship each other our armies. So instead of a trade, it’s like we both agree to buy our armies for the same price. That’s the only way you’re going to be protected because if you just ship your your army out, maybe they never ship theirs or maybe they ship a box of rocks and then Facebook Marketplace just in general like not throwing it up in a group usually that’s kind of like scalper territory because they’re not actually members of the community. So, I avoid just like raw Facebook Marketplace purchases because they’re usually overpriced or they’re usually scammers.

If you post raw to a marketplace, you’re going to get a bunch of bots hitting you. But if you go into the specific groups and communities and make a post or deal with the people there, it’s usually people who are like cutting down their piles of shame or who are just trying to give back to the hobby. So, it’s not people who are doing it for a business. Um, and that’s what I like to do. Like I don’t even though I sell a ton on eBay, like I’m not I don’t do it to like make a huge amount of profit.

Usually I’m just like I got the stuff I don’t want anymore and I got something else that I want. So I put it on eBay to sell it to go buy that so I don’t have to like dip into the actual like bank account funds. Um and there’s I think there’s a lot of people it’s kind of like use the hobby to fund the hobby situation. So I’m going to start posting a bunch of stuff on eBay. Uh I I don’t think I’m going to mess with like the Discord.

Like I just don’t like going back and forth. If you I just like posting it on eBay. I I set a buy it now price for the longest term and I accept offers. I put in the lowest amount I’ll accept. Uh I cover I just include shipping in the cost.

So I offer free shipping. Um I ship priority so I don’t have to buy boxes. Uh bubble wrap does get expensive though. So include the cost of bubble wrap if you’re going to send a lot of stuff. And then some people will be like, can you lower shipping and ship like this way so I don’t have to pay as much as priority?

uh then you got to go buy a box. So you got to include the cost of the box, right? So it’s not like it might be cheaper for them, but it’s not going to be cheaper for you. Like don’t just think straight up, oh, I’m just going to pay whatever shipping they want to pay. You got to go get a box if you’re not doing priority shipping.

So I just use priority shipping like usually mediums cuz I sound like a lot at a time where I try to post lots. Look, a lot of people will tell you you need to take good pictures and like well lighting and all that stuff. You don’t. Look, I just cleared a hole in my mess of a project’s past uh right here. And I’m gonna take a picture.

One thing I will say is you want to make sure you don’t have anything else in the picture other than the specific item you’re selling because you’ll get people who come in and say they thought they were buying the seller stuff too. Uh so just make sure the only the item that you’re selling is in that photo. And now instead of going back to the computer, we’re just going to stay right on our phone with the eBay app. >> [snorts] >> Uh so those are my those are my pro tips on selling buying selling and trading.