Scorched earth? Send in the druids...

Another month, another radical shift of priorities.

A combination of real-life serious-business type stuff has necessitated a long, hard look at What I Own and What It's For, and most importantly, Whether I'm Using It.  This consideration has brought to light certain essential truths about what I play games with, and why.  The short version is that I've recently come to realise that getting back into WFB was a grave error, and so my Warriors of Chaos have been shown the door.

My Skorne have also gone - while I enjoyed playing them, I did not enjoy painting them, for reasons which have been explored previously. M'learned colleague Neal was good enough to take them off my hands, and since he enjoys uniform colourschemes and resilient, stand-up-and-fight forces more than me, I think he'll enjoy them.

The Chaos Warriors, who cost me £60 in three lots, have been sold off for £93 in two, thanks to the local Tale of X Gamers and an apparent high demand for cheap Beastmen on eBay (must be something to do with them being best in units of forty-odd and costing £15 for ten).  I did also part with a GW figure case in the process, but I've had years of loyal service out of it and see this as an opportunity to liberate myself from buying and cutting so much custom foam for the cases, and look into cheaper storage solutions for models not in the current away game force.  Admittedly some of that has gone on long-considered new Cryx toys, and a little more was eaten by postage and packing costs, but I've still turned a net £30 profit on the exchange.

The Skorne, meanwhile, were straight swapped, along with the case foam they live in and a pile of my old No Quarters - while an excellent mag, and improving all the time, it doesn't have infinite rereadability, and lugging them up and down the country every time I move house was becoming tiresome - for a Circle Orboros army, mint and untouched in its boxes.


Circle still fulfil my original goal of having a Hordes faction, they give me an alternative to Cryx that still plays fast and tricksy, the way I like, and they offer a much broader variety of 'looks' than the Skorne do, with great big hairy barbarians and armoured, uniformed paramilitaries and robed druids and big stone stompy things all sort of co-existing together and encouraging me to paint by offering me variety.  Oh, and they'll fit in with my terrain collection a lot better than the Skorne did, and allow me to use my neglected Nyss Hunters across two game systems, since they'll hire out to both my main factions.


As far as getting into a new force goes, acquiring a whole collection of stuff like this means that the limited-toolbox-at-the-start, which I talked about last time, is less of a factor, especially if the collection happens to include some known expensive/good stuff and the job-lot nature absorbs the cost of buying that on its own.  Its being unassembled and unpainted, from somebody else's hobby dead pile, where it's lain neglected for a good two and a half years, is a bonus, and trading it out for something they'll get more enjoyment out of than you will is even better.

So, monthly review: I've gotten rid of some belongings which were frustrating me, replaced them with stuff I'm more interested in and excited about, and I'm £30 up on the trading process, which covers March's bus-fare-club-entry-and-chip-run budget very nicely.

This time last year was when it all started to go wrong, of course, but this time I appear to be consolidating rather than expanding, and that's a good thing.  Almost all my hobbying has been self-financing, and I have a lot to be going along with, so the temptation to spend more money is offset by the 'in progress' pile.  So far, Von's Second Frugal Year is a proper bobby-dazzler.

Von's Adventures in eBayland (and Elsewhere)

I'd like to take this moment to refer you all back to this post of Dave's from last year, in which he talks about how to make loadsamoney on eBay.  I'm following most of Dave's tips, albeit not quite all of them; in particular, the starting and reserve prices for my items are curiously similar to the final prices of things I recently purchased, meaning that (if we're going to get technical here) my moment of weakness actually cost me nothing.

On that note: the moment of weakness.  I am, technically, not breaking my resolution involving no new figures until everything I own is painted, since the Dark Elves and Tyranids are no longer mine to paint, which left me with a grand total of twelve Skorne to worry about.  Like last edition's army lists, my resolution drifts forlorn on the breeze, to be looked back on with fond memories and bitter regrets, until an opportunity arises to redefine and reimagine it in the cause of nostalgic entertainment and something resembling innovation.

Replace the words 'Dark Elves and Tyranids' with 'Warriors of Chaos', though, and the point still stands.  Yes, I was weak.  No, I regret nothing.  Why?  Because I scored sixty classic Warriors of Chaos, the ones which are frankly cast from nothing less than pure happy memories for me (my first WFB army was composed almost entirely of them, and they were renovated into the first army I was really happy with the looks of), armed with exactly what I'd want sixty Warriors of Chaos armed with, in the appropriate numbers, and - shipping included, mark you - they cost me fifty pence each.

Fifty pence.
Each.
That's cheaper than they were when they came out, and they were pretty good value then at a rockin' eighty-three-and-a-third pence a head.  And they're primed (red, admittedly, but I can work with that).  That's about eleven hundred points, all the Core infantry I could ever want, ready for me to start painting, and they cost me fifty pence each.  Which, by the way, pretty much exactly corresponds to the fundage raised by flogging off the Dark Elves they're replacing (five hundred points worth, and fewer models!).  All I had to do was stay up for an extra hour on Sunday and snipe like I've just been given a NERF gun, a laser pointer and a roll of gaffer tape.

I was hardly going to pass that up,  was I?  Neither the chance to own a shiny new Nikon digital camera with a 5cm macro setting (the sort of thing that's just about perfect for the aspiring miniature blogger with an artist life partner who really needs to kick their online gallery into gear - and that's Hark, by the way, not Shiny, although they're both very talented people and you should totally buy paintings off them when they eventually sort themselves out to sell said paintings).

It's been a pretty good month; I've cleared out the doomed projects of the previous (failed) Frugal year, bought myself a thing that's going to improve my blogging and help us make some money by selling art, kick-started a new, cheap, sensible hobby project, and the whole thing's been zero-sum.  Even the terrain I'm working on has been gratis, having come out of the budget for (ahem)

- which I'm working on scenery for in between testing out the Cryx army I'll be ringering with at the event.

I have, admittedly, still spent some money (£3.50 bus fare and £2 admission to Dice & Decks once a week, skipping one when I was ill, and £10 petrol money plus I-think-it-was-£5 admission fees to a little mini-tournament over in Evesham, oh, and the WoW fees at £7.99), so that's still well over thirty quid in a month, which could stand to be less.  It's a good start, though - certainly better than last year.

How to Make a Million on ebay

Step one: Send me £10 for my amazing ‘Secrets to Ebay Selling’ DVD. 

One of my Frugal Gaming aims is to ‘Make Money from Gaming’, and until the call comes from Fantasy Flight to become their head of games testing, it looks like I’ll have to be selling on ebay.

There are lots of auction and selling sites out there, but the big one is ebay.  I’ve only had experience of ebay, but if you can recommend other good sites for buying and selling, let me know.  Here’s my 12 top tips…

Be realistic. 

You are not going to make your fortune on ebay.  Sorry.  If you’re working, consider how much you would have to sell on ebay every day to match your wages.   Keep it as a hobby.  Ebay is an excellent resource for clearing out items you don’t want or raising money for something in particular.  I bought my copy of the new Warhammer rulebook using money from ebayed items and I have a smug sense of pride from knowing that I effectively got it free. 

Count the cost.

If you’re selling to clear out unused figures, games and sets of rules then any money you make is a bonus.  However, if you buy items specifically to sell, then you have to be very careful with your finances.  The money that comes in MUST cover the initial cost of the items, plus postage, plus ebay fees, plus paypal fees, plus any packaging.  If you’re only just scraping even, then you’re wasting your time. 

Good photographs.

A fantastic photograph can make all the difference.  Take the time to set up a couple of lights, and consider investing in a cheap camera tripod to stop wobbling.

Strip paint.

If you have a metal model that’s badly painted, it can be worth stripping the paint, as many buyers will want to paint it themselves.  It could easily add a pound or two to the final selling price…

Paint it.

Then again, many people like buying prepainted figures, a nice cleanly painted, based figure may also bring in a few extra pounds.  However the extra money brought in may not be worth the time you’ve had to put in.

Buy big.

If you want to buy something, try and buy in bulk.  Even if you want only a couple of units, it can be worth buying a whole army and then selling the rest.

Sell small.

When selling, the opposite is true; it’s best to sell items individually or in single units.  You’re likely to get a better overall price, though it does add to the time you spend list and packing items for sale.

Sell overseas.

Of all the items I’ve sold on ebay, perhaps 60% are to international buyers.  If you only offer to sell in the UK, you severely restrict your market and the final sale price could suffer. 

Accept cheques/postal orders.

There are a few people that don’t have paypal accounts or don’t have funds in their account.  Allowing alternative payment methods increases your number of potential customers.

Local delivery.

I have sold a couple of items total buyers, this has a number of advantages.  The first is that if you get paid in cash you won’t have to pay paypal fees, secondly (and perhaps more importantly) you end up meeting people in your area that play games!  I met my Necromunda opponent Matt by selling him some figures which he collected in person.

Sniping. 

Now this may upset a few readers, but sniping is one of the best things you can do on an ebay auction.  Sniping is watching an item and only putting in a bid at the last minute. People hate it, but it often works and since this is a Frugal Gaming blog, not a nicey-nicey blog, I’d be wrong to exclude it.  You’re not breaking any rules, and there’s always a chance your ‘sniping’ bid won’t be high enough anyway (someone else may have set a higher maximum bid).  I always do it and find it effective, give it a go.

Set a limit. 

Decide what you want to pay for an item and stick to it!  It’s easy to get caught up in a bidding war and end up paying over the odds for something.

So there you go, my top tips to buying and selling, if you have any more, let me know.  Happy gaming!

Bring & Buy advice

In a couple of weeks (Saturday 8th May to be exact) the Falkirk Wargaming Club hold their usually excellent Carronade show. I hope to combine a clear out with hobby funding and have a bash at flogging my spare items in the Bring and Buy hall. In this show the "vendors" actually hire a section of table for a nominal sum and sell their wares themselves.

I have a selection of RPG books, old loose Citadel figures, small boxes of other mini's (Call Of Cthuhlu, Colonial, modern GW, etc)

So far my thoughts are:

1. Price the goods to make giving change easy & take loads of change.
2. Some bags probably wouldn't hurt either
3. Clearly price items - even if its a sign saying "all figures in this box £1"
4. Clearly label what's in a box - seperate out different interests - don't make folk rake through a box of Fantasy figures because you've told them there are a dozen Colonial ones in there somewhere!
5. Try to organise the layout to maximise the number of people that can get stall side.
6. Check your prices and set slightly low to sell - everyone loves a bargain!

The big thing is I've never done this before, so any advice would be more than welcome. Please leave advice in the comments section for other future entrepreneurs to take on board.

cheers now.

AK

It's drawing to an end...

This week I've been working on some gaming related presents for friends and family, so I can't post any photos of them here, in case they're watching! I'll post some photos up after Christmas so you can all see what I've been up to. Instead, here's my workbench (complete with homemade painting station) with the articles in question removed...
Meeting the Pope
Yesterday my old mucker Jackson Pope, head of Reiver Games (you'll remember him from this interview) was visiting Clifton Road Games in Exeter to demo some of his boardgames. It was good to see Jack again and we played a couple of his excellent games and had a bit of a catch up. I was very impressed with Clifton Road games, it's a little bit out of the city centre and was a little tricky to find, but I was amazed when I got in there. The staff were very friendly, the range of games and miniatures was huge and the store had a huge room at the back with loads of tables for gaming. They run games nights during the week, so I may have to see if it's feasible for me to travel up there for an evening during the week. I'll certainly pop in there for miniatures in the future, the postage on my last order from an online retailer would have covered the cost of a train ticket for me to travel to the shop and pick it up. If you're in the area, I'd recommend checking it out.

Jack has recently posted on his blog, Creation and Play, about the cost of manufacturing boardgmes, it's a really interesting article and makes good reading for anyone who is thinking of making and selling games as a business.

Making and doing and selling...
The past couple of weeks, I've been putting my modelling skills to the test by sculpting and painting Christmas decorations. I finally put a load on sale at a local craft fair and they sold quite well. I also managed to make a few trades with other stall holders. Remember, if you fancy buying any of my zombie or rockabilly related Christmas decorations, click the links on the right of the page, I promise to spend any money made on gaming or modelling equipment, thanks! If you fancy some decorations but are being Frugal with your money, I'm always up for trades, email me (through the FAQ) and we'll see what we can arrange.
In addition I've been putting a load of old bits and pieces up for sale on ebay, a few copies of White Dwarf, a couple of Judge Dredd Comics and a few other books as well, go and have a look by clicking on the 'ebay' link on the right.

Mac Army Builder Required
As well as making decorations and gifts, I've also been keeping an eye on painting more of my Dark Eldar. Unfortunately, my inspiration is leaving me and I need to sit down and write an Army list. I'm currently building my own spreasdheet on excel to keep track as I own a Mac so Army Builder won't work. Does anyone have any recommendations? Are there are any other Mac owning DE players that have an electronic list that I could get a copy of? As per usual, email me if you can help out.

And Finally...
Alas my year of Frugal Gaming only has a month left to run; of course, the site will continue with my occasional thoughts and ramblings, and you're all allowed to join in (see this post). Over the next few weeks, I'll be looking back over my past year in gaming and seeing how I managed to get on against the Frugal Gaming goals I set myself at the beginning of the year. If you have any specific questions relating to my experiences over the year, drop me a line and I'll try to answer them in my posts!

Busy busy busy...

Hello all!

I'm afraid that's there's not much to report this week, well there is, but there isn't much time to tell you all about it!

I've been gaming and painting as per usual, I played some more 40k this week at the Cross Swords club, as per usual I borrowed an Army and promptly lost. This time my opponent was Chris and my army du jour was Space Marines. Yes, dear reader, this week I must ask your forgiveness as I have succumbed to the filthy list that is the Space Marines. I must say that I can certainly see what all the fuss is about, lots of saving throws means that you can push them around the table with impunity. However, it does take a bit of the fun out of the game, and I must commend Chris for not slapping me in the face when after a couple of minutes of rolling dice, I managed to save every single shot on numerous occassions.

I'm getting a bit of a feel for 40k now, and I've decided that rather than initially go for a Guard army (though it's definately on my 'to do' list), I fancy something faster and nastier. To that end, I've decided to go in for some Dark Eldar action. I have since thrown a few of my old metal miniatures (from the unpainted pile) on ebay to fund this new endeavour. This serves the double purpose of clearing out the unpainted to pay for the new; roughly within the bounds of Frugal Gaming.

In other news, I've nearly finished my Blood Bowl team and I have some Necromunda terrain that I've been working on for a while which is almost done.

The reason for all the rush this week is because I've had an Open University assignment to get in, fortunately, I'm doing a design course at the moment so I get to make models. For my latest assignment, one of the tasks was to design a children's playground, so after numerous sketches, here's a model I made to illustrate my idea:

All the best, look forward to next week's post which is my 6 month (half-way) review!

Monday - Asking Advice

My old Dad used to say to me 'Son, whatever you do, make sure you ask trading advice from people on the internet.'. Actually, on reflection, he said something about lifting things properly so I don't hurt my back. But I think the point stands.

Last week when I registered to attend the Table Top sale in Bristol, I though I'd place a post on The Miniatures Page, asking for advice on running a stall as it's something I've never done before. You can find the thread here.

The main points that I took away were:

• Take a lot of change
• Clearly mark the prices
• Take Bags and Wrapping
• Sell cheap!

I was also advised to take a bumbag for the money, but I think I'll give that one a miss. It'll have to be an old biscuit tin instead...

I'm very keen to sell as much of my terrain as I can, so If you're there, come over to the stall and say hello, If you mention that you read the blog, I may even give you a discount!

Trading Up

Even after a week of no gaming (well, a solo game of Ambush Alley) there’s plenty to write about, so let’s get started.

Weekly update
As mentioned above no games this week and I even spent a couple of days off work poorly (a bit of a cold). I used my time wisely to have a look at Blood Bowl pitches on the internet, getting ideas to make one myself. I’ve made a good start on the construction and I’ll write up a full ‘How to...’ guide in a couple of weeks. Feel free to hassle me if I don’t!

Speaking of projects, I’ve now put the finishing touches to my ‘Warlock House’ made using blocks from a Hirst Arts. I’m glad to get it finished and I’m reasonably happy with the result.


These are an expensive way to make scenery, at around £30 per mould you need to make a lot of buildings for them to be reasonable. I think I’ll continue to make my buildings using foamcard, and use my Hirst Arts blocks to make dungeons, walls, rubble, and generally add detail to other models. In this way, I’ll soon get my money’s worth.

I also finally got around to making the text wider on this blog (hopefully you noticed!) before, my posts used to look like columns of newspaper print, you should now find them a little easier to read.

I also got out my 15mm US Marines and Insurgents for a game of Ambush Alley. I first heard about this game in the Meeples and Miniatures podcast where Neil gave it a glowing review. As most of us do, I bought the rules, bought the miniatures (I even got round to painting them!) but never got to play it, just put it in the back of the cupboard and forgot about it.

I thought it was about time to bring it out again for a game, so I decided to have a quick solo game to check how the rules work and see how it played. I was really impressed and can’t wait to play a ‘proper’ game, hopefully next week.

Trading games
One of the greatest tools in the arsenal of the Frugal Gamer is the internet. Years of research and development by some of the greatest minds in the planet has now put in place a system where geeks can trade games and miniatures from the safety of their own sofa. I’ve used it for three gaming trades this week.

The first was as a result of this very blog, you may remember that I was looking at getting Blood Bowl and asked if anyone fancied trading a copy. As it happens, a gent called David (Hello David!) got in touch saying that he had a Dark Elf team for trade and asked if I was interested. We traded e-mails and I ended up sending a couple of my games (more unplayed space fillers) for some Blood Bowl and Necromunda minis. Needless to say, I was very happy with the trade, so expect to see some pics of the Dark Elf team on this very blog at some point in the future.

My other trades were conducted through BoardGameGeek (BGG). If you don’t know about the trade system on BGG; you can join as a member of BGG (for free), then on your profile page you can list all the games you own. You can then mark which of those games you would like to trade away and which games you would like in return. With a single click you can then search the database to find users that match your trade requirements, or others can use it to search for trades with you. I’ve used this function a number of times in the past and have done pretty well out of it.

This week I used the trade function and arranged a trade to get rid of an old (unplayed) game I had in return for a Blood Bowl Dwarf team. I also got a request from another BGG user wanting to trade my old copy of Thurn and Taxis for his copy of Power Grid. My friends and I have played Thurn and Taxis a few times, and could do with a new game. I’ve played Power Grid before and really enjoyed it and I thought it would be perfect for our group, so added it to my want’s list. I’ve accepted the trade and I’ll be popping it in the post on monday.



In summary, from a Frugal Gamer’s point of view, trading games is an excellent way to clear space, save money, get new games and it could also be an excellent way of meeting new people in your area. Overall trading games is highly recommended, give it a go and let me know how you get on.

Happy Gaming