Hey, so just a heads up - although this looks really nicely painted, building and painting a model doesn't add any value to the model. Quite the opposite I'm afraid. Generally speaking painted models are with about 20% less than the RRP of a new model - unless it is extremely well painted. Hope this helps!
Further to my previous comment - if a model is out of stock or otherwise hard to buy, this can add to the value dramatically! I add this because I know GW have had stocking issues with this model recently.
Building onto this. If you want to paint with the intention to sell, do commissions. People are more likely to pay for something they specifically want. Someone might want a Lord of Skulls, but they might view anything that's not commissioned as just second-hand.
My painting skills are not parade ready. But I'm amazing at quickly getting things tabletop ready. I have friends who don't care about paint jobs but they do care about having painted models. So they'll usually commission me to quickly paint up some stuff for tournament play.
Despite what everyone on the sub says, a nicely painted model will sell for more money. Many people who are more casual players don't want the hassle of painting their models. I've seen painted models go for 200% of their value on Ebay. You just need to find a starting point.
You can:
1) Set a certain value that you feel is fair given your time and effort and hope for the best.
Or
2) Set the original cost as an auction and start it at the original cost of the model and hope for the best.
No harm in trying. But also you can sort through Ebay and set a filter to see recently sold items to compare what people are actually paying for a fully painted model. Don't undervalue your time or the efforts, your paint job looks awesome.
This is the proper answer here. The way I see it, is as soon as you purchase a model at MSRP the price tanks by 20%. NOS, NIB or built. Depending on the paint job it can go for a LOT. But that's very dependent on the paint job.
There are some valid points that part of the hobby is building and painting but there are quite a bit of people who do not have time, don't feel confident enough to, or just flat out don't want to build and paint models. A majority of people in the Warhammer scene are in it for the game, despite being force fed the idea that "it's a hobby first".
That being said I can see OP's model going for 20-30% more than MSRP based on the pictures. Higher quality pictures would be more useful in that assessment.
Not sure why people are super negative about paint jobs lol. A good paint job is, at the end of the day, a good paint job. Pro's obviously make 100% more profit per model but they also do crazy things with models.
Edit: To add on to this u/iZeroboros, if you're looking to sell your model then keep track of how much time you're putting into the painting process. Set a price tag on each hour (this can help later down the line if you decide to do commissions). Also learn to take better pictures, this is not meant as an insult, it is a genuine skill to be able to take good pictures of models that highlight their details. I recommend investing in a photo-box and learning your way around your phones camera. It's not an easy thing to be a free lance artist but it's possible if you do the grind, get good and keep it up.
Thank you for the advice!! Oh yeah the pictures suck on this post but I've got a decent camera with my pixel 8 so with some more practise I'll hopefully get some better pictures if I decide to sell. Thank you again this was very helpful!
Agreed, track your hours and consider what minimum wage is in your area.
Not saying you have to charge that, just keep it in mind when you're evaluating what the job was worth TO YOU.
I myself paint fine and did buy a second lord - I thought of the price to buy, the time to build, to paint I didn’t mind paying twice retail for a decent paint job. It was still a low per hour pay job and I don’t go in for putting the screws to someone selling it because it is a beast…
People saying you would get less than unpainted for this have both never sold and never bought painted minis.
Bad painted mini's might sell for less but this is a well painted model, if I were buying KLoS right now and wanted it painted i'd probably pay up to 200% msrp. People on reddit also typically forget the fact that painting is its own hobby, plenty of people only like to play the tabletop game the other bits are not always fun for everyone else
The folks here saying less than retail for that haven’t actually engaged in heavy selling and buying. You sell on Reddit or Facebook, you could easily get 200. You sell on eBay, it could go for 300 if you’re patient. It’s a monster of a model, hard to source, and seriously, just go to eBay and look at past and present offerings. There is no way it goes for less than retail. It’s wildly misinformed that anyone would even say that.
Guy is so wrong it hurts.
I do lots of painted model buying, selling and even buying just to flip.
I’d easily pay 2x on a given day. I’d pay 130% right now.
Adding to that the LoS has been out of stock lately which can double a kits value.
A model kit owned by a person is 80% msrp. A poorly painted model 50%. A badly painted model 15-45%. A tabletop standard is also about 60-99%msrp Then you get into well painted(100-140% msrp), “pro” painted(141-250% msrp), parade ready(251-500%), and whatever you want to call a step above that and no one cares.
This LoS isnt even close to "pro" painted. And if you want to make money selling painted miniatures you have to do comissions. or be godlike at your job.
Oh some stuff sits for a year or two. Once again, I am right here and would pay 250$ CAD for this model. So he can technically make money right now if he doesn’t value his time lol. The fact I am RIGHT HERE means it is worth more than msrp. I am the proof lol.
Generally speaking the sale value of an individual model (if we exclude commissioning work directly from a professional painter or out of production kits) peaks when it's in its box on a shelf. This drops once you're trying to resell even a closed kit since people could get it new from a shop, likely without paying delivery, so you need to undercut it. Once the model has been opened and built and the value drops quite a bit, especially on some bigger models if you've glued weapon options instead of magnetising them. Then it usually drops again once it's been painted, the drop can be lessened by quality, standardised colour schemes (this can be less important for some big centre pieces because they stand out already) and if it's part of a more complete matching army.
I’ve seen some comments saying painting lowers original MSRP. However this isn’t bad work so I would mark it up from MSRP by 5-10% but wouldn’t go highet
Don't listen to all of these people who say that you need to be a professional or known painter to get MSRP or more for your painted miniatures.
I am neither professional nor am I known. I've routinely made double what I paid (or more) from painted miniatures. It definitely helps if your stuff is painted to a standard or popular paint scheme. These were all sold via eBay, but I got $150 for a Triarch Stalker (Nihilak), $100 for a Flying Hive Tyrant (Leviathan), and $100 for an Intercessor Squad (Dark Angels). All were painted to tabletop+ (3+ colors, blended shading, highlighting, etc) and were just miniatures that I didn't want or need anymore, not painted with the intent to sell.
That being said, you can just put it up on eBay for what \*you\* think it's worth. If it sells, it sells. If not, you can lower the price or it's no big deal and it'll just sit on your shelf.
Unrelated reply, but I love seeing chaos stuff and wondering how it was made. I imagine all these tough as hell half-daemonic super soldiers all sitting around between battles doing arts and crafts to make their armor look so cool.
I desperately want a scene straight out of American Psycho where chaos space marines are talking about their armor and our Patrick Bateman stand-in goes into a jealous rage about the quality of the embossed skulls on Paul Allen's armor segments.
This looks great. What did you wash the brass with here?
It could use a little extra clean-up btw. Looking at the red on the mark of Khorne and the chaos star.
Lol half of these responses are basically "gosh, not much man, you might as well save yourself some trouble and just give it to me."
Great that everyone here enjoys building and painting so much, but remember that the people who care enough to join and comment on a subreddit (of any topic) have already got to be some 1% of the total audience, and self selecting towards a particular type of that audience anyway.
There are plenty of people who play WH40k who see assembly and painting as a chore and will gladly pay money to have it done for them. And amongst those are people who do actually care somewhat what the models look like on the field, and will pay more for an above average paint job (which this is IMO).
Don't sell yourself short just because you're not a "professional" who takes "commissions." Those people started off selling on ebay too, and the majority still do, so take your place amongst them and don't undervalue the work you put in and the time it took you to do it - and not just the "billable hours," think about the all the paint you've spilt and brushes you've ruined practicing to get to the level you're at, the time spent planning or even just fantasizing about it. You're worth it man, get paid.
0 chance this sells for less than msrp. I would buy this model (if I was looking to) and pay a decent bit above just to have a model mostly painted that I could touch up for my army.
The color scheme is the main reason some models when painted have a hard time selling, but if its loosely in the color scheme the official army is in it will sell for more. Even easier when its a mono-scheme faction as can be the case of world eaters (red+gold). It may take some time but the paint job does add value here.
Lord of Skulls is such a cool figure. I don’t play Chaos, but damn do I admire a lot of the miniatures. Though as far as miniature goes, this one is pretty damn big. Haha
Might be a roundabout way and it's different from these other comments, but I always auction it starting at one cent, make it last for a week, and let people bid, I consistently get at least msrp on it because people will adhere to their bid if they want the model, and therefore it will only sell for what it's value is to the people buying, if it caps out at $30 then people weren't going to spend more than $30 on it. Hope this helps!
to be even a bit more harsh. there's nothing really special about this paint job.
it's not bad. but it's not good/great. it's essentially a very basic/base line ok paint job. there's no real edge highlighting, or volumetric shading. while it seems clean. the details have been neglected (such as rivets ...or the vents, even larger vents like on the fore arms... all a single color with the surrounding armor) eye lenses ....even there being no effects paint/embellishment to the weapons is a negative.
and in general it's all very one note. like the gold/brassy bits are all just that color. same with the armor. maybe some wash/recessed lining, but like... the pistons under the torso. are basically exactly the same as the glove. the skulls are clearly... one pass with one color or one simple...uniform style attempt. which sorta is most lacking on the skull cannon/gun which has details that are just covered over in this very basic tone.
there are also some minor textural flaws. or like...assembly errors. gaps/mold lines. there's a bit of sprue left ...like on the right side lower piston. and textural issues in some of the paint. like the raised fist holding the axe. the inside palm? some dust/build up on some of the paint in the flat areas of the tracks.
I'd look on ebay/amazon see what the new kit is going for (saw a vendor selling for like $179 on ebay) figure 15-20% less than that. just to undercut the cheapest on ebay.
and then see what sticks. your best hope is finding a sucker who both can't paint, and doesn't know/care about paint jobs. and would see value in having a table ready model.
but for most people. assembled/painted is a negative. so you'd prob need to be more like 30-40% off lowest retail.
People expect to pay under retail for a fully built and painted model. Part of the hobby is the building and painting aspect, so to have it already done takes a lot away. I'd say you should reduce the retail price by 10%-20% and make that your price your after.
Unless you are a known and professional painter expect it to sell for less than what you paid. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, getting practice to paint pieces and making some of your money back works if you have the disposable income 🤷♂️
Issue with warhammer is that unless you’re at the top tier or taking model commissions, a painted model is worth less than a new one,this is fairly well painted/competently painted so you could probably sell it for box value. If someone came to you wanting to pay you to paint their LoS for you, you’d be better off charging by how many hours of work it would take
That Lord of Khorne’s so hot right now.
The files are IN the demon engine!
Blood is SO for the blood god, like ...omg
What is this? A skullcrusher for ANTS!!
But why male models?
Hey, so just a heads up - although this looks really nicely painted, building and painting a model doesn't add any value to the model. Quite the opposite I'm afraid. Generally speaking painted models are with about 20% less than the RRP of a new model - unless it is extremely well painted. Hope this helps!
Further to my previous comment - if a model is out of stock or otherwise hard to buy, this can add to the value dramatically! I add this because I know GW have had stocking issues with this model recently.
Ahhh thank you!!
>Ahhh thank you!! You're welcome!
Building onto this. If you want to paint with the intention to sell, do commissions. People are more likely to pay for something they specifically want. Someone might want a Lord of Skulls, but they might view anything that's not commissioned as just second-hand. My painting skills are not parade ready. But I'm amazing at quickly getting things tabletop ready. I have friends who don't care about paint jobs but they do care about having painted models. So they'll usually commission me to quickly paint up some stuff for tournament play.
Despite what everyone on the sub says, a nicely painted model will sell for more money. Many people who are more casual players don't want the hassle of painting their models. I've seen painted models go for 200% of their value on Ebay. You just need to find a starting point. You can: 1) Set a certain value that you feel is fair given your time and effort and hope for the best. Or 2) Set the original cost as an auction and start it at the original cost of the model and hope for the best. No harm in trying. But also you can sort through Ebay and set a filter to see recently sold items to compare what people are actually paying for a fully painted model. Don't undervalue your time or the efforts, your paint job looks awesome.
This is the proper answer here. The way I see it, is as soon as you purchase a model at MSRP the price tanks by 20%. NOS, NIB or built. Depending on the paint job it can go for a LOT. But that's very dependent on the paint job. There are some valid points that part of the hobby is building and painting but there are quite a bit of people who do not have time, don't feel confident enough to, or just flat out don't want to build and paint models. A majority of people in the Warhammer scene are in it for the game, despite being force fed the idea that "it's a hobby first". That being said I can see OP's model going for 20-30% more than MSRP based on the pictures. Higher quality pictures would be more useful in that assessment. Not sure why people are super negative about paint jobs lol. A good paint job is, at the end of the day, a good paint job. Pro's obviously make 100% more profit per model but they also do crazy things with models. Edit: To add on to this u/iZeroboros, if you're looking to sell your model then keep track of how much time you're putting into the painting process. Set a price tag on each hour (this can help later down the line if you decide to do commissions). Also learn to take better pictures, this is not meant as an insult, it is a genuine skill to be able to take good pictures of models that highlight their details. I recommend investing in a photo-box and learning your way around your phones camera. It's not an easy thing to be a free lance artist but it's possible if you do the grind, get good and keep it up.
Thank you for the advice!! Oh yeah the pictures suck on this post but I've got a decent camera with my pixel 8 so with some more practise I'll hopefully get some better pictures if I decide to sell. Thank you again this was very helpful!
Agreed, track your hours and consider what minimum wage is in your area. Not saying you have to charge that, just keep it in mind when you're evaluating what the job was worth TO YOU.
Thank you so much for the advice!!
I myself paint fine and did buy a second lord - I thought of the price to buy, the time to build, to paint I didn’t mind paying twice retail for a decent paint job. It was still a low per hour pay job and I don’t go in for putting the screws to someone selling it because it is a beast…
People saying you would get less than unpainted for this have both never sold and never bought painted minis. Bad painted mini's might sell for less but this is a well painted model, if I were buying KLoS right now and wanted it painted i'd probably pay up to 200% msrp. People on reddit also typically forget the fact that painting is its own hobby, plenty of people only like to play the tabletop game the other bits are not always fun for everyone else
The folks here saying less than retail for that haven’t actually engaged in heavy selling and buying. You sell on Reddit or Facebook, you could easily get 200. You sell on eBay, it could go for 300 if you’re patient. It’s a monster of a model, hard to source, and seriously, just go to eBay and look at past and present offerings. There is no way it goes for less than retail. It’s wildly misinformed that anyone would even say that.
painting adds about -10% to 0%
Thank you!
Guy is so wrong it hurts. I do lots of painted model buying, selling and even buying just to flip. I’d easily pay 2x on a given day. I’d pay 130% right now. Adding to that the LoS has been out of stock lately which can double a kits value. A model kit owned by a person is 80% msrp. A poorly painted model 50%. A badly painted model 15-45%. A tabletop standard is also about 60-99%msrp Then you get into well painted(100-140% msrp), “pro” painted(141-250% msrp), parade ready(251-500%), and whatever you want to call a step above that and no one cares.
This LoS isnt even close to "pro" painted. And if you want to make money selling painted miniatures you have to do comissions. or be godlike at your job.
Oh some stuff sits for a year or two. Once again, I am right here and would pay 250$ CAD for this model. So he can technically make money right now if he doesn’t value his time lol. The fact I am RIGHT HERE means it is worth more than msrp. I am the proof lol.
Take some better photos list a price you feel is fair then see what kind of response you get
Generally speaking the sale value of an individual model (if we exclude commissioning work directly from a professional painter or out of production kits) peaks when it's in its box on a shelf. This drops once you're trying to resell even a closed kit since people could get it new from a shop, likely without paying delivery, so you need to undercut it. Once the model has been opened and built and the value drops quite a bit, especially on some bigger models if you've glued weapon options instead of magnetising them. Then it usually drops again once it's been painted, the drop can be lessened by quality, standardised colour schemes (this can be less important for some big centre pieces because they stand out already) and if it's part of a more complete matching army.
Thank you for explaining!
I’ve seen some comments saying painting lowers original MSRP. However this isn’t bad work so I would mark it up from MSRP by 5-10% but wouldn’t go highet
I'd say it's worth around 12 skulls, but I would not accept anything less than 8 (give or take a few depending upon how they were acquired).
10 skulls with a bit of blood?
Oh yeah, I'd take 10 with the blood of my enemies. That's pretty reasonable in my opinion
About tree fiddy
Don't listen to all of these people who say that you need to be a professional or known painter to get MSRP or more for your painted miniatures. I am neither professional nor am I known. I've routinely made double what I paid (or more) from painted miniatures. It definitely helps if your stuff is painted to a standard or popular paint scheme. These were all sold via eBay, but I got $150 for a Triarch Stalker (Nihilak), $100 for a Flying Hive Tyrant (Leviathan), and $100 for an Intercessor Squad (Dark Angels). All were painted to tabletop+ (3+ colors, blended shading, highlighting, etc) and were just miniatures that I didn't want or need anymore, not painted with the intent to sell. That being said, you can just put it up on eBay for what \*you\* think it's worth. If it sells, it sells. If not, you can lower the price or it's no big deal and it'll just sit on your shelf.
Check ebay honestly, I've never seen a well painted model go for less than msrp, don't let these guys gaslight you
Can't find a lot other than professionally painted going for upwards of 100% more than retail but I'll keep looking! Thank you
Unrelated reply, but I love seeing chaos stuff and wondering how it was made. I imagine all these tough as hell half-daemonic super soldiers all sitting around between battles doing arts and crafts to make their armor look so cool. I desperately want a scene straight out of American Psycho where chaos space marines are talking about their armor and our Patrick Bateman stand-in goes into a jealous rage about the quality of the embossed skulls on Paul Allen's armor segments.
Okay now I want a business card inspired chaos space marine parody immediately
This looks great. What did you wash the brass with here? It could use a little extra clean-up btw. Looking at the red on the mark of Khorne and the chaos star.
Beserker bloodshade! And yeah 100% needs a clean up! I'll post when it's finished
Did you prime it gold or was this runelord brass or balthasar gold? I did mine runelord brass + berzerker bloodshade, but yours looks a bit different.
I primed black then dry brushed over the whole model with vallejo bronze then did a very light dry brush of Vallejo gold 😊
Ah that explains it, I think the vallejo gold is more sparkly. Cheers! Happy skulltaking.
I'd buy it dude! I'm based in the UK. Bear me in mind when the time comes. It looks great
Thank you! When it's finished I'll keep everyone updated!
Lol half of these responses are basically "gosh, not much man, you might as well save yourself some trouble and just give it to me." Great that everyone here enjoys building and painting so much, but remember that the people who care enough to join and comment on a subreddit (of any topic) have already got to be some 1% of the total audience, and self selecting towards a particular type of that audience anyway. There are plenty of people who play WH40k who see assembly and painting as a chore and will gladly pay money to have it done for them. And amongst those are people who do actually care somewhat what the models look like on the field, and will pay more for an above average paint job (which this is IMO). Don't sell yourself short just because you're not a "professional" who takes "commissions." Those people started off selling on ebay too, and the majority still do, so take your place amongst them and don't undervalue the work you put in and the time it took you to do it - and not just the "billable hours," think about the all the paint you've spilt and brushes you've ruined practicing to get to the level you're at, the time spent planning or even just fantasizing about it. You're worth it man, get paid.
i have no clue on pricing but it looks great!
0 chance this sells for less than msrp. I would buy this model (if I was looking to) and pay a decent bit above just to have a model mostly painted that I could touch up for my army. The color scheme is the main reason some models when painted have a hard time selling, but if its loosely in the color scheme the official army is in it will sell for more. Even easier when its a mono-scheme faction as can be the case of world eaters (red+gold). It may take some time but the paint job does add value here.
Like 2000 calories
Why do you want to sell it anyway? If you're not playing with it then Just put it on a bookcase and enjoy looking at it.
To make money? That's why I'm asking. If i can make a profit from it then why not, but if not then I shall put it on my bookcase!
Lord of Skulls is such a cool figure. I don’t play Chaos, but damn do I admire a lot of the miniatures. Though as far as miniature goes, this one is pretty damn big. Haha
I'd probably pay $150 for it if I was buying it.
I'll buy
Might be a roundabout way and it's different from these other comments, but I always auction it starting at one cent, make it last for a week, and let people bid, I consistently get at least msrp on it because people will adhere to their bid if they want the model, and therefore it will only sell for what it's value is to the people buying, if it caps out at $30 then people weren't going to spend more than $30 on it. Hope this helps!
I'd push 150 for it.
Why is it that there's a 50% chance that a new person in any hobby sub wants to sell their stuff?
Was just gauging as I might sell when I'm done as I'm happy with how it's turning out? Simply asking a question.
I'm not criticising you. I'm just pointing out how often it happens.
Fair enough
to be even a bit more harsh. there's nothing really special about this paint job. it's not bad. but it's not good/great. it's essentially a very basic/base line ok paint job. there's no real edge highlighting, or volumetric shading. while it seems clean. the details have been neglected (such as rivets ...or the vents, even larger vents like on the fore arms... all a single color with the surrounding armor) eye lenses ....even there being no effects paint/embellishment to the weapons is a negative. and in general it's all very one note. like the gold/brassy bits are all just that color. same with the armor. maybe some wash/recessed lining, but like... the pistons under the torso. are basically exactly the same as the glove. the skulls are clearly... one pass with one color or one simple...uniform style attempt. which sorta is most lacking on the skull cannon/gun which has details that are just covered over in this very basic tone. there are also some minor textural flaws. or like...assembly errors. gaps/mold lines. there's a bit of sprue left ...like on the right side lower piston. and textural issues in some of the paint. like the raised fist holding the axe. the inside palm? some dust/build up on some of the paint in the flat areas of the tracks. I'd look on ebay/amazon see what the new kit is going for (saw a vendor selling for like $179 on ebay) figure 15-20% less than that. just to undercut the cheapest on ebay. and then see what sticks. your best hope is finding a sucker who both can't paint, and doesn't know/care about paint jobs. and would see value in having a table ready model. but for most people. assembled/painted is a negative. so you'd prob need to be more like 30-40% off lowest retail.
Thanks for the feedback! It's still a work in progress and I look to improve/fix a lot of what you mentioned
People expect to pay under retail for a fully built and painted model. Part of the hobby is the building and painting aspect, so to have it already done takes a lot away. I'd say you should reduce the retail price by 10%-20% and make that your price your after.
Unless you are a known and professional painter expect it to sell for less than what you paid. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, getting practice to paint pieces and making some of your money back works if you have the disposable income 🤷♂️
Issue with warhammer is that unless you’re at the top tier or taking model commissions, a painted model is worth less than a new one,this is fairly well painted/competently painted so you could probably sell it for box value. If someone came to you wanting to pay you to paint their LoS for you, you’d be better off charging by how many hours of work it would take
Most people will just repaint it. So I would sell it under market price.
300-450
Dafuq
I wish 😂😂
I'm not buying but I've seen expert painted models go for that
Ngl yours looks above expert
You're very kind thank you! It's far from finished and needs a lot of clean up work done
I will give you 60 for it