Trading Toys: What, Where and How?

Trading toys

On a day to day basis I spend more time trading or doing trading related tasks than any other aspect of the hobby. I usually find some time to paint or model every day and sometimes I’m lucky enough to get a game in, but not a day goes by without me doing some trading.

 

Does your basement look like this? You might want to trade. 

I have written about it before, but trading really opened the hobby up for me. It made getting new armies and models easier and turned the excitement of shopping for miniatures a constant thing. I didn’t have to have money in the bank when I could turn my toys into new toys and I could search out deals to get that “winner” feeling.

I have realized, however, that many people don’t know how to trade or are worried about trading because of its many risks. While there are some risks and initial trades may, depending on the forum, be a pain, it is well worth trying out for players who maybe haven’t experienced this side of the hobby.

Where to trade?

Outside of conventional trading at shows and conventions, the internet is your place to connect to fellow gamers who want your stuff.

On the internet, every day is the Toy Fair!

The online venue is very much a factor of where you are located and what you are trying to trade. For example, an Infinity trading forum probably isn’t the best place for 6mm historicals and an Australian site might be a bad place to sell single miniatures from the UK.

 

This Aussie tried to sell an Aquila Stronghold on a German trade site.

Here are some of my favorites:

www.bartertown.com: This is my absolute favorite place to trade. It is a forum based trading site with a large number of specialized trading forums (for GW futuristic, historical, Non-GW Fantasy, terrain, etc). The key to the site is the robust feedback system. Rather than use a feedback post or similar like many sites, Bartertown uses a feedback system that displays your numerical feedback (with a link to written reviews). This is your “number”.

When you buy, sell or trade, you rate the other person on a standard positive/neutral/negative system. However, rather than using a percentage positive rating, any negative feedback turns your number red and makes it negative. You can have 500 positive and one negative, and your number will be a big fat red negative 500.

This system may seem harsh, but it forces users to look at the review and see why it’s negative. The mods are also phenomenal at making sure negative reviews are only for serious things.

Your number also has a tangible effect on your trading. Although not forum rules, practice dictates that the person with a lower number ships their items first (so the more “trusted” person can open it up, see its all there and then ship). Some people apply this to payments also (I do not due to paypal protection). What this means is that as you trade more and become more trusted, you lessen your risk of getting burnt.

There is a huge trading community that I find to be responsive and always active. I’ve done my best trading there and almost never had a bad experience with anyone on there.

However, there are some negatives. The community is mainly American and I’ve had no success trying to trade on it since I’ve come to the UK. Shipping is too high and there aren’t enough Europeans. Also, you can only post once per forum every 7 days (4 if you donate 25 dollars a year to them) and bumping is not allowed. This can be annoying when you switch wants.

Overall, a great site to check out and one I promise will give you a good experience.

 

The only place to get better deals than on Bartertown.

www.Dakkadakka.com: The Dakka swap shop is what I view as the internet equivalent of the Mos Eisley Cantina. You never know who is there, what they might sell or how your experience will be. I’ve had some of my biggest sales on Dakka but also had many disappointments. The feedback system is iffy and not universally used. I really like their location tags that make it clear where people are from and where they will ship. Overall, it’s been hit or miss, but somewhere I’d look if you want to pick up random stuff.

I think I bought a landspeeder on Dakkadakka off the guy on the left once. 

Facebook groups: (Groups include Flames of War Swap Shop, Wargame Trading UK, Tabletop Trading UK and others). These groups have been pretty good to me. I find they have more non-responsive buyers and sellers than others and there is generally no great feedback system, but I’ve generally had wonderful experiences. Most groups seems to have a core of mature, responsible traders who are great to trade with and who can be invaluable as you try to find certain items.

I particularly want to call out the Flames of War Swap Shop (2014). I’ve been trading there for a number of months and have met some fantastic traders that I consistently do business with. When I am looking for an army, they’ll notice and direct me to people who are selling the same. In the same vein, I’ve had an individual notice something I wanted was at their FLGS and purchase it to re-sell to me after asking if I still wanted it. It is great to find people who are equally jumpy in their army selection and who you know you always have something they could use and vice versa.

Types of Trading

Searching for the deal:

Whatever you are looking for, there is probably some poor sap who bought on and doesn’t want it anymore. You can usually find better deals than at online stores if you dig hard enough. The hobby dollar doesn’t go that far anymore, so trading is a way to find deals.

Buying and splitting:

People will often want to sell their army in one go. Everyone knows someone who bought 10,000 points of Space Marines on a whim and now can’t be bothered to sell them piece by piece. You can often get 45-50% (or more) off of retail value on huge lots. Most people don’t have hundreds of dollars/pounds sitting around, but if you do, buying huge lots can be lucrative.

Once you buy the giant lot, you can keep what you like and sell the rest piecemeal. If you do it right and the army is popular enough, you can have a brand new army that was paid for by what you sold.

I used to do this a lot when I was still in school. I would buy an army at less than half price, keep some choice units and then slowly regain my initial investment by smaller sales. Sales of small lots and units would often get my 70-75% of retail, so each model was giving me back 1.5 times what I paid for it. If you can sell 2/3^rds of the army, you’ve gotten a free force.

One thing to look out for here is LIQUIDITY. Some models sell better than others. No one wants plastic space marine scouts, vespids or kradschutzen models while models like riptides, terminators and panthers will almost always find a buyer. Make sure the models are in good shape or new. Weird color scheme reduce resale value. However, if it’s something you think would strip off nicely, you can find a diamond in the rough. Just be smart about what you buy for resale.

Swapping:

Sometimes you buy an army and are super excited by it. Sometimes that excitement dies a quick death. You could sell your army (see above), but then you’ve just thrown away a bunch of value. Instead, you might think about swapping.

Most swapping is done by trading something you have for something someone else has at an equal or close retail value. I have 5 Panzer IVs, you have 5 Shermans, bam, we swap. If models are less popular, in less good shape or whatever, the 1:1 ratio in value may change. In any case, you get something new for your old at the smallest loss possible.

My “rules” for trading:

 

Follow the rules or you know who is coming...

Here are some of the things I think are important for a new trader to know :

• -        Always describe your items as much as you can. It’s not a Space Marine Captain. It’s a Space Marine Captain with storm bolter and power sword, bare metal, on base with head option 1.
• -        Pictures are always a plus. More pictures are better. If you can’t take them then, make sure you can if anyone wants to see them. Use a lot of light. Value goes up when you can show off the great condition of your toys.
• -        Disclose ANY problem early. Sometimes something is broken or you’re worried about something breaking when you ship. Let the person know. Don’t let them open up something missing a piece. No one enjoys that.
• -        If you missed that something was missing, fix it immediately. Call up customer service, troll ebay, just fix it. The time and money it’ll cost you to fix your mistake is nothing compared to losing your reputation as a trader. You wouldn’t want someone to dump incomplete junk on you, so don’t do it to them.
• -        If something breaks in shipping or isn’t perfect for the other person, fix it immediately. You wouldn’t want broken things. In the same way you want to be satisfied with your trade, so does the other guy. If it’s a partial refund or whatever, make sure your customer is happy every single time.
• -        Never trade models you don’t own. I’ve known traders (usually young, usually iffy traders) who would float trades. You may know you have that unit of X coming this week from a guy, but that doesn’t mean you should offer to trade that unit until it is in your hand and has been inspected. You don’t know if it’ll get lost, be in bad shape, not as described or anything. Don’t trade what you don’t have.
• -        If you can’t send the money for a purchase promptly, make sure you tell the person when you are offering them. Sometimes I’d rather have the $50 today rather than your $90 in two weeks when you get paid. If you don’t have the money now, say it. “I can give you $90 in two weeks if you hold onto it”. Don’t negotiate and then drop the “I can’t pay” bomb on someone.
• -        If you say you’ll ship on a certain day, do so. If you said you can and can’t, communicate. I’m guilty of thinking I can ship quickly when I really shouldn’t be thinking that. I’ve been a slow trader sometimes. However, I always communicate. If it’s going to take longer, I’ll let you know. Also, if you drag your feet for too long, make sure you toss in a little extra for the guy on the other side.
• -        If you ship and you haven’t gotten insurance/tracking, it’s on you. If you do it that way and it fails to show, make sure you have the money to pony up. Don’t make the person do the whole paypal dispute thing. Once it’s apparent your stuff never arrived and you decided not to pay for knowing where it is, refund and apologize.
• -        Don’t ask someone who you don’t know to send money “friends and family” on paypal. They will have no protection. I don’t care I’m trading with the pope, if it’s the first time (or few times), I want protection. As you get to know traders and trust them, you can think about getting out of the fees. Until then, be safe and don’t ask them to not be safe.
• -        The key is for everyone to be happy. Don’t agree to a deal where you’ll be unhappy. Don’t push a deal where the other guy will be unhappy. Make sure everyone loves what they got and try to fix any problems. This hobby is about having a good time with other gamers. You’re a gamer. You know what it is to be a gamer. Don’t be the guy who fucks over another gamer.

I hope that if you haven’t tried trading, you’ll give it a shot. It’s great fun and you can meet some wonderful folks doing so. After all, anything that gets toys in your hands cheaper can’t be so bad, can it?