TON of eBay Auctions...

[cento]

Hej.

If anyone is interested, I am auctioning off a ton of old 40K stuff as well as assorted fantasy D&D style minis.

Probably the highlight of the auction is that I am selling off my unreleased Female Farseer figure, but a collector is likely to snipe that at the last minute for an outrageous sum (and some would say the price is already outrageous for a single fig).

Anyway, my auctions are at:

http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems&userid=cento13

Cheers!

 

[Petexxx1]

You\'re not kidding about that Farseer! $163 for one miniature. WOW

 

[cento]

Originally posted by Petexxx1
You\'re not kidding about that Farseer! $163 for one miniature. WOW

I would feed flattered if I thought I was pulling in that for the paint job, but I asked around on a collectors list before posting the auction, and based on that feedback, the figure was estimated to be worth around $100-150 without a paintjob due to its rarity...

 

[Zora]

Whew!

The sad thing is that I\'ve lusted after that mini for years! When I created my Eldar army, I kluged together a female farseer, and someone really liked it and showed me that one that you\'ve got for auction. I wanted it, but he wasn\'t selling and there were only 2 in existence, IIRC.

Now, if I\'d known about this last week when I\'d just finished a couple of my own auctions, I might have had the money. But there\'s no way I\'ll come up with that much in a couple of days. Can\'t really justify it, either. I\'ve now got a coupe of female farseers, but I\'ll still covet that one.

Great job!

 

[cento]

There are more than 2 of this one in existence, though he might have meant that there are two different Female Farseers, both sculpted by Juan Diaz (the other has a helmet). I personally know of at least four people who have this particular farseer (including me at the moment, but not counting the one you know of). Supposedly the sculptor has some in his own collection as well, but has no interest in parting with them. I only know that because a particularly fanatical fan of this figure first urged me to sell it (which I wouldn\'t at the time) then asked me everything I knew about the figure\'s history so he could track one down. He eventually contacted the sculptor directly. He never did get one.

I should have taken his offer at the time. He was so frustrated in his search for one that at one point he admitted he\'d be willing to give me $500 for it. Apparently now, he is out of the game...


I have one other rare unreleased figure (a space marine that was eventually modified and released as a limited edition Marshal) from Mark Bedford, but I don\'t want to sell it yet, since I have not painted it. I figure if I am going to part with such a rare figure, I want to have the unique honor of painting it first...

 

[Zora]

Whoa! Nice offer. Yeah, that would be hard to resist, that\'s for sure. I\'m watching the auction to see how much it goes for.... Good luck!

 

[cento]

Yeah, but I didn\'t need the money then.

Best I didn\'t sell it then anyway. Knowing me, I would have wasted it on silly stuff instead having it now when I can really use a bit of extra cash (getting married in October)...

 

[Zora]

Congratulations!

Yeah, my wife and I just bought a house and we\'re struggling getting used to the new boatload of bills.:|~

To top it off, my daughter just got braces, and my son needed glasses! Whew!

So I sold off a couple of things myself. Nothing the same caliber of yours, but enough to help a small bit with the bills. Although that might\'ve all changed had I seen your auction earlier!lol

 

[Trevor]

Its not at the link, did the auction end already?

 

[Zora]

Yeah, they had already ended.

Great job on the auction, Cento!

 

[cento]

Originally posted by Trevor
Its not at the link, did the auction end already?

Yeah, it ended Saturday. Here is a link to the Farseer auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=5920663199

It really came down to bidding between three people - two known collectors of rare figures, and the third was someone who bought most of my old Eldar army a couple of years ago. The returning customer won, which makes me strangely happy.

 

[Zora]

Wow, it\'s eerie to know that you know that 2 are rare figure collectors...who are they?

 

[cento]

Originally posted by Zora
Wow, it\'s eerie to know that you know that 2 are rare figure collectors...who are they?

I am on a Yahoo Mailing List dedicated to collecting Citadel Miniatures, and they are two of the most active members on the list. Exodite Jon actually wrote an article about this mini for an online \'zine a couple of years ago. The collector community really isn\'t that big, so if you get into it, you see the same folks\' names over and over again.

 

[finn17]

Sounds interesting.

I\'d ask you for details, if it wasn\'t for the fact that I have sworn never to go near Yahoo again

I buy a lot of stuff on eBay and keep bumping into the same old names time and time again. I don\'t even bother to search for figures now, I just search by certain bidders I know and let them do all the footwork:flip:

 

[cento]

Originally posted by finn17I buy a lot of stuff on eBay and keep bumping into the same old names time and time again. I don\'t even bother to search for figures now, I just search by certain bidders I know and let them do all the footwork:flip:

That\'s great! lol

Just be careful to avoid the recasters out there. There are some sellers that certainly selling counterfeit goods. Off of the top of my head, these are seller names to avoid:

mac-ace
goblin-goodies
funstuff4salenyc
hhglick

There are more, but I can\'t remember off of the top of my head. Also Goblin and Funstuff have been creating new seller ids so that they can switch quickly in the event of an account suspension. Recasters are a common topic on the mailing list...
:flame:

 

[finn17]

Originally posted by finn17
With the price of some older Citadel models, the temptation must be too great...I did end up with some hooky Judge Dredd minis once, but the seller did say he wasn\'t sure if they were Kosher and this was certainly reflected in the price
I always used to look for double mould lines, but I find that a lot of kosher/new minis have double mould lines as well???

Thankfully I have never bought from any of the names you mentioned, but I wll look out for them, just out of interest...

I am certainly beginning to suspect that there are far more Thruds out there than were ever cast by Citadel...

 

[Zora]

Kinda figured...

Originally posted by cento

Originally posted by finn17I buy a lot of stuff on eBay and keep bumping into the same old names time and time again. I don\'t even bother to search for figures now, I just search by certain bidders I know and let them do all the footwork:flip:

That\'s great! lol

Just be careful to avoid the recasters out there. There are some sellers that certainly selling counterfeit goods. Off of the top of my head, these are seller names to avoid:

mac-ace
goblin-goodies
funstuff4salenyc
hhglick

There are more, but I can\'t remember off of the top of my head. Also Goblin and Funstuff have been creating new seller ids so that they can switch quickly in the event of an account suspension. Recasters are a common topic on the mailing list...
:flame:

mac-ace and hhglick are familiar to me.

I always had my suspicions that mac-ace had WAY too many female commissars (a personal favorite of mine) for their own good.

 

[supervike]

touche\'

Originally posted by finn17
I don\'t even bother to search for figures now, I just search by certain bidders I know and let them do all the footwork:flip:

I like this idea, but I am going to cut out the middle-men, and just check out what you are bidding on....

 

[supervike]

what are some of the tell tale signs of a \"recaster\"?

How do us \'regular\' folk avoid them?

 

[cento]

Originally posted by supervike
what are some of the tell tale signs of a \"recaster\"?

How do us \'regular\' folk avoid them?

There are lots of things about the castings themselves that might indicate a recaster, but then again it could have just been a bad day for the GW casters, and maybe something slipped by quality assurance. One thing people look for is old figures that were supposed to be cast only in lead, that are in shiny white metal, BUT when GW UK switched away from lead, they still ran their archive service for a brief while where they cast ANY metal piece they had ever made if you called them and asked for it. So a few of those old figs did get cast in white metal. Plus, back in those days, some of their older figure lines were licensed out to other casters. AND in regards to quality, back in those dark days, if GW\'s mold wore out for a certain figure, they would sometimes take an already cast production figure and pull a new mold in that - and every mold thus created would carry forward new flaws. So what I am trying to say is that on a single figure basis, there really isn\'t a good way to be sure, unless the figure is still sealed in a blister.

But there ARE things you can do to keep yourself a bit safer on eBay. When you are considering buying loose figures from a seller on eBay, especially if the figures are somewhat scarce (if not down right rare), look at all of the sellers recently completed transactions. If they keep selling the same \"rare\" figure over and over, odds are good they might be recasts (though this is not proof). Another easy thing to add to that suspicion is if the seller is selling multiple lots of the same exact figure, but sprayed all the figures with primer - the primer hides the fact that they are using a different metal composition. That is mac-ace\'s trick, the primer.

Commonly recast figures include:
Sgt Centurius
Squats
Adeptus Mechanicus Skullz figures
1991 Gamesday Space Marine Captain

And many more... Those are just the obvious ones I could rattle off in less than 10 seconds.

If in doubt, ask the seller. It seems many of the recasters will ignore any email sent to them that inquires about recasting. And look at it this way - if a seller won\'t respond to a polite question from a potential bidder, do you really want to trust sending money to them?

Hope some of that helps.

Cheers,
Chris Cates.