How to get a lot of minis on the cheap?

RangerWickett

Legend

• Jun 16, 2008

• #1

My players want me to use minis for 4th edition, but I don't want to spend a lot of money. I figure I'll ask them to get their own minis for their characters if they want something that looks nice, but I'd prefer to spend less than $20, and be able to get a decent assortment.

I know that with Magic cards, people end up with tons of commons they don't want, and it's usually pretty easy to get cheap spare commons from online stores or hard-core players. So are there good places to get lots of cheap minis, or hey, does anyone have a ton of common minis they want to sell on the cheap?

 

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H

humble minion

Legend

• Jun 16, 2008

• #2

Buying commons in bulk from the online stores is generally an ok idea. You can often get commons from < US$0.30 each. Some of the more popular (read: RPG-useful) uncommons can be a little more expensive though - especially those of monsters that are encountered in numbers - ogres and lesser demons and the like.

 

B

bolen

First Post

• Jun 16, 2008

• #3

I'd bet that you could get mini's cheap at the auction at gen con.

 

Skywalker

Adventurer

• Jun 16, 2008

• #4

Not minis exactly but you could try this option:

1. Buy Fiery Dragon Counter Collections 1 and 2.

2. Print in color on label paper.

3. Put on foam board or cardboard.

That should give you about 750 counters for about US$30. To give you a look at the end result:

 

RangerWickett

Legend

• Jun 16, 2008

• #5

I'm not going to Gen Con this year, sadly.

Thing is, I don't play D&D minis, so I don't even know what options there are. For those of you who run games using minis, how many different options do you find you need? I'm totally willing to repurpose miniatures to represent odd things, but of course a little similarity between object and signifier is useful.

I guess I'd need, what:

20 of a human-like mini, for times when I just desperately need minions.

4 each of three or four other types of human-ish minis. Some warriors, some sneaky guys, some cultists, some brutes.

1 each of eight or ten more unique-looking minis to represent leaders and such

And various monsters. I expect to use undead, maybe some giant insects, big cats, giants, the occasional elemental or demon.

Any suggestions of cheap minis that fit these criteria I could look for?

 

RangerWickett

Legend

• Jun 16, 2008

• #6

I actually had the original Counter Collection, the nice one with the perforated cardstock that you could punch the token out of. But I have long since lost them.

Hm. I have a copy of HeroQuest back home in Texas. Maybe I could ask my mom to mail the old unpainted minis to me.

 

H

humble minion

Legend

• Jun 16, 2008

• #7

There's complete galleries of the D&D minis sets here. Generally it'll be cheaper to get minis from the newer sets than the older ones. The most recent set (Dungeons of Dread) has been panned for its terrible paint jobs, so orcs and the like from that set could be very cheap indeed if looks don't matter all that much to you. Though any of the last 4 or so sets should be easily available.

Undead won't be a problem - there's so many skeleton minis in the range it's getting ridiculous. Monster prices will generally depend - the bigger and the more RPG-useful the are the more expensive they'll be.

 

Henry

Autoexreginated

• Jun 16, 2008

• #8

Actually, if Claudio wouldn't mind, you can get plenty of minis just by copying his sample pics from his photo gallery, and printing on heavy paper stock to cut out. Her has plenty of different ones up there to at the least get you started.

Having purchased that Digital Counter collection last year, that thing is awesomely useful for when I don't have the exact mini I need. Even better, he (and fiery dragon) recently posted a "Shadow Castle" PDF which contained all minis needed for a certain keep sitting on a certain shadowfell rift, to help people out with the adventure...

 

RangerWickett

Legend

• Jun 16, 2008

• #9

I'll check out the gallery. Thanks!

Still holding out hope for anyone who has tons of minis they'd be willing to sell, though.

 

H

humble minion

Legend

• Jun 16, 2008

• #10

RangerWickett said:

I'll check out the gallery. Thanks!

Still holding out hope for anyone who has tons of minis they'd be willing to sell, though.

Click to expand...

Might be able to do you a deal!

Have a look at the galleries and let me know what you're interested in. I tend to hang onto my monsters, but I've got loads of PCs/NPCs/demihumans/orcs etc, and enough skellies to sink a battleship. Not much from the recent sets, but a fair bit from Giants of Legend on. And a load of Dreamblade figures i got for basically nothing when the line folded, and I use as proxies...

 

Last edited: Jun 16, 2008