How much is a D&D mini worth?

[Tortoise]

i want a bag of 100 for $1. like i can buy any other plastic army man.

to me they aren't any better, in fact they are worse due to the random nature, than the plastic army men.

By my estimates it probably costs WOTC about 10 cents per figure to manufacture them. While I too think they should do some non-random sets at a low cost, I don't see them having the wider general market those plastic, single-color army men do which is why they're going to cost more. The D&D mini's are very niche-specific.

Of course they could still do things like dinosaurs, animals, spiders and other insects in a more mass market fashion and sell them through places like Walmart. That would give them another source of income and allow those of us who want a few packs of things like that to get them inexpensively.

 

[erian_7]

I've got 600 or so D&D Minis now, and paid roughly $1-1.5 for each. That's good stuff. The random nature has proven to be a non-issue for me--most can be readily traded for, or sold to buy specific minis.

On topic (answering the "would and should" cost, with a little MBA know-how thrown in), I'd expect the "common" minis (I know, the rarity level is being excluded in your question, but in any production run, the manufacturer will make more of the items that sell well or in bulk, and less for those that sell less) to go for $1, since they're prepainted. I would expect others to cost an average of $5 for things like the Ogre and Troll (big, cool monsters, so they'll command a better sell price). Finally, I'd expect the special minis (which would likely be produced in limited quantities, both due to smaller demand and to keep prices high) to go for $10-$15. These would include Drizzt and other recognizable minis (they've got marketing name/brand recognition power behind their pricing) and the Large Red Dragon.

The long and short of this is that I believe in a nonrandom scenario, I would have had to pay much, much more for my current collection. As such, I would likely never have bought as many as I have. And further might not even have gotten into the product line since I personally wouldn't spend the prices I quote above for some minis.

So, my conclusion is that the randomness is a good thing. I'll gladly do the little extra leg work necessary to get the specific minis I want that luck doesn't bring rather than either pay WAY too much or go without...

Eric

 

[Wombat]

Looking at this thread, I think back to the Dear Old Days when collectible card games first started to hit the public consciousness.

How much is a Mox worth? Are Wyvern cards worth more than Jyhad cards? And whatever happened to the Kult card game?

Not only is worth a wildly flexible notion, but it will alter greatly over time, often down.

This is also why books are a poor investment, unless you are a reader.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

At the present time, there are 200 miniatures readily available in the D&D miniatures game. In a month, there will be 272 miniatures. How many does a place like Reaper have on hand readily?

According to Reaper's online store "2097 Products Online". Granted, some of that is paints, brushes, books, parts, etc, but still, I'd estimate that there are over 1000 minis there, most in the $3-7 range, and more coming out each month. I've never had a problem ordering a miniature that I needed from Reaper, so I'd say they are all "on hand readily".

 

[BigFreekinGoblinoid]

What I'm willing to pay on the secondary market: ( I have bought a few WotC packs, but the majority of my figs have been individually bought online )

$1-2 sounds about right for the quality of the human/oid mini's they produce

$2-4 for larger "Meduim" & "Large" monsters

$4-6 for Huge plastic creatures

As I have mentioned before, the model train industry has managed to provide high quality painted figures ( even "HO" scale ! ) for less money than WoTC is getting, so it IS possible to sell these for less at a profit.

 

[Laslo Tremaine]

Let me just add something in.

There is one thing that keeps the cost of the miniatures packs down, that being there is only one item (per expansion) that needs to be stocked and shipped; the booster pack.

It is MUCH easier for WoTC, distributors and retailers to stock and track one item then it would be for them to break them all out into individual packs. Then they would have to take orders for 200 or so individual items and that would make their jobs much harder (and therefore costlier).

I still think they should sell the expansions in random packs like they do now, and just get rid of the varying scale or rarity. Just make each pack have x smalls and mediums, x larges and maybe a huge.

 

[rgard]

i want a bag of 100 for $1. like i can buy any other plastic army man.

to me they aren't any better, in fact they are worse due to the random nature, than the plastic army men.

It's not really a good comparison.

First, the 100 plastic HO Scale army men are knock-offs of Airfix figures from the '70s. Whoever is producing the army men has avoided all the sculpting/artist costs that Airfix paid to have the originals made.

Second, the D&D minis are larger in scale and there is more plastic in each mini.

Third, the D&D minis are painted.

Fourth, you get a double sided card of stats with each D&D mini.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[diaglo]

It's not really a good comparison.

First, the 100 plastic HO Scale army men are knock-offs of Airfix figures from the '70s. Whoever is producing the army men has avoided all the sculpting/artist costs that Airfix paid to have the originals made.

Second, the D&D minis are larger in scale and there is more plastic in each mini.

Third, the D&D minis are painted.

Fourth, you get a double sided card of stats with each D&D mini.

Thanks,
Rich

wrong plastic army men. the ones i mean are Marx knockoffs. and they are much larger than the WotC crap Medium minis. most are larger than the Large crap minis from WotC.

third the paint jobs suck.

fourth the card means nothing to me. i have the MM or the SRD. i'm buying them for RPG not for use with the Miniatures Handbook.

i'd use Chainmail before i ever used the Miniatures Handbook

 

[Hjorimir]

Well, I have only bought from the secondary market (i.e. ebay or websites selling singles). I just don't have a use for tons of the goofy personality miniatures and really just want the monsters.

If WotC sold packs of the monsters (where I knew exactly what I was buying) I'd be giving them my money instead of to somebody who is a collector.

I am sure glad I didn't buy a bunch of the Harbinger figures, however. When you look at similar creatures from the later sets the difference in quality is huge.

 

[Chupacabra]

I'd pay .50 - $1.00 each for just common monsters, which is all I'd really be interested in. My use for them would be on the battleboard to support the pen and paper RPG, not the minis game (which I find to be boring). I'd love to buy a pack of 10, or a dozen or 20 common bad guys (lizard men, orcs, kobolds, generic thugs) in a non-random fashion, just to be able to rapidly build up an "army" of them for use against my PCs. I really dont have a burning desire to by a bunch of booster packs just on the hope of getting what I wanted -- too much bother involved in selling off the chaff to some collector somewhere.