Need advice on finishing out Harbinger

[Hawkshere]

Actually, I'm not hardcore collector or completist. Rather, I'm a hardcore GM who likes to have a large variety of minis for maximum flexibility of use. So I'm buying the D&D minis (I have zero time to paint minis in quantity), and I'd like to get close to complete sets. There's always a few minis I don't really see much use for -- even in rares.

I normally have as much money as I need for something like this, but Harbinger has been kind of a bitch: I had some employment hickups in the past that prevented me from buying more than one case when they were still available, and the set is so much larger than the subsequent expansions. Now the only way to buy them new is single boosters retail (a major FLGS still has Harbinger boosters).

What I've managed to get so far:
1 Starter
22 Boosters

I think I did pretty well overall, but there are still many gaps. I don't have more than 2 of any rare (8 rares duplicated, 7 singles), but I'm still missing 12 rares altogether. I am also still missing 5 uncommons, some of which I'd like very much (4 Devis vs. 0 Gnolls -- bleh). I didn't end up with more than 9 of anything (Human Bandits -- not bad -- only 4 Commoners so far, heh).

There are several rares I consider essential to still get: Mind Flayer, Large Earth Elemental, Human Blackguard, Troll, and Ogre. You can't have too many Trolls, and I got squat. There are plenty of good uncommons I wouldn't mind having more of, plus some critical ones I don't have at all: Orc Archer and Gnoll. However, I'm in good shape with the commons -- very little oversaturation. I don't really lack any commons I want, and the only 'crap' commons I have in abundance are the 8 Crested Fell Drakes I ended up with. Lots of Banditos, Zombies, and Man-at-Arms are always a good thing.

So, considering that wholesale case-level prices are now unavailable, have I reached the breakpoint at which retail boosters are no longer in my favor? If I'm going to buy any more, I need to do it quick, otherwise it's the secondary market from here on out. I have a few rares I might trade (I have two Shambling Mound figs I will probably avoid using at all cost -- least fave rare so far). I'm not sure how far I'm going to get with trading until I get better loaded up on the newer expansions.

Buying singles (especially rares) gets expensive fast. As a comparison, I just ran up a cart at FRP Games (Game Outfitter's web site seems to be down):

- Large Earth Elemental - Rare $12.99
- Cleric of Corellon Larethian - Rare $12.99
- Vadania - Half-Elf Druid - Rare $12.99
- Thri-Kreen Ranger - Rare $12.99
- Human Blackguard - Rare $12.99
- Human Thug - Uncommon $1.49 (4 for $5.96)
- Cleric of Gruumsh - Rare $12.99
- Gnoll - Uncommon $6.99 (4 for $27.96)
- Orc Archer - Uncommon $2.99 (4 for $11.96)

That's over $120 right there, and I still don't have any Trolls/Ogres/Mind Flayers/etc. because they were out of stock (no wonder, really). So I wonder if I should continue risking more fell drakes and keep buying boosters while I can...

 

[pogre]

You seem like a practical person and not a collector - my advice is to just buy the painted pewter monsters you are looking for on ebay. I sold a really nicely painted mindflayer a couple months ago for $16.00. You can get a fairly decent paintjob for even less.

No real time pressure this way either.

Good luck to you.

 

[Gizzard]

So, considering that wholesale case-level prices are now unavailable, have I reached the breakpoint at which retail boosters are no longer in my favor?

This is a pretty simple statistics question if you can state your needs definitively. For example, if you want to say "What are my odds of getting the 5 rares I want if I buy 12 boosters?"

For fun, I calculated the odds of getting at least one of each of the 5 rares you want in 12 boosters as 00.3722%, which is pretty bad. OTOH, the odds of getting at least one of any 3 of the rares you want is 25%. Better, but still not great.

It seems like you've passed the point where buying boosters makes sense.

 

[Snapdragyn]

My advice is to get over to maxminis.com, set up your H/W (have/want) list, & start trading!

I was having trouble filling out my collection (& I definitely have financial constraints), & eBay, while offering the promise of getting exactly the mini I wanted, was not fitting my pocketbook. Thankfully, I found maxminis -- now I trade minis I don't need for ones I do. I'm down to only 1 mini missing out of all 3 sets, & of course filling in numbers for ones of which I'd like multiples, & it only costs a buck or 2 per trade for postage (with some trades bringing me 5 or 6 figures I needed).

You can check people's sigs for how many trades they have pending & completed (there's also a ref thread on this), so you get an idea of what sort of risk you're taking with each trader. I've had zero problems so far, but I like being able to see that info just for normal caution; I did turn down an emailed offer from someone who'd seen my post there but had no profile on that forum.

Be sure to check the 'pricing' thread in the ref section, also, to get an idea if a trade you're offering is fairly balanced (especially useful when trying to uptrade uncommons/commons for a rare & vice versa).

 

[MerricB]

Actually, I'm not hardcore collector or completist. Rather, I'm a hardcore GM who likes to have a large variety of minis for maximum flexibility of use. So I'm buying the D&D minis (I have zero time to paint minis in quantity), and I'd like to get close to complete sets. There's always a few minis I don't really see much use for -- even in rares.

I normally have as much money as I need for something like this, but Harbinger has been kind of a bitch: I had some employment hickups in the past that prevented me from buying more than one case when they were still available, and the set is so much larger than the subsequent expansions. Now the only way to buy them new is single boosters retail (a major FLGS still has Harbinger boosters).

What I've managed to get so far:
1 Starter
22 Boosters

I think I did pretty well overall, but there are still many gaps. I don't have more than 2 of any rare (8 rares duplicated, 7 singles), but I'm still missing 12 rares altogether. I am also still missing 5 uncommons, some of which I'd like very much (4 Devis vs. 0 Gnolls -- bleh). I didn't end up with more than 9 of anything (Human Bandits -- not bad -- only 4 Commoners so far, heh).

There are several rares I consider essential to still get: Mind Flayer, Large Earth Elemental, Human Blackguard, Troll, and Ogre. You can't have too many Trolls, and I got squat. There are plenty of good uncommons I wouldn't mind having more of, plus some critical ones I don't have at all: Orc Archer and Gnoll.

One of the key things about collecting the D&D Miniatures game is to keep an eye on what you actually need and what would be the best way to get it.

Although it is rather hard to get Gnolls from Harbinger, it is very easy to get Gnoll Archers from Archfiends (They are a common, 1 appearing in every four boosters on average).

I am hopeful that an Ogre and a Troll will appear as Uncommons in a later set - with regard to Ogres, it seems rather likely.

When you reach the stage of needing more specialised figures - such as the Mind Flayer, Human Blackguard and Large Earth Elemental - trading really is the best option. As Snapdragyn says, maxminis.com is probably the best place to trade at the moment.

Cheers!

 

[diaglo]

basically you start at the beginning and say how many packs will it take to get a complete set.

the answer is roughly 80 packs.

but since you are already in the mix...to get those last few...

my guess is another 48 packs.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

Either trade at maxminis.com (thats where I competed my sets of Harbinger & Dragoneye after buying 1 case each and a few extra booksters) or buying individual minis on ebay. You can get individual rares (sometimes with commons and uncommons) for less that you'll pay for individuals at FRPGames (although I'd recommend them in a heartbeat for any other game supplies). I was able to get open booster packs that included a troll and an ogre on ebay for $10 each, and that included all the commons & uncommons from the boosters as well.

 

[Vrecknidj]

In addition to the sites already mentioned, you could look at the WotC boards, there's trading going on there too.

I've managed to trade my way into some rares that I didn't have. I think the next thing will be to trade for things that I use. In my campaign, there are a lot of gith (both kinds) and so I'll want more of those minis. And, since I don't have a need for all the zillions of wolf skeletons or troglodyte zombies that I have, I just might find someone out there with the exact reverse preferences.

Anyway, trading is the way to go to get the ones you want since the minis aren't being sold in a more convenient-to-gamers method.

That said, there's a hobby shop near me that keeps a big box of commons for 50 cents each, and a big box of uncommons for $1.50 each. If I'm in a hurry for some commons I can always stop there and plunk down some cash for what I need in a pinch. You might be able to convince a local shop to do the same.

Dave

 

[Hawkshere]

Thanks for the suggestions folks!

You seem like a practical person and not a collector - my advice is to just buy the painted pewter monsters you are looking for on ebay. I sold a really nicely painted mindflayer a couple months ago for $16.00. You can get a fairly decent paintjob for even less.

I'm not losing sleep over this or anything, hehe. I like metal minis too, I bought a large box (~150 figs) of Chainmail last year from svgame's fire sale. I haven't even attempted to paint a single one of them yet, though I still hope to someday. If all else fails, I may try to find someone else to paint them so they'll at least get used. Do paint-for-pay mini artists give volume discounts? (hehehe... )

In the meantime, I've been using my new plastic minis quite a bit. We didn't used to play with minis much, but the 'painted plastic army men' approach is working well for me. I just picked up some cheap, portable storage which swallowed my 256 D&D minis whole, with room left over for much more. Plastic is so much easier to store and transport than metal figs, even if they don't look as good.

I guess I'll focus on the trading route. When my cash reserves recharge, I may buy extra Archfiends or Giants and use them to trade back for older minis as needed.

Thanks again, all!

 

[MeepoTheMighty]

basically you start at the beginning and say how many packs will it take to get a complete set.

the answer is roughly 80 packs.

but since you are already in the mix...to get those last few...

my guess is another 48 packs.

That's insane. There's 27 rares in Harbinger. Buy 27 packs, and then trade your duplicates.