jgsugden
Legend
If you want unpainted minis, there are options (such as the current Gloomhaven Minis) that are about $0.60 per medium mini. Alterntively, a one time investment in a 3D printer and a little time searching for free or cheap STLs may mean a huge supply of minis at a very low unpainted cost.
If you want painted minis, your best bet to get started it buying lots on Ebay - either entire collections or the extras that people decided they do not need.
I watched the prepainted plastic mini go from the very start with DDM to the present and saw how the price has ridiculously skrocketed. I bought Harbinger starters (with 10 commons, 5 uncommons and 1 rare) for $5 on clearance. Booster of 8 minis, were soon after ~$10, before going to $13. I remember buying up swarms of commons from online retailers at $0.10 to $0.50 per mini (including a lot of 100 dwarf skeletons for $10). By the time DDM was winding down I was really only buying minis for sealed events for their skirmish game and the occasional single because I already had everything I needed. And now I find myself buying the occasional single or a booster just for the thrill of it ... but I am still shocked that someone else is not doing the exact model they used back in 2003 and doing a standalong skirmish game with cheap minis with a few paint steps each that cover the basic fantasy tropes. The skirmish game can be real basic and still work - and even if the costs have quadrupled, they can still make cheap minis that they sell for $0.25 in a vending machine, so they can still make them elsewhere. It seems like undercutting WotC would be relatively easy these days ...
If you want painted minis, your best bet to get started it buying lots on Ebay - either entire collections or the extras that people decided they do not need.
I watched the prepainted plastic mini go from the very start with DDM to the present and saw how the price has ridiculously skrocketed. I bought Harbinger starters (with 10 commons, 5 uncommons and 1 rare) for $5 on clearance. Booster of 8 minis, were soon after ~$10, before going to $13. I remember buying up swarms of commons from online retailers at $0.10 to $0.50 per mini (including a lot of 100 dwarf skeletons for $10). By the time DDM was winding down I was really only buying minis for sealed events for their skirmish game and the occasional single because I already had everything I needed. And now I find myself buying the occasional single or a booster just for the thrill of it ... but I am still shocked that someone else is not doing the exact model they used back in 2003 and doing a standalong skirmish game with cheap minis with a few paint steps each that cover the basic fantasy tropes. The skirmish game can be real basic and still work - and even if the costs have quadrupled, they can still make cheap minis that they sell for $0.25 in a vending machine, so they can still make them elsewhere. It seems like undercutting WotC would be relatively easy these days ...
