Sell me on D&D Miniatures
- Thread starter Mercule
- Start date
Also, if the randomization bugs you, you can buy singles from numerous online retailers and some FLGS's. There is a list on Maxminis somewhere, but I generally buy from popularcollections.com or colossalgames.com. The commons and uncommons are really cheap and plentiful. Commons about 50 cents, uncommons usually about a buck. A 20 figure Orc army? Probably put one together for about $10 buying singles, including shipping.
'Course, it's the rares that get you, but even most of those are less than $12 each. Some of them are just too cool to pass up. Just resist the temptation to "collect 'em all". Once you cross that line, you are talking serious fund hemorrhage. Even then, you need to buy singles and/or trade to do that cost-effectively. Only great fools with no concept of probability or pot loads of cash will try to collect every figure just by buying boosters.
'Course, it's the rares that get you, but even most of those are less than $12 each. Some of them are just too cool to pass up. Just resist the temptation to "collect 'em all". Once you cross that line, you are talking serious fund hemorrhage. Even then, you need to buy singles and/or trade to do that cost-effectively. Only great fools with no concept of probability or pot loads of cash will try to collect every figure just by buying boosters.
painandgreed
First Post
I'm against it. I can't justify buying various boxes of stuff only to get lots of minis I'll never use because it's random. One of my DMs uses minis and loves the new D&D minis. He buys close to $50 a week on the things. He has boxes and boxes of them. Yet he still has to subsitute various minis for the monsters we're actually fighting because he doesn't have the correct ones. He doesn't have near enough orcs or goblins put together to run a decent low level encounter yet has more celestial bears and fiendish dire weasels than he knows what to do with.
I'm all for using minis but not the random boxes. I go onto eBay and buy the old lead stuff, buy individual figures from others who have them or online stores such as here at ENworld. even then, I keep it to PCs since to have a figure for every monster that the PCs would (or might) encounter would require more storage space alone than I can afford in my house.
I'm all for using minis but not the random boxes. I go onto eBay and buy the old lead stuff, buy individual figures from others who have them or online stores such as here at ENworld. even then, I keep it to PCs since to have a figure for every monster that the PCs would (or might) encounter would require more storage space alone than I can afford in my house.
If you are going to invest in the minis I have to suggest you go ahead and get a case of a given expansion at a time. You get them at a seriously reduced price per pack when buying by the case and the 'random factor' is seriously decreased by the fact that you are getting so many figures and that the distribution per case does have an underlying method/control. You can then fill out your ranks by getting singles online of pretty much any common and many uncommons at fairly decent prices.
I've done this and gotten great results. Even after the shipping costs on the case and the singles your price per mini is great! Much better (for me) than spending the same money on much fewer metal minis that I would have then painted poorly or used unpainted. They also travel better than metal minis (less prone to breaking) if that's ever been an issue for you.
My addiction to plasti-crack however has me buying two cases of most expansions, all but eliminating randomness from the product and giving me a great selection of minis to be used for almost any encounter I can think of.
I've done this and gotten great results. Even after the shipping costs on the case and the singles your price per mini is great! Much better (for me) than spending the same money on much fewer metal minis that I would have then painted poorly or used unpainted. They also travel better than metal minis (less prone to breaking) if that's ever been an issue for you.
My addiction to plasti-crack however has me buying two cases of most expansions, all but eliminating randomness from the product and giving me a great selection of minis to be used for almost any encounter I can think of.
Ogrork the Mighty
Explorer
You sound like you'd be better off picking and choosing the minis you want off Ebay. Other than a pack or two of GoL, all 800+ of my D&D minis have come from Ebay. It probably hasn't been cheaper (not more expensive either, I don't think), but I have exactly the minis I want, in the numbers I want, with very few exceptions (some deals were just too good to pass up).
Davelozzi
Explorer
Game Outfitter has the Deathnkells on preorder for $93.95 (plus $8.95 shipping). They're $115 at Popular Collections (but not extra shipping charge). You can generally find cases in about this range if (just google the name of the current set along with the word case or mini). There are 12 boosters per case of Deathknell and Abberations, the earlier sets had 16 to a case, except for Giants of Legend which I think had 8 (boosters on that set were $20).
It averages out to a little more than a $1 per mini.
It averages out to a little more than a $1 per mini.
Qlippoth
Explorer
If I recall correctly, there are 16 packs per case in the Harbinger, Dragoneye, and Archfiends sets. 12 in the Giants of Legend & Aberrations (& upcoming Deathknell) sets.Mercule said:
Prices vary..."like my mama told me, you better shop around"
Where? Numerous places
www.gameoutfitter.com
www.popularcollections.com
www.potomacdist.com
...and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Jeff Wilder
First Post
I'll make this quick, since this isn't the Marketplace forum:Mercule said:
I buy D&D minis by the multi-case (I typically get three cases of each release). Consequently, I have dozens of extra humanoids and other Commons. If you're interested, I'll sell you all my current "overstock" on Commons for $0.25 each (plus shipping, which wouldn't be more than a couple bucks). Just for reference, they go online for anywhere from $0.15 to $1.25 each. I don't have an exact count right now, but I imagine I have 40 or so. I also have a few Uncommons and Rares I'd sell to a beginning buyer at well below market price. (I generally like to sell them cheaply to individual newbies or donate them to groups of younger players.)
As for why to use them, people have addressed that pretty well. My players absolutely love them; they have a tremendous visual impact on the game. And unlike MasterMaze products (which are incredibly nice, but which can't really be used routinely), we can break out D&D miniatures for every encounter.
Anyway, if you're interested in buying some Commons in fair bulk, drop me email or a PM.
cignus_pfaccari
First Post
Ankh-Morpork Guard said:
That darn operant conditioning at work. I just picked up two packs at Borders, justifying it to myself that, you know, there's only one of each there...
Brad
