What sells?

lizcam

New member
Mr C would like me to paint a bunch of table top minis to sell at a convention in Feb. Not sure if I want to but we\'ll see. I need to know what would sell well. Most of what I have are old ral partha minis but if I\'m going to do this I\'ll buy something and do it right.
 

Wren

Member
What kind of convention is it, or if it\'s a larger convention with lots of subgroups, which subgroup are you interested in targeting? If it\'s a con with mini wargaming, then whatever system(s) are popular with the wargamers. But as you mentioned Ral Partha minis, it sounds like maybe it\'s more of a RPG playing audience that you\'re targeting?
 

lizcam

New member
Originally posted by Wren
What kind of convention is it, or if it\'s a larger convention with lots of subgroups, which subgroup are you interested in targeting? If it\'s a con with mini wargaming, then whatever system(s) are popular with the wargamers. But as you mentioned Ral Partha minis, it sounds like maybe it\'s more of a RPG playing audience that you\'re targeting?

Orcon in LA in Feb but this isn\'t my idea. it\'s Mr C\'s. I told him the things we have won\'t sell because of the games there. Mostly big wargames. Not sure if I\'ll do it. I just want to let Mr C know why.
 

fieldarchy

New member
Liz, I\'m surprised you haven\'t realized the answer, why it\'s T&A my dear friend. Paint up some hot babes in bikinis with axes and you are good to go. Also a couple of guys all geared up with tons of armor but also include a good smattering of T&A. Reaper has some good klockenbooty available for such endeavors. Did I mention I like klockenbooty? Yeah, it\'s hot.
 

lizcam

New member
Originally posted by fieldarchy
Liz, I\'m surprised you haven\'t realized the answer, why it\'s T&A my dear friend. Paint up some hot babes in bikinis with axes and you are good to go. Also a couple of guys all geared up with tons of armor but also include a good smattering of T&A. Reaper has some good klockenbooty available for such endeavors. Did I mention I like klockenbooty? Yeah, it\'s hot.

I do have a ton of old Ral Partha babes I could do. Some of those are really quite nice, actually.
 

fieldarchy

New member
Honestly most of what I paint for commission is usually a character figure that is really nicely done and alot of them tend to be females. I should start tracking trends actually . . . hmmm . . .

Anyway, usually the more feminine minis and the popular sculptors from what I\'ve noticed are:

Werner Klocke
Dennis Mize (pretty much all he did was babes n bikinis)
Jeff Grace is getting popular
Tre Manor for the muscly guys and he also did a great female half orc (though I\'m biased . . . story there).

Those are the sculptors that I know of any way that are popular in terms of character fig sculpts.
 

jahminis

New member
i hate to rain on your parade liz, but you\'re a couple years too late on this con...it has been goin\' downhill fast...
brookhurst, fantization, and gw have pulled there support, and booths are expensive...you may get a flea market table(though they are kinda stuck in limbo, away from the action)...
the dealers room will be about half the size this year compared to what it was 2 years ago..you\'d be better off to paint stuff for competition, and sell your stuff online...games day is a much better place to network than orcon...
a couple years ago it would have been worth it, but now all i can honestly do is say save your money...

cheers
jah
 

Onis Lair

New member
If Mr. C is dragging you to a Wargamers con then your best bet is the current hot stuff from war game lines liek GW, Warhammer and the like. If it\'s more RPG then Reaper, ral Parth and anythign that makes you go \"OH! That is such a cool a Mage\" or the like is what you want. But meg is right, you can never go wrong with hot T&A in a miniature. True some will whine about all the nude minis but hey, it\'s what people buy.
 

lizcam

New member
Originally posted by jahminis
i hate to rain on your parade liz, but you\'re a couple years too late on this con...it has been goin\' downhill fast...
brookhurst, fantization, and gw have pulled there support, and booths are expensive...you may get a flea market table(though they are kinda stuck in limbo, away from the action)...
the dealers room will be about half the size this year compared to what it was 2 years ago..you\'d be better off to paint stuff for competition, and sell your stuff online...games day is a much better place to network than orcon...
a couple years ago it would have been worth it, but now all i can honestly do is say save your money...

cheers
jah

Actually that\'s good. I really didn\'t want to do this all that much and he\'s pulled it on me last minute so I\'m more looking for excuses not to do it than to do it. Thanks for the info! That really helps.

On a side note, do you know if they have a painting comp?
 

jahminis

New member
they have a paintin\' comp...last year it was aaron and me takin\' most of the awards, but it didn\'t even pay out enough to cover my entry fee...in years past i\'ve walked away with $100...they pay out in dealer dollars, so that equals frees stuff, but i wanna at least get my entry fee\'s worth back if i\'m takin\' first in a few categories...last year it only amounted to $15 for 2 1st\'s and a 2nd...:flame:
concentrate on g.d.l.a., it\'s gonna be tough ...

cheers
jah
 

lizcam

New member
Originally posted by jahminis
they have a paintin\' comp...last year it was aaron and me takin\' most of the awards, but it didn\'t even pay out enough to cover my entry fee...in years past i\'ve walked away with $100...they pay out in dealer dollars, so that equals frees stuff, but i wanna at least get my entry fee\'s worth back if i\'m takin\' first in a few categories...last year it only amounted to $15 for 2 1st\'s and a 2nd...:flame:
concentrate on g.d.l.a., it\'s gonna be tough ...

cheers
jah

I might be happy just getting the experience. I\'ve never entered a live comp before so this would be good for me even if I don\'t win. Kind of prepare me for getting my butt kicked @ GD LA.

You\'re not afriad of a little competition, are you? ;) lol lol lol Like I would be competition!
 

Wren

Member
Live comps are an interesting experience, give it a shot!

If you\'re at all interested in painting stuff for cash, here\'s a possible middle ground. Put together a selection of your painted minis of different character types, colour schemes, etc. as a sort of portfolio. Print up some business cards on your computer. Form a general idea of prices you\'d charge depending on what you\'re interested in doing. (Like you could have a ballpark price for a tabletop human size, a display human size, a tabletop monster, etc.) Then when you run into people interested in your painting you can show what you do and give them a card if they\'re interested in painting services. Saves you trying to guess what people want and possibly buying and painting stuff that audience isn\'t interested in. And gives you a reason to tell Mr. C you\'re not doing a whole bunch of painting in advance. ;-> If you\'re not that interested in painting for cash or only want to do it a little, make sure to price yourself a little higher than you might be inclined to initially, it\'ll weed out a lot of folks who expect to be able to buy nicely painted minis for the same price as D&D pre-paints.
 

Torn blue sky

New member
MAN! I get here one post too late!

Sex does indeed sell! I did basic psych for media advertising lol
You KNOW when you see a nekid mini you have to look twice...Don\'t pretend you dont :p
 

Gilvan Blight

New member
I know locally (well somewhat locally as we don\'t really have con\'s here) the big wargame is Flames of War. I know people pay top dollar for moderately well painted FoW minis, heck people pay top dollar for unpainted FoW minis as they are hard to find around here.
 

jahminis

New member
@liz: i\'m only a few thousand miles north of l.a. at the moment, freezin\' my bollocks off...it\'s 35 below out right now!!!
i think that the paintin\' contest would be more worth your while tahn tryin\' to sell painted stuff...it\'s better to just cruize around and meet some people, and show off your minis...hand out a few business cards...
the comp. is on sunday...a one day pass will set ya back $22 or so...that gets ya into the comp...unfortunately, like i said, the best dealers are no longer gonna be there...fantization carries most of the european lines of minis, so that was always a big draw for me...brookhurst gives good discounts, so that was always a stop i had to make with my dealer dollars after the awards were handed out...
eric roof may be there with his conquest games booth, sellin\' his native american stuff, and the croc pre-releases...not sure about this year, but he was there last year...
l.a.x. should be close enough to ya that the drive is not much...

as for what the rest have chimed in... yeah, sex sells for sure...the flames of war idea is a good one...if ya like ww2...i always see people on bartertown lookin\' for some painters for fow...
the only problem with orcon is that it doesn\'t attract the kinda poeple who wanna collect art...they want stuff to game with...it\'s more of a collection of people who play rpg\'s and ccg\'s than mini gamers anyway...
paintin\' comp=good
sellin\' minis=bad

cheers
jah
 

wiccanpony

Official Freak Bar Witch
Liz....... just a thought, years ago I went to a couple of local gaming stores with a few pieces and asked if they would sell them on commission.

The mini craze was getting started with D&D and most people were looking for characters or the DM’s were looking for monsters to flesh out their games. I sold quite a few, never made big bucks but it was an outlet for stuff I painted and didn’t have room to keep.
 
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