Sale of AB Napoleonic Army

 

It is about six weeks since I last mentioned trying to find a new home for my unused AB Napoleonic Army.   Despite the lack of comment on the blog, there has been a lot going on in the background.

I always expected that the sale would be complicated and time consuming, and I have not been proved wrong.  It is largely for this reason that I have put off the project for many years.

You may recall that the whole army consists of 1320 foot and 210 mounted figures.   There are also 16 guns, an ambulance set, a pontoon set, a caisson and a baggage vehicle.  .   The whole is organised for use with my 1813 campaign.   There nine army groups, plus an assortment of skirmish stands.  

The first step was to ask for advice about how best to approach the sale of these figures.  I asked for suggestions both on here and on TMP forum.   I received a lot of useful advice, but I was then left with three decisions.

First whether to try to sell the whole collection together, or to break it down into smaller groups.

Second how to price the figures

Third how to pack and post the figures

I decided that before I offered any figures for sale, I would have to answer all three questions.   But not necessarily in the sequence shown above.

I think the most important one is the second, how to price the figures.   After some consideration, and many suggestions, I think double the purchase price of a new unpainted figures is reasonable.   One correspondent who sells large numbers of figures suggested that they might be worth more, but that they should find a buyer quickly at that price.   At present a foot figure is £0.80, a mounted figure £1.55 and a gun £3.80.   I have not been able to find out how much the different vehicles currently cost.   The whole collection would come to about £3000 plus post and package.

Packing the whole collection would be a huge task, and I have no idea how to even start on it.   I would probably have to pack them in national groups, which would mean ten boxes.    Would it then be better to send ten separate boxes through the post, or pack them all in a much larger box.

 I doubt very much that I would ever find a single buyer for such a large and expensive collection.

So I decided that I would offer them in national armies.   These would be Austrian, British, Prussian, Russian, and Spanish for the Allies.   Plus French Guard, French line, French allied and Bavarian.  The skirmishers would be rebased and included with the main armies.   There are not sufficient guns for gun crews, so some sets would include guns, others not.

Each set would have about 150 foot and 16 cavalry.   This size would be reasonably easy to pack, and the average cost would be about £300.   Leaving aside whether I can find buyers for all ten sets, at least the prospect seems more achievable than a single buyer for the whole lot.

This would mean that I would have to rebase the skirmishers and include them with the national army. 

I will then have to take photographs of the new groups.   And in doing so I want to try to get better quality close ups of the figures.   My camera is a basic point and shoot model, and not really suitable for close up of so many figures.   I will have to see what I can do about that.

Then I will have to find out about postage.   I would like to get options for sending each package to UK, EU, America and Australia.   If possible I would like a basic post and a fully insured option.   The latter would be my preference, but at lot will depend on the cost of each option.   Before I can do any of this I will have to pack one box to determine the size and the weight.