Lead Market Report - March 2012

Well I finally managed to get the March LMR out the door, just in time to start work on April. When will I end my procrastinating ways? Probably when I end my lead-buying days. Not gonna happen!

BROADSWORD: I usually don't pass up vintage giants, but for some reason I didn't bid on these big fellas: the Stone Giant and Hill Giant, both for only $7.50 each. I've actually owned and sold these previously - what was I thinking, selling off giants?

CITADEL: As I previously mentioned, I finally bought my first Citadel AD&D monsters! The same seller had a Troll, Owlbear, and Gorgon for $20 each. I missed out on the Troll, but picked up the other two before they were snapped up. This Owlbear sold for just over $20 for comparison. Also on the block was the Ranger set ($19) and an Ogre ($24). The C28 giants also made a splash at $38 and $31.

DARK HORSE GAMES: I was too old to get caught up in the TMNT craze back in the day, but I didn't escape totally unscathed. I played my fair share of TMNT games when I worked at Nintendo, and now I find myself pondering the wisdom of collecting the four 75mm turtles...hmm. Like this Michaelangelo for $23 and this Raphael for $16. Or if I go all in, I should expect to pay prices like $47 for this lot.

DRAGONTOOTH: It's good to be king. Or it's good to be the seller of the Tomb of The Dwarf King for $336!!! Wow. For $215, you could have partied in Ye Blind Cyclops Inn. And for "only" $125, there was the Dwarf Armory.

FORGE WORLD: Here's one I haven't seen before! A large-scale (54mm) representation of Asmodai, Interrogator-Chaplain of the Dark Angels. A very cool sculpt, but $178 is a bit out of my range I'm afraid. You can see some pics of the other FW 54mm models on this thread.

GAMES WORKSHOP: This metal LOTR Cave Troll didn't last long at $15.

GRENADIER: This complete run of Grenadier's LOTR box sets was just too good to pass up at $32, so I bought it! I have to imagine that not using 'Grenadier' anywhere in the listing probably helped keep the price down. If you're looking for these, let me know - maybe we can hammer out a trade or offline sale. Isengard has already been claimed, but the other four are available. And I had not seen these Warrior newsletters before - always cool to see things I didn't know about! Issue 4 (July/August 1993) $8; Issue 5 (September/October 1993) $8; Issue 6 (November/December 1993) $8; Issue 7 (February/March 1994) $8; Issue 8 (April/May 1994) $13; Issue 9 (June/July 1994) $12; Issue 10 (August/September 1994) $8; Issue 11 (November/December 1994) $14; Issue 12 (February/March 1995) $14; and Issue 13 (April/May 1995) $14. There were also two Grenadier catalogs that came and went, the Temporary Catalog Update for $15 and this green-cover catalog with both the US and UK addresses for sold for...wait for it...a buck! My kind of deal, if I had been the buyer.

I'm always on the lookout for the Giant's Club sets, and they continue to sell right around the $10-$20 range for the most part. I picked up the Fire Giant for $13, and the same seller also moved a Stone Giant for $11, a Dwarven Giant for $14, and a Forest Giant for $17. There was also this Dwarven Giant in shrink for $13. Moving on to other boxed sets, there was a Dungeon Raiders for $26, King Arthur in shrink for $27, Osric the Wise for $42 (haven't seen prices like that on this line recently, so perhaps Osric is uncommon/rare), Fantasy Warriors Juggernaut for $23, and the Battle Giant for $33. This unboxed Goblin War Giant tallied $60. The seller of this mail-in only Dragon Lord was asking $90, but ended up selling for $75. Looks like the original packaging and documentation, so it was probably worth it to some Grenadier completist.

The same seller who cashed in on three DragonTooth sets (listed above) also sold this lot for $55, which included the smiley-faced Have A Nice Day beholder among other minis (including the well-endowed version of the RP Balrog 01-003).

HERITAGE: A small batch of John Carter Warlord of Mars blisters hit the market and made a splash - the recent John Carter movie probably wishes it could have done as well, no doubt. Check out these prices: 1504 John Carter mounted on Thoat with Deja Thoris and Woola for $272; 1522 Orovars - Horz and Lotharians with Bowmen for $162; 1517 Black Pirates of Barsoom - the Firstborn for $84; and 1528 Plantmen of the Valley Dor for $65. On the bargain end of the spectrum, there was this lot of 8 Fantasy Fantastics plus 1 D&D blister for $37.

This complete-looking Caverns of Doom sold for $112, moving back up the price charts. And this Barsoomian Battle Manual still sold for $25 even though it was missing a chunk off the front cover.

LEADING EDGE GAMES: "Yeah man, but it's a dry heat!" Aliens - talk about a flick just chock-full of memorable quotes and snappy one-liners. And the minis just keep on selling, like these, uh, Xenomorphs (aka the Alien Warrior Boxed Set) for $66. If heavy equipment is more your thing, then you probably bid on this Power Loader Boxed Set (with 4 Sentry Guns) that sold for $46. The Alien Queen Boxed Set went for a respectable $36, while the Colonial Marines Set #1 ended up at $31. And I would have bought this $22 blister for the name alone: the "Game Over" Pack!

MINIFIGS: The VFW (Valley of the Four Winds) minis seem to be some of the more sought after minis produced by Minifigs, and one particular seller sold several lots as follows: VFW 42, the aptly-named Cart Full of Skulls & Bones, for $29; what looks like VFWM10 Wheel of Torture (Pat Sajak NOT included), a pair of demons, and 4 hellhounds for $72; VFWM6 Spiked Fire Wheel, the Spirit Monks set, and World of Greyhawk 55 (fire elemental) for $27; and VFW73 Wind Demon & Ornate Chariot for $46.

RAL PARTHA: As I mentioned in the last LMR, some BattleTech collector decided to Go Big (as in go big or go home). The winner of this particular auction spent a whopping $342 on this carded Phoenix Hawk LAM. I noticed the same seller is currently peddling two in the same auction for a $100 starting bid and a $370 BIN. We'll see where that one ends up. For loose Mechs, you could have picked up this Rifleman with a FREE display case (dice box) for $11. Or this one for $13. Or this one for $16. The Warhammer still commands attention and prices: $35, $15, and $21. BattleTech lots, as usual, do very well - 6 for $86; 10 for $73, 5 for $61; and 20 mechs and 9 tanks for $143.

This Limited Edition Dracolich is still on my want list, thanks in no small part to prices like $123. Great if you are selling, not so much if you are buying. If you want a great deal as a buyer, how about this Limited Edition Golden Dragon of Chaos for under $28? That has to be THE lowest price for a NIS LE boxed set I have ever seen. And this LE Great Red Dragon for $66 also qualifies as a bargain as far as I'm concerned. $41 for Huma's Silver Dragon is about average. This Griffin Chariot in its NIS glory sold for $41 (this seller and this seller should take note if they ever expect to move theirs).
$20 for the Elf Chariot is a good price, and $20 for Riding the Cold Wind is even better!

11-Series: The Driders usually go for decent prices, such as these 11-518 Male Driders for $24. Their drow masters also do well, especially the uncommon 11-517 Drow II set for $17. And as someone who is after the 11-Series Birthright minis, it's encouraging that the Personalities boxed set has dipped down to $34, and the blisters are right around $10-$15: $13, $12, and $11 respectively. And a mostly-complete (missing one) Powers of Law for $28 works for me, if you have the patience to track down the missing Gruumsh.

Finally, there was this Troll advertised as a possible alternate sculpt to 11-408. Joe was kind enough to post a pic of the hallmark, which is unlike any RP hallmark I've ever seen. Makes me wonder if this is instead a casting of prototype that wasn't released? Anyone else out there ever seen this troll kicking around?


UPDATE: Thanks to the sharp eye of cola55z, I now know this is NOT an 11-408 alternate sculpt, but rather a 15mm Battlesystem mini from 11-954 Trolls of The Claw Mercenary Company. The troll linked above is seen on the far right of the pic on the LMW.

This lot was an absolute steal at $46! The Grenadier boxed set can sell for that much alone, so it's like the 9 RP boxes were free! Why am I using so many exclamation points?!? And this doesn't look so much like a poster as opposed to some sort of printer's proof sheet (sorry if I cannot recall the correct term), but for less than $7, it's still an interesting piece of RP ephemera.

REAPER: The Gauth boxed set sells for $100 at the Reaper online store, so even with the free shipping they offer on purchases over $25, the buyer still got a great deal at $51.

STEVE JACKSON GAMES: This Ral Partha Mk. III OGRE sold for $38, just to demonstrate that vintage OGRE minis continue to hold their value and then some.

WEST END GAMES: It's fairly uncommon (if not downright rare) to pick up a near-complete run of the Grenadier boxed sets in one lot, but someone did for $250. At just over $20 a box, it wasn't a steal, but then again, it wasn't a bad price either, and the buyer did get a great collection in one fell swoop.

LOTS AND LOTS OF LOTS: 200+ minis for $200 (down from the asking price of $300) is still a good deal for the dedicated reseller and/or collector. This lot of boxes and blisters was $158 - LOTR blisters, Wizzards & Warriors large boxes - neat stuff. I wanted the Superior Swamp Demon in this $78 lot (top right), but the VFW crew quickly pushed it way out of my reach. This very much old-school Orcus helped push this small lot to $44. Who mixes giants and undead??? $41 took these big and dead guys home. This $44 lot was a great, great deal at just over $2 per mini. And this $123 lot was an eclectic mix of DragonTooth, Grenadier Dark Crystal, Minifigs, and others. Finally, this $153 lot was something old and something new. That is to say, the new stuff was some of the older Reaper DHL line.

ODDS-N-ENDS: If you are an AD&D completist or a paint kit afficionado, perhaps you saw this Polly S AD&D paint set, complete with a Grenadier wizard. It sold for $9.99, which is only $1.02 more than it sold for at Toys-R-Us. And this is a rather neat-looking dragon of unknown origin (it looks older, like Minifigs, Martian Metals, Asgard - something along those lines) that sold for $23.