Lead Market Report, December 2015

Here's a present for under your blogging tree - the LMR, just in time for Christmas, Festivus, or whatever special day you choose to observe or ignore. Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by.

ARCHIVE
One of several umber hulks that changed hands this LMR, the Archive amber hulk ($18) is a decent representation of the venerable AD&D menace.

BARTERTOWN FORGES
I have never heard of this outfit before, but I have heard of the sculptor listed on the packaging - Jason Wiebe. This lot of 15 minis sold for $22. If you take a look at the pictures shown here, you get to see what the final product looks like all painted up. Neat little goblin cannibals, each with a giant shield to hide behind.

CITADEL
Anytime you can score an ADD line monster mini for under $20, you are having a good shopping day. Take a look at this lich that sold for $8 and tell me how it isn't a good deal. And all you need is a wee bit of Green Stuff to make a new propeller for this rust monster's tail, a steal at $2.25 if you ask me. Three githyanki for under $30 is about average, at least from what I've seen. There was this batch of stirges and blink dogs (three blisters each) for $47.58. Judge Dredd fans bid this lot of 12 blisters up to $135.12, and the Star Trek crowd had their turn too, 4 ships for $22.38.

I hate passing up on C28 giants, especially ones with a weapon. This one sold for $24.55 (plus shipping from the UK) so I didn't bite.

The 40K folks typically drop serious cash for vintage Tyranids, especially Limited Releases like this Dominator and a trio of non-limited Genestealers. $84.08 was the final tally. And for the WHFB side, a nice-looking Ruglud's Armoured Orcs sold for $40.17.

DARK HORSE
This Groo the Wanderer cover dragon is kinda cute, and so is the low price of $11.11 (it sold on 11/28, not on 11/11). And there was this batch of 7 githyanki...I mean unholy...that sold for $57.

DRAGONTOOTH
This snakelike creature is one of the four characters included in The Magic Shop kit. And at $4, that's a good price to fill a hole in your set or use it for a unique character in your game. Same goes for this $3 body in a pile of booty from the M8 Bodies & Booty blister. This lance most likely completed someone's kit, so I'm sure it was $5 well spent. It looks like there were two bidders who needed some claws for their D78 dragon, so that pushed the final price to $20.49.

FASA
Whenever I see a model of the Reliant, I am compelled to yell "Khaaaaaaannnnnnnn!!!" This FASA version was only $7.50.

GRENADIER
This gold-plated wizard sold for less than the $100 asking price, exactly how much I don't know. I would have thought this still-in-shrink copy of Dragon Lords the Game would have sold for more than the $34.90 I paid for it, but hey, I'm happy it stayed under $40. The listing title on this box set cracked me up - Grenadier's Invisible Dragon - but maybe that was just me. I really thought $23.26 was a great price for the buyer. $20.50 for the Mounted Dragon Lords seems like a fair price for both parties. A missing Boromir helped keep this Fellowship set under $20, no doubt. I also like this pair of Dragons of The Month, $32.69 for both (complete with inserts AND gems).

Normally I salivate like one of Pavlov's hounds when I see a lot of Grenadier Giant's Club box sets, as I still need a couple of odds and ends to round out my collection. This time, though, I had to take a pass on this lot that sold for $82. Out of the 8 boxes, only 4 had giants in them, and out of those 4, only 2 (Frost and Forest) were complete. This Gamma World box was in fair shape, but contained zero Gamma World minis as far as I could see, so the $15.15 price tag was fair as well. This Teronus ($34) was complete with paperwork and all pieces. Shrink-wrapped Hirelings sold for $27.

I filled a hole in my Grenadier giant collection with the purchase of this $6 Undead Giant. And this Wizard's Magical Observatory was also bargain priced at $5.50 for what looks like a neat little dungeon dressing set. I'm not sure what this Umber Hulk is doing with his left hand (waving buh-bye? Fist bump?) but he sold for $8. For the collector who needs some MM inserts, I really thought this $12.99 lot was priced right, even with the guide included. A what? A pegacorn? Sure, why not. $10.50 and it's all yours. Might even make a half-decent proxy for a kirin.

Someone finally pulled the trigger and picked up this AD&D gold line poster. Makes me a little jealous, as I've been watching it for some time but sitting on my hands when it came to making an offer on it. I'm guessing this sword probably isn't Grenadier as noted in the listing, but it looked interesting so I added it to ye olde watch list. Hey, it was only $7.50 and it made someone happy.

HERITAGE
I've always liked the DD ogre, with his bald head, massive belly, and heads hanging from his belt. And $8.01 is a fair price, so I should add one to my pile one of these days. And I've had a soft spot for the LOTR orcs, especially when you can get them for less than $2/mini and the condition looks great. Gollum Captured for $10.50 is a very nice price.

The final price on this lot ($203.50) really had me scratching my head. Was it the paperwork and maps for both Caverns of Doom and Crypt of the Sorcerer? I didn't see any other compelling reasons for the price to go so high.

I'm guessing the seller who I bought my copy of the Barsoomian Battle Manual must have unearthed a handful of these, as they have been selling them for the past month or so. The first one sold for $76, the next one (mine) for $34.59, and then one for $24.99 (starting price). There is another copy currently on the block, just FYI. If you needed a copy of Knights & Magick, but didn't need the box, this set was a serious bargain at $10.50. And this LOTR sell sheet (flyer) and catalog went for $35.56, not cheap but not outrageous.

OTHERWORLD
I usually see Otherworld minis listed as BINs, so when some boxed sets popped up as auctions, I had to see how they fared. They went for a lot less than expected, which is good for you if you were a buyer: DAB1 Human Male Characters (retail $82) sold for $33; DAB2 Demi-human Male Characters (retail $67) sold for $31; DAB3 Female Characters (retail $74) sold for $30; DAB4 Henchmen & Hirelings (retail $82) sold for $41, and DD1a The Demon Idol Diorama Pack (retail $52) sold for $53. Interesting to see that henchmen and hirelings held a higher value than characters. Maybe it's harder to find good sculpts of hired help? And there was this batch of pig-faced orcs, 22 in all, that retails for about $5.50 per mini, or $121 for 22. It ended up selling for $93, about $30 off retail, and they looked painted up to a decent tabletop finish.

PAINTS
Some vintage gaming paints were available if that is your cup of tea. There were three sets from The Armory: GG-086 Silks-n-Satins sold for $5, GG-087 Silks-n-Satins sold for $5, and GG-093 Ancient Uniform Colors (such as Roman Red) sold for $5. And I picked up two sets of Polly S/Floquil paints because they were only $3 each: Basic Colors and Creature Colors. After I graduated from my beloved Testor's enamels, I purchased mini paints from Polly S, Humbrol, Ral Partha, etc. I still have most of my old Ral Partha paints, tucked away in a box somewhere.

RAL PARTHA
This prolific Canadian eBayer sometimes has outrageous prices, and then sometimes starts big batches of auctions at .99 and usually does pretty well in the end. This Dracolich was $132.50, and the Birthright Abominations sold for $99. There were a few batches of 11-series blisters: the Peryton ($22.59), The Spider ($29), Drow II ($20.50), Sahaugin I ($20.50, $20.50, and $20) and Sahaugin II ($20). A small lot of loose 11-series monsters was sold for $36. Battletech collectors could have picked up a Heavy Lance box for $51.25. This large batch of newer RP sculpts was around $2.50 per blister, so not a bad price at all.

TOFANO STUDIOS
Stephen M. Tofano has sculpted alongside Tom Loback at DragonTooth, and with Ray Lamb at Superior Models/Perth Pewter. He had his own line of very cool demons, which I almost never see up for auction. So when this Raziel the Rainbow demon surfaced, not only did I have to watch it, I also needed to decide if I was going to bid or not. In this case, the lone bid at the starting price of $85 (not my bid) was the winner.

TSR
A couple more unreleased David C. Sutherland III sculpts hit the auction block, courtesy of The Collector's Trove. First up is a female elf fighter with sword and shield. According to the listing, only two dozen were cast, and this one tallied a cool $380. One possibility is that she might have been destined for one of the two unreleased TSR boxed sets, 5309 Champions or 5310 Experts. The other miniature was a Dragonlance Sivak that sold for $305. I'm guessing these must have been cast at the same time as the unreleased Sutherland Ogre I own, which also bears a hallmark of TSR 1984.

WOTC
If you were looking to build up a warband, or resell some Chainmail and 3rd Edition minis, this was your lot. $135.31 was the winning bid to claim almost 100 sealed blisters and boxes, so you could even keep one of each for your own collection, resell the rest, and come out ahead.

LOTS OF LOTS
This lot is great for collectors and resellers alike. 160 minis for less than $1 each, he shoots, he scores. Sticking with the about a buck a mini theme, there is this smaller lot that includes a Heritage frost giant for $66. Another modest lot with a giant is this one that sold for $70, and had a DragonTooth GI5 Horned Hill Giant that appeared to be missing his loot bag. This lot of 200+ minis went for less than $2/mini, still a decent price, but I just didn't see much in it that made me want to jump in on the action. And the Citadel ADD minis in this $78 lot grabbed my attention, but it was such a mixed bag of scales and genres (fantasy, historicals, micro armour, ships, etc) that I didn't go there. There was a decent amount of 11-series mixed in with this about a buck per mini lot, so not a bad find as far as bargains go. For about .50/mini, this lot was priced right, especially if you were after the smattering of Citadel stuff. Probably the best bargain lot was this one, a whopping $13.50 for 60+ minis, including at least three DragonTooth boar-headed tribesmen tucked in among the pedestrian Grenadier figures. I spotted a xorn in this 66 minis for $79 lot, so that was good for the buyer. I would have gladly paid $14.50 for this small lot, if only for the body & head from DragonTooth's DE4 Gothmaug. Here's a fearsome foursome of mind flayers that sold for $13.50, less than $4 per brain-eater. And finally, this lot is stated to have "over 3,000 figurines" and yet it sold for only $164! In the pics shown for the listing, there were some Citadel LOTR minis (Gandalf, Saruman, Tom Bombadil), so I really do wonder exactly how many figures were in the lot total, and how many of those were more than garden-variety castings? I think someone probably got a very nice deal out of this one.

NOT MINIS
And in this case, not even mini-related. There were two copies of the orange version of B3, Palace of the Silver Princess, that die-hard D&D collectors ponied up some serious bucks for. The first copy went for a mere $2,240.80, while the second one was more than double that at $5,860.00! Of course, that one was signed by Jean Wells, and is possibly the only signed copy of B3 in circulation. A Jim Roslof study from D&D Character Record Sheets sold for $1,730.00. The study depicts a remorhaz, while the final product was changed to show a blue dragon. This paladin poster sold for $305.00, and I'm speculating that the condition (never folded) had something to do with the final price. And if you into Tiffany crystal, I'm sure you saw this TSR paperweight that sold for $311.