This blog is about the world of gaming miniatures, as seen from my perspective. I've been collecting and painting for over 30 years now, and while my primary focus is miniatures for D&D, I also enjoy many other games that use minis, so we'll be covering those as well. Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, April 13, 2012

In Praise of Trading & New Additions to the Lead Pile



Just wanted to give a belated word of thanks to Mike over at Swords & Dorkery for a recent minis trade. He sent me the two baddies pictured above - RP's Fzoul Chembryl (11-050) and Ogre with Club (11-481), and I sent him a Heritage Dragon. I do enjoy trading, and I really should do more trades. Might help if I update my "For Trade" folder, no? Mike got a neat dragon, and I got an NPC for use in our FR campaign as well as being two steps closer towards the long-range goal of completing my 11-Series collection.

Our deal actually took me back to my childhood, when the kids on our block collected baseball cards. Trading was frequent and often frenzied, with favorite players changing hands and missing cards added to collections. I even used to actually use the checklist cards by marking them up with a pen with each new card added (gasp!).

Of course, when you are trading face-to-face with friends and neighbors, it makes the deals a lot easier. Things are a bit different now, of course. I'm hesitant to swing a trade with someone unless I "know" them from eBay, the blogosphere, or some forum or another. Would I trade with someone I don't know at all? Sure, but only if you send to me first ;)

Along those same lines, I recently sent a box of Grenadier LOTR minis (7505 Isengard) to a fellow collector in the UK that was a PayPal transaction. I'm always happy to do that, as it puts more money in my pocket (no eBay fees), and the buyer gets a good deal.

Moving on to new additions, I added a pair of Grenadier fire giants to the lead pile!



That's the fire giant from 3501 (Giant's Club boxed set) and a Julie Guthrie fire giant (713). The Guthrie giant has always stood out as a dead ringer for the illustration in AD&D Monster Manual, except for the weapon. Upon closer inspection, I discovered his armor is a combination of plate and dragon hide. Sweet! Glad to have finally added him to the giant clan.



I bought my first two Citadel AD&D monsters - the Owlbear (ADD 81) and Gorgon (ADD 75). The same seller also had a Troll (ADD 59), but I was too slow and missed out on that one. At $20 each, they were at my top end spending-wise, but that's about how much they typically sell for, so it all works out in the end I suppose.



On the 40K front, I acquired the Limited Edition DA Company Master (from the 2007 DA boxed set). At only a $15 BIN, it was an easy purchase, considering he usually sells for $30-$40 or higher. Mine didn't come with the Iron Halo seen in this pic, but I can always use one of the many plastic bitz available if I really need to have a placeholder.

3 comments:

Mike Monaco said...

I'm really happy with the dragon too! I'm getting closer to restoring the Caverns of Doom set...except my original set never had the dang hobgoblin, and had two demons instead. I don't know if Heritage ever sold that dragon separately either.

Greg G said...

Do you wanna part with your Gorgon?

Mike Monaco said...

...And 8 years later the dragon is painted. :)