Well seeing I've never bought a single vehicle from Games workshop direct, my Amoured Regiment has been built solely from, exchange, donation and mostly ebay.

My top five tips:

a) know your limits! never exceed what you think the model is worth, taking into consideration GW retail price, independant retail price and the condition the model is in. You have to also take into consideration is the item scarce? This will ram up the price considerably. Is is FW, then you'll be expecting to pay close to the retail price.

B) Take time and use the search facility, don't just search 'Leman Russ', search 'Imperial tank' or 'Warhammer tank'. you'll find the bargains through this system.

c) Don't get drawn into an auction when theres a cheaper option. Time and time again, I've seen people pay 15 quid for a Leman Russ in an auction, when at the bottom of the page, you could buy a brand new one from an ebay company for £13.70! Use the ebay shops, they are GW independant retailers, and alot more reliable than auctioneers!

d) Avoid Auctioneers with low trade rating or bad feedback. There is a good reason why bad feedback is given, you could be either sold a piece of crap or the product doesn't turn up at all! The solution to this is use paypal. It insures you against all fraudulent auctions. The only time I use cheques to pay is either its an ebay store, or the seller is fairly local, so I can visit them if theres a problem!

e) Look at the bigger picture. Most of my bargains are people trying to sell multiple vehicles unpainted, or different paintjobs. Today I won a Mk1 Predator, Chimera and Leman Russ with a Forgeworld Gryphonne IV Vanquisher turret. That combined lot was £20! I'll resell the Predator, for about a fiver, so I've got two bargains, and another vanquisher to my army!

Hope this helps, those just starting out, be careful and enjoy the experience!

I think I put a bid on those!

As mentioned searching for 'Tank' or 'Vehicle' is alway good as it gets all the things being sold by people who don't know what they are selling. For the same reason don't just look in the correct section for something. eg looking for a Russ in the IG section only works if the seller knows what it is

Look for common misspellings - 'Lemun Russ', 'Perditor', 'Dreadnought'. Some of these can be found by using the asterisk (*). If you type 'Dread*' you should get all of the various spellings.

Don't be afraid to contact the seller for better photos or details, this is especially useful with bags of bits which are all too often a small photos of a heap or box

Take a moment to check the sellers other auctions - they may be selling other stuff you want and could save you postage.

While we're on the subject of postage always check this, if the item has a lot of metal in it it could be heavy which bumps up the price of your 'bargain', Ask youself if it's a fair price. Could you collect it from the buyer, or do you have friends nearby (or even a forum member)

If you are looking for something specific, but only want one of it you may want to look at the buying assistant feature. This allows you to but in a maximum bit for a group of auctions. It will bid on each one in turn, if you don't win the first it will bid on the next. If you do win it will stop the process at that point.

Below the search box is a tickbox for searching the auction description, ticking this will give a lot more results to trawl through but may find you something that hasn't shown up by just searching titles. The only problem with this is when people put unnecessary info in the description, either fluff or lists of other things they are selling

I'd like to add - take your time!

Don't be tempted to bid too early, indeed if at all untill literally the very last minute! Takes a little practice but it's really very easy. Just make sure when you are watching items that you set an alarm clock to be there at the end!

Also, make good use of the e-bay shops as Jase says as you should NEVER have to pay more than 80% of the RRP. Better still, use the "Best Offer" as you can usually shave another couple of quid off the asking price (so long as you don't get greedy).

I agree totally with everything thats been said. Take your time and you can find some brilliant bargains.

If you're not looking for anything in particular, try searching for an item and "lot". I've won a bunch of auctions that had been overlooked by others and gotten some great selections of stuff (pretty much the reason I've fallen into a Chaos Fantasy army...) for great cheap prices.

:D Also, even if you dont want it, and its cheap, model wise, get it. Then you can restore it, and relist it for triple the price you got it for, like i do B)

And most importantly don't bid on anything you think Jase might want.

What you mean! Cheeky git :D

He's got a point, I've been outbid by you in the late stages on many an item. At least I think its you Jase, do you have an evil eBay twin?

Guys, that's an easy one to overcome! PM his good lady and ask her how much he is allowed to spend! ;)


You may just find a willing accomplice!