The economics of Heroscape

Milano Blahnik

You should break up with him.

Oh I did, in some ways I should be thanking him for jolting me awake.

I used to travel by car for work all around the Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and Western PA area, and I stopped at almost every Wal-Mart and cleared them out when it was on clearance. Bought the boosters for like 5$ and sold them for 10-30, depending on market. I never, though, pretended I wasn't treating them like a commodity. I was always lower than most other vendors by a good bit, like 5$ for the "hard to find" stuff and a couple bucks on the regular.

The business of horse trading the shit is how I ended up with the full collection, multiple terrain sets of each, 3-4 squads each, and I think I was NET out of pocket maybe a hundred bucks. The biggest boon was when I found a person on Craigslist in the hills of KY with a huge lot. Street value was probably $500 and I got it for $100.

It's quite the racket.

yeah some of it is insane, the Aquillas Alliance booster is like 250-300 dollars now, was 25 new I think. I suppose the corollary is those people who buy loads of shit that doesnt sell later, but maybe some games just seem easier to predict, like did you know/think it would become a commodity, or was it tied to it going OOP, like when they announced the line was closing? Or do all those kinds of games have enough collectors later that its always worthwhile (I remember Axis and Aliles minis was quite hot at one point but that seems to have dried up). Still if youre stockpiling shit at those prices, even if it didnt sell you could have made use of that yourself, or in trades/gifts so I suppose it was a no brainer!

Nothing is worse than poor-mouthing sellers that act like they are doing you a favor by selling you something.

lala wrote: I
He comes up with selling outside of ebay instead so he can avoid paying the ebay fees so I save 10%,

Isn't that a very big no-no in the eBay Terms of Use?? If you really want to piss him off, you could report him.

Hmm... maybe I should sell some Heroscape.

I've wanted to get into Heroscape pretty badly in the past. I'm sure my kid would love it and it looks like an ideal father son kind of game. But the economics of it put it completely out of reach. I wish I got in earlier, which I knew at the time but never followed through on, but I didn't. I won't pay these prices, I will just not pick it up at all. It's honestly not a big deal but every time I see or hear about Heroscape it bothers me again. If I found a bunch of stuff at a reasonable price I'd jump in immediately but that will never happen bar some crazy fluke so I've given up on it entirely.

The cheap way to play Heroscape:

Get a box of terrain somewhere.

Print off any cards you want to play. You can get them all at Heroscapers.com

Use whatever figures you want.

Have fun!

JonJacob wrote: I've wanted to get into Heroscape pretty badly in the past. I'm sure my kid would love it and it looks like an ideal father son kind of game. But the economics of it put it completely out of reach. I wish I got in earlier, which I knew at the time but never followed through on, but I didn't. I won't pay these prices, I will just not pick it up at all. It's honestly not a big deal but every time I see or hear about Heroscape it bothers me again. If I found a bunch of stuff at a reasonable price I'd jump in immediately but that will never happen bar some crazy fluke so I've given up on it entirely.

If you didnt live about 10000 miles away I would have been happy to send you a spare set of almost all the minis from the Rise of the Valkyrie set. You should easily be able to find the terrain from a master set for 20 or 30 bucks and then you're set. At least to try it. And like quozl says you can just buy cheap DnD minis which are sometimes the same figures anyway just on black bases. Troll and Toad have shitloads for next to nothing.
The whole range is so big and expensive, and the variation is so great that you can easily just say "ignore the Marvel Set, ignore the Underdark set, ignore the expansion lines for the underdark set, ignore the flag bearers, promos and super expensive units then you can see theres no point trying to get it all anyway.

I've specifically bought stuff that just looks cool (in the eyes of a kid, both real and overgrown kid), weirdly some of the best looking stuff is dirt cheap, but on the other hand, some stuff is stupidly pricey probably because its "tournament ready". But I'm not interested in any of that shit, just get the minis that will look cool stomping around. My kid has already spotted the Deathwalker 7000 picture on ebay. He loves it. I do too, its looks like a proper retro sci fi robot. Apparently its by far the worst rated unit on Heroscapers, the only one getting an F grade. Who cares. Its going in our games for sure. One of the best units is some vampire dude with a boring mini, he wont be going in our games. Neither will the 120 dollar Agent Skahen figure that is (I shit you not), the repaint (by a 5 year old looking at the paint job) of the ALREADY WORST PAINTED AND MODELLED units in the series (Nakita Agents, look like they got dip painted by blind 4 year old third world children). Its fucking insane. On the other hand, the Silver Surfer who is totally bad ass and looks the bizz goes for about 2 dollars. Grimnak even less, thats right hes some monstery orc type dude carrying a spear and riding a fucking giant ass dinosaur. YOu can bet he will be chomping up and down our games, and the 150 dollar fart waving his lame ass "banner" can sit his ass on ebay and stay there like a doofus.

If my kid likes the game half as much as I do just looking at it and seeing it in action and collecting it, I think it might be the only game I'll be playing for the next 10 years. Its all sat waiting for his 6th birthday, hopefully I wont blow my superdad wad too soon with that.

Michael Barnes wrote: Nothing is worse than poor-mouthing sellers that act like they are doing you a favor by selling you something.

you're wrong. a clapped out quasi online celebrity games kritahk butting in here just to flash his baboon ass at his cronies by being all beatdown is actually a little bit worse. plus you dont look anywhere near as good in lingerie as I imagine Black Barney does.

Heroscape isn't a whole lot more expensive now than it was back then. The starter kits are more expensive, because they were insanely cheap back then. But you can buy the figures you actually want separately so you end up paying more or less the same price for what you want instead of the same price for what you want and the cheesy squad that came with it.

Plenty of people blew $500 back when it was still in print. $500 buys you one serious boatload of Heroscape material in the aftermarket right now, particularly the parts you want.

Wow this week went by fast!

You can get into this game for the same price as other board games. I bought the base set for $47 from Alexsr on BGG and that box has a lot of fun in it. Then you just look for some extra terrain on ebay and pick up the figures you want for $6-20 as you wish. I have spent much less than $500 at this point and am very happy with my options.

JJ- I have had a lot of fun building landscapes with my 4 year old son and taught him movement rules over the weekend using jelly beans.

Try getting a Tundra or Ticalla Jungle for less than 50 bones.