Anyone sold their 40k armies? How'd you feel about it?
I have two 40k Armies, Orks and Necrons. I don't know current point values, but if I were to venture a guess, it's probably somewhere on the order of 6000-7000 points worth of stuff. I have something like 200 Ork Boys, 40-50 Nobz, Trukks, 15+ Deffkoptas and all kinds of stuff. Necrons are significantly smaller, but probably something like 3000-3500 points.
But I hate 40k. I don't like the Lore, I don't like the game and I don't really enjoy painting the models. The last time I played was 7th Edition about 8 months or so ago and I didn't have any fun with it and prior to that, I played a handful of games of 10th, both full scale and campaign and really didn't enjoy myself all that much then. So it's only been about a week since I came to the conclusion that I should finally sell my armies.
I've been thinking about selling my Orks for quite some time, but only recently came to the conclusion that I should dump the Necrons as well, because I just have no interest in playing the game or even painting the models. But I'm struggling with the decision. 40k is what introduced me to Wargames and I thought it was pretty neat at the time, but not too long after that, I discovered historical Wargames (Bolt Action, in particlar) and those are very much my jam.
I still have a bunch of Age of Sigmar, as I prefer it to 40k, though it's still far from a favorite of mine (Something like 3500 points of Gloomspite Gitz and 3500ish of Nighthaunt), so I still have access to Warhammer if friends want to play, but...yeah.
I'm not exactly certain why I'm making this post. I went and bought boxes today for when I'm ready to start the process of taking pictures and selling stuff on eBay, but I just feel weirdly attached to some of these models, even if I have absolutely zero interest in them anymore. I do think I'm going to keep one kitbashed Ork Battlewagon I made, but beyond that I'm ready to just let go all of this stuff.
I don't play 40k.
That being said, the decision to give up any equipment that is essential to making a hobby work can be a hard decision. It doesn't surprise me that you're having trouble doing it even though you haven't enjoyed it in a long time. It is only going to be harder when you've invested time painting them, since it feels like you're throwing away that time and effort as well.
I've been in a similar position with respect to skiing. It took several years and an embarrassing number of trips before I was ready to acknowledge that it wasn't a thing I was up to anymore (and that I was unwilling to put the effort into getting my body to the point where it might be up for it again). Definitely a different situation, but the sunk cost vibe feels like a similar thing.
It sounds to me like you're looking for someone to give you final permission to do the thing that you've already decided that you need to do and so let me be the first to say that you should do it. It isn't a thing that you're enjoying anymore and that's ok. Moving on is allowed.
It feels silly to be so reticent. It's not like I'll never play a tabletop wargame again, given I have a heap of models for other games that I actually do enjoy.
I think some part of me just has FOMO and am worried my friends will want to play and I won't be able to. But realistically, my friends have plenty of other stuff to play and would be more than happy to accommodate me in whatever else; not to mention, the main friend I do play with also shares my love of Historicals and different types of wargames and has zero interest in playing any form of Warhammer.
I just have all my magic cards to a friend. He was the only one I would play with (or rather, him and his other friends). So if I’m playing, he is there, and he might as well have the cards and can pull them out if I need to borrow a deck. He’s not obligated to keep my decks as-is or at all, but he has made some improvements to them.
My cards weren’t any serious financial investment. Maybe $300 worth. I’d had many of them for, gosh, 25 years? So just giving them up wasn’t really a big loss for me, especially when measured against my desire to not have to tote them to wherever we were playing and my friends gratitude.
Maybe you can do similar, if not for all pieces but many.
I'll definitely be selling what I have. I have a fairly limited income at the moment and while selling all my stuff will be a massive pain, it'll bring me an influx of cash to invest in other stuff I'm more immediately interested in, even if it's just STLs for my other wargames.
If something doesn't bring you joy or at least happy memories, get rid of it to make space for something that does. I've gotten into and out of a few hobbies, it's sometimes a little sad at first when letting it go, but then you get to invest the proceeds into something you're interested and know that you're old stuff is now with someone that wants and will appreciate/use it.
I think that's where I'm struggling a little bit. Normally, I'm not a terribly sentimental person and am always ready to jump on the train of selling stuff off that I'm not using and making space for new stuff; it's largely how I've been able to afford a lot of my hobbies given I have very limited income at the moment.
But I am looking at selling stuff off as an opportunity to put that money elsewhere, as well as get rid of a display case in my office, or at least open the shelves up to something different. I have a lot of wargaming stuff that I've bought or 3d printed and the 40k stuff is taking up a lot of space that could be used better for things I'm actually interested in.
I think it's just some part of me feels a little wrong for not liking 40k when it seems to be such a popular universe and game system. So part of my brain is leaving room for me being wrong about not liking it, though I'm certain that I'll never come back around, given I've been pounding my head against a wall with it for several years now.
I don't know, I've never cared for Warhammer. A friend tried to get me into it. I liked the artistic aspect, but didn't care for the game. I can scratch my artistic itch in other ways, so I never got into it.
Yeah, it's just confusing to me that people like it so much. Obviously, different strokes, but I just cannot see any appeal to it.
I did. I played many years ago, and then slowly fell out of it. Several years ago, I had to downsize for a move and the armies went with it. It was a fairly sizeable Tau army with some Forgeworld stuff as addons, and a handful of starter stuff for Space Marines and Orks. I also somewhat like the setting for 40k, well, anything that isn't Space Marines (to me, they are the insufferable favorite children of the IP) and I rather enjoy playing the games.
I felt somewhat sad but also relieved that I was not responsible for them any longer. I just knew I had no desire to play a game that the owner could kneecap my army just so they can sell me plastic. I also knew that I was perpetually fighting with my ADHD when it came to painting armies. It just culminated in a huge ball of stress and I ultimately am better off for letting it go. I hope someone out there is appreciating my fully magnetized Tau battle suits and vehicles.
As for you, you clearly aren't enjoying it. Sell your army and invest the money into a hobby focus of something you do enjoy. You'll thank yourself later for having one less thing to worry about.
I do think selling it off and letting someone else paint the vast majority of it would feel like a load off. And honestly, you're right and it should be telling to me that amongst all the wargames I own models for, 40k is the least of the stuff I've painted. Both my Age of Sigmar armies are 95-100% painted, my Bolt Action armies are also 95-100% painted and while my other, smaller wargaming armies are significantly less so, they take up less space and were overall less investment, so I don't mind them sticking around.
I do keep looking at my Orks and thinking I ought to be painting them or making some progress, but whenever I paint one or try to batch paint them, I rapidly feel bored and also overwhelmed by just how much there is that needs to be done. One of the things 40k taught me is that I'm not a huge fan of army style games because there's just so much that needs to be painted.
I'm not necessarily ADHD (though I apparently have symptoms), but looking at all the unpainted 40k makes me feel absolutely overwhelmed and stressed by the fact that I'm not doing anything with them. Having them gone would be a relief.
And yeah, I have zero interest in Space Marines. I have no interest in pretty much any 40k videogame and even moreso if it's got Space Marines in it. I'm a huge fan of FPS games, as well as classic FPS games, but I can't bring myself to muster even the slightest interest in Boltgun due to that fact.
I have a much smaller collection than you, but I have never played a game of 40K and don’t really plan on it unless one of my friends picked it up.
I just like painting them occasionally and reading the books. Which is to say I’m pretty insulated from GW and whatever they get up to. Which is a pretty good place to be in any of these hobbies.
I ultimately scaled back my M:tG participation to just playing cube with friends or against a offline bot for exactly this reason — what Hasbro turned it into makes me kind of sick (they make GW look like saints imo) so I just quit. The cards are also tariffed now, so that was another win for 40K.
I didn’t sell my cards though. Maybe one day I’ll return if Hasbro ever got bought out by an ex-player turned billionaire or something.
Magic is definitely one item that I've been hesitant to sell my collection on. I paired it down a LOT by selling a ton of the bulk I didn't need, but I also know I have little desire to play the game again so I have a boat load of cardboard in my closet waiting for me to decide what to do with it. Someday that decision will come, but I haven't come to that crossroads yet so they still wait.
I’ll just copy my response from another comment in this thread;
I just have all my magic cards to a friend. He was the only one I would play with (or rather, him and his other friends). So if I’m playing, he is there, and he might as well have the cards and can pull them out if I need to borrow a deck. He’s not obligated to keep my decks as-is or at all, but he has made some improvements to them.
My cards weren’t any serious financial investment. Maybe $300 worth. I’d had many of them for, gosh, 25 years? So just giving them up wasn’t really a big loss for me, especially when measured against my desire to not have to tote them to wherever we were playing and my friends gratitude.
Maybe you can do similar, if not for all pieces but many.
I have plenty of MtG myself. Though that stuff doesn't bother me, because nothing really needs to be done with it. Most of the stuff is in a cabinet and I've left a handful of decks assembled for when my friends and I get together, we have something easy to do that is compatible with multiplayer.
Seeing what Hasbro is doing with MtG at the moment really makes me resolve to never buy another card pack again. I am just not down with all the crossover stuff, not to mention the expense and the constant changeover. It's actually very similar to how GW operates, given they're constantly invalidating units, let alone entire armies (see Beasts of Chaos in Age of Sigmar) and then bringing out new editions constantly and then having constant, obligatory rules updates (Generals Handbooks).
But yeah, my other caveat comes in the fact that I just do not at all care for the Lore in 40k at all. Obviously you and many other people do, but for me, it never really clicked. In fact, the reason I chose Orks in the first place is because it felt like they were "Immune to Lore" for lack of a better term. Like they just didn't matter, all they want to do is krump and dakka and it doesn't go any further than that. 40k lore seems so arbitrary to me, I can't invest myself in it in anyway.
Yea, I understand that. Not everything is for everyone and that’s OK. There have been similarly massively popular things that I have skipped entirely because they don’t really jive with me: superheroes and anime being two I can name off the top of my head (can you see why I quit MtG ;) ). I would sell your collection and not feel bad about it if I were you. Although I would try reading one or two books if you haven’t — the good ones are pretty good and much better than the generic lore that you can read off the wikis.
It’s funny you mention the GW and WotC comparison. That stuff has never really bothered me in either game, I understand it’s a product at the end of the day. Magic has always had rotation (and now power creep) to sell packs. It’s magic’s disdain for its own IP and its players that have really frustrated me. At least If there’s one thing GW cares about it’s the universe they’ve created.
One thing 40K definitely lacks though is the kind of support for community formats that exist in magic. Magic players routinely tell WotC to stuff themselves by playing community formats. You pretty much have to play the latest edition to play 40K, at least where I’m at.
I've never had it in me to get rid of my minis, but I do have a quick story about that. Our local game store does a flea market every quarter or something, you can rent a table for like $10, it's super cheap. It's usually quite well attended, too, and it's a good opportunity to clear out shelving. Would recommend reaching out to see if your local does anything similar.
My buddy, however, went with a bunch of old 40k and fantasy minis. He told me a story about how a guy came up and asked how much for an old Leman Russ -- he said he could take it for free if he also took a handful of other minis. The guy looked at them, shook his head, and told him that it was too expensive.
I'm not saying you should expect to not even be able to give them away, but you might want to temper your expectations about what you might get for them. Also, if I was clearing out my collection, I'd definitely keep a hall-of-fame stack of like 10 or 15 of them for display. You shouldn't feel bad about that. If it speaks to you, you're allowed to keep it.