I have sporadically dipped into the well of eBay through the years, either “Buy(ing) It Now!” or bidding in an auction or two. A decade or more ago, I recall having my heart broken, posting the high bid on some bit of rpg paraphernalia (likely a rare GURPS book would have been what I was after back then), only to see some far-flung soul bid a dollar more to win in the final seconds.

In the fine spirit of passing along the pain to another, I utilized the same tactic to win an auction for the FASA Crimson Skies miniatures game. In those days, one had to re-enter one’s eBay password to bid, so it was a testament to rapid typing that I won.

While recently perusing eBay for gobliny goodness, I unearthed a somewhat tattered looking 6th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle starter set — Empire versus Orcs. It was obviously incomplete, missing rulebook, range rulers and templates, and cardstock building. All the figures seemed to be there, though, assembled but unprimed.

These days, eBay has the convenient, and I think sensible, feature that one can enable “auto-bid,” setting the highest amount that you are willing to pay. Thus, if you let the machine handle your bidding, you won’t be tempted to match ridiculous raises in the heat of the moment. This auction ended way past my bedtime, so I set things for what I was willing to pay and turned in for the evening.

Why don’t I find yard sales like these…


Lo and Behold, morning revealed that I had won (and for a bit less than the maximum I had set). Perhaps due to pre-holiday shipping enthusiasm, I won the auction early Monday morning and the box traversed the North American continent, from California to North Carolina, by Wednesday afternoon. So, a ragtag bunch of greenskins and fellows mostly armed with handguns became mine.

About a dollar apiece.

I haven’t done anything with them as yet. They were adequately, if a bit ham-fistedly assembled and all the figures do seem to be present. The cannon was glued wrong — I’m not sure it’s even the one that came with the set — and somehow a single orc Bloodbowl player infiltrated the mix [This turned out not to be true … his helmet just looked Bloodbowl on first glance).  Overall, though, I’m exceedingly pleased. They aren’t my favorite sculpts, but it was a means to beef up available troops on the cheap.