Its really frusterating trying to find d&d items on ebay when it seems half the search pages are cluttered with all those silly platic 3rd edition miniatures.. heroclix or whatever they are called. I mean come on what kind of person actually buys and collects that silly crap? Children? I mean the old lead ralpartha / citadel / grenadier minis were crafted pieces of art. But these new mass marketed crap is stupid and its time consuming to wade thru the ebay listing pages when your looking for books or modules. Anyone else feel the same way? Or do you enjoy playing with your lil platic toys.

RedBeard wrote: I mean come on what kind of person actually buys and collects that silly crap? Children?

Uh, THIS kind of person has bought quite a few of them. I just don't bring them up much here, for obvious reasons.

They are not nearly as bad as you seem to think — in fact, I doubt you've ever even bothered to look at them. Your rant has that sort of "blanket statement" feel to it.

As far as eBay searches go, how about taking 45 seconds to modify your search terms? Or 90 seconds to download Auction Sieve? There's also some ideas in this thread.

Oh, and welcome to The Acaeum.

Seriously, Auction Sieve is worth a look. The "trash word" concept is perfect for D&D minis because the program can trash as many terms as you want. So, for example, to avoid D&D minis, you list trash words like:

Aberrations
Deathknell
Angelfire
Giants of Legend
(etc., etc.)

These are all D&D minis terms that are not, at the same time, D&D 1e terms, so the 1e stuff you're really looking for is not filtered out.

And my favorite part is that the program is given away for free by an Acaeum member.

Auction Sieve

Xaxaxe wrote:

RedBeard wrote: I mean come on what kind of person actually buys and collects that silly crap? Children?

Uh, THIS kind of person has bought quite a few of them. I just don't bring them up much here, for obvious reasons.

They are not nearly as bad as you seem to think — in fact, I doubt you've ever even bothered to look at them. Your rant has that sort of "blanket statement" feel to it.

As far as eBay searches go, how about taking 45 seconds to modify your search terms? Or 90 seconds to download Auction Sieve? There's also some ideas in this thread.

Oh, and welcome to The Acaeum.

I have bought one fair size lot and got taken on the last lot I bought. I agree that they are not as bad they are made out to be. I won't say they are as good as the metal miniatures but they are much more available and in most cases dirt cheap except for the larger and rarer items.

VermilionFire wrote:

Blackmoor wrote:One of my best kept secrets *sigh*

I have been buying them as well

Dam collecting creep

Later

Blackmoor, no, not you!  

I keep them far away from my wife
Alas the paintjobs really do suck and trust me I do not take these items seriously.  They are crap and probably just a fad.  You should see some of the ridiculaous monsters they are putting out now!  Anybody for an enlarged Durgar.  I store them very carefully, all mixed together in a cradboard box
I will probably fish out the sets and rares very soon and sell them off though!  Just think of this; I just bought 2 boxes of the new Wardrums set for $85.00 each!  For that price I could have come close to winning that recent Beastmaker Mountain Mod that was up on Ebay.  The wardrums set has very few usable minis; the chimera and a dragon are two I can remember.
All our PCs and NPCs are unique and hand painted by a very good painter that we have around   She has also painted a few hundred monsters as well
These minis are like the plague, they infest and take over
Do not let it happen to you

Later

Beyond some of the obvious trash words — "miniatures," etc. — here's a list of terms you'll want to add to Auction Sieve to avoid D&D minis:

Harbinger
Dragoneye
Archfiends
Giants of Legend
Aberrations
Deathknell
Angelfire
War Drums
War of the Dragon Queen

These are the names of the various sets; obviously, sellers who are keyword-aware are throwing these terms in whenever possible.

The set called "Underdark" cannot be trash-word listed unless you're certain you're okay with missing other Underdark items.

Finally, be wary of spelling errors. Aberrations, for instance, is spelled at least five different ways ... to be thorough, you'll have to trash-word all five spellings.

I noticed that Black Dragon before and it is a nice looking piece.  And the nod to 1st Ed. iconic figures such as Snurre and Lareth is a nice touch.  
But the annoying part of the product is three-fold:
1) They're plastic.  Ick... There's little substance and detail to a plastic sculpt and they tend to fall down with a mild shake to a table.  
2) The paint jobs are cookie-cutter and subpar for the most part, especially the early ones.
And most importantly, 3) What's up with making these "collectible"?  Magic was a fun game except for the money pit it became trying to chase down rares to make a new and interesting deck.  The marketing virus of making all these new games collectible is vexing and I refuse to support such a blatantly cynical grab for more money.  

On the other hand, they are cheaper than metal and already come prepainted and ready to use, so they're great for newcomers who want the great miniature experience with their D&D game.