The Free Warhammer Loophole

I explain how I've accumulated Warhammer armies for free.
www.patreon.com/letstalktabletop
#tabletopwargaming #warhammergames #gamesworkshop #warhammer40k #warhammerageofsigmar

[@piotrjeske4599]

The only way l know of someone having free armies is one dude creating an extensive dokument for EU in early 2000s. He asked a commision which was dealing with lessening of differences between rural areas in new EU countries. Then he wrote that he has a grant from the EU to GW and that he is planning teaching the west euro/british culture through GW games. He had a site, wrote yearly reports what he did , even put picutures of models on it too. He not only got armies this way, but also a nikon camera, a laptop and GW sent him(for free) the entire paint/brush line. We HATED that dude

[@CarburetorThompson]

Just swap out cultural exchange for green energy grants and he could make bank as a level 99 grifter. Recently in my city a real estate developer made a luxury eco village, got the local government to pay for half the project, and got the feds to pay for the other half

[@moderndavinci6599]

He played the system and won

[@burningphoneix]

Don't hate the playa, hate the game.

[@SuperDuperHappyTime]

Games Workshop wants to: 📍Know your Location

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

😄😄😄😄

[@peterclarke7240]

So, step 1: have a spare $1000 lying around doing nothing. Step 2: refer to step 1.

[@TheBugB]

Well there was more work than just that. It was… 1: Have $1500 bucks lying around 2: Keep what you want 3: Sell the rest to pay for the ones you kept So it’s have that money, then additional work. You know what… it’s actually kinda smart. But it does have that initial investment requirement which is quite a lot

[@CoenHouston-Gee-jh4tq]

You can do this with far less dude. Buy 1 popular kit and then spilt it into parts. Just scale it down

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

It didn't even have to be that high of an investment, that just happened to be the first one I realized I could do that with. I've done it with much smaller lots as well.

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

That's savings, that's what savings is. Also, can be done with a much smaller amount of money.

[@morycmoryc4145]

Bough 3dprinter 3 years ago - dont need overpriced GW minis anymore - problem solved

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

They're doing this to themselves honestly.

[@chaosclg]

Yup im running 3 machines now and all my mates pay for my resin in exchange for models, no brainer

[@jaylonreidhead157]

Can't have a warhammer video without a 3D printer guy lol. but seriously, can't wait to get a printer.

[@GoalOrientedLifting]

Im new into this and im definitely warmin up my printer right now. Aint no way im paying $500 for one army, only for 1/3 to 1/2 to be retired 3 years later. It's an absolutely insane business model. This is ignoring the fact that they barely give some armies barely anything, at all

[@nick1635]

​@@jaylonreidhead157 they're like vegans, announcing themselves at every opportunity.

[@RagDollRat]

ah the old "Just dont be poor bro" trick

[@longle88]

you can scale the money amount down, i do this all the time. 200 . 300 bucks. it just takes patience and knowing the prices of things. I mean if youre an adult without 1k to spare for a few months, you shouldnt be playing anyway

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

Just because I have a little savings doesn't mean I'm not poor lol. I also explained in the video that you can do that with a much smaller amount of money. It just takes effort

[@RedCapVII]

I think it’s about looking for a good deal and being smart about it not just looking for what you want. You can get 2-3 units for under 20$ if you find the right listing and then just start from there

[@jameshutton3960]

longle88, how arrogant to presume who and who can't join the hobby.

[@TheThewhatnow]

@@jameshutton3960It’s not arrogant at all, this is an expensive hobby, are you trying to argue it is not? And then when someone gives solid advice on how to significantly reduce the total cost over time, you complain that their advice requires any amount of initial investment, that’s just silly.

[@h2ojr1]

step 1: buy 3 armies for the price of 1 used in a bulk deal somewhere step 2: sell 2 of the armies at half price each step 3: keep the 3rd army and tell your wife this is now a profitable addiction

[@earnestwanderer2471]

Not to be a complete jerk about it, but, there was a significant investment of time involved, I’m sure. So, in a sense, you worked for the armies you wound up keeping. So you had a part time job that paid off in plastic rather than cash.

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

True enough, I can't really argue with that. But part-time job or not, it still did not impact my household budget at all. So it allowed me to get stuff I wanted and not break the bank.

[@TheThewhatnow]

This is a wierd take. It was hobby time spent, for a lot of people the bargin hunting is enjoyable by itself. If you view collecting models as a “job” you should probably find another hobby.

[@earnestwanderer2471]

Not so much the collecting aspect, just scouring eBay for bargains is one thing, that’s collecting. But once your real goal is to find resale opportunities, that doesn’t feel like collecting. It’s more of a side hustle. Nothing wrong with that. It’s similar to people who paint minis for resale. A way to finance the hobby without dipping into the family budget. I knew someone who traded cards to generate income to spend on Warhammer. He collected and played MtG too, but his real focus was getting cards at a discount, that he could flip online for a profit.

[@romanklaeger5397]

I did that during University, worked great until it didn't. It's a high investment in hours, that financed my hobby and I could take the pics at home and put it online on the train/bus. Because I like building and painting, I often stripped the paint and added fiddly bits or corrected miniatures (heads not aligning with weapons etc). Now as an Engineer I can afford bigger lots from eBay, so of course, I did! but I ended up selling almost everything in smaller lots again and buying new shiny boxes from GW. Because I dont have that much hobbytime anymore (wife and not living like Gollum anymore), so when I take into account the hours spent, it's eventually cheaper. Ultimately, my output in painted minis has not dropped, as I spend zero hours corrrecting. Plus you really need to have a salesman-flair, otherwise it's a tedious chore.

[@magnusbuckus3266]

So basically you became a trader. If this was UK HMRC would start looking to tax you on any profits you made. Edit: watched the end of the video and in fairness you do mention this.

[@CarburetorThompson]

Back when I was first getting into 40k I got a land raider, and it shipped with two of the same track sprues. Contacted gw support and they just sent me a new land raider, just bought the missing sprue on eBay for like 3 dollars and got a free land raider. That’s probably the only deal I ever got an gw product

[@ShallowVA]

How to get free Warhammer armies: Step 1: spend $1000 on Warhammer armies

[@j.rivera1974]

I started the same way. I would purchase sealed lots on ebay and trade them back in to GW for store credit at full msrp. You get the money on the card so I would purchase the units I needed and sell the card balance to a local at the shop for a discount and my armies would be free.

[@stevensmith909]

I think they stopped the card thing last time I went a month ago. Now I know why. 🤦‍♂️😂

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

Haha

[@Is_This_Really_Necessary]

For 24 years, I primarily bought my models 2nd hand. About 99.9% of my entire miniatures collection is 2nd hand. The remaining 0.1% is brand new. I spent the last 7 years selling 3/4 of it on ebay, facebook and at buy swap sell meets due to financial constraints. For the past 18 months I've been practicing my sculpting skills so I can mold and cast up my own models to use in games.

[@Uknits]

I did the same thing, just on smaller scale. I have 2 armies at no cost.

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

Glad to hear it! That's the only way this hobby is affordable. LOL

[@ultimaxc]

Its only a matter of time until Kevin Rountree comes to your doorstep

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

Haha.

[@KieranRones]

I suppose the other way to approach this (essentially what I did), is just buy second hand opportunistically. I've got a couple of core searches and alerts set for second-hand sites. And then if I see something that 1. I know I want and WILL use and 2. Is selling for less than half what it costs even at a discount retailer; then I buy it no matter what. In essentially the WORST case scenario, I sell it on later for a small profit. I've certainly not gotten any armies for free but my last calculations put my average £-to-points ratio at about 1/4 the cost if I'd bought new at discount retailers.

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

Good idea!

[@masonmcelroy8125]

I have done this same thing and as was mentioned in the comments, you don't have to spend 1k for it to work. I have also done this with the big "discount" boxes from GW. If you get those with the standard 15% discount from online retailers and split it up, you can usually make back the cost selling the individual kits and keep a few things for yourself. It's not AS effective as buying used items, you will probably only be able to keep about 1/4 of the box if you want to break even. But still, it works.

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

Good idea, one that I had not thought of yet.

[@FizzyMcPhysics]

Ok, so the time that most people put into building, converting, painting, you're putting into reselling. I guess that makes sense! It clearly works for you. I think there are lots of people who like the playing side of the hobby more than anything else so this could be a good tip for them!

[@suns3tn1ghtmar3]

You could technically go to a wargaming tournament and ask every player for 1 miniature as a donation. Eventually you’ll have a couple hundred

[@vectorshaman338]

Even more effective if you play Kill Team. I've managed to build quite a few kill teams 100% free. orcs, deathguard, tau.

[@recreationalmancunian]

I do this with airsoft an Warhammer 😂😂 good job brother . Everybody love a good flip👍

[@markysgeeklab8783]

I did a similar thing as a student when I had loads of time. Now I would happily pay someone to build remove mould lines prime my minis to save time.

[@willsuttie3683]

The dice on your logo is wrong. 2 and 5 are opposite faces.

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

Yeah I know. 😁

[@keycuz]

I don't spend any less than a million when i want something for free.

[@spaceoddity5674]

Cunning !😁 ..... and jealous of your display cabinets ! 👍

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

Thanks! They are all Brutality Skirmish Wargame Warbands that I've made.

[@PandorasFolly]

My cousin is....a fucking prodigy at painting quickly and making it look amazing. He did the ol buy 5 boxes paint and sell 3 and keep 2 boxes

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

Wow!

[@patrickborchert5336]

This video is awesome!

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

Thank you!

[@dragonling748]

haha this is what I do. I'm close to my full chapter of space marines, and my total investment to date is $740 + paint etc. And of that of that $740 only $240 has been in the last 5 years. Since GW when nuclear on youtube content, they haven't seen a cent for me.

[@soupcake3092]

Great way to get warhammer for cheap, but a shame that it's another case of needing money to save money. The less money you can spare upfront the fewer big discounts you'll be able to find. Worse in australia since warhammer kits start at ~100 dollarydoos now and there are less people selling and buying. A 3d printer was the way to go for me. Still a pretty huge upfront cost, and completely inaccessible to anyone living in a small apartment with no balcony. Same price as 4 boxes of space marines tho.

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

I explained in the video that you can do this with small lots as well. And if you don't keep any of it you can bankroll it to a Ford larger lots and it just grows from there. You certainly don't need $1,000 to start.

[@Southboundpachyderm]

you should get a clip mic. it will sound better for you and give you more control over your audio cause youll have an interface. for about 150 bucks you should be able to get a nice mic and a scarlet 2i2 interface.

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

I've tried various different microphones, but most of them require a headphone jack and my phone doesn't have one. So I ended up having to use a Bluetooth headset. Not ideal, but it's the best I have at the moment.

[@Southboundpachyderm]

@@LetsTalkTabletop oh no, I mean like a clip on mic. It clips on your shirt!

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

Yeah I know, but don't they require a cord?

[@Southboundpachyderm]

@@LetsTalkTabletop most of the cheaper ones do, but they’re really long. Like 20 feet usually.

[@Southboundpachyderm]

@@LetsTalkTabletop but if you want to invest a bit more, cordless clip on microphones are definitely a thing.

[@adamb3455]

I believe you could fo this with very very little money and make a video out of it in order to demonstrate. I'm curious what the rough minimum investment actually should be

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

You could start doing it with any amount of money, but obviously the bigger chunk that you start with the better the discount you're going to get and the better return on investment. One of my first lots was $1,000, but most of them were 300 or 500 or something like that.

[@Kolobius]

I did this for my first 3 armies back in 7th.

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

Nice!

[@michaelwardle7633]

That’s not a “loophole”. You’re investing time and money into what amounts to a business of buying and reselling. Any profit is just spent on pocketing miniatures. You could get the same results by spending hours mowing people’s lawns.

[@cptkrank6802]

So your trick to free minis is to...trade your labor for money, then trade your money for minis and trade your labor and minis for money to recoup your initial money, keeping the minis you want as profit. Wanna hear my trick to free minis? Trade my labor for money to then buy minis. It has fewer steps and probably less labor. It's not free anything. It's work. He did work (and invested capital) to get minis.

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

Free as in it did not impact my household budget at all. A net zero difference would count as free.

[@hellcat64]

Some dingus low balled me hard with a story about treating models well and being super excited to play with my stuff. Ended up breaking a bunch of stuff. Keeping the meta stuff and selling the rest for double. A hole...

[@HomeSliceOfWhiteBread]

This how flipping works, I did it on Runescape haha. You could have also just flipped items and kept the cash.

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

Haha. Well not everybody is aware of the process, so hopefully this helps someone!

[@truemisto]

not even a super rich would be super rich anymore after buying all that

[@punchyMiddleEarth]

Loophole? Not exactly. This is just logic.

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

Yes, but a logic not readily obvious to many people.

[@punchyMiddleEarth]

@@LetsTalkTabletop clickbait title champ, nothing more 🤷🤦

[@nicolassilvagni7909]

Just to be sure, you declare your benefits from resales as income on your tax return ?

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

Absolutely.

[@MagicDad]

I love your channel bro! keep up the great work!

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

Wow, thank you for saying that!

[@keegobricks9734]

it's interesting, but yeah kind of a big pain to really go through this process. I mean, frankly this sounds like a hobby in and of itself to you, so you don't mind it. You have ot have the patience for that and the business savvy too.

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

True, but when you have a household budget and a bunch of children, you've got to do whatever you can to support your hobby. And I could do it in my spare time, unlike a part-time job. It's a bit like playing the stock market, taking some risks and trying to make money off of it.. it is quite a hassle at times though. Going to the post office with 15 boxes

[@keegobricks9734]

@@LetsTalkTabletop I'd certainly rather do that than give GW any money. I'm really growing to hate this company. I still like some parts of 40k, and I love the now defunct warhammer fantasy series, but I hate this company. They have trying to sell mini's above the lore, and if you don't value the lore then you don't have much of a game. I think you said something similar in a video once.

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

I agree with you 💯

[@Treps1]

Not free or a loophole.

[@allthehardtimes]

So your hack for a free army is take 1k and be a scumbag reseller you know if you spent 100k and bought a comicbook store you can read free comics bro

[@niccolo6865]

That's basically what i'm doing. At this point basically 70% of my collection is 2nd hand, the rest is bought from retailers. Fuck GW

[@erho2967]

Save up $250 to get a resin printer, $15-20 bottle of resin and free 40k prints is the way to go

[@Constable911]

Title should be “how to SUPPLEMENT your hobby” not “Free Warhammer”. Very disingenuous title.

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

It ended up costing me a net $0. I don't know how that's not free in the long run

[@Constable911]

@@LetsTalkTabletop You have to SPEND to start, so it is Supplementing. You title makes it seem like you didn't have to have an initial investment, in addition its not a Loophole, its called economics.

[@mathewblaine1109]

Not freee you had capital, buying and selling used is not free

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

I make it pretty clear in the video that it's zero net dollars. But if you start with the same amount of money that you ended up with, it's essentially free.

[@Constable911]

@@LetsTalkTabletopbut not the title of the video.

[@atinybard6594]

Holyyyyyt

[@mischievousprobe6467]

Why not just 3D print at that point?

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

This was 10 years ago and I didn't have a printer

[@mischievousprobe6467]

@@LetsTalkTabletop Right, did not consider the timeframe of your story. Makes decent sense now.

[@stephenx2857]

can def arbitrage/flip minis. I tend to buy 1-2 lots from facebook groups each year. As i enjoy kit bashing/painting. And don't want to play a lot of other armies, but do like trying my hand painting them. Or kit bashing units. ---although i tend to stay in the $300-$500 range If you can find one of those poor bastards in america about to be homeless, for one of the bazillion reasons america is dogshit. can get really great deals on overpriced plastic. and flip it to someone else with plastic addiction I would admit, i also buy a lot of recasts, as i'm just not paying GW's prices on certain things (land raider redeemer) ....and also not against abusing some shitty corporation's return policy to steal the odd mini or two.

[@RedMinotaur808]

Is this a pyramid scheme 😅😅😅 jk

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

Haha.

[@TheBananaRepublic4]

Hi

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

Hello

[@swampybwoy]

My wife gave me a small loan of $1000

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

What'd you do with it?

[@swampybwoy]

@@LetsTalkTabletop bought 3000 dollars of warhammer 🤪

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

Dude, so did I! Small world. Lol

[@riselikethephoenix1]

​@@LetsTalkTabletop hes trolling you

[@LetsTalkTabletop]

I know. 😉

[@allasar]

Easier method: buy a 3d resin printer, and print 1000 points for $20. Done.

[@nick1635]

Where do you get a resin printer for $20?

[@allasar]

@@nick1635 ... wow, really? Is the printer a one time cost or do I buy a new one for every print? But lets do the math. Bought a 3d printer for $350 and have currently printed well over 16 000 points worth of material, but rounded down for easy calculation. That's an extra $43.75 per 2000 points army. But that is not really the extra cost, is it? I will afterall continue printing. I know you meant it as a joke, but seriously: having a 3d printer makes the hobby affordable for many.