TollHouseGolem wrote:http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... K:MEWAX:IT

I would be suspect of this seller as well.  They won an auction I ran a couple months ago, then said they wanted to bid and combine with some others I listed.  In the end, they stopped responding my messages and I had to file a Non-paying-bidder against them (they didn't respond to that either).

TollHouseGolem wrote:
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This seller has a "gold-plated" Grenadier spearman that appears to be liberally slathered in gold paint (you can see wear spots at the bend of the spear, on a helmet rivet, and on the back of the base for starters).

Story time:  I once bought an eBay lot of painted lead minis.  I soaked them in pine oil cleaner to remove the paint.  I scrubbed them with toothbrushes.  One was stubbornly resistant to having its paint removed.  After a closer look, I realized that it was a gold-plated Orc shaman.



The gold-plate remained shiny and completely unbothered by my soak-and-scrub.  Any gold-plated Grenadier minis should look like the picture in otherworld's post.  The gold looks like, well, gold and nothing like gold paint.

Giving this thread a bumparoonie for some info I discovered. Might not be new to many people, but it was to me at least.  

Thanks to the Megaminis site, I downloaded the first six Grenadier Bulletin PDFs. And here is what I found:

The orc shamans numbered about 1,000, and were placed randomly in sets 2011 Orc's Lair, 2010 Denizens of the Swamp, and 2012 Dwellers Below. (Bulletin #4)

I could find nothing about the MU numbers or where they were placed, other than they existed. (might have missed it though) I seem to recall an issue of Dragon having some mention of it. I'll have to check. EDIT: Best I could come up with is the mention of them being placed in the 2009 Wizard's Room sets (#47), but I recall seeing an 'ad/article' with a photo of the previous winner and store owner that I cannot locate. I seem to recall the article had mentioned which sets they were to be included.

The basilisk was sold exclusively via the Bulletin's order form in issues #1, 4 and 5. Didn't see it elsewhere in cursory viewing. Dunno how many people received them, so no idea as to the possible maximum there could be out there. Issue #3 boasted 6,000 Bulletin's in print.

I happened to think about this as I was probably going to put up my shaman and MU up for sale soon. It's been cool having them around the last couple of years, but it's really not part of my focus in the meagre collection.

Good info, thanks for sharing it!

Value-wise, I recently picked up a lot with Orc's Lair (and a gold shaman) and 2 other sets for ~$80 shipped, and bought a gold Deep One and a different Grenadier wizard gold mini too for ~$75 IIRC.

One of the orc minis is up for $150 BIN atm:  
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