My husband was a model railroader for over 50 years; he died in 2009. Over the years, he amassed quite a collection of books, magazines - bound volumes of Model Railroader from 1956, brass engines, cars, track, etc. He has street cars, gas electric cars, Argent Lumber Company materials, etc. He was a collector who never ran any of his trains. I am at the point where I am ready to sell his collection. However, model railroading is a foreign language to me. My question to all of you is this - How and where would be a good starting point to ready this eclectic collection for selling. I am not interested in ebay.
Thank you
Ryder 090 - Sorry for your loss… [:(]
There are options outside of eBay and I can think of one that I will contact you offline (Private Message) and others here might have other ideas as well…
There are several companies that buy complete collections for resale. Some advertise in the classified section of Model Railroader. If there is a hobbyshop ijn your area, they may be willing to allow you to sell in their shop on consignment. Another source is a local club. Many times they will help with estate sales. Perhaps you may have a friend, neighbor or relative that sells on ebay. Obviously, the venues that are the most work bring the best prices.
I am sorry for your loss I know from personal experience this can be tough to deal with. The first thing to consider is does he have any close train friends that you could trust to place an accurate value on the individual pieces. Some older Brass could be worth quite a bit and some not so much so it is important to know someone that will know the difference. There are individuals that will buy the whole lot for resale but they will not give you as much.
Yahoo groups are a good source for information and finding like minded individuals in your area that can help. There are Yahoo groups for just about all of the fallen flag railroads that are familiar with what has been done in model form for that road. Also there is a brass trains yahoo group that is run by some pretty good guys that would be willing to help.
Regards,
SB
Find a trusted person or company thet handeles Estate sales. Get references. They will do the research and get you what they are worth. If you have someone sell them for you or purchase them for resale expect to get only 60% of what they are worth.
If you do the work like Ebay you shouild end up with at least15% more in you pocket after expences. For advertising exposure i don’t think you can get any better than Ebay. The highest prices i see paid are on Ebay.
You can list them on craigslist for free but then you have to deal with the general public and crank calls from those that will offer you peanuts.
Bob