As mentioned, this certainly is a wake up call to those with larger layouts.
You are only to realize pennies on the dollars invested in large layouts. Talking to members of the local model railroad club that over the years there have been a number of fairly large layouts offered for sale due to the owner being deceased and someone acting for the estate will contact them for suggestions.
A few of these layouts have been partially disassembled and offered as a number of lots at the local auction. This is the worst case scenario, boxes of items at time being offered with a couple dozen items inside and going for joke prices, same thing at times with the engines, at times brass engines are offered for sale and it is not indicated the engines are brass but often quoted as metal engines from the 1960’s and selling for a few dollars.
Most often you will get a higher amount selling the entire collection to one of the various collectors who specialize in model trains. You still will be getting a low amount, but often more than th auction route.
But then again as the owner if I am dead I will not be giving a damn.
If you go to one of the sellers other auctions, you will see the seller is actually Rail Dreams. Maybe they bought the layout back or are selling it as a consignment…
The real value of a model railroad is the locomotives. That is what sells, IF they are good quality.
No specific mention of locomotives, just 3 or 4 pictures of single locomotives on the layout. It mentions 6 non DCC locos parked as museum pieces.
Layout was built for Georgia Pacific 40 years ago at a supposed price of $70,000. The seller hopes to get $3500 at auction. The auction house expert says its worth $10,000. Gavel price ends up $2100.
I think this video and the listing on e-bay is a lesson for all of this. We all don’t know how long we have left. I myself had surprise brain surgery in August through an angiogram (not sure I spelled that right. Point is make sure your significant other knows what to do in case you go out. I told mine to box it all up and take it to a guy at a LHS that I trust. She’ll get a fair wholesale price. Your mileage may vary but point is make sure that a plan is left behind, be it an auction, a friend, a LHS that you know can be trusted to get her the best price. I have no idea how much I’ve spent and I’m not telling her either but its gotta be thousands. But I also told her to expect no where near what I paid for it.
I’m glad my son helps me with mine and does the train shows with me also. He knows pretty much what I paid for most of my trains. If I had to add everything up I could take a vacation and forget about coming back LOL. I think there is a place in JMRI that you can list your trains and what you paid for them for insurance providing you have them insured, if not its your loss. If I had to list my stuff it would take a week or two. Jim.
Someone spending $70,000 on a model train layout doesn’t really surprise me. Kind of reminds me of my “amateur” auto racing days. Most of the guys (and gals) I was racing against spent $30,000 or more per season campaigning their cars (does not include purchase of vehicle) while I simply could not spend more than about $2,000 per year as I didn’t have any more. The irony was that my car earned the reputation of not only starting but also finishing every practice, qualifying and race session it started while the others were constantly in the pits trying to fix whatever new failure occurred. Putting what little money I had into the right things combined with solid preparation practices ensured that I actually had a lot more fun with a lot less. My car was competitive too. At the 3-hour 1991 Cal Club Enduro, my co-driver and I won the GT4 class while finishing ahead of both the GT3 and GT2 class winners (both classes are supposed to be faster than GT4).
As I still don’t have much of a budget for my layout, I have to put my money into the right things and use all of the modeling skills I’ve learned (and continue to learn) to ensure that I don’t waste anything. No, my layout won’t be winning any awards but what I’ve got so far looks a heck of a lot better than that $70,000 layout!
There are many people with more money than sense. Also, most people do not plan ahead. Actual cost of my railroad when done $0. I bought well and am selling what I don’t want at very high $ on e-bay, you know the old saying “somebody’s junk is somebody’s treasure”. I really am having a hard time believing that I am making close to the numbers I have made in real estate percentage wise, somewhere between 20 and 30 percent per annum.
One man’s junk may be someone else’s treasure, but the converse holds true too: what I treasure is likely junk to others. I cant figure all these appraisals out, because for most of us, much of the joy in having a layout is actually building it. “Professionally built” has about as much appeal as “root canal”. On the other hand, I can see where the estate is coming from. Yes, some of them may, in fact, be fooling themselves into thinking they’ve found gold in the attic, but I bet a lot of them just look at that and say,“wow, look at that. It would be a shame to throw it away.” I know I have a hard time throwing away anything that might be usable some day. Also, I’m not trying to defend Rail Dreams, but it seems that much of what they do is partially completed, waiting for the owner to finish it. Besides, most of us don’t add the value of our labor, because it’s a hobby. Someone making $50K a year has an hourly ratemofmabout $25 / hr. If he spends 10 hours a week working on his layout, he would spend $13,000 a year on his layout in labor alone. $70K at $200 an hour billing rate is only 350 hours. Who here hasn’t invested that much time in his layout?
Ok so here’s an Idea/ experiment that I’m going to try when I build my layout this summer. all items that are not loco’s or train cars will not be added to the the total cost. so everything bought for the layout will be kept on a separate tab from the amount of hours I spend working on the layout and on kits/buildings. for every hour of work I will base it off of minimum wage. I will try to keep tabs on it to the best of my ability then maybe we can see just how much it is. anything from the point of my building benchwork will be the start of the total cost.
it all depends on how you define “professionally built”. professional as in done by someone who has expertise in the field. or maybe done by someone who got paid for doing it. example, the outfit that was doing my lawn were professionals but they did terrible work so i ran them off.
Gee, everywhere I go, to museums and working tourist railroads in the NE at least, with such equipment it is called “STATIC DISPLAY”, NOT “Stuffed and mounted”.
In fact, most are now “DE stuffed” as the living stuffin’ asbestos is taken out of them!!!
I´d be surprised if the seller gets more than 10% of what is asking. Layouts have not much more than a sentimental value, regardless of who built them. Add to that the value of used locos and rolling stock, which can be estimated at about a third of the original purchase value.
If you ever contacted on of the companies who specialize in building model railroads for clients you are in for a big shock.
What they charge for building modular benchwork after track plans have been finalized is a small fortune by itself.
If you add in rough scenery and basic trackwork you will be amazed at the escalation in price. Add in the completed electronics and basic scenery the dollars mount up.
At his point you have no locomotives, railroad cars, vehicle, figures and of course buildings. Now with a professionals typical mark up he will make money even on these items. No free rides.
Don7 – I don’t think anyone should be surprised that the rares charged by these professional companies is high. They have to pay their folks and their bills, and their volume probably isn’t very high, so the rate charged probably civers a lot of overhead, even though it’s probably a part time, home based business (hence the move from Michigan to Florida).