I know this question has been asked before but I’m going to ask it again. (You all know how well the search engine works!).
My club has been approached by the daughter of a life long model railroader who passed away last fall. He has left behind a huge collection, and she is not willing to sell it to a dealer for pennies on the dollar. There is some brass, tons of Athearn BB and similar, and lots of just plain junk. Our club feels obligated to help her out because he hosted the club in his basement for many, many years.
What I need is a list of web sites where we can find out the value of what he had. EBay is an obvious source, as is HOSeeker, and BrassTrains.com. Are there any other sites that come to mind?
The platforms you have mentioned are OK for getting a rough idea on what the value for these items is. In the end, the value is what someone is willing to pay, which will differ considerably from what you see advertized in the likes of Ebay.
Just a few remarks on how to sell this collection in the best way:
Sell items of assumed higher value (brass locos etc), individually
Sell items of a lesser value as a bundle
Take your time - never advertize more than 5 items at a time!
If you decide on auctioning the items, pick an end date, when potential interest is available, i.e. no one will follow the auction and make frantic bids at the end, when that time falls into a NFL or NBA match!
Never forget, that nothing is really rare and even our prized possessions are finally nothing else but toys, which have a value only to us crazy folks.
I’ve bought/sold items on Ebay since it opened and found in general the prices are market comparable. Ulrich has provided some good advice and you can’t go wrong following it.
I would add… the brass and better locos should be sold separately, while the others might go better as grouped - say 4 in one auction. Cars also would be sold in groups - perhaps 6 or 8 of like roads or type. I’m looking at doing this in the fall, and will group by the amount that will fit in a USPS priority box.
There are bits and pieces that might seem to be junk but are saleable. Used trackage (not sectional or brass) is always in demand, and good power packs and DCC electronics and signals are too.
For selling on Ebay, I almost always go the auction route and start out with the least amount I would take for the item. Typically, after all the expenses, my net is about 75 percent of selling price.
For the highest price, you will need patience. You have to be willing to wait for the right price. Even putting it away for a few months and trying again later.
Of course this drags out the process, so it’s a trade-off.
Fair enough. Brass can be established through some reference book(s) and of course Mr. Zane could probably PM you a ball park figure as an experience brass guy if you can provide make, model, condition etc.
As for the rest, Athearn blue box and junk will not be worth a great deal - probably pennies on the dollar. To squeeze the maximum out of it is going to take a lot of time and patience. I’m sure you can get more money by avoiding someone who buys the whole lot. As nice as it is to step in and help, is there someone in your club that wants to help this person to that degree? It’s going to take a lot of effort and time to squeeze more money out of blue box and junk.
Or, another option is to give her guidance and leave it up to her to do the work if she wants maximum dollar for that stuff, after all, it is her that wants the most money - so it’s not fair to put a BIG job on a volunteer when she reeps the benefit, which may not end up being that much honestly. Knowledge and guidance, sure, thats reasonable. Anything beyond that may be well, up to the helper and how much time they have and how charitable they are feeling.
Having been to plenty of train shows, blue box Athearn and just plain junk is in massive quantity and low demand. Principles of economics are not in favor here. Thats the reality of it.
Speaking of train shows, that may be a good option for her. Have her rent table(s) and price items based on club advise and try to sell whats left though other means after that such as Ebay, HOswap lists etc. Items will have to be priced appropriately or she’ll be sitting on it a long time.
I know one person near to where I live, Dean Ebner, who passed away about 7 years ago and he had a large nice collection
Larry, likely it depends on where you are etc. which may or may not benefit the person in question. I know what I see in the northern Virginia/Maryland area and we are literally choked with Athearn BB and junk trains (as per the original poster). Simple supply and demand economics is at play here. Lets just say it’s better to set expectations realistically, and if the seller gets more, then it will be a pleasant surprise rather than a big let down. It all boils down to - are there interested buyers - sure, but how do you connect them up with the large supply of these types of items, and there lies the challenge raised by the OP.
Absolutely and seeing the dealer that bought mine works smaller shows and avoids the larger ones he will do well.
The area I live in is depress because we’ve lost a lot of high paying jobs over the past several years. A lot of folks around here works in Columbus and other areas and just can’t afford fancy toys…
If I took my stuff to a Columbus or Cleveland train show dealer I would have been lucky to get three figures.
For the bulk of “train stuff”, sales are best done in the winter months - say November thru February. True collector items will sell easily all year around.
Also, timing (actually more luck) is everything. What won’t sell this week will be pounced on the next week…and verse viceaaa.
Good point about season. Summer does tend to be slower for the hobby so fall/winter/spring may be optimal time for selling.
Timing, also a good point. I sell on the yahoo groups email lists and some times I’ll advertise items over a period of months with no bite but eventually I do bites and items sell. That is the patience part.
As mentioned before, and it’s a no brainer, check Ebay to get a sense of prices for items, but Ebay can sometimes show items with highly unrealistic prices so sometimes you have to take what you see with a box car full of salt and of course see what items actually sell for. I see a lot of Athearn blue box items sit and sit when there is a better quality RTR upgraded version that has been made as well.
Ultimately it’s all about what buyers are looking for specifically. Someone looking for a bunch of generic freight cars will probably not be willing to pay the same as someone looking for something specific.
GARRY has a good tip here. I use it a lot myself. To find the sold listings, search for an item. A sidebar will open up along with the results and towards its bottom there are a few boxes to click for auction outcome options. Sold will give you prices actually paid for a sold item.
There is also Completed listsings, which tell you the what happened with both Sold (prices actually paid) and listings that didn’t sell along with their offered prices. This adds a dimension of what asking price is probably too high.
In both the Sold and Completed cases, simply check the box and the listings will appear in the center listing of the auctin links.
This is also a good place to determine how rare something you might offer will be. If there are no listings under Sold or Completed for an obviously desireable item, that is an indication that it might be something that is scarce or rarely comes up for auction (I think these listsings are carried for 90 days IIRC). Ypu might be able to expect more for itin a listing or perhaps it’s worth doing more research t determine a suitable price and not sell something short.
You can find the price at which similar items sold for on ebay. But that’s not the same thing as selling a collection piece by piece. One big hurdle is…it takes ALOT of time to pack and ship an item properly. I would think only the owner would want to devote that much time to sell a collection piece-by-piece. If not, then you’re stuck selling the collection in big chunks. Usually, that is to a dealer or someone who will take the time to sell the items individually. The value given to the owner won’t be a retail market value.
If you want a rough ballpark, Athearn BB freight cars should generally fetch 5 to 7 bucks…up to 10 to 12 bucks if they have metal wheels and knuckle couplers.
I’d sell them 3 or 4 at a time to take advantage of shipping costs. If it costs 7 bucks just to ship 1 item, the BB car want get much money.
lot of 4…starting bid of $22 plus $8 shipping. Buyer gets 4 cars at about $7.25 a piece including shipping. Seller gets to pack and ship 4 at a time.
Keep in mind that the current retail price of brass actually varies based upon WHO is selling it. brasstrains.com is by far the largest dealer in the world currently, and is assumed by international heavy hitter buyers as being the “most reputable”. Whether that is actually true or not, I will leave to others. I have had only limited dealings with them, so can’t say. They have a number of very well-healed clients that cherry pick the best stuff that comes in.
For a fact, I have a perfect 100% feedback rating on Ebay with 5.0 ratings in each selling category. I can list the exact same model for sale as brasstrains.com at the exact same price (but perhaps with “or best offer”) as they have that model for. Their model may sell within one day or less if it is a high demand model (late run, made in last 10 years, produced by Sam Model Tech or Boo Rim Precision) and my model, the same thing in equal condition, with good photos, might not sell at ALL.
On Ebay, because I am not as well known as some of the big-time dealers, my selling prices on equivalent quality items tend to be a couple hundred dollars less than what the big-time, big-name dealer can get for the same item. Even a few really good custom painters like, for example, Bud Parr, can list a brass model for $1 starting bid, and they are “trusted” enough that that model will actually sell for its real value of $1800 or more.
Not being a big name, I do not get that kind of interest on my auctions.
As always, your mileage may vary, and good luck with the sales!
Yes. And you have to look at it from the perspective of time and effort vs. how much money you get out of selling a large collection of, in this case, low value model trains. Lets say you pay yourself a paultry 8 dollars an hour to try to wring out the most money out of each Athearn blue box car, and each junk items, which I assume is worth half or a quarter of the Athearn BB items, unless you are unemployed, your time is probably better spent making money in some other way than spending countless hours listing each and every Athearn freight car or even in groups of 5 or 10 on Ebay and paying the fee’s and packaging them up and shipping them out. It might very well be best to sell the whole bundle to a buyer and let them put the labor into getting an extra couple bucks out each and every car. The junk… hard to say but thats even worse. The brass can be handled separately.
Very true. In my example above the net dollars to the seller would be about $5 each for typical BB cars if bundled appropriately. But I think they can fetch a bit more to net 7 to 8 to the seller.
OP needs to decide if the club’s efforts to help the daughter are worth the trouble, considering that a dealer would pay something for each car.
“left behind a huge collection, and she is not willing to sell it to a dealer for pennies on the dollar. There is some brass, tons of Athearn BB and similar, and lots of just plain junk.”
It looks like the vast majority of stuff is tons of Athearn and lots of plain junk. Like you said, the junk isn’t going to be worth the time, period. That leave the vast majority left to deal with is Athearn BB, which is of limited value. I still argue, it’s going to be questionable how much time and effort it will take to sell off the Athearn stuff, which isn’t as popular ias it once was.
The daughter may not be willing to sell the collection off to a dealer but that only leaves a labor and time intensive option for the vast majority of the collection.
My wifes mother used to have a saying, “want never gets”. In the end, the OP will have to present the limited options and maybe we will find out what happened.
Maybe the best compromise would be to rent tables at the next big local train show, price the stuff attractively, and whats left after the show, sell it to a dealer en mass. If that isn’t acceptable, tell her to hold on to the collection to the next show and do the same. Eventually someone will say enough is enough.
Many people who are not in the hobby have an inflated sense of what Model trains are actually worth - especially second hand. There is a reason why dealers pay pennies on the dollar.
I have sold a couple thousand dollars worth of trains on ebay and on HO yard sale over the last 15 years. It is lots of work. Ebay is very fickle at times (rare items went for cheap - others at fair price). When I added up my time messing with it all, I barely made minmum wage on most items - and that is assuming the cost of the items to me is zero.
If it were me, I would carefully cull out the valuable stuff (asess this ruthlessly) and then have discussion with the daughter about how the used train market works. Help her sell only the good stuff… I wouldn’t feel obligated to try and sell items for one or two bucks each.
She might feel better about a donation or some other option for the worthless/almost worthless stuff…