Anyone have suggestions on finding estate auctions? I’m not looking for Lionel or brass but rather die-cast locos from the 60’s that I wanted but could not afford. The kind of trains an ordinary modeler would have.
TIA
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There are a couple of options online to find estate sales near you. (Per moderator I will state that I have no connecion to these or any sale up) www.estatesales.net and www.estatesale.com as well as www.auctionzip.com are the best online resources for finding estate sales as well as auctions. Search train as well as railroad. It depends on the area that you are in but results are very spotty on these. If you live around Chicago you might find something every week- other areas are sparce. A lot of time what pops up is a single train set or lionel. It is also worth it to go through any sales listed in your area and look at the pictures, estate companies do not list every item and sometimes things are hidden in plain sight in the pics. Prices vary widely at these. Sometimes you get a deal sometimes you cringe at the price. Sometimes that is the case at the same sale! If you are looking for a specific item you probably won’t find it this way. Jim
The last two train shops in this area (one already gone for several years, the other closed just recently) both bought estate lots and also collections from modellers leaving the hobby.
I was at the former store on one occasion when an estate lot had just come in, and the owner claimed that he had payed in excess of $100,000 for it - entirely plausible, as this was a large store which always had an extensive amount of brass for sale. Much of what I saw that day was high-end craftsman-type kits, limited run stuff, unbuilt and in unopened (sealed) boxes. There was lots of brass, too.
Some stuff at both stores was, of course, not of such value, and it went to their “used” area, where prices were more in my range of affordability.
The second store, which closed recently, had an estate lot come in, and, in addition to some brass and other high-end stuff, had a fair amount of Bowser and Mantua kits. Nobody seemed interested in the latter, but I mentioned it to a friend whom I knew to be a fan of such stuff, and he got the entire lot (two or three Mantua Mikes and Pacifics, two Bowser Challengers, and a bunch of parts, including miscellaneous tenders, boilers, etc.), all for a hundred bucks.
If there’s a model railroad club in your area, they may know of upcoming events like that, but I also see a lot of tables at nearby train shows where a modeller is selling a deceased friend’s collection on behalf of his widow.
Many of the latter will sell the stuff in which you’re interested at reasonable prices, but a lot of the high-end items are not priced realistically (there’s another thread on-going, which deals with modellers’ (or their spouses’) erroneous opinions of what things might be worth. All too often, I see the same people, with the same stuff, at show after show…unwilling to face the reality that it may not be as valuable as they think.
Earlier this y
You can Google “auction house search engines” and will likely come up with some. However, these are flawed in my opinion as they tend to only show auction houses in the U.S.
If you go into advanced search in Google and check off countries you wish to search such as those in Europe and throw in countries like South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and others that are more likely to have an interest in North American MRR, these are the places where the real deals can be found, including some of the more rare items you may be looking for.
I have a good friend that is a collector of toy trains and cars and buys from all over the world. I came across a firetruck (mint in box) in Kenya at an auction that he got for $2.00. he had it shipped seamail for $13.00 and can sell it for about $150.00.
Wording is important in searches. Model railroading doesn’t wash outside of North America, you should use “toy trains” instead to get better results. As you learn to search you will learn how to phrase things for better results.
Maybe put an ad on craigslist, that you buy trains? Maybe not if you are looking for just a couple specific things. What I see for sale on craigslist tends to be overpriced trainset material.
When we have the discussion here, what happens when I die?, the consensus is most of us think our stuff is headed for the dumpster, not an estate sale.
Thabks for your thoughtful information. My goal is to cut out the hobby shop as an intermediary and buy from estates directly.
I haven’t been successful at all advertising my MR wants on Craigslist. Everytime those that reply just have ho train sets - - of the junk level. Thanks for the suggestions though.
I’ve tried www.estatesales.net but it’s so annoying to look through all the pictures looking for trains. I thought maybe there was a site, maybe sponsored by the NMRA, that handled just trains. Thanks for the info though!
Thanks for the suggestion but I don’t think it applies to me. I’m not looking for rare object or tinplate or brass, just regular US trains - - the kind I would have bought if I had the money in the '70s and '80s. No more Roundhouse kits for example but I would like the “Old Timey” 2-6-0 and 2-8-0. Of course there’s eBay but most selling there bought their stuff from estate auction so I’m looking to cut out the middleman.