One of the fellows from the local railroad club recently moved into an Old Folks home.
He has over the years collected a lot of HO model railraod locomoitives and passanger and freight cars. His wife brought the items to the local hobby shop to sell.
The shop wants 25% for the first 60 days that the item is in the shop and if the item has not sold in the 60 days m the shop charges rise to 35%? THe shopo at this point will set the price to what it considers as current market value.
Is this really the going reate for hobby shops with consignment goods?
Some of the fellows at the railroad club have offered to take care of the goods by disposing for the items at e-bay. Even with e-bay charges I think e-bay would be the way to go, especially when you hav vounteers to acutally post the items.
Consignment shops for other goods - such as clothing- typically get around 50% of the sale price when the item sells. Its a 50/50 proposition.
Or in other shops Credits can be given based on a sales price of half {or less} for the item if the shop “buys” it from the seller, or when the seller “trades in” for new clothing off the shops racks. Some even allow one to “trade in for credit” at about 50% or even less, I’ve seen as low as a 30%- 1/3 of what the item is expected to sell for.
If the item {for basic consignment shops} doesn’t sell in 30 or 60 days, the owner must take it back. They can bring it back later, but it will be at a different price because it den’t sell at the previous price.
I am not sure how the “trade in” or “the Buy” stores handle items not sold…since they already gave the “credit or cash:” to the trader-inner. They probably mark it down as a retail store would as they then have the item owned by them and already “paid for” trough trade or cash back to the original seller-trader-inner.
All these consignment shops are usually picky now. they won’t take grandma’s clothes just cause she passed away and you want to get rid of them. They have to be saleable and make money so as not to take up valuable space from clothing that will sell. It will depend on their marketing strategy- if they are vintage clothing maybe g-mas clothing will sell, if Current market for kids…only good durable recently used clothes will work…not Sears Tufskins jeans found in the attic.
Places like Salvation Army or Goodwill will sell off clothing not good enough for selling in their shops to manufacturers who buy cotton clothing or the plastic fabrics for use in their products… your old cotton ripped jeans may end up in a dollar bill if sold to the USA mint as scrap cotton for rag paper!
So It doesn’t seem to me that the hobby shop owner is out of line. Ebay is always a crap shoot as to what someone will pa
There is a comprehnsive listing of all of the train items indicating how old the items is the manufacturere, the road name, and for rolling stock if it has kadee couplers and metal wheels. The list was sent to a few of those model railroader estate buyers who advertise in the model railroad magazines.
I was astonished at how little they offer, quite frankly I thing the hobby shop would bring more money to the owner than if they were to sell to these estate buyers.
Mind you I was advised that the hobby shops rates are actually quite good as most charge more.
I agree, e-bay is the way to go, however, not until fall or winter. Prices on e-bay for items such as model railroad items take a big drop in the summer.
20% Consignment is pretty standard. I don’t know if greed is the right word but percentages listed are higher than I’ve ever heard, both in model train consignment or other area’s like jewelry etc.
In the past I consigned trains at an LHS shop in a city where I used to live, I marked them at prices which I figured would sell, basically significantly below the original MSRP, and most of the items sold withing 1 or 2 months. The shop to 20% and I spent the remainder there on merchandise.
If you can’t get the standard 20% or close to it, then yes, go Ebay or maybe a Yahoo Groups email list for selling.
Sell it on HO Yard sale, now known has HO Interchange on the Yahoo boards and maximize your friend’s value. The fee the hobby shop quoted you is nearly obscene. 10-12% is considered industry standard. Ebay…well, I have my opinion of them, we’ll leave it at that.
Another option is to sell the stuff at a train show. I frequently see this at train shows. The Great Scale Train Show (which has allowed toy train sales for a few years now) has a White Elephant table where they sell on a 15% commission or rent your own table (or half table).
It’s a business, and a take it or leave it proposition, no one is forcing the person to go this route so how would it be a “rip off”. Hobby shops are are there to make a profit, not provide a charity service. If 25% is too high, negotiate a lower % and if they won’t budge, go elsewhere. Its called a free market, although it seems this country has forgotten how that works.
Those of us in business understand this, not sure why some people think they are entitled.
I agree with Rich, Ebay would be the best method for all the reasons he listed. Broader market, better prices.
I don’t think Jeffrey was suggesting a hobby shop work for free and you seem to be putting word in his mouth by saying so. I think he only agree’d that the percentage seemed to be (in his words) a rip off compared to the long standing standard of 20%, which in my 53 years has pretty much been universal for a long time.
Now anyone can ask any percentage or price they want, but anyone who didn’t fall off a turnip truck yesterday usually has a clue about what is fair and normal and what is not normal. Of course if I saw 20% most places and I found a shop doing 35+ percent, duh, I"m gonna walk. 25%? thats at least isn’t far off the long time consignment rate so I might still work with that. Anyhow, what bothers me about your post is you seem to be accusing another guy here of expecting hobby shops to do a service for free which is putting words in his mouth. Of course shops should be able to make a profit, we all 100% agree with that so it goes without saying, no need to clobber someone over the head with this.
I had an internet dealer sell some stuff for me over the last year. He took 30-35% (after fees) based on how much it sold for. I could have made more money if I sold the stuff myself, but there was a lot of stuff, and I didn’t feel up to the dealing with the logistics of the matter. The internet dealer wrote the listings, he dealt with the customers, and he handled the shipping.
The hobby shop I usually deal with doesn’t do consignment any more. They will buy items outright and resell them.
When dealing with a hobby shop or similar dealer in used items, the seller generally has to sell at wholesale, and the dealer will sell at retail.
If you sell it yourself, you have to keep in mind you are going to take certain costs; time, shipping, advertising. Those costs are going to be reflected in the selling price, one way or another.
One thing about selling items yourself, on eBay or any other site, is the need to package and ship the items. If you have a lot of stuff to sell, you are going to need a lot of boxes and packing material.
But, packing up model railroading stuff is a lot easier than finding boxes for golf clubs. Trust me, I know.
Welp, I agree with the 20% rule … except if the dealer is doing something more to draw attention to the item(s). Then it is up to the seller to decide if that extra percentage points are worth it. Ebay is good also and probably will return the most $$$ per item. If you get somebody else to ‘do the ebay thing’ expect a 50/50 split; or worse.
One thing that I didn’t read - Make sure the whomever the consigner is has insurance to cover loss for this type of thing. That prize item can disappear and the consigner can say ‘beats me’ and you are out those dollars AND the item. Civil court costs; both time and money. The chances of that are probably greater than a break in, flood or fire.
I have been reading this thread with some interest as I have a 30 year career dealing with the financial side of small retailers.
Ebay might well bring a better return assuming the person wants to go to the trouble. If you do it yourself then your time might not be worth anything but for a commercial establishment, time costs money.
As for 20% not being enough to make it worth a hobby shops time, this was the argument I got from my LHS after he had been selling my consignment stuff for some months, and then abruptly handed back a bag of the most recent stuff I had given him. Fine, but as he talked more, he mentioned I didn’t spend enough money at his shop and he noticed (probably he was stalking posts I made on train forums) that I spend more money on popular interent vendors than his shop. So in the end it wasn’t that he decided to stop consigning stuff, it was just sour grapes, cause I continued to noticed consignemnt stuff on his shelves on the few occasions I darkened his door after that incident. So attitudes and emotions obviously are at play or some stores wouldn’t take consignment in the first place would they?
Now if it has gotten to be unprofitable, then thats the business changing and well, it is unprofitable for a lot of things due to the internet now - such as magazines, news papers and many other things. If a hobby shop can no longer make it, the obvious course is to close and find another way to make a living. After all, that is what many of us have already had to do umpteen times when or job field has gone “south” and we had to retrain an