How To Price Your Trains For Sale?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I’ve never sold any of my trains before but in the process of switching from HO to N it’s something I have to do. How does one appraise the value of their trains, especially if their locos or rolling stock has been built, and includes things such as weathering, Kadees, superdetail parts, lighting kits and new wheelsets?
Does it devalue or add value?

A hypothetical example – If I bought an Athearn locomotive 20 years ago for $30, and add Kadees, directional lighting, a DA snowplow and sunshades, replace the metal contact strips inside with soldered wires, weather it add weights inside and it runs even better than it did when I bought it, how much would it be worth today?

2

I don’t want to rain on your parade, but you probably wouldn’t get more than about $50 for it. There are just too many good running highly detailed diesels from Atlas, Kato, and P2K available. And Athearn has done some pretty good improvements to their diesels in recent years.

Andre

3

Unfortunately, a locomotive that old is not going to be worth as much as you paid for it way back then unless a buyer wants it for sentimental reasons more than to actually operate it. Or to put it another way, it’s worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it. If you have any model railroading swap meets in your area, attend one and see what similar items are selling for, if there are any; or look on e-Bay and see what the going prices are for similar locomotives.

4

Yep those guys are correct. Pre-owned/used/modified trains are rarely going to bring what you think they are worth.

Of course there are varying levels at which things are worth:

a. What would a model train shop owner give you in trade or cash

b. What would it bring on eBay (either too much or too little)

c. What would an ad in the paper bring

d. What would it be worth at a train show

Basically of course the minute you buy an HO scale train item it has depreciated in value about 75% before you even get it home.

The old standby always applies: your trains are worth what someone is willing to give you.

If you can find the right person who understands the modifications and improvements you have made to your cars and locomotives, you can command a higher price. Here in the store I usually can get about a dollar more for a used car if the Kadees are already installed and about another 2 dollars more if it has metal wheels.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever received though, about pricing, is if you price something too high…you can always come down in price. But if you price it too low, you can’t go up!

If you do plan on selling your items at a train show or something, I would be sure to leave yourself a little wiggle room as there are always going to be folks wanting to bargain the price down no matter how fair you are.

I would also add that thanks to eBay’s inflated prices for junk, you can get a lot more for some items than you used to get.

And now that a lot of folks “don’t have time for this hobby”…and the pre-built structures are taking hold, I’m also finding that used/already built structure kits - if done fairly well - can command a better price than they did a few years ago.

Well I hope that helps some. In that example of your improved Athearn engine, I would probably not get more than about 25 dollars for it here in my store, and feel lucky to get it.

There are a lot of variables to

5

Put the model on eBay, describe it as being “custom”, and it should bring a decent price. I’ve seen “custom” HO scale models going recently for $300.00 and $1200.00!

6

Your main killer is they are USE and there are brand new locomotives discounted down to bargain basement prices.As far as your custom work that will depend on how neat it is.Plus road name etc.

As far as E Bay that could be risky in more ways then one and may cost you more then you make…I read of such problems…

My best suggestion is a local train show or perhaps a fair trade to somebody going from N to HO.Perhaps a hobby shop can sell them on consignment.Then there are on line shops that buys large or small collections as well.

7

Once you take a train home from the hobby shop you cut its value in half. Once you take it out of its original package at home then you cut it’s value in half again. [:(]

8

If you do the ebay thing, don’t get carried away with all the add to’s that they offer. List the start at 99cents and don’t add resurve’s or anything like that and try to do it with one posted pic(meaning some have multibule pics collogged and post one pic which is free. Offer 10 items and one will go for 99cents a few will go for less than you want a few for more and one will ussually go for alot and on every once in a while one will sell for 10 times what I would pay at the local hobby shop and they are still in stock!!! GOOD LUCK

9

Some good advice here, but I don’t agree with starting at a very low price. This is an AUCTION! If bidders see a low price, I believe that will denigrate its value. For my items, each has a bottom price that I would except for it. I am not going to offer it for less than that. Rather than give it away, I would rather display it in my show case. Because it IS an auction, you can’t lower the price if it doesn’t sell. The only option would be to put a short bidding period on it and if it doesn’t fetch your price, offer it at a later date for a slightly lower price.

10

That is one way of looking at it, but it fails to take into account the psychology of the auction mentality. When an item is initially listed at a very low price (like 99 cents), it will attract people who normally wouldn’t even consider bidding if it was listed at a reasonable price. When people bid on an item the brain begins to think of it as “theirs.” The bidders become attached to it and there is a competitive thing that others are trying to take “their thing” away. So they keep bidding to keep someone from taking it away. This is the whole concept behind an auction and why they will often get prices for items that people would never pay off-the-shelf. The first trick with any auction is getting the first two bids. Then it is easier to get more bids, because if others are bidding it must be a good deal right? People who see an Athearn Genesis listed for $0.01 do not assume it is junk, they assume it is a real auction rather than an “on-line store”, and they think they might just get lucky and get it cheap, so they bid.

The problem with ebay is the set times for the auction ending, and hence the sniping and early terminations. A real auction doesn’t end until the bidding stops. I don’t know why they have not implemented this. It should be fairly easy for them to do.

11

I simply went to ebay and put my trains on auction with a low starting bid. Before very long the market place set the price for my trains. I did quite well with some of them. For example, I had a Lima SNCF (French Railway) engine that I bought in Europe 30 years ago for $10 and sold it for almost $50 on ebay after years of use and abuse (it was a quite used engine but ran fantastic!) The buyer was quite pleased and so was I.

12

I let the market on eBay decide what my trains are worth. Items that are a known quantity - items new in box or used stock items in good condition that shows well in pictures - are the easiest to sell on eBay. Think about it from the buyer’s perspective. On eBay, all you have is the description and a few pictures. If the item is a custom model, custom weathered, painted, heavily modified, or from an unknown manufacturer, I’m a lot more hesitant to bid top dollar - especially if there are no return privledges. I’m of the opinion that the more sharp, useful pictures, the better. Don’t waste time or money on fuzzy pics or repeated views of the same part of the model. Accurate descriptions are also key. I strive to have the buyer be able to trust that my description and pictures give him an accurate “picture” of what he is bidding on.

For the same reason, I will rarely sell blemished models, broken models, or models lacking parts on eBay. These types of items are too difficult for the seller to describe, the buyer to evaluate, and can end in disputes all too often. Most of the time these are garage sale items or donations to a friend who actually wants them. After all, my trains are not investments, they were purchased as part of my hobby expenditures.

On the other hand, eBay give you national or international exposure to a market that a hobby shop, train show, or newspaper ad cannot hope to reach.

Personally, I generally set the opening bid at about 25% of what I think the item should fetch. There is a risk that it will go lower than I would like, but I have mostly been pleasantly surprised. I had determined in advance I was going to sell the item anyway - the goal now is to get the best price for it. The lower opening prices bring more interest and almost guarantee that important 1st bid. Keep in mind that if a similar or same item is offered by a dealer at a “Buy it Now” price, the best yo

13

Hi as Texas Zepher said with ebay start it a price that will grab someones attention and we have had more success by adding a photo, Paypal etc . Another thing we have found is open the auction world wide ( not many auctions in the US ship worldwide here in the UK it’s only the extra postage thats the difference which the buyer pays so for me to post something to Seattle is no different to posting to London) by the way the UK £ goes heck of a long way at the moment almost 1to2.

Shaun