I ‘m a United Methodist Pastor serving a parish in Southwestern Montana, and I have a model railroad dilemma… I have always had a love for Model railroading since my younger years …and though I have not been involved with the hobby for a number of years…I still try to get a layout up for Christmas. A few years ago I was an interim Pastor in Butte, Montana… While making a pastoral call to one of my parishioners I discovered that he was a model railroader and had a huge lay out in his basement…unfortunately age and complications from Polio had kept him out of the basement for a number of years. I worked with him and his wife and managed make it possible for him to return to his layout…I spent close to 6 days cleaning track, chasing shorts, and tuning up engines, and teaching myself how to work with a Digitrak(sp) system…(something he had put in just before his health went south and never had the opportunity to tryout…) before I got it up and running …the look in his eyes when he heard the trains running was worth all the effort…the next three months I spent every Thursday in the basement with this kind gentleman, running the trains, working on engines and talking trains… it was truly a remarkable time…sadly I was transferred to my current appointment, and the 100 mile drive limited my visits to once every 3 months….then at the age of 93 this kind old railroader slipped through the veil and on to his heavenly reward ( that was 2 years ago)&hellip
There are several ads in the classifieds in the back of the MR listing dealers who buy estates and collections. If you try to sell it “piece meal” you will just get “cherry picked” for the desirable items and be stuck with the rest.
I would start with Dan Glasure at Dan’s Train World and go from there, he is a reputable dealer and will probably give you as much as most any others would.
An appraisal is important, and it must be done by a neutral party…not by a dealer who is also interested in purchasing. Or if cost is a possible issue, than ask several reputible dealers to submit a bid, and then go with the best.
A lot will depend on what is there and how much. If there are brass locos, brass rolling stock, and well done kit built or scratch items, than an appraisal is even more important. if items are RTR plastic cars and locos, don’t expect too much, unless in volume. A dealer today for brass will offer a maximum of 60% for brass with the average being now just under 50% of street value. Good kit built items should bring wholesale offers close to 45% of street value. Common plastic RTR…possibly 20%. O f course this is predicated on condition and status of item (is it stll in production?)
I was recently asked to look at large lot of trains from an older widow. There were hundreds of brass locos, and quality items…literally a whole basement full. Since I sold my brass business, I was helping her out as an advisor. She has some very low offers from several local dealers, but somehow knew that she would have been taken advantage of. My suggestion was to hire a college kid part time with a strong computer background and list as much as possible on Ebay. Then do the packaging and shipping. She followed through with this and it worked well until the student had to leave, I do not know what happend to the remainder of the trains, but she was getting close to street value, even after salary and Ebay fees.
Even though I am a promoter of a large train show, I still advise folks with a mess of choo choos and little knowledge of the value to be careful. The good side is there will always be several vendors who will make an offer for the entire lot, and then the party can get a fair idea of the wholesale value. This is of course assuming that the person is willing to sell at wholesale.
Contact a local model railroading clubs. They have most likely people there, who are able to give you a fair appraisal of the value as a good first indication of what you can expect to get out of selling this layout.
That’s excellent advice Howard and a very good idea, however the “location” of this is a bit off the beaten path and because of that I suggested Dan’s or someone like that. If they were anywhere close to a populated area your advice would be strictly followed if it were me, but this is not the case here.
As for having the local model RR club involved, assuming there is one within driving distance, I have found over the years that they usually know about as much about the value of model RR equipment as I do about used space shuttles, and some of the biggest crooks I have ever meant in this hobby are model RR club members, not all certainly but enough to make me very apprehensive about having them doing anything concerning values.
If there is any “brass” involved one consideration might be to place these items on consignment with Caboose Hobbies in Denver. They charge a 20% commission but handle “all” of the details including listing the items on their web pages and they get world wide coverage. As for non-brass items I would refer to my original suggestion.
Hi there brother. I retired from the UMC 12 years ago after 40 years in the pulpit. I then got back into the hobby for my 70th birthday. It has been fun. I finaly have the time and the space to build what I only drempt of since I was 14.
Concerning your dilemma. You have good advice so far. Selling a lot of stuff is HARD. Ebay works but takes months of work. A dealer will take it all, but at a LOW price. I was in a similar situation and we rented a table at a local train flea market and sold all the good stuff as a fair price, but it took weeks of work and we had the availble flea market in town.
I have also had the situation of a parishoner who was dieing showing me his stuff and it was all cheap toy trains and nothing collectible. It was worth nothing. I sometimes think I should have lied and taken the stuff.
Concerning the layout, unless it is already in modular form, it will be worth more disasembled and sold for scrp.
What will be worth something are brass engines and craftsman buildings, and then you have to find a buyer.
I had a friend who got out of HO and brought all his stuff to the NMRA Division sale and I got most of the good stuff for less than $200.
Getting fair value is REALLY hard, at least in Minnesota. With all the new stuff, the old is less valuable and there is SO MUCH of it availble. At a local flea market there will be thousands of engines and rolling stock.
Good luck, but the pastoral challenge may be to help the family adjust to how much more the train was worth to their loved one than to the general public.
Another option is to see if a local model RR group is a registered non-profit organization, then donate the whole layout to them. It is important to get an independant appraisal so the group can provide a letter with their non-profit registration number documenting the donation. This can then be applied to the owner’s estate as a charitable donation and reduce the inheritance taxes on the estate or to the widow’s income tax. This is something for the estate’s lawyer and accountant to be involved in as well. The tax write off from a donation would probably exceed the cash that could be had from selling to a dealer or on E-Bay (not to mention all the hassle of getting it documented and listed)
I volunteer with the Boothbay Railnway Village in Maine, and we have had a number of donations like this for our model RR group. The distance between Maine and Montana is probably not practicle for us, however.
A lot depends on what is there, creating an inventory is important. If he had two dozen brass steam engines, they probably will sell for a good price. Otherwise, good used engines like Atlas diesels are going to be worth something, particularly if they’re in a limited run paint scheme. Unfortunately a lot of times, most things turn out to not be worth that much. This older gent might well have a lot of old carefully constructed wood craftsman’s kits of freight cars, passenger cars, and buildings, things that he put a lot of work and effort into. However, except to a collector of such things (which is pretty rare), there’s no market for them and they probably won’t sell at all.
The family should let you decide what to do with it since you got it all running again and put so much time in. Since they can’t see this and want to make a couple of bucks I’d pass on the suggestions given here and move on. If they want to benefit from it they should lift a finger and do some of the work. They should also understand that model railroad equipment typically sells for much less than what was paid for it.
My humble apologies for not responding sooner but pastoral duties have kept me busy …I want to thank everyone for their suggestions …Gar did not have much in the way of scratch built stuff…and there are a few Brass engines …but for the most part it is just stuff…As easy as it would be to walk away and let the family deal with it…I can’t…so it looks as though I will be doin’ an inventory after the first of the year…
Pastor Art your comment about the pastoral challenge is right on the mark…though a lot of blood, sweat and love went into the layout it still just stuff but it will take some doin’ to help them see that aspect of this situation… I am reminded of the old adage "my biggest fear is that after I die my wife will sell my stuff for what I told her I paid for it…”
Again Thank you all, for your time and suggestions…
Not being rude and maybe playing devil’s advocate {no pun intended}:
the problem is some stuff many be worth something , some not. you yourself have referred to it as "but for the most part it is just stuff" and that is the key. To anybody without an experienced collectors eye, it is “just stuff”, and the experienced collector will want it for a song so they can make a killing on it.
I think your best bet has been stated: I would contact the estate buyers and get bids from all you can as suggested above, and select the best offer. Or see if an auctionhouse nearby will handle the sale-If they know somehting about trains. SOme items will end up going for cheap that may be valuable, but “stuff” holds little value to anyone who doesn’t want it, and the family clearly doesn’t. They shouldn’t expect to get rich from selling it either, as it may be worth nothing.
While getting a fair price would be a goal, doing so can be an arduous task. There may be a gold mine there, and it may all really just be “stuff’”.
The layout, unless it was buit as mods, probably isn’t worth much and would likely be scrapped. It could be sold at auction for as much as someone wants to take the effort to remove it IF they want to. THe problem is as you said…it took you time to figure out the wiring and while there are standards for such, doesn’t mean those were foll
I am sure you know this, but if there are a few brass steam engines, you have a different situation there. Some of them are worth thousands and all are worth hundreds. In my situation, I could not walk away either and ended up in a flea market. We priced the few good things at a fair value and the rest at garage sale price. We sold almost everything. We made sure that people knew it was an estate sale. That seems to make a difference to buyers.
Another perspective- here in west central FL, there are a number of dealers who are regulars at quarterly flea markets, but who are on the go to other areas in the state each weekend. If you get a list of several, and can supply a spreadsheet roster of the total of the inventory, then you might be able to get competitive bids forthe whole lot- or set up a list of the “just stuff” type things, like Athearn BB cars and Bachman diesels, and another select list of the really potentially valuable items- brass, well-crafted plastic locos and diesels, etc. Then you could make more informed decisions about the best offer to take- or what to offer, etc.
And even though it’s “just stuff”, it was this man’s hobby and pleasure over his many years. If you become the conduit for some of what he had being enjoyed by others on into the future, then the blessing accrues to you for having done so.
The big variable to me is: what does the family want out of this? If they are looking to make money I don’t think I’d get any more involved than helping inventroy it andproviding contact info for colletion buyers.
On the other hand if they simply want the items to go to a good home and not just in the trash I like the idea of donating it. Perhaps the complete layout given to a childrens hospital, ,maybe Make A wish, or some such.
If they are in between, say need money for funeral expenses, then I wouldn’t be offended if they sold the brass loco’s and donated te remainder.
Art, I know MN is a big place, but do you know of anyone in Ben’s part of the state that could take an independant look at this layout and provide some guidance on its worth?
There is always the Helena and Missoula shows to go and try to sell things. The Helena one is bigger, but may be a problem for you as it is usually on a Sunday.