My dad was a avid reader of model railroader and Train as well.Sadly we lost dad this week and I came the new owner of his collection of model railroad magazines,books, and vhs tapes.I was wondering if anyone new if they have any value and where i could find model railroad enthusiasts interested in them Perhaps someone knows of a model rr club in the NJ area and if theirs no value I would gladly donate them.I would like to see someone get some use out of them.
If you go to the top of this page on the light gray line find RESOURCES, there you will find Model Railroad Groups, click on that and put in your zip code and milage and it will give you clubs near you. You can also just put in your state or states near you. You could also click on Comming Events to see if there are any upcoming shows in your area. Vendors often have back issues for sale, might find a buyer there.
Thank you for caring for his hobby enough to make items available to others to continue getting enjoyment from his things. I’m sure he would be pleased.
Used Model Railroader, Trains and other mainstream model magazines tend to go for 1 - 2 dollars, occasionally more. Others usually have no market, although a few like Northwest Shortline can go for more.
Used books depend on the book and can run from 5 to 200 dollars. Railroad hardbacks mostly are in the 25 to 75 range. Softbacks somewhat less. Used model railroad books are 5 to 20. But again it really depends on the book and whether or not it is currently in print. I have seen out of print books asking $150+ drop to $50 or less when a second edition comes out. I suggest you check Amazon and Ebay for your specific books.
VHS tapes, I have no idea, but this is DVD going to Blue Ray world so there may not be much market there.
Here’s the NMRA’s directory list of clubs for states NC to RI
Around these forums, we often will say prayers for such in the diner thread. [angel]
Since you are inquiring after their value, that will be fine among the forum rules. I just would like to alert you that if your post appears to be selling them here, however, your posts will be deleted by the forum administrators as there is no selling here on these forums.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do with the railroad memorabilia your late father had.
I too am sorry for your loss. I’ve lost my own Dad so I can relate…
If you can’t find a club interested in your Dad’s magazines perhaps consider speaking with
a local school librarian and see if he/she will display them for awhile. We can use all of the young
folks we can to keep our (and your Dad’s) hobby alive into the next couple of generations.
Perhaps they could be used as rewards selections for good behavior, etc. if nothing else.
I’m a retired school teacher and I’ve often seen kids attracted to a hobby just by seeing a magazine for the lst time.
If you have several schools in your town you might have to ask at several. Maybe see if any have a Modeling club which might be your best bet. You might even be able to use the donation as tax deduction but not sure about that.
My condolences on your loss. I lost my dad a little less than 8 years ago, and it still hurts.
If you want to get money for the magazines, your best bets are probably train shows or tag sales. At a recent tag sale, we unloaded a number of old magazines for $0.50 each, half that if they were in poor shape.
Since Kalmbach is currently publishing the entire history on a DVD-ROM, I doubt you’ll find many people who will by them for content.
Really, though, that’s the kind of thing that can be a wonderful donation to a library or school.
As someone planning to purchase the new DVD set for Christmas, I also have a great many old paper MRs that will need to be disposed of (I am keeping the most recent ones pending release of supplemental DVDs in coming years. One thought I had was to see if assisted living facilities might want them, as most libraries are trending toward scanned electronic resource collections for periodicals, and really are not good customers for old paper collections. My late father spent several years in ALFs before he passed at the regional VA hospital in early 2008 and those places seemed to have a dearth of reading material. The old folks at these places, I feel, would enjoy our magazine, as it relates to their younger years and has many images of real and modeled transition-era railroads. It would be easy to call around in your local area, or perhaps list them on your local Craig’s List, to increase their visibility as to their availability. I know there is no monetary return, but as we all are growing older, helping those who got there ahead of us seems like a good thing to do. Cedarwoodron
I’d like to add my condolences to the others’ passed on to you. If you’d like to donate them, try contacting your nearest VFW or church group. I donated a couple of boxes of old MR issues to be sent to the troops serving overseas.
The LION has a huge collection of old MR. I thought that I would put them on eBay, but when I considered the shipping (in excess of $100) I realized what their true worth is. They are still sitting in the basement of the library building. Give them to a local hobby shop, and let them give them away to kids interested in the hobby.
I tried,in vain, to off load 30 years of MR, RMC, Trains and a few titles that came and went, They were all in binders and had survived 7 moves over the years. When home renovations finally dictated they had to go somewhere, I donated them to the local public radio station for their fundraiser auction. They were snapped up.
If you can find a similar venue, it would be a fitting tribute to your dad. My sympathies.