Not sure just what to tell you. The only layout I have seen for sale had been purchased by a “stuff” (mostly furniture) dealer. It was something like a 5x10, medium skill looking layout. He took a beating by the time he sold it. Don’t know what he paid for it, he’d just say “too much” after he’d tried to sell it and gotten some offers. I never did hear how he got rid of it, and it had a full complement of buildings, vehicles, figures, engines and rolling stock.
I think you have an advantage that it is small and wouldn’t take up much room for the buyer while they decided if model railroading was for them (or their child, whoever). You might do better if it had a train to go with it, so they would be buying a complete starter package.
Afraid you will not get a price to cover your expenses, say nothing of time and skills. Just say the experience and skill building was what you got out of it. You might try a peditricians office or your LHS to see if they are interested.
For a dollar figure you could try figuring the cost of the major parts (kits, track, power pack, train, if you add one), then add a percentage (5 or 10) to cover scenic materials, wiring and your time. If it doesn’t sell you can lower the price. There’s always the e-bay option, but to me trying to ship a layout and get it there looking anything like it did when you sent it would be a formatable task.
The only layouts that can actually sell for anything near what they cost are professionally built. They’re better than what the average model railroader will create on his own. Otherwise, these kinds of sales almost always lose money.
By the way, one of your locos must be out of oil by now with that huge, heavy leak that runs down he middle of the track!
Your best bet might be to get it running well, and donate it to say a local children’s hospital or Ronald McDonald house, and use the expense as a charitable contribution tax deduction on your 1040 next year. As others have noted, I doubt you’re going to get too much for it, it’s a pretty simple layout that many people could build for themselves as a first layout. But you could get a little something off your taxes, and give some kids who need it a little something to take their mind off of things.
BTW with the black streak, I thought it was a three-rail layout at first glance!! [:D]
And for my two cents worth-- I am going to make a big assumption here, that despite our all having different aspects of the hobby that we like, we tend to share this one: We like building our own layouts.
A kid would love it as a turn-key, ready to go, layout. Any kid able to afford what it is worth would be wanting to build his own instead.
I really like the idea of giving to an appropriate aged nephew, neighbor or otherwise, Ronald McDonald House or local Children’s Hospital.
Final solution: Keep the structures, scrape up any turnouts and salvageable track and make a test track out of those and then build something new.
I was going to stay out of this to avoid piling on, but…
As Crews said, almost all of us prefer to build our own layouts. And if it’s being bought as a gift for a kid by mostly clueless parents, the $100 threshold is probably the ceiling for a “toy” not bought from a store. Reality is that the layout appears to be a nicely done expansion of a train set - minus the train. Not too difficult for anyone else to replicate.
Personally, I’d offer you $25-$30. That’s not what you want to hear, so I’ll explain why. The track plan as is doesn’t lend itself to much operation, except watching a train chase its tail. You used Lifelike track, which appears to only come in 9.75" radius (according to my quick web search). The curves are going to limit what I can/want to run. You have one siding, but no spurs to switch. The power pack is plain cheap, and will need to be replaced if I want to add some switching operations. Turnouts will need to be added, and the scenery revamped for the new track plan. I can buy train sets with track and power pack at garage sales for pennies on the dollar, and not have much more work to do to arrive at the same end destination.
Shipping would be the final straw. This would not be cheap to ship, and the chance for damage is high. I would want to pick it up personally to avoid damage, and reduce transport costs. This means I would not to travel more than 100 miles to pick up the layout.
To get over the $100 threshold, I believe you are going to have to offer at least the original train set with the layout. Otherwise, as others have said, you would be better off stripping the layout and selling the track and structures separately.
Hope I’m wrong, and you really do get your $250. That would mean what I have is worth a lot more than I ever expected.
