I started my PayPal account for Ebay and I am cringing at the amount of work I will need to list my trains I will be selling, pictures, descriptions, mailing, and tracking, bad buyers…etc. I am trying to weight the balance of listing on ebay or packing things up and buying a table at the local train meet this year. What is the best way to sell your trains these days? As always thanks for input!
There are a few companies that buy trains from individuals. Trainz.com is one:
Not sure how their buy prices compare with Ebay. They buy both pre/post war and modern stuff. If you do a search online you will find other places that buy trains. The new rules at Ebay have a lot of people upset. If you look in the two toy train mags (CTT and OGR), you will find advertsiers who buy trains.
Dep
Charles Siegel at Train City is still actively buying, I think. I’ve never sold to him, but I have bought from him, and he seems like a real stand-up kinda guy.
Thanks Dep! but it seems selling to a dealer I would probably get 50 cents on the dollar and I am not in a real hurry to sell… I have some collectable items and some not… so I guess if I have the time to find the perfect home for them at the right sale price, just wanted what is the best way to advertise them. I have multiple scale items, custom painted, tons of HO, some K-line, Lionel collectibles, and lots of American Flyer items… Ebay seems the right thing, but not sure the ins and the outs… never sold on it before.
Hi!
I have been an active buyer/seller of trains (postwar Lionel & HO) on Ebay for the past several years. I hold sales auctions each wintertime, and last year I held 100 of them. All in all, 86 sold, and all transactions went very well (thanks to PayPal). I did fairly well moneywise, but as you indicated, there is a lot of work involved. I’m retired and an old hand at this, so it was not as painful as it would be to others.
But before you run out and sell them “en masse” to a buyer, let me ask a few questions…
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Are the locos on the higher end of the market value spectrum?
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Are they complete with boxes and packaging? Are they in Like New or Mint in Box condition?
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How many items are we talking about?
If you have higher end desireable items, especially with packaging, I would urge you to sell on Ebay in December/January. Space your actions so that you have only a portion ending each week. And of course those that don’t sell the first week can be relisted later (for no additional charge). If you have a lot of items that fall in this category, you can spread them over two/three months - and you should do better than at a show.
One other avenue I used was to sell direct to a fellow collector. He bought over $1000 of stuff, but returned almost half of them the following week. I will not sell to him again.
Of course your “stuff” may be items considered “common” and/or very good condition and if that is the case, I would say its a toss-up as to which would be the way to go.
One last thing… I have been wrestling with the decision to sell off my postwar collection. I’ve got about $8k in it, but unfortunately I bought most of the items during the boom of the 1990s. However, I seriously doubt I would get $4k out of them if I sold them today.
So, it looks
J,
I don’t mean to be nosy, but why are you selling?? Is it simply to ‘thin the herd’, or are you leaving the hobby?? It seems you post often and it was kind of a shock to see you posting a thread such as this. I was just curious…
[quote user=“mobilman44”]
Hi!
I have been an active buyer/seller of trains (postwar Lionel & HO) on Ebay for the past several years. I hold sales auctions each wintertime, and last year I held 100 of them. All in all, 86 sold, and all transactions went very well (thanks to PayPal). I did fairly well moneywise, but as you indicated, there is a lot of work involved. I’m retired and an old hand at this, so it was not as painful as it would be to others.
But before you run out and sell them “en masse” to a buyer, let me ask a few questions…
-
Are the locos on the higher end of the market value spectrum?
-
Are they complete with boxes and packaging? Are they in Like New or Mint in Box condition?
-
How many items are we talking about?
If you have higher end desireable items, especially with packaging, I would urge you to sell on Ebay in December/January. Space your actions so that you have only a portion ending each week. And of course those that don’t sell the first week can be relisted later (for no additional charge). If you have a lot of items that fall in this category, you can spread them over two/three months - and you should do better than at a show.
One other avenue I used was to sell direct to a fellow collector. He bought over $1000 of stuff, but returned almost half of them the following week. I will not sell to him again.
Of course your “stuff” may be items considered “common” and/or very good condition and if that is the case, I would say its a toss-up as to which would be the way to go.
One last thing… I have been wrestling with the decision to sell off my postwar collection. I’ve got about $8k in it, but unfortunately I bought most of the items during the boom of the 1990s. However, I seriously doubt I would get $4k out of them if I sold them today.&
Oh no! Just thinning the Herd! Perish the thought, really just changing scales, HO goes mostly eastern railroads, my dad’s collection goes back on the wall S gauge, and now I can focus on building that O gauge layout with gargraves track! However if you asked the wife she would relish the thought of me getting out of the Hobby. I figured I would meet her half way and start selling items I will not be using to expand in other directions!!! I hope to start a new thread on the progress of the new layout… stay tuned.
J: You can also try selling on the OGR forum location…
http://ogaugerr.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/frm/f/1961048701
I checked here, but I don’t see a forum for selling stuff. Would be kinda cool if we could sell to the guys we talk to on a daily basis.
Have you used this system? I wonder how the turn around is. I will have to investigate. Thanks for the heads up!
I haven’t used it yet. I have some MTH RealTrax that I want to get rid of and plan on putting it up for sale there. OGR has a pretty large membership so the ads should reach plenty of folks.
I have sold to dealers, at train shows, thru clubs like TCA and LCCA and on Ebay. I think the best response, overall, has been on Ebay.
If you sell to a dealer, you will get 40 to 50% of the book price, if that. But no muss, no fuss either.
If you get a table at a train show, you will get about 70% of book price if you are lucky, and you will have to haggle over each item and still not sell much stuff. You have to take it all in, set up and sit with your table all day and repack and take home what didn’t sell. It can still be a fun thing to do, regardless of what sells, but be aware of the work involved and be realistic about the results expected.
Join TCA or LCCA, etc. and you can list items on their website for free and pay no commissions, etc. However, it can be slow going to sell stuff. If you are patient and willing to price the stuff at 75% (or less) of book price, etc., this can work OK. I know the LCCA site now lets you show photos, too.
Ebay requires some work, but once you get the hang of it, you can do it pretty easily. Yes, you pay premiums, but you are exposing your items to a vast, vast audience. If you want to sell your stuff relatively fast, this is the way to go, IMO.
J. Daddy: E-Bay has a “Help” section with most of the FAQ. (Look along the top right). They also have a “Live Chat” capability for specific questions and/or problems (which I have used).
Good Luck!
Hi!
Wow, 500 - 1000 items is sure a lot! If getting the money was a high priority, I would start by taking the top 100 or so highest value items and get them ready for a winter Ebay sale.
As you are new to it, I would start now with some relatively minor items just to get yourself established and experienced in the process. Hold off on the high value items until Thanksgiving week and then do about 20 auctions a week or so. Ebay has a lot of info to help you with the process, and it would serve you to check it out thoroughly beforehand.
To answer your questions…
How long does it take you to photo items and post? Well, as I do a lot of auctions, I go at it in a mass production sort of way. I set up a backdrop and take all the pictures at one time, and put them into a separate file on my PC. Go in and change the label on each picture to identify it so you can easily find it when you do your listing.
Then I set up an Excel spreadsheet for each item, with columns for date of auction, item, postage, purchaser, money received and in what form, insurance, date mailed, etc.
Then about a week before the first auctions I start to load them into Ebay. If you post like items first (i.e. HO kits, Lionel postwar locos, Lionel cars, modern cars, etc.), you will soon develop some shortcuts and it will go pretty fast. The neat thing about loading is that you can set your auctions to go off at a later date (rather than the minute you enter them), as much as 3 or 4 weeks in the future.
But to answer your question directly, it could take a good 15 minutes to list each item from start to finish if you are “experienced”.
Regarding the re-list, you can relist the item a couple of times for free for the same time length which is typically 1 week.
Regarding the starting price… Some folks start high and some low - and will swear that’s the best way to go. My thing
You will certainly get more exposure on eBay, but as they mentioned, will be more work and supposedly, with new rules going into affect, can be a bit of a pain in the old keaster. I don’t like paypal and would not go there, but that is just me. Other options are OGR where Dep suggested. I have bought from folks listing there and was very pleased with the transaction. Guy even sent the item (A TMCC engine) before he got the check. Another place to list would be www.choochooauctions.com which is the auction site for Traincity (Charlie Seagul’s site). His is a smaller site with less exposure, but I am sure he is easier to deal with.
Dennis
Here’s another auction place where I’ve had good luck finding stuff:
http://www.trainz.com/marketplace/
It’s run by the same outfit as the link I provided for direct sales.
Dep
Hi again!
Regarding PayPal, may I put in my 10 cents???
In my last two years of winter auctions, I was signed up for PayPal. I feel strongly that this is one service that definitely nets out to be a “help”, especially if you have many auctions going.
The advantages (to me) are:
-
Buyers are much more inclined to bid (and bid high) when they can “charge it”! They don’t need the cash in hand, don’t need to get a money order, don’t have mailing delays, and if they use a check they don’t have that 5-7 day wait that so many sellers (including me) impose.
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Sellers know that once PayPal sends them the confirmation, the money is safe in hand. Most of the buyers (about 85% last year, about 70% the year before) obviously use this service, and from this seller’s point of view, it makes the process much simpler to track.
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Of course the seller pays for this service, depending on the value of the transaction. I feel strongly that - in my situation - it pretty much pays for itself. By this I mean that IMHO, more people are likely to bid, the bids on several items were higher than anticipated, there are no worries of bad checks, etc., and some of the tracking is done for you.
All that being said, selling “en masse” on Ebay is not an easy task, so please don’t attempt it if you are not ready to play by the rules and do a good job.
For what its worth…
Mobilman44
Agree with you 100% mobilman. If something is for sale on Ebay, and it only can be paid for with check or money order, I just don’t buy it, no matter how badly I want or need it. I even went so far as to get a Pay Pal Master Card for use specifically on Ebay.
[quote user=“mobilman44”]
Hi!
Wow, 500 - 1000 items is sure a lot! If getting the money was a high priority, I would start by taking the top 100 or so highest value items and get them ready for a winter Ebay sale.
As you are new to it, I would start now with some relatively minor items just to get yourself established and experienced in the process. Hold off on the high value items until Thanksgiving week and then do about 20 auctions a week or so. Ebay has a lot of info to help you with the process, and it would serve you to check it out thoroughly beforehand.
To answer your questions…
How long does it take you to photo items and post? Well, as I do a lot of auctions, I go at it in a mass production sort of way. I set up a backdrop and take all the pictures at one time, and put them into a separate file on my PC. Go in and change the label on each picture to identify it so you can easily find it when you do your listing.
Then I set up an Excel spreadsheet for each item, with columns for date of auction, item, postage, purchaser, money received and in what form, insurance, date mailed, etc.
Then about a week before the first auctions I start to load them into Ebay. If you post like items first (i.e. HO kits, Lionel postwar locos, Lionel cars, modern cars, etc.), you will soon develop some shortcuts and it will go pretty fast. The neat thing about loading is that you can set your auctions to go off at a later date (rather than the minute you enter them), as much as 3 or 4 weeks in the future.
But to answer your question directly, it could take a good 15 minutes to list each item from start to finish if you are “experienced”.
Regarding the re-list, you can relist the item a couple of times for free for the same time length which is typically 1 week.
Regarding the starting price… Some folks start high and some low - and will swear that’s the best
If you Have them doit you either have to charge outragous shipping and people will bid low or you end up eatting some of the shipping so you get decent bids your better off packing them your self and taking them to post office and you can order free priority boxes from WWW.USPS.COM and you may even want some flat rate boxes while your there there free too.