I am not sure what to make of this, even now… I have had such a great run of luck as of late… All of us are healthy, our business is moving out of the garage and into an commercial office space so we can grow… More work than we can do… that is partially why I came to find this excellent stash of HO Scale trains. We hired a lady to clean house once weekly, and she was kind enough to mention (when she saw my train room) that her father had been a model railroader before he died… The conversation went on and she asked would I be interested in taking a look at the trains- her mom wanted them out of the house… I agreed. I was shocked when I saw all there was- Amtrack set… No the big one, Daylight in both steam and the F7 A&B consist, two E8 AB sets, over 100 assorted freight cars in some pretty rare road names, The Chrome Sante Fe passenger set, the one with 3 passenger cars, a standard sante fe passenger set (war bonnet)but it had 6 cars (heavyweights), a rather large UP passenger set 12 cars this one has an F7 ABB set as its motive power, two all brass steamers-a mike, and a consolidated, a pair of SD40s in SF, An Alco RS1 in SF, two sets of SD40-2 in BN, a gandy dancer, and a tyco trolley. Also a couple of dozen buildings, 3 dual cab power packs- One MRC the others TEch II, two other Tech II packs, some sort of remote control packs that were wired into the control panel, about 2 miles of wire, 12 switch contols, 3 selectors, a controller, and nearly 2 dozen lights, many wired into relays. I assume to control signals. this isn’t everything, just what comes to mind right now.
I was interested, but I refused to set a value. I told them to call any of the three hobby shops in town, or one of the auctioneers to set a value. A week went past, we talked again and I have to say- I got it for a song, but it was a lot of work to box up,pack carefully, and hike up and out of a basement. It all ran, all appeared to be in good condition, and there were boxes and papers for most
I would keep it all in the boxes for now and work on the Office. When things settle down, take out one box per week or month and carefully consider the contents. Keep what you really weawly want… and ebay the rest out of that box.
Pack the weawly keepers in a box and mark it with your name. Someday you will run those trains. Pack the Ebay items in it’s own box and soon enough, your wife will see that you are serious about selling those items on ebay.
Eventually that large stash you hauled home will have two smaller piles. Your trains that you will keep and use for most certain and the rest to be sold. Then you and your spouse can discuss how best to use the revenue AFTER the selling is finished and the fees paid.
At the end of the day, you will have trains to be happy with and a wife who understood that you could keep some but not all the stuff you dragged out of that basement.
Take your time and slowly. You probably are under the influence right now from this amazing development of events and need to come back down to earth sooner or later. Dont do anything right now until that Office is up and running.
You got the lady a favor and had them removed and in your possesion. Good they didnt go to a dump…
Your in the same ordeal I have, a lot of stuff, and I have to decide what to keep or get rid of.
I have already sided out a lot of stuff to sell, which includes original Athearn RDC’s, some good locos, and some redundent stuff or out of era stuff, or more toyish stuff. I had a Tenshodo 0-8-0 but I sold it off, the details were wrong for my prototype, now I am kicking my rear for doing so.
Absolutely hang onto it then as you go piece it out to see what fits or what has to go.
Great deal!!! I never luck into stuff like that.
You mentioned paper work…If you have any diagrams of rare or odd equipment, you may want to scan them and E-mail them to HO Seeker for their online library so all can benefit from your good fortune. [tup]
welcome to my world, i scrap trucks and other items under contract for the US Navy, i have our 5 acre dream property turned into a bone yard!! she just doesnt understand!!! hey steels paying eight cents a pound here!! i just cant seem to get rid of alota stuff as i find it all intersting Ryan
Thanks Guys. My wife and I have been discussing this, and she is a lot more supportive than I originally thought. We are going to do a complete, competent inventory and put it all in a spreadsheet with book and comp. retail values. this way I will not only know what’s their, but its approximated value.
I have always wanted to open a hobby shop, and this could be the golden incentive- I could easily net the capital for initial orders from a couple of the big distributors…
Now is not the time, but a kiosk in the mall at Christmas could be- though I would rather die than spend a moment of my time in the mall. I know where there is a decent retail spot recently emptied… I fill notebooks with these gold nuggets and never act on them. But now, I have the opportunity and I need structure it right.
Sounds to me that you knowingly ripped off the old lady. To be honest I really don’t think thats right. You buy the stuff and now you have plans to sell it and make a ton of money from it? Did you think that maybe she sold it to you cheap because she wanted it to go to a good home? Do you really think that she would have sold it to you cheap knowing that you were going to sell it on Ebay or wherever? What comes around goes around, remember that!!![2c]
I’ve seen a few model railroaders pass away over the last few years and the poor wives don’t have a clue on what to do with their husbands trains. I bet they turn over in their graves knowing that people rip off their wives just to make a quick buck.[censored]
You admit you got it all for a song from a lady that wanted to get rid of her late husbands collection. You admit you know its worth far more then what you bought it for and you admit you are going to sell it and make lots of money. That in my book is taking advantage of someone that doesn’t have the knowledge in knowing what the value of what they are selling is. Be honest, would you have bought all that stuff if she wanted what it is worth? You wouldn’t would you? Then to boast about how your going to sell it and make money from it? Good for you, I hope your proud of yourself. Like I said, you knowingly ripped her off. If you do sell the stuff I hope you at least give her something, remember, what goes around comes around.[}:)]
I believe this has nothing to do with anything posted here and that you are trying to bait me… I don’t participate in that nonsense, there is more to my life than these forums. You have stated your opintion and you are entitled to it. I will make no further posts on this thread and will encourage other’s not to do so. We have enough trouble with angry opinion her without baiting. Good day.
He was approached by someone who knew he was a model railroader of a widow wanting to sell the trains. He has not revealed any price or value of the collection. Whats valued is the collection is preserved than finding its way to a dump. He could ask to bonus any more money but the widow could refuse and say the deal is good. He went out of his way to reccomend the widow to appraise the value and she did and came down with a price. I think he was shocked with the price and maybe expected to pay more. He didnt have to, the deal is done.
The widow could have just donated the stuff to charity, but she wanted them to go the right way. She couldn’t care or deal with the hobby apparently so it may have been better for her to give up the collection in the best way possible.
No it isnt. If I stumbled across a ramshackle yard sale filled with toys and baby clothes for .25 cents each and discovered a mint Brass engine with a MSRP of 1300 dollars with a 10 dollar price sticker on it…
Im going to keep my big mouth shut, buy the engine and go home with it. As long as the price is on that item .01 or 1000 dollars… and it’s paid to the satisfaction of the seller the deed is done and I am the new owner.
That is how it is. It isnt about the value, pricing or any of that. Im totally focused on the completion of the transaction itself and if necessary transferring ownership, liens and taxes etc.
One of the saddest things I can tell you in the hobby is to see a dumpster truck haul away someone’s life and 50+ years worth of modeling straight to the dump because it is of no use to the surviving family.
If this is enough to open a Store with sufficient inventory? Why! This is the American way. Commerce and oppertunity! Online or Brick and mortor.
Ever watch Antiques Roadshow? How many people have found that their $10 or $15 yard sale/thrift shop/church sale item is worth $thousands!! Whoever priced it charged whatever he or she thought it was worth - and I don’t recall anyone saying they were going to return the item to the seller![:)]
Ya know…The more I watch that show, the more I think it’s fake or rigged. They’ll appraise some diamond encrusted, hand made solid gold trinket for $500 and then turn around call some old corn whiskey jug “folk art” and say it’s worth $50,000!![%-)] I bet the appraisers get together after the show and have a good laugh.
I’d rather see the OP sell the stuff to someone that’s going to use it then have it end up in a dumpster. I try and tell my family what my train stuffs worth in case anything happens to me, but I know they don’t care and it would all end up in the dump.[V](my family sucks!)
This is a continuing story: Time after time we hear of the massive layout that ends up in the dump(more than you can imagine) This lot would be in the dump now, your smartest move was to have an outside appraisal, would like to see it on a layout, but selling it is O.K.
I’ve seen that show and they basically they refer to auction block prices that someone paid for a similar item. Rather relative but a lot of the items are rare and do bring in a certain money amount upon sale. If the owner and appraiser are familiar with the item, they then know the rarity of the item and find an apparent value.
I know first hand what it means to tear up a huge club layout that you diligently worked hard on. Maybe you could put a money value on the layout, but thats for naught, the hobby enjoyment is the thing. The club now has a new place and a new layout, some old stuff used, but a lot not.
A couple of years ago a lady was at a train show and selling off her husbands stuff, a 4-12-2 for sale at 50 bucks. I almost bought it but it needed some side rod linkage work, hard to find parts for. I passed it up. I looked for it again and someone bought it. heh.