I posted some pointers on the "downsizing" thread.

Very happy to recommend Footplate of Kidderminster who collect nationally, dealt with my brother helpfully (who knows very little about trains), estimated in sections over whatsapp and were good on their price when they collected. And generally very pleasant to deal with.

That was with a fair amount of work organising on our part.

I also sold some boxed RTR to Great Eastern Models as I was passing who were fair, but they don't collect so you have to go to them. It's a very good shop and Norwich is a great place to visit. Hard to say price wise - i don't think they are unfair at all, but once you've brought everything to the shop you're halfway committed, so perhaps it's worth talking to the national dealers to get some estimates first.

Value from the dealers was about 50% of resale value and to be honest i don't think that's unfair compared to the time effort and faff of ebaying. The bigger the collection the bigger that advantage. We were approaching 5 figures in total for my dads lifetime collection of O gauge, so worth the dealers visiting.

Quote from: Newportnobby on <strong>Today</strong> at 03:32:36 PM@port perran
An auction house sounds an interesting alternative to a box shifter like Rails.
Did you set a reserve for the sale(s) or wing it, Martin?

They catalogued the lots, there were some 90 of them I think it was, then provided suggested reserve prices for each one.

They were happy to raise that reserve for a couple of lots where I thought they had set it too low.

In the end all 90 sold, some at the baseline figure, most at probably 10-20% above baseline and some at say 50% above. Two or three went well above the baseline.

In my opinion the whole thing was organised in a cvery professional manner.

@port perran
An auction house sounds an interesting alternative to a box shifter like Rails.
Did you set a reserve for the sale(s) or wing it, Martin?

Inspired by the recent posts on down-sizing, I've taken a look at my own non-collection of locos. I decided that I should keep nothing that didn't run in the late 80s/early 90s within around 50 miles of Manchester. Very focused? Lots to get rid of?

I've ended up with 2 that will be sold on, another five needing renumbering and a further 3 added to my shopping list to make the fleet more prototypical. Not sure it's been a successful endeavour. 

I had a similar problem when my father passed a few years back.

He had a collection of some 5000 model cars, lorries, buses and a few other vehicles.

I started to sell the best ones on Ebay but VERY quickly lost the will to live as it such a time consuming task.

I ended up putting it all in the hands of a specialist auction house.

They were extremely helpful.

My father had boxes for probably ninety per cent of the vehicles but boxes and their contents were separate.

The auction house spent a day boxing everything up and collating it all into separate lots.

Ok, they took a healthy commission but I still ended up raising more than I was hoping for plus it was quite good fun watching the various lots selling in the on-line auction.

It was better than selling direct to some dealer who I'm sure would have offered a pittance for the lot.

Cheers
Martin

I am in this position at the moment following my fathers passing in January.

He has a stack of OO with an awful lot of locos only released in the last few years and barely used. I know what they are worth but have attempted to sell them en masse to most of the usual suspects but, as you suggest, you don't get much. Sure, they need to make a profit but I feel they know a lot of people don't know the value and need to sell them so bid accordingly.

The only way to get any kind of half decent return is probably Ebay but do I really want to list a hundred or so items, deal with all the chancers then get reported to HMRC?

I am actually off to a localish model shop tomorrow who will buy whole collections, we shall see.

Harder still are cars and buses. He collected Southdown buses and has 40+ of them plus around the same amount of Oxford cars etc. They are basically worth diddly squat and no one wants them.

At the end of the day I need to get as much as I can as mum's care home fees need paying somehow.

I have a friend who is involved in a group that is trying to restore the 4 Sub 3rd Rail electric train that used to run in Kent. He goes around to a lot of model railway exhibitions and Events such as Galas at preserved railways and sells merchandise for the 4Sub group (mugs, keyrings etc) and second hand model railway items such as carriages and locomotives. He is mainly interested in N gauge stuff but is happy to sell anything that is donated. He has been doing this for at least 5 years and recently the first carriage of the 4Sub was rolled out and returned to the group having been fully professionally restored. Only two trailers and the other motor end to go.
I have previously given him an exhibition standard model railway in N gauge that was not wanted by a MRC I was a member of and he raised a few hundred pounds from that. I have also put his details in my Will for all of my models and accessories to be collected, catalogued and sold on with the funds again going to 1:1 scale railway restoration..
I don't have any family that would want my collection and want to just enjoy my stuff and not worry about it being a burden ( or binned) by my executors.
Hopefully this will be a good while yet, but he's about half my age, so hopefully will still be around to sort it all out when the time comes.
Although I will not directly benefit from the sales of my model railway, I have made provision for a substantial part of my legacy to be in the form of charitable donations to causes that are important to me, and this allows me to carry on getting a few new railway items that I fancy now, knowing that they're not going in the bin when I am no longer here.
I'm sure that if someone else wants to do something like this, approaching a Heritage railway or well established restoration group would be possible, and at least with those sorts of organisations, there's people in them who have some idea of the value and saleability of your model railway collection.

Quote from: njee20 on <strong>Yesterday</strong> at 01:57:04 PMBest of luck with the sale - your prices are likely a way off for UK buyers I'm afraid. Your Dapol 56 at €175 posted is available brand new from Rails for £125.

Many thanks for this remark. I will amend the price.
If you see other irrelevant prices, please tell me so that I can make the appropriate modifications.

Rest easy. I haven't popped me clogs yet
A recent post has led me to ask "Has anyone real experience of selling either their own or maybe a relation's model railway collection en masse i.e. the entire collection.
I'm not talking about the forum N'Poriums or EBay for just a few items. I'm talking about maybe the box shifters who advertise "Best prices paid for your collection" (yeah, right) and then being stunned at just how little our valued collection is worth, bearing in mind, of course, they would want a profit when they sell it on.
I think any such information could be useful as a very rough guide (everyone's collection is different), and what would be offered this week may be different next week so I emphasise the 'rough' in the rough guide.
Any recommendations or 'avoids'?

For example - I won't be around to sell my stuff and anyone who does sell it would have no knowledge whatsoever on the subject

Having cleared out my father's lifetime collection of O gauge last year I've learned a few bits that would make life easier for those sorting it after we have gone - although morbidly, it's not our problem any more!

- think about who will be doing the sorting. Do they know what they are looking at. Can they tell a brake coach from a first? This was a big one for us because a Lima O gauge mk1 and a Heljan Mk1 are very different in price! I had to spend a lot of time re-sorting a lot of what my brother had boxed away as best he could. The less knowledgable your heirs, the more you might want to prepare things for them.

-Ebaying is hard work - boxing, photographing, testing, communicating. You have to work for the extra money. And on top of all the other grief and admin, we just didn't have time to do it. The dealers will offer less money of course, but they do provide a service, and it keeps the money moving in the hobby. Happily recommend Footplates of Kidderminster who were very helpful, respectful, travel nationally and are fairly priced. But plenty others out there. You could consider approaching a dealer yourself to get an estimate ahead of Your Time, and using it to inform your successors. They might charge for this valuation service which is fair enough. But be realistic, a lot of models that were once state of the art are now very dated and hard to sell.

- Identify any things that have particular sentimental value for you or your successors. Projects you're proud of. Stock they remember running with you. My Dad was a prolific kit and scratch builder so glad to keep some locos he's made himself. Far less bothered about RTR items.

-Similarly, any unique or high value items you should identify them (in writing or stickers) or sell them yourself ahead.

-keep things organised. Any projects keep all the bits together in one project box. I spent hours trying to match chassis to bodies and tenders. I knew what i was looking for but my siblings would have had no chance. A box of "incomplete Brittania Project" is a much more attractive sell than "box of unknown brass bits and wheels". things that run together should be boxed together.

-getting organised will also help you enjoy your hobby time you have left, and safer too. The mess in my dad's garage made it unusable and so he didn't get to play trains much in his final years sadly.

-But enjoy what you have while you are here to enjoy it. There will inevitably be some work to be done by your successors, no avoiding that. There's a balance to be made.