Selling Model Railways

[Newportnobby]

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

[alypar11]

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.

[thebrighton]

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.

[port perran]

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

[Newportnobby]

@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?

[port perran]

@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.

[Jeebee]

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.

Note:- here is what was posted in the 'Time to shrink my collection' thread......

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.

[Southerngooner]

I've always kept a spreadsheet of my N gauge stuff, right from when I first got a PC. I include full details of the item, the price I paid and the list price at the time. All stock has a unique number which is also on the bottom of all stock, put on with a Poska white pen. This means the original boxes (kept in the loft) can fairly easily be matched to the physical item.

After reading this thread I'm going to add another column with my current view of its worth, which I can update annually. This should help if I pass before my wife does, and hopefully give a good guide for auction, which I think is the best route. I'll also keep my suggested auction house and contact details on the spreadsheet.

All I've got to do now is make sure my wife and son know how to find it!

An interesting thread, very useful.

Dave

[Moonglum]

Mick @Newportnobby , can I suggest that you copy @Jeebee 's post across to here. He makes some very good and valid points in his post.

Occasionally, I get involved in the deposing of donated model railway items to a local heritage railway, these donations come in all shapes, sizes and condition - from scratch built to RTR, boxed pristine to very play worn/damaged, modern to vintage.

We have tried local/national dealers and eBay but the easiest/most efficient way for us is using a local auction house that specialises in model trains and diecast as well as other collectables. I do a bit of research and estimating prior to handing the collection over just to be sure a trick hasn't been missed.

The good news is that the auction house we use, gives you an estimated hammer price from a comprehensive list/photos we send him. If excepted they may collect the donation - depending on size etc., take photos and break the collection down into suitable "lots", carryout the auction on your behalf and ship to winning bidder. Once the items are handed over they are insured at the estimated price until sold.

There is no come back on us and it is the bidder's responsibility to satisfy themself of the quality/working of the "lot" prior to the auction on the viewing day. Otherwise, everything is sold as seen. If there is an issue it lies with the Auction House.

The bad news is that whatever the winning bid is the auctioneer's costs and VAT will take 24% of the winning bid. Like eBay, you will only get what some one is prepared to pay on the day and how many bidders there are. The Auction House we use is not keen on reserve prices.

We tend to look at this arrangement as both efficient and time saving but did we get the best price - perhaps, perhaps not, who knows but at least we don't feel as we have been ripped off.

Going back to your post, I have specified in my will that my relatively modest but well documented collection will go to auction as it would be the both efficient and time saving of disposing of it.

Having cleared two houses in the past, it is an arduous task particularly in the case of the first one which was in a right old pickle. The recently deceased relative seemed to think some of her "collections" were very collectable but weren't at all but other things that didn't look very valuable turned out to be surprisingly valuable! At the end of the day it's all down to how much time, investigation and effort the executors put into disposing of the estate to get the best monetary value out of it on behalf of the beneficiaries.

Tim   

Crikey, there has been 7 replies whilst I have been thinking about this. NB Martin's @port perran solution

[Train Waiting]

I used Ellis Clark Trains when I got rid of my 'H0/00' stuff prior to our flitting. I tried three retailers - one hopeless, one worse than hopeless and Ellis Clark - excellent.

A chap came from Skipton to collect everything and payment was instant.

I kept the Wrenn models and when I sell them it will likely be by auction.

@port perran made an excellent point. One could get more money if one made a lot more effort and had plenty of time. But I was looking for a quick and effortless solution and was willing to be paid less.

If executers are involved, this is important.

As a matter of principle, I normally write off the value of models at the time of purchase. I never give a thought to any residual value and am content to give away surplus 'N' gauge item to members of our FabulousForum who will get pleasure from them. Because ...

'N' Gauge is Such Fun!

With all good wishes.

John

 

[Newportnobby]

I've always kept a spreadsheet of my N gauge stuff, right from when I first got a PC. I include full details of the item, the price I paid and the list price at the time.
After reading this thread I'm going to add another column with my current view of its worth, which I can update annually.

@Southerngooner
The problem is, Dave, we all tend to have an exaggerated view of what our prized stock is worth. I'd suggest you maybe take a dozen of your items to a dealer and ask them what they'd give you for them. This would, at least, maybe help you in your valuations

Mick @Newportnobby , can I suggest that you copy @Jeebee 's post across to here. He makes some very good and valid points in his post.

@Moonglum
Tim, I have copied JeeBee's post into the one made on this thread. See above, please.

@port perran made an excellent point. One could get more money if one made a lot more effort and had plenty of time. But I was looking for a quick and effortless solution and was willing to be paid less.

If executers are involved, this is important.

As a matter of principle, I normally write off the value of models at the time of purchase. I never give a thought to any residual value

@Train Waiting
The latter is maybe the optimum way of thinking, and probably why I will keep purchasing anything taking my eye right to the last.
I'm assuming I won't be around to watch over any sale but just want to get the best overall price as my Will states a charity very close to my heart reaps the benefit.

[njee20]

You've mixed your Gooners up in your tagging Nobby, amazing that we have two of them here I know 

Your point is valid - nothing wrong with noting a second hand value, but yes the value of that item on eBay is very different to its value when offered as part of a collection to a dealer.

I'm not entirely sure that tracking 'current value' is really a worthwhile exercise, the market is fickle, a new run/tooling of a product will markedly change the value, and many items don't sell in the sort of quantities that give you an accurate figure.

[Newportnobby]

You've mixed your Gooners up in your tagging Nobby, amazing that we have two of them here I know 

Thanks, Nick. Now amended