BobbyD posted:Timothy Sprague posted:If you notice on ebay a lot of those very high priced items are listed by pros. Some of them are consigning items for sellers, so they need to figure in the customers desired value, plus what they want to make on it. And sometimes, they will attract a buyer who is just tired of searching for that "need to have" item and pays the high price. I see it at the train shows.
For me as a buyer, I keep a set value in mind and won't go over it when I'm looking for something.
For ms a seller, I factor in the value of my time to drag product from show to show, so I price very aggressively and often have most of my table sold at the end of the day. I've turned down consignments or collection liquidation because the owners (usually grown children) have distorted views of condition/value etc. Even if it's a part time business for me, it's got to be fun, we're talking toy trains here.
Tim
Would you say ebay has lost most of the small vendors and is now over run with large "buy it now" businesses? Have a friend looking to liquidate a large MPC/Kughn collection. From what I've seen they are looking at getting near list price while many think they will be lucky to get .25 on the $1. Agree completely that asking price and accepted offers are all over the place depending on who wants it and how bad. Just like houses a few years back?
Well, the "ebay stores" do seem to crowd out the auctions, but there are still individuals selling.
I sold a huge collection of MPC-modern last year, about half of it on ebay. The condition of the trains were unrun, but dirty from being on replay in a heavy smokers house. Engines got pretty good prices, rolling stock not so much.
This year I'm liquidating a collection that is in much nicer shape, and I'm seeing less of a return on those MPC era items. I think there are multiple forces at play- manufacturers such as Williams, Lionel and MTH have some pretty nice lower priced lines these days - a lot of early MTH PS-1 and PS-2 seem to getting a lot of attention on the market, etc. (some say an election year causes a decline of consumer confidence) So yes, nothing outside of motive power is going for much money in the MPC/Kuhn era stock. I'm seeing $4-$12 per piece for rolling stock. And factor in the time and expense of putting together listings and packaging, it's cents on the dollar for sure. I find the highest returns at the local TCA meet. I still sell lots of freight cars in the $5-$10 range, but it's all done in a 4 hours span, so less overhead/time involve.
Tim
