I am thining my collection..to mainly make space. I have a good bit of modern brand new with all boxes Lionel, Flyer, and MTH Premier. My question is...is it worthwhile to have a place like Trainz (merely for example) buy it all and pick it up...or try to sell each item on Ebay. I know there are pros and cons. But would a dealer pay almost nothing? I have had success on Ebay but really don't have the time to go through and do all this. Plus I always get stuck with the buyer who opens up one of my new trains, runs it, greases it all up and then tells me it doesn't work. This happened before and it did work. But anyway...any advice would be appreciated.
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Try it here 1st in the For Sale forum.
Listen to Harry.
Enough said.
I agree with those above, Trainz will only give you pennies on the dollar. The For Sale forum works well and there are no fees,its kind of like ebay without the fine print. If your not comfortable with the forum then I'd go back to ebay. I've had good selling experiences here on the forum, "most" folks know what their buying and why its worth what its worth.
Like said above list it here.
Alex
Harry is right on the mark.... List it here on the Buy/Sell forum. You couldn't have a better bunch of buyers and sellers than here on OGR. You will not have to put any more work into selling than you would on the "bay" and with less hassle....
Alan
Start with the Buy/Sell Board here. Sure it takes some work, but why give your money away to Trainz or anyone else? Don't want to do all that work? Well, then you get out of it what you put into it. Like anything else in life, if you're not willing to do the work you can expect results in line with the effort you put in.
Mike W,
Speaking from experience, listen to Harry. You'll be lucky, very lucky if you receive $.20 on the dollar. Shall I say, "Been There, Done That!".
Take tables at York.
Just, to let you and anyone else know, my friend took an almost in-new condition Lionel #50 Gang Car, in a good cond. box, instruction sheet, a small tube of Lionel lubricating grease and all three original gang members, which were on board the car, to our LHS.
A fine, gentleman sales person, behind a counter, after hearing my friend's asking price, laughed and yelled over to another not-so-stalwart, sales person; "Look at this old used gang car and in an old used box, this guy wants to sell us!," "This is only worth, maybe, $25.00."
After, saying this, out and out lie, he then motions to a shelf, behind the counter and himself and says; "Now, this is a good conditioned gang car, for only $155.00 and it is actually worth more!"
Yeah! What, garbage box and all!
With, all of this nonsense my friend and I turned, without saying anything and walked out!
You, will never know, with some of these businesses, how phony the proprietors and their gang are!
So, now, I have two gang cars, one, which my wife bought me years ago, in a more used condition and this one, in newer condition.
SWEET!!!!
RJL
Try here first then E-Bay. I have had good luck both places.
.....
Dennis
Thanks for the feedback. I will take the advice as that was my belief before posting. It should be easy to list and photograph...its all brand new 2003-present Lionel and a few MTH Premier Items. All new in box with master cartons even in new un-shipped condition. Stuff like the recent MTH AEM7's and Southern SD35's. I overbought..lol My only qualm is that you have to list as all sales final. Otherwise someone will try to run a train then hold you to a warranty issue. When all I am selling is what I kept in my collection as new items.
The idea of running back and forth to the mailing center (USPS, FedEx, UPS) every time when an order is ready to ship seems crazy at best. In your post, I suggest you put in that you will ship once/week, maybe every Tuesday (I think most holidays fall on Mondays). That will give people a sense that you have a pattern going and it will cut down on your gas bill.
Most of the items are just nice solid pieces. Possibly the only "hot" item being a new in master carton JLC Series Penn Central GG1. I really appreciate all the feedback.
I actually saw David's shipping room in operation, he took over half his house! It was quite a chore to keep all that stuff organized, I could tell that just by walking through the carnage!
I'll echo all the other opinions, sell it yourself, you'll get far more return. Yes, it's more trouble, but a dealer will give you pennies on the dollar!
The idea of running back and forth to the mailing center (USPS, FedEx, UPS) every time when an order is ready to ship seems crazy at best. In your post, I suggest you put in that you will ship once/week, maybe every Tuesday (I think most holidays fall on Mondays). That will give people a sense that you have a pattern going and it will cut down on your gas bill.
That's the way to not get sales. I ship within 24 hrs and if I buy I expect prompt shipment. I don't want anybody holding my money so they can ship once a week, that's just being lazy. When shipping do it from your computer. Very easy to do then all you have to do is drop it off. I mean how hard is that. If I ever see in a post that somebody only ships once a week I bypass their listing.
If you ship using Priority mail (at least one package in a pickup), you can ship without leaving the comfort of your home. I very rarely go to the PO for shipping, I just schedule a pickup the next day and the packages are on their way.