Best place to sell a large collection

george posted:

...  I liquidated a small collection years ago through a dealer (prior to eBay) and got less than 50 cents on the dollar.  ...

there may be other opinions, but for the added confidence in the grading and authenticity, i do not consider a ~15% buyer fee to be unreasonable when participating in live online auctions.  i have never used a large auction house for sales, but i have to believe a 50% seller fee is not typical.

my only intent was to give a positive review of my experience with JDJ, not typically known for toy train auctions.

I am always amazed at what folks think their their 10 to 20 year old toy trains are worth in todays market. Is your 10 to 20 year old every day runner auto worth more than 50% of its original value ? What about your 5 to 10 year old TV or computer, it is worth nothing.

overlandflyer posted:

george posted:

...  I liquidated a small collection years ago through a dealer (prior to eBay) and got less than 50 cents on the dollar.  ...

there may be other opinions, but for the added confidence in the grading and authenticity, i do not consider a ~15% buyer fee to be unreasonable when participating in live online auctions.  i have never used a large auction house for sales, but i have to believe a 50% seller fee is not typical.

my only intent was to give a positive review of my experience with JDJ, not typically known for toy train auctions.

Actually from what I have seen ( I've checked it out ) 40 - 60 % is not uncommon from a place that buys and resells your trains. Now if you goto a Auction house say in town 15 - 20% is not uncommon also, but your not going to get what there worth as most there are there to buy them for resale. If you goto the big train auction house, you have to get them packed up and shipped/takened there. Then they do the rating of the determining of condition of them ( personally I would be at unease doing it myself as what I feel is excellent someone else who nick picks may say it's only in good condition. ) I do not know for sure but believe these large auction houses would do about 20% maybe a bit more , but then they also charge the buyer a buyers premium so there collect on both sides of it. Most of your auction houses do that anyway both small and large.  

before this goes off on a tangent, there is a difference between the assumed value being 50% of the actual sale price versus the seller only receiving 50% of the actual sale price.  i don't think most collectors would argue with the depreciated value of current production models after their initial sale regardless of condition.

Originally posted by Overlandflyer:

 I don't think most collectors would argue with the depreciated value of current production models after their initial
sale regardless of condition.

And You're NOT kidding! I still can't sell off my MIB Conrail Legacy SD38 even at $125.00 below BTO Price!

IMHO- if you want to get top dollar, you’ll need to some research. I would suggest checking with some of the on line auction houses, stout auctions comes to mind. Many of these have listings of completed auctions with what items sold for.

remember, the auction houses must pack, grade, hold the actual auction, then pack back up, ship, and usually provide some sort of customer satisfaction.

i hav3 been to several on site auctions. IMHO- stout auctions is 100% top notch. I believe, however, they have limits, in terms of size and quality, as to what they’ll work with. I cannot speak for them or any other auction house - that’s where your research comes into play.