Large Lot of O-Gauge Trains, in need of some advice!

You can try the for sale section on here for starter, it don't cost anything to list or sell. Ebay has fees!

Another place to try is Choo Choo Auctions as they only charge a small listing fee. If you can wait a few months there are some train shows around Deerfield Beach FL and you can try to sell everything there, no worries about shipping. FYI; I live near West Palm Beach FL. If you need help email me at: phillyreading@gmail.com

If you are able to get to Ft. Meyers there is a large train show close to November(not 100% sure of date) put on by Scale Rails.

I have had a couple bad experiences with shipping so I would suggest waiting for a train show to sell the train stuff.

Lee Fritz

phillyreading posted:

You can try the for sale section on here for starter, it don't cost anything to list or sell. Ebay has fees!

Another place to try is Choo Choo Auctions as they only charge a small listing fee. If you can wait a few months there are some train shows around Deerfield Beach FL and you can try to sell everything there, no worries about shipping. FYI; I live near West Palm Beach FL. If you need help email me at: phillyreading@gmail.com

If you are able to get to Ft. Meyers there is a large train show close to November(not 100% sure of date) put on by Scale Rails.

I have had a couple bad experiences with shipping so I would suggest waiting for a train show to sell the train stuff.

Lee Fritz

Thank you philly, I am just south of Fort Myers but the timing might not be the best.  I have our whole family room filled currently.  Our little girl is due early November and I don't think my better half would want all of this hanging around until then.  I might keep a few key pieces like the MTH Big Boy,4-8-4 Greenbrier, and other engines around until I can find a show to take them to.  Other then that most of the rail cars might have to go.

Andrew

Andrew,

Just some friendly advice, most hobby shops won't give you more then 33% of the actual value on any item. So you will do best to sell the stuff by yourself as for as getting the most money back. Personally I am not found of ebay. That's why I use the auction site Choo Choo Auctions, they are located near Titusville FL.

Sorry to hear that your aunt & uncle are having some difficult times.

Lee Fritz

Andrew,

I agree, you should take a look at the For Sale section of this Forum.  It takes some work, but it's free, and there are a lot of good folks here who are willing to pay a reasonable amount.

Sorry to hear about your Uncles heath issues. As mentioned before the forum here is a good way to get started.

Just a suggestion, is there anyway that you can keep a small engine and cars that would run on it the small loop. Then put this on a small small folding table with some buildings/scenery. This could be used at your uncles new home when you are there to keep him smiling. Just to get rid of it all would be very depressing but to have a small loop that you and your Uncle could play with, will keep you both happy/active and times spent together that will last for ever.

Thanks everyone for the quality responses!  It would be a bit of work any way that I try to pass these awesome trains onto some new caring hands.  The problem just listing an item for sale would be me not knowing exactly a fair price(not getting ripped off/over pricing them).  The track is already on EBay and seems to be garnering a good amount of attention.  I know many don't like EBay but I haven't had many problems with it so far.  This task though is the largest I have taken on, currently listing 33 items on there.  Shipping is going to be a fun task in the coming weeks. 

Ron, I'm not sure exactly what would be possible.  There is talk that he might be moving into an assisted living home.  Not sure that there would be any space available for a smaller sized layout of his trains.  We will see once a few weeks pass what is possible on this front.

Thanks again,

Andrew

AMGoett posted:

Thanks everyone for the quality responses!  It would be a bit of work any way that I try to pass these awesome trains onto some new caring hands.  The problem just listing an item for sale would be me not knowing exactly a fair price(not getting ripped off/over pricing them).  The track is already on EBay and seems to be garnering a good amount of attention.  I know many don't like EBay but I haven't had many problems with it so far.  This task though is the largest I have taken on, currently listing 33 items on there.  Shipping is going to be a fun task in the coming weeks. 

Ron, I'm not sure exactly what would be possible.  There is talk that he might be moving into an assisted living home.  Not sure that there would be any space available for a smaller sized layout of his trains.  We will see once a few weeks pass what is possible on this front.

Thanks again,

Andrew

Hi Andrew, hard task. Just try to keep your uncle involved with books/magazines or videos of layouts. Best of luck to your Uncle/Aunt and yourself.

If you could tell us exactly what you have, I might be able to help, as I live somewhere semi near by.

Since you have already established a reputation on EBay, I think it is your best bet. Unfortunately, now is not the best time to sell trains anywhere. Many folks set their trains aside in the warmer months. IMHO, you would do better in November or December, when interest is at it's peak.

You might try a Craigslist or newspaper ad in your nearest city to try to sell it all in one large batch. It's a long shot to get a decent value that way, but otherwise you're looking at a lot of time to make individual sales with inventory and research and pricing and packing and shipping. You need to figure whether you have the time to do all this and whether you can reasonably expect a significant payoff to pass on to your aunt and uncle.

If your uncle goes into assisted living, the entire recoverable value of the trains might be less than the cost of a month's care for him.

No-one has suggested whether you might get a tax write-off for donating the trains to a suitable charity. Might be worth looking in to. It would be good if some of those retirement communities could sponsor an on-site train club for their elderly residents, especially if it was at the place where your uncle goes to live.

I am very interested to see the stuff in the paper.

El Classico posted:

I am very interested to see the stuff in the paper.

Sounds good, I have a lot on my plate right now especially with a baby on the way.  I will get to them eventually.

Doug N posted:

I might be interested in the C&O hoppers.  Send me an email so we can discuss.  My email address is in my profile.

Also, I would suggest that you should put your list on the For Sale forum here.  

It would help for you to put your email address in your profile to allow people here to contact you.

 

Thank you for the tip, I will get a list onto the Sale Forum and attach my email to my profile.  Mine is amgoett@gmail.com.

If/when you post this to the For Sale Forum, please READ THE RULES FIRST. Note that every item must be priced.

The For Sale Forum is not designed for selling large collections. It's set up for the modeler who has a few extra items he doesn't need and wants to get rid of them.

If you want to post a huge list of items, that's OK, but understand that every item MUST have a price. That includes the items in that Excel spreadsheet you posted above. I note that it does not currently have prices in it. If you re-post it in the For Sale Forum, every item in that file must have a selling price. This is not an auction or "best offer" site. 

You may want to contact Trainz.com.  I just sold 95% of my O gauge stuff to them, including a large lot of Ross track, and it was super easy.  I emailed them my list and they got back to me right away.  I am happy with what they paid me, they came and picked it up at my house and just notified me I have a nice check coming for the balance.  They paid me 50% up front on their quote, the driver had a check, and 50% after checking the stuff in.  All my stuff was in really good condition, original boxes etc.  I probably got fifty cents on the dollar, but I'm real happy with what they gave me and just clearing out the space.  Time to move on, and they made it real easy.  Very nice people to deal with also.  Carlie and Chrissy kept me informed at all times and I never had any doubt it was a square deal.  I kept a couple pieces.  Actually, I got buyer's remorse on one item and they sent it back to me and gave me the same price for the lot.  Real good communication.  Nice people.  If you are interested, go on their website and they explain what to do.  It was a piece of cake.  Best of luck.

OGR Webmaster posted:

If/when you post this to the For Sale Forum, please READ THE RULES FIRST. Note that every item must be priced.

The For Sale Forum is not designed for selling large collections. It's set up for the modeler who has a few extra items he doesn't need and wants to get rid of them.

If you want to post a huge list of items, that's OK, but understand that every item MUST have a price. That includes the items in that Excel spreadsheet you posted above. I note that it does not currently have prices in it. If you re-post it in the For Sale Forum, every item in that file must have a selling price. This is not an auction or "best offer" site. 

I apologize, I had a few real nice forum members email me and let me know that it would likely be removed so that's why I posted to remove it asap.  I will figure out what I am going to do with all of them and then take the necessary path to get them moving.  Again sorry for the bad post.

Andrew

William 1 posted:

You may want to contact Trainz.com.  I just sold 95% of my O gauge stuff to them, including a large lot of Ross track, and it was super easy.  I emailed them my list and they got back to me right away.  I am happy with what they paid me, they came and picked it up at my house and just notified me I have a nice check coming for the balance.  They paid me 50% up front on their quote, the driver had a check, and 50% after checking the stuff in.  All my stuff was in really good condition, original boxes etc.  I probably got fifty cents on the dollar, but I'm real happy with what they gave me and just clearing out the space.  Time to move on, and they made it real easy.  Very nice people to deal with also.  Carlie and Chrissy kept me informed at all times and I never had any doubt it was a square deal.  I kept a couple pieces.  Actually, I got buyer's remorse on one item and they sent it back to me and gave me the same price for the lot.  Real good communication.  Nice people.  If you are interested, go on their website and they explain what to do.  It was a piece of cake.  Best of luck.

Thank you for the lead on a possible thoroughfare for me to take.  I'm trying to reclaim a fair price for them for my aunt and that might be a good one to take.

Email them your list.  Be organized.  You may be surprised what they offer you.  It couldn't have been easier.  How the heck are you going to sell, package, ship everything on a piece by piece basis.  I wasn't interested in that.  They come and pick it up at your house.  Done deal.

C.w burgle is incorrect in that the height of the eBay buying season is October to November just before Thanksgiving week. For the summer months you can list items as "buy it now in June, July and the week of August. The rest of August the trains do sell just it takes a little longer than a week.

Thank you everyone for the input so far.  I am a huge train lover here myself and one day wish I could own all these trains too.  My aunt tells me to keep some of it for myself but I don't think that is the best process as of now.  The Greenbrier 4-8-4 and the Big Boy are such beautiful engines to say the least.

Since you're in Florida and want to get that stuff out of your living room asap, you may want to do as PHILLYREADING suggested and see if Charlie Siegel at will pick them up and write a check to your aunt and uncle.

What, me worry?

Yeah.  Your time has to be worth nothing in order to break even on train sales.  Let the pros do it, and put in some overtime to make up the difference.  For every boxcar you ship, you wast a half hour just packing and addressing, let alone driving to UPS.

bob2 posted:

Yeah.  Your time has to be worth nothing in order to break even on train sales.  Let the pros do it, and put in some overtime to make up the difference.  For every boxcar you ship, you wast a half hour just packing and addressing, let alone driving to UPS.

Well, let's not get carried away.  If it takes you half an hour to pack a boxcar and print the label, you're taking too many breaks!   Driving to UPS?  I slap the label on it, and let USPS pick up from my porch.

Andrew,

I too live in S.W. Florida, in Punta Goorda. I face a similar problem of getting rid of many trains as I get older. First of all, do you have a copy of Greenburgs pocket price guide?? Its pretty much the standard price guide and will keep yo out of trouble! Secondly there is the STCA (Southern Division of the TCA) who have a number of good train shows throught the year all around Florida. A good one coming up in the Venice area. I think train shows are the best for sell ing your trains. You don't have to ship, and The cash is immediate. It is a bit of work preparing for one. You have to price everything and then set up your table display for the show. The STCA also has a new letter with a place for free listings. I don't like ebay either. I trided but got very low returns. Also there's the TCA, the LCCA, and this forum to freely list yur items. There are also outfits that buy your entire collection. Pick up a copyof Classic toy trains, or O gauge RR for istings. I understand you get around 50% of their value when going that route. A fairly lo bid but selling individualy is a ot of work! Since we live so close, please feel free to call upon me for help

Paul