What is the best way to sell model trains?
A relative left me na estate with thousands of model trains and i’d like to sell them. Ebay isn’t really an option because of the amount so i’m looking for an event where I can sell them or a website that will buy lots of trains. Some have boxes some don’t. There’s a wide variety of companies and HO scales.
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LGB The Blue Train Set in Box..used
 | US $100.00 (1 Bid) End Date: Saturday Jul-31-2010 18:06:18 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list |
LGB G SCALE TRAINS 2040 CROCODILE LOOKS MINT NO RESERVE
 | US $331.10 (24 Bids) End Date: Sunday Aug-01-2010 16:57:00 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list |
LGB 21988 Circus Train Set**Excellent Condition!
 | US $100.00 (1 Bid) End Date: Monday Aug-02-2010 9:21:58 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list |
LGB 20412PV (EUR) Train Set**Excellent Condition!
 | US $110.00 (6 Bids) End Date: Monday Aug-02-2010 13:14:19 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list |
USA TRAINS R22405 ALCO NYC PA ,PB SET LGB
 | US $200.00 (1 Bid) End Date: Thursday Aug-05-2010 8:33:30 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list |
3 Comments »
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I think the best way to sell your estate, Is First to go to Yahoo Groups and sign up, this is free to you and there are 395 groups in H O Scale you can join any number of groups for free and the master list that you would see will tell you what each group is doing, Also you need to take pictures of the trains (not) individually but as units as for incenses get all one railroad name together and take a few pictures then!!! look on ebay at the trains and see what they are asking in price. for like the engines and box cars so on or if you cant take the time to do that you can always ask the Group owners to help out, Being a group owner if you want to send some pictures to our group i would more than happy to help you come up with a price my group name is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bigrigtrucks87/
Comment by Micheal O — February 3, 2010 @ 1:15 am
If you are a complete novice to model railroading, you have to spend the time in researching the items and effort to sell them to get the maximum return. Showing up to a train show or a dealer (if you can find them) with boxes and a "make me an offer" look on your face will likely get you much less then their worth. The same could apply if you get a "knowledgeable friend" to sell them for you. You will be wondering if they are being straight up with you , or "other".
The locomotives could be worth $5.00 tops or they could be worth $1000.00+ depending on what they are. If you have NO idea as to what they are you WILL loose. Judging by the relatives lifestyle, if they were well off, the trains are likely to be worth more. If the trains were bought at yard sales and flea markets, probably not as much. It all depends on what they are and who made them.
In HO age does not have a great impact in their worth like Lionel does. In short the older HO trains are do not necessarily make them more valuable. The opposite is actually more accurate. The newer more accurate trains are worth more then the older runs. Getting them back in the correct boxes adds greatly to the selling price.
I cannot recommend eBay enough. Love them or not, they are it. The buying audience is there like no other place, website, or train show. In is an international buying audience. There are some other "eBay hating" train selling websites, but no buyers. However, with eBay, there is lots of time involved to list them and sell off 1 or a few items at a time and what category to list them in with an accurate description. Knowing how to group them is a benefit. A wrong item description will not get a high price.
In closing, you have to put the research time in to get the benefit out, or blow them out on the cheap and take whatever you get. It is all your choice.
Comment by Wdlane — February 3, 2010 @ 1:15 am
You can try selling it in forums. There are tons of model train enthusiasts on those sites you will surely can sell those model trains.
Comment by Jimmy — February 3, 2010 @ 1:15 am