The hobby is about what YOU like and not whether its 'worth' anything in the future. Even if your family knew what everything cost and the amount of time you spent on the hobby... in the end they will do whatever they need to do with the stuff. It doesn't matter if the hobby is model trains... antique autos... fishing gear etc... The hobby is not about the disposition of the items... its about whether you are enjoying the hobby while you're still around. My biggest concern is that I need to do more to ENJOY the hobby while I still can... and whatever happens when I'm gone is only a bonus for those that acquire it from me. It's not a bad idea to inform your family by having an inventory with some information and perhaps a reasonable minimum starting bid at an auction (maybe 50% of original cost). Anything you've built... kitbashed... scratchbuit etc would be whatever the market bears as well. Sometimes I've seen great looking models with lots of detailing going for LESS than the kit... other times there are bidding wars that yield high prices. There is no real way to know what your beloved collection will ultimately sell for... so why worry about it.
Reminds me of the old Monty Python sketch about how kids don't understand how easy they've got it. "I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, eat a lump of freezing cold poison, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for letting us work there, and when we got home, our Dad would murder us in cold blood, each night, and dance about on our graves singing "Hallelujah." But you try and tell the young people of today that... and they won't believe ya'." My oldest son will be 10 soon. I'll have him draw up a contract. ;-)
After reading this I feel really lucky, I'm 61 and can still assemble MT couplers without any trouble. I guess I will stop complaining about getting tired walking, while playing 18 holes of golf!
Addendum: I expect some day I will be reduced to a six inch deep loop to loop along one or two rooms and a yard at each end. Scenery will be low relief backdrops and such. Wiring will be simplistic with DCC.
Lobster Boy- 1. Cutting a channel in the foamboard is not an original idea of mine. I read about it either here or in one of the three magazines I get in the mail. It works AND the wires are much less likely to separate when buried in the channel. The down side is if there is a break. You will wind up digging up a lot of scenery unless you have terminals every six feet or so (which adds cost to the wiring). All in all, it is easier to diagnose a problem if it does arise and to fix. It is sure as heck better than sorting through under the table spaghetti I have from my original 4x6 layout. If carefully planned, the terminal joiners could be placed under non permanently affixed buildings or easily moved cutouts of scenery. So far, I ain't that smart, but will be in the next section. 2. I never suggested you run trains in the large appliance box on the street in front of your apartment. The same would be quite dangerous in disgustingly wet and windy Boston. Besides, the general public may not be ready for your fantasy schemes on the trains.
I just read this thread from the beginning. A lot of good discussion. I have a few thoughts to add. One thing that I haven't seen addressed is the demographics of our hobby. Most of the ages that I see mentioned in this thread suggest birth dates between 1940 and 1960. I and a few others who have weighed in are toward the end of that range; others, including most who expressed growing health limitations, are from earlier. I'm guessing many of us grew up with Lionel in the post war era, since the numbers suggest we would have been entering the hobby from 1945 - 1965, as our dads could finally justify buying trains "for the kid" when he/she was around 5 years old. This is going to compound the issue of us or someone else trying to sell our trains 3, 5, 10 years from now. I don't think there are going to be any buyers. If I leave the hobby when I'm 70, a 50 year old at that time will have been born in 1980. How many kids born in 1980 will be interested in buying woo woo woo when they are 50? They'll likely be more interested in collecting a vintage Atari, ColecoVision or Nintendo (yes, I realize that I am stereotyping and there will be a very small group of exceptions). Just look at how demand has shifted over the past ten years. Microtrains that were demanding a premium just a few years ago can now be had for $8 - $10 a piece on a regular basis (NScaleYardSale, etc.). I think this is a trend, not a one time event. It used to be that we would gobble up new Kato releases within a week of release and could sell them later for a 50% profit. Now most resale locos go for $50 or less. Again, I think this is a downward trend. My point is, I think it is pointless to discuss trying to get "fair value" in future years, as the free market suggests that with minimal demand, our stuff will be "worth" practically nothing. There is a lesson here, which others have already touched upon. Buy trains only for current enjoyment, and forget about how someone will later recoup value. As with everything else material in this life, when I'm gone if family and friends don't want it, then just give it away, donate or recycle. My second point is in response to the question of which scale to model in during later years. Some with interests focused on detailing and model building will no doubt enjoy a larger scale. For the rest of us (operators), N scale offers advantages the others don't; Unitrack and low space demands. I've kept all of my Unitrack from an earlier layout just for this possibility. They may some day shuffle me off to assisted living, etc, but I'll still have room to set up a loop/shelf of Unitrack to run a few trains. Hundreds of pieces of N scale equipment can likely fit into a single drawer or cabinet. You sure can't do that with larger scales. With Kato's rerailing ramp, a five year old can easily get trains on the track, so it is probably safe to suggest that an 80 year old could as well. Just my 2 cents worth....
Jack- I am one of those who grew up with post-war Lionel. Plus also O-27 Marx and some American Flyer. On the demographics and future, I am complete disagreement. First of all, economics of this past decade badly skew what we are seeing and there is simply no way to compensate outlook for that. Attempting to do so is merely taking wild stabs at what might happen. Talking about it as such also is like shooting oneself in the foot. Who might be reading such negative perspective and then says to themselves 'I think I'll go elsewhere for a hobby?' I will guarantee to you it does happen. But what few of us here know or see, are those comments of the people joining sites such as this one. When they fill in their profiles, and birth dates, we are seeing youths coming in. And, we are also seeing many returning to the hobby after an absence. From their twenties on to retirement age. They finish post-high school years and get started again. Their kids are well along in the K-12 system and the parent starts looking to get out their boxed up trains. They retire and want to get re-started. And mixed in amongst them all are many entering this for their first time. I read this EVERY day here. There is a psychology at play here and we'd need to be speaking POSITIVELY or we will kill it for everyone else, and ourselves, for certain. Boxcab E50
I don't necessarily disagree with any of this, except I want to remind the readers to consider the context of my first post. Had this thread been about newcomers, or many other topics, I would not have shared those thoughts. It is not. It is a good thread about where many of our senior and soon-to-be-senior forum members are in life and its relevance to the hobby. I really wish that more of our youth could benefit from the many positives of model railroading. Learning basic carpentry, design, electrical, mechanical, artistic and other skills and concepts. I also wish we still had cars that they could learn to maintain themselves; where you could change out basic components with basic tools and without knowing exact sequences on how to replace a component that you now can't even see. The world has changed. When I was under twelve years old, we lived where there were cold winters, no internet, no video games and maybe five channels on the TV. The inevitable boredom led to seeking out ways to stimulate the mind. Model railroading was a great way, especially if you had a parent or friend that could share the work/enjoyment of the hobby with you. We also had model building, erector sets, "generic Legos" (i.e. where you had to visualize what to build and be creative; not just figure out how to put the pieces together one way to look like the picture on the box). Now we're at the other end of the spectrum, where there is concern about over stimulation. Endless video games, recorded media, internet, phones that can do almost anything, etc. There is good to be found in much of that, however the time and patience to learn the gamut of model railroading skills may be near extinction. No doubt there are many exceptions, however it's a numbers game. If three folks "retire" from the hobby for every newcomer, there just isn't going to be much of a market for second hand equipment (even if it has factory air and has been kept in a cool dark vault since it was new). This was the conclusion that I was building up to with my previous demographic comments; which was largely in response to comments earlier in the thread regarding concern about eventually recouping value of model railroad "investments." I think many of us would be better off to come to grips with that very real possibility and to plan accordingly. That said, if someone approached me today about how best to "dispose" of a model railroad portion of an estate, I would probably recommend that they either donate it to a reputable model railroad museum (very likely for resale to fund continuing operation) or to send it all to a dealer who offered consignment sales. I know of at least one who I would trust recommending, and I am sure there are others.
If. Wherever this number comes from? Hopefully it is merely example or theory, with nobody bouncing such around out there as any fact. As for recouping most or all, I never expect that as a goal. That is simply unrealistic- Excepting collectors, especially as so much we'd sell would be used. Unless it must go quickly, I might attempt to regain as much as the market will reasonably bear. And in a few instances would seek a good amount for the hardest to find/rarity. Boxcab E50
You're right; I just pulled that 3:1 ratio as an example. Who knows the real number? I actually think that the "collectors" will take a harder hit than anyone else. That mint-in-box Hershey's, Santa, State Cars, etc. collection is probably going to be much harder to sell than the plain old boxcars for BNSF, UP, NS, etc. that have been well cared for and have original packaging. Believe me, I wish it were not so. I've tried to not accumulate too much stuff, but as with most on this forum, I still have thousands of dollars invested in stuff that ultimately will have to be dispositioned. That's okay. I may not have the memory of a $10,000 vacation to some part of the world that makes me wish I were home, but I can enjoy running a number of classic era Kato passenger sets, with numerous locomotive options, any time I feel like it. If someday those wind up being given away, or sold for 10 cents on the dollar, so be it. I'm still going to buy that Empire Builder, NCL, 20th Century, etc. when it comes out with full expectation that I'll never see a penny of that money again. If none of those come out, then I'll make a real investment (which may be a debate for an entirely different type of forum).
One thing at my house, which I guess is good, (although it would mean I am gone- Argh), my wife knows my model RR friends and she has manned many a swap meet table. She knows a fair amount about my items, so she could recover some money and have people who'd help her as needed.
Just two more of my cents here (sheesh, you'd think I won the lottery!). I'm 43 and coming back to the hobby after about a 12 year absence. Previously, I had acquired a good deal of equipment (maybe 20-25 locomotives and a bunch of cars). I picked up a lot of these through a period of about 15 years for a future "empire" that I "just knew I would build... some day." I didn't buy any of it as "investments", per se, other than investments in my upcoming fun. I got most of it at train shows for less than retail prices. In the last 12 years, I sold most of it off to pay for "real life" (wife, kids, roof over our head, etc.) expenses and while I certainly didn't recover the full cost I'd paid, it helped pay bills that would have otherwise gone unpaid. What I've got left is stuff that either wasn't worth the effort to sell (nickel and dime stuff, half-painted, etc.) or was broken. And one thing that I'm glad my life has taught me is to be grateful for what I've got, right here and right now. I'm having fun with my trains! Whenever I should happen to die, if I've still got trains, I won't need them, nor will I care about their disposition (regardless of where I end up, though I'm aiming high!). Whoever is responsible for my things after that is welcome to do whatever they please with them. I'm hoping one of my children will want them either for themselves, or for their children. And I know that at least one of my four children knows enough about them to enjoy, sell, donate, or otherwise dispose of them (or even kitbash them into something else, for that matter). Anyway, now that I've typed all of that, I've pretty much forgotten my original point, but I just buy trains to run and use in the present. Trains are loads of fun, but the only "investing" I do is in my family. The "fun" is the ROI I'm looking for.
Amen. We have one of the most "scalable" hobbies that I know of. Whether a person has $100 or $1000000, model railroading can still be a lot of fun.
Well, finally we got to a message that says basically what I say! Although I don't have any children, I'm sure the wife (or estate) will find somebody who'll want my extensive HO collection and fledgling N scale rigs. And yes, I'm in that demographic that started with the Lionel stuff in the 50's. Thanks for a great thread and some ideas. AD
Thanks for all your posts of sympathy, empathy, encouragement, and suggestions. All your comments mean a lot to me and have helped me to see what path I shall follow. 1) I'm selling off a lot of my excess structures, kits, and accessories. The idea is to sell them, for the best price I can get, But not give them away at rock bottom prices. I do not need 30 locomotive and much as I really like most of them they will go on the chopping block. 2) I'll again scale down my HCD in progress and get trains running quickly. 3) I'll use the idea of putting channels in my foam for the wiring instead of struggling to do it from under the benchwork. Thanks See ya Ron
I call it "De-Accumulation". As my eye heals, (and it is), I feel a greater urgency to proceed with passing along more of my equipment to people who I know will enjoy it in my lifetime. If I send 2X cars / locos etc to a friend, they "embellish" 1X and return it and keep the other 1X I'd call that a win. If all goes well I'll be down to 1/2 of my "stuff", er treasures in a year or so.
Grey-One, I'm definitely into "De-Accumulation" in a big way. Boy do I like that terminology, "De-Accumulation" It's my new favorite :tb-cool:word. Instead of down-sizing my HCD "U" shaped benchwork, I've got a prospect who may be interested in purchasing it. He is one of the guys at one of our local train shows. We'll see what happens. I'm also selling (3 sold) off a lot of my (new) kits I've never opened. I've also got 30 DCC locomotives I'm going to "De-Accumulate" about half of them. I'm converted to T-Trak-N. You don't have to climb under benchwork to wire it up. See ya Ron
I was planning on doing a T-Trak-N home layout. But that was dependent on selling my "U" shaped bench-work. I had a local guy who was interested in buying the bench-work but changed his mind. So I'll only be doing T-TRAK-N as part of my local club. See ya Thanks Ron
