Hello HO train enthusiasts. My father recently passed away, and along with many great memories, he also left us his HO train collection. Unfortunately, we know nothing about it. We would like to sell it to train people who would appreciate it. We do have many of the original boxes for his engines, which have price tags on them, so we know what he paid for them. However, we don't know if that price is a good guide for resale value, etc. We consider his collection something he purchased for enjoyment, not as an investment, so we're only looking to sell them at a fair price for us and the buyer. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you! Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk
The best suggestion I can give is to find a local model railroading club or club member and contact them, specifying that you're looking for someone that takes care of estate sales, or evaluates models in such cases, for model railroaders who have passed on. They might know someone in your general area that can help you. As for the value, it all depends on what, when, who made it, and how many were made. Hope this helps, and my condolences to you and your family.
Although I may know a little more about than your family, I am going through the same thing with my father's lifetime collection. Mike's advice above is sound. You will find that, like many things, you can get better prices (make more money) if you sell each piece yourself on Ebay or similar sites, but that will take substantial amounts of your time. If you find a local dealer, they may offer you something for the entire collection that is much less than what you can get selling piecemeal, but the collection is out of your hands and you have a check. Essentially, you are paying for the dealer's time to sell everything. It's a trade-off. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk
Both Mike and pastor John have sound advice there. TrainBoard also has a Swap Meet section where you can list items for sale if you decide to sell it piece meal. Would pretty much need to kind of figure out an asking price for things if you go that route. https://www.trainboard.com/highball/index.php#swap-meet.150 and sympathy's on your fathers passing.
I agree as well. Many years ago when I decided to substantially thin out the family Lionel collection, I spoke to some volume Buyers at train shows and got their appraisals on some sample items, all 40% to 50% of retail value. As @Pastor John mentioned, that can be a solid and sensible choice to minimize the hassle of selling. I have some knowledge of Lionel and was able to carve out the time to successfully sell the individual pieces on eBay at pricing higher than I expected. With much to sell and without knowledge of model trains, I'd go the once-and-done sale to a club, club members or a volume buyer like https://www.trainz.com , https://modeltrainmarket.com or such.
