Hey all, I'm a member from the early 2000's checking back in. My interest in n scale has waned a lot since 2004 or so. In that time, I moved, and never really got the layout working again - did not really fit into the space and finally tore it out last year. We also had a kid, and my interests shifted towards more woodworking and other house projects etc., so train stuff has just sat there. I've finally come around to realizing that I should move my n scale stuff. To this end, I looked at the FS board here to get a sense of pricing but probably don't want to sell individual pieces. Is there any value in the locomotives and rolling stock from the early 2000 time frame? Kato and Atlas locomotives, and rolling stock from varied manufacturers, such as Kato sets, micro trains, intermountain are some I recall. Finally, I've struck out with craigslist too. Any creative thoughts about where to move these? At this point, if I come back to trains, it will likely be in HO, or with a garden sized layout. My eyes are definitely not as good as they used to be.
I'm similar to you. I had O (outdoor) and N gauge starting in 1990. Until 2007 when I had to sell that big house and got a smaller trailer house at which time I decided to go HO. But that changed in 2011. Now in an apartment those HOs are just too big. So it's time to go back to N. I'll keep the HO for a happier future in old age.
You may want to try a post here on the TrainBoard Swap Meet thread at [ https://www.trainboard.com/highball/index.php?forums/trainboard-swap-meet.151/ ].
N Scale Yard Sale at groups.io or same name on Facebook. Also had good results with N Scale Railroading, again, groups.io, sales days only 11st and 15th. I haven't had much luck either here or on The Railwire.net. But be prepared for low offers. You could get lucky tho.
There's value left in the equipment you bought back in 2000. Some stuff we got out of the 90's still holds it's value. If you decide to sell there are plenty of venues for you to sell from. One thing I learned was I could sell my old "Junk Stuff" on E-pay. Of course the prices had to be reasonable and competitive. Many bought my stuff for parts. Just make sure you don't pay for shipping. Cost of which has accelerated (gone up in cost) in the last two to three years. Service and delivery has gotten slower. Disclosure is important and when selling junk, I made sure to indicate it's "Junk." I sold off everything and made enough money to buy me new train equipment. It can happen.
If or when there is a local train swap, could get a sale table. Will not help figuring prices. Only down side is might pick up different or more trains to take home. Some sellers buy collections to resell, only bad thing is getting pennies on the dollar. Good luck.
Any thoughts on how best to approach? Thinking that putting things in lots might be prudent, so that it is less work, but moves stuff. Does that seem logical? My desire is between getting reasonable value for them while reducing my work and trips to the PO.
There are people who sell on Ebay that will sell your stuff on a consignment basis. Some will pay you a negotiated amount up front while others will pay you as the items sell. There are seller's costs on Ebay to be considered in the process but you will probably have a better result than dumping everything for pennies. One more thing here, rolling stock has generally increased in price. More so than locomotives. Case in point is Atlas 90 ton hoppers. Back when these were first introduced I bought them for $2.25-2.50 each. Last time I checked, the same car retailed for about $20.00. Ebay prices are all over the place. Atlas has re-issued these cars many times over the years so there are a lot of them out there which helps to keep the prices down but other rolling stock with smaller production numbers may appreciate in value more. Good Luck!
In general, as long as you have good equipment (the OP noting Kato, Atlas, MT and Intermountain) there is no doubt plenty of value. You may surprise yourself and get more than you paid for it , especially rolling stock (I think I have some MTL boxes with 3.98 price tags on them). And while it takes a bit of work to get DCC into older Kato and Atlas, it can be done- and for those running DC, they may be viewed as better than new, because the weight of the old frames made them great pullers. First advice- if you auction (eBay or elsewhere), do NOT opt for $1 opening bids unless you really are willing to sell it for $1. And make sure the closing times for your auctions are not 4 am. Unless of course, I am bidding, in which case, forget what I just wrote. I am happy to buy MTL and Intermountain cars for $1 each at 4am. I can't speak for anyone else, but given my own buying habits, I am most likely to buy in lots of 3 or more cars, to save on shipping, rather than single cars. I appreciate it when sellers group things by era. In my case, I am modeling the 1950s, and am looking for equipment that was built in the first half of the century (cars built in 1918 were often still in use in 1955). So I am more likely to buy a lot of 5 random freight cars from the 1940s than I am to buy 5 freight cars that mix up 36' refrigerator cars with modern covered hoppers, even if they all are lettered for Santa Fe (one of the roads I model). Of course, there are no doubt collectors out there who buy everything in ATSF garb, who don't care what era. The exception to the above would be the stuff that nowadays falls into the "collector" category. I'm amused sometimes by how much folks get for those old kits that came with a couple of pieces of cardboard, a dozen odd bits of wood and some window castings, and were more difficult than building the model from scratch. @nodima- neither of your photo sites are working for me, one requires me to set up an account, and the other is a 404 error.
This is a good problem. HOW MUCH to ask for an item? Where should I try to sell/advertise a sale? Should I "bundle" up items together? VALUE: You need to do some research, on what to ask for various items. Is an item RARE? You can look at FeeBay to catch a "ball park" idea of an item's value. But be aware that sometimes, things are placed for auction with a higher than normal value listed. You can generally get an item's value by observing other sales. SALES: On where to list items? I like TRAINBOARD. Have had a bunch of good buys here and have sold a few items also. The io.group: NSCALEYARDSALE is one of the best [IMHO] NO FEES, Moderated, and kept HONEST. There are other groups that are buyers & sellers of N-Scale and ANY other scale Model Railroading items. There is one BIG website, who's initials are FB, with a lot of SALES groups. Just look. BUNDLING ITEMS TOGETHER: I would say: YES. Try to put like items together, 1 -5 tank cars, 1-5 hoppers. etc etc. I using 1-5 each for an example, put as many cars, pieces of track work [flex-turnouts-sectional] together as you like. Maybe a "bundle of UP--B&O--AT&SF rolling stock for a single price. There are plenty of Buyers for collections, that will buy everything you have for one price. Just don't expect to get one price for said collection, that equals what you could have sold each item for individually. For SHIPPING almost NOTHING beats the POST OFFICE. Say what you want, but I still like the USPS. You can pack a lot of stuff into a PRIORITY MAIL flat rate box. Go to the USPS Website and register for the CLICK & SHIP application, put in Credit/Debt card, and PRINT your own postage and shipping labels. Almost all UPS Terminals have a self-service counter. With PayPal you can even print your own shipping labels for UPS. Why go to a UPS STORE when you can do it yourself. Don't forget your local TRAIN SHOW & SALE [If we can ever get them going again{HUGH SIGH}] A fun place to meet fellow Modellers, see trains, and HAVE A GOOD TIME! 'Nuff Said I'll shut up NOW.
With respect to all of the above, it comes down to time vs. money tradeoff. The least time-consuming way to handle this is a bulk sale to someone who will probably flip to eBay. The most time-consuming is doing all the work yourself cataloging, properly describing and researching reasonable prices. I've had the best compromise in dispositioning my father's extensive HO accumulation with a table at a local annual show (which didn't happen last year, because COVID). I took one of 12 tables that were reserved by a member of our "Tuesday Night Gang" and we all looked after each other's stuff. There was nothing particularly pricey and or "rare, vintage, hard to find" so this worked out well for us, and my mother particularly. We enjoyed selling "entry-level" rolling stock to "entry-level" HO people... children and young families. One other thing about eBay: their "managed payments" program means that you don't get your money for four days, yet their expectation is that you ship immediately if not sooner. (Handling time of four days or more is automatically flagged in the listing.) I just got moved to "managed payments" and have not decided if this means my little bit of selling there will drop to zero selling there.
