Originally Posted by dkdkrd:
..... sitting behind a train show table hoping that the passionate buyers happen to be in attendance for the specific...and most valuable...of your dad's items is not my idea of either fun or fair return.
I have done this recently for my father in law's collection (still ongoing in the background now) and if it's something that you would normally be attending, and have an active interest in the hobby, and know what show(s) to attend with this purpose in mind, knowing what you are selling, you can do rather well.
In general, most the above is good advice. Some older and/or more unusual brass items can be quite desirable, and knowing what's what can be important in that specific aspect.
Rather, I would carefully inquire about internet auction assistance by someone or group that is familiar with this hobby and its items, their condition, their fair market values, etc.. It's fairly hard to beat the global market exposure of the internet sales options. It has its downsides, too, like every other option.
I finished off selling all of the engines and rolling by going the eBay route in the end. It's some effort but if one has any experience selling by that route, it's pretty straightforward. The "work" element is the packing (don't skimp!) and shipping. But, you can take your time with this as well and spread things out at your convenience.
Well worth your time to get someone to ID and put realistic values on stuff before doing much else.
And, there are a number of folks that buy brass collections.
