kj356 posted:A friend passed away earlier this year and our train club is working to help the estate sell the very large O scale collection.
A few of us had worked for many years on getting the O scale layout built and running - looking forward to running nights. The owner traveled a bit to many O scale meets and collected a massive collection of O scale freight cars of many era's; from Weaver and Atlas more recent O scale to early built up wood and plastic kits and many brass freight cars. There is a large fleet of O scale steam engines in display cabinets many of the bigger engines in brass; road names from all over North America.
Any thoughts on moving O scale or what the market is like for older brass steam engines and cars?
I'd look to a specialty site such as Brasstrains or TRAINZ or Stout Auctions. You need somewhat of an accurate appraisal of the values of the pieces you have.
I'm not a seller of brass but one thing I can tell you over the past 30 years of collecting it by the hundreds is that the market is small BUT for QUALITY brass the prices hold some of their value.
Freight cars are my specialty. US hobbies cars may fetch $50-100 if you are lucky. Precision scale MAY fetch $100-250 retail and ones currently in demand (think Pacific Limited) fetch from $200 to $400 average. Remember, the original list price for many items back in the day were, for example, a $40 retail USH car or a $199 list price older Pac Limited car.
Some locomotives fetch thousands of dollars where a nice pristine condition US Hobbies or Max Gray steam locomotive struggles to fetch a few hundred bucks. And it's cyclical. One day it's a few hundred bucks, the next one to show up sells for a grand.
I do know that there is a glut of brass on the market and some is a slow seller. But for quality brass there is still a market. A good rule of thumb - the more accurate and the more highly detailed, the more it fetches. And a pristine undecorated piece fetches more than a crappy painted piece.
Looking at older John Clemens/Brass roundhouse list price sheets (a retailer) is a good indication of where brass came from. Some pieces may have depreciated pretty steeply but many remain stable or have appreciated. Remember, it's a hobby not an investment.
And as stated earlier, ignore anyone who wants to cherry pick. You'll be stuck with nothing but the unsalable if you don't know the market.
