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.
.......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?
At The March Meet in 2018, two brothers brought their deceased father's collection. They initially had six tables and when four tables were available in the same aisle, they got those, then two more. Twelve 6' tables. About 99% of the collection was in boxes and the boxes filled every table at least four high and in most instances higher than that. The floor space under the tables had cartons and totes placed so the ends of the boxes could be seen. Several experienced men helped the sons batch and price items to move. Even with the big crowd with money in their hands, less than 20% of the items sold. Even at good prices, there are only so many people who were looking for the items on the tables. Over the week-end I heard more than a few attendees recommend the sons call Stout Auction and when everything was packed, drive the three hours to Westfield and let Stout handle it. Sunday afternoon the sons packed the boxes in cartons and totes, loaded their trailer and headed home to St. Louis. I don't know their plans, but a three hundred mile trip with at least two nights in a nice hotel, several meals and table rent isn't cheap. If they left with 80% of the items they have a long way to go. How much is their time worth? How many week-ends away from their families? How many show admissions to pay and tables to rent? How many disappointments? Sooner or later they are going to have to face reality and realize that even at $5 per box they would not have cleared their tables to individuals who did not plan to resell those items. At least one individual mentioned in John Dunn's post was at The Meet and he would not have had room in his trailer for the collection if he bought it at 20% for resale.
John in Lansing, ILL
