Liquidating small collection

Assorted thoughts IMO:

I am guessing you mean Overland for the brass engines, correct?  If so that is where almost all your value is.  Anything that needs assembly has a much smaller audience today.  Auction houses usually want larger collections.  Much of the other items have fallen somewhat out of favor.

OGR is great for 3 rail.

B/4 you do anything I would open a Yahoo group account with O Scale Yard Sales group.  That site has been very helpful for me.  Serious buyers, no payment problem.

Liquidating generally means having somebody comein and pay cash.  Once you figure out what your collection is honestly worth, expect 40-50% by a reputable purchaser.

Do not give it to a stranger on consignment.  If you do, it may be the last you see of it.

Best: find some nice person to e-bay it for you.  Give them 40% of what they get.

Your other choice is to donate the collection to a 501C3 organization such as a railroad museum that has an O scale layout so rater than get 40% cash take 80 or 90% at tax time.

Dick

The Railroad Museum, Sioux City, IA

Intermountain and Weaver freight cars typically sell for about $10-15 each at 2 rail shows meaning a dealer will offer $5 or so per piece.  Red Caboose Geep kits may bring $50 or so unless they have a drive with them. Not clear on what the brass cabooses are. Red Caboose made plastic freight cars but no brass cabooses.

Spike

List what you have for sale and what you want for each, in the OGR for sale column.

I just listed mine there a couple of days ago, will see how that goes

MikeP

There are two approaches to this as mentioned already. 

The first is to contact a reputable dealer and ask him to come and appraise and make an offer.    If you do this, he of course has to build in his profit and the time it takes to sell it.  So as mentioned, 40-50% of the market price is a good offer.   The advantage is your friends get their money right now and they don't have the hassle of selling each piece over some years.   The reality of any collection is that few popular pieces will sell very quickly, a bunch of stuff will sell in a reasonable time and the rest may take years.   The dealer has to consider this too and he will have his money tied up in it for as much as a few years before he clears a profit possibly.

The second approach is for your friends, possibly with your help, sell it them selves at train shows, on ebay, on the various forums.   The advantage here is that it generates more revenue for the owners.    The disadvantages are that someone has to deal with the sales, consider taking checks, pack and ship the stuff, deal with disgruntled customers that decide they don't want it after it is shipped etc.   If you/they go to shows, there is the cost of travel, hotel, meals, show table etc.   And finally, it will take some time to sell it all.   The less popular pieces may take years.     Of course if you are going to shows anyway, and gettng a table anyway, this is a good approach because it does not add much cost or time.   But for the non-hobbiest, sitting at a train show all table waiting to sell something can be very boring.

There is a third approach that you can try too probably.   Get tables Take the collection to the first big train show and price it sell.   Get an idea of prices and decide ahead of time what you will take which might 30% below "market".    Go with idea of not bringing stuff home.   Seriously consider all offers.    And Chances are a dealer may come up at the end of the show make an offer on what is still there.  

In my experience, 501c3 donations are not quite that simple.  The declared value can be challenged and the actual net cash realized is the IRS accepted value times your tax bracket.

Example, if you are in the 25% tax bracket and your donate a genuine $100  in kind gift your real dollar savings would be $25.  

This is what I love about this forum.  More resources in one spot than the rest of the internet. 

Thanks for all of your inputs.  Yes, when I typed the original post and trying to watch television, I mistyped the manufacturer of both the cabeese and the steam locomotives.  They are all Overland with the exception of one caboose by Sunset.

I went to the brasstrains.com and did some research there for the brass equipment.  I found the site to be very informative in so much as when the items were made, quantity made and the MSRP.  Unfortunately, only one item had a price history associated with it. 

After performing numerous searches on several auction sites archives, I have found the car prices for the Inter-Mountain cars and the Red Caboose cars to be everywhere from $10 to $50.  In reviewing some of the auctions, I noticed the more expensive cars included trucks and couplers with them.  As I stated earlier, I am a Lionel guy, I am used to trucks and couplers already coming on the cars.  I know he was into Proto 48.  I can say that since he had the Proto 48 wheel sets for all of the steam engines.  Also had a number of Weaver truck sets brand new in the box obviously for the car kits.

I will pass this information along to my friend for her to share with her family and I will continue to try and find fair markets values for the equipment. 

Thanks again for all of your inputs and suggestions.

Brings up an interesting question: what does Proto-48 do to the value of a brass locomotive?

Occasionally I go to Yahoo groups.  Not at all sure I like the format.  They start sending e-mails, then I have to drop out.

I don't care about your specifics, but I am with Tom - we all will help, but you need to give us specifics if you want any specific help.  There is a lot of O Scale knowledge lurking around here.

I would suspect the engines were converted; I have not seen older OVL in proto 48.    List the models here and we can offer some better insight.    Ebay is likely the best choice: make sure you test run engines and check for loose parts/broken areas/paint condition and list it in the specs....

You can also list them for sale here---

Yes, definitely list the items here.  List what road names you have also.  You might

 get some nice offers right here.

Rick

Not true - you must state a price here, and if you do not, there are loads of folks ready to jump.  Ve haff rules . . .

He can list the items on this thread and request feedback on them either off list or on the thread.    Then he can decide whether to list on the site or work another angle.    This should meet the criteria. 

How is the Cessna Bob?

And What keeps the list from being a sales pitch on this forum when items listed should be on the "For Sale" Forum?

If he wants Price feed back then forum members should email him off line. I believe the monitors would agree! If they don't, then they would not be very good monitors.

Stephen

I think Brad has the right idea -  like this:

I have an Overland 1990 three unit UP turbine with Proto-48 wheelsets.  I am considering selling it, but have no idea what it is worth.  Can any of you help?

Of course I have no such thing, but I would still be interested in what others think it is worth - I bet not much more than $500.

Brad - two Piper Cubs and a Decathlon.  Only Cessna worth a glance by me is the 180/185.

Bob,

my mistake, fly up the coast ever....?

ps, the veranda turbines go for good money--- when they sell!

To me it sounds like the wheel sets for the steam engines were there but not installed.  IMHO the yahoo group mentioned would probably net the best return and not have fee's to pay like evilbay.  Use the bay to set the price and if it's too high they'll let you know and if not it will sell.

Greg

Used to.  Gas is $6.75 per gallon, so my straight and level days are pretty much over.  I spend my gas money on perfecting slow rolls.

I wasn't really expecting a value for the turbine - just pointing out that such a post would probably survive complaints from the forum police.  Doubt that it would bother management, although who really knows.

I too have items on which I would like to have value estimates.  On which forum would it be proper to ask?

From what I understand many posting "adjustments" are sourced in complaints from the basement police.

The National 2 Rail O show is in Indianapolis next Friday and Saturday.  

9/19-20/14

Contact  http://www.indyoscalenational.com  Jim Cantor very informed on 2 rail brass!

Buzz

I have wondered about this myself. If someone takes a brass engine where the wheels

are built to NMRA  O scale standards and modifies it to proto48 standards what is the

Differential in value between the original vs. the converted model. I would assume that  the

Converted proto 48 model would be worth far less in value due to its now limited demand.

I met a proto 48 modeler who converted a number of  brass steam engines to

Proto 48.  He saved the original NMRA drive wheels and acquired new castings and

Manufactured new drive wheels to proto 48 standards. I assumed he did this so that the

 Model could be converted back to its original NMRA if desired for resale.

If the brass locomotives are Overland go to Liveauctioneers.com and click on completed sales for Overland brass trains and you'll be amazed to find that people paid BIG money for brass locomotives and rolling stock. Watch out.  Don't give them away for nothing.

Lew Schneider 

Lew

dont forget to deduct shipping costs and sellers commissions of 20-30%....     

  From your original post a word of caution. Make sure all of the family is on board for your efforts. The death of a parent can bring out sibling rivalry like you would not belive and your state inheritance laws might prohibit selling anything. IMHO wait until the estate executor is named and then work with that person.

  It is nice of you to try and help.

 Douglas