Any recommendations for Model Shops buying collections?

[TomMcG]

Hi folks,

 

hope this is in the right forum.

 

Can you recommend a Model Shop which buys railway and/or diecast collections and pays fair prices?

 

Thanks for any hints.

 

Cheers,

Tom

 

[alangdance]

You best bet is to sell privately as you will not get anywhere near a fair price. What they offer is a  complete insult.

I am selling my collection myself privately now and at the moment I have already almost nearly meet the offer of one shop and

I have not even put my  locos or wagons up for sell yet (20 locos and 90 wagons).

 

Good luck 

 

Alan

[sjp23480]

Alan is spot on. Although, having used eBay to sell some redundant items, there is a lot of work involved and can be more trouble than its worth. If you are prepared to put this effort in, eBay is easily the best option to raise the most money. Don't forget they will charge 10% sellers fee.

 

As for retailers and second hand items, I would stop short of saying it was an "insult. If they buy from you they take on the risk/resources associated with selling it on. Under the circumstances it should be no surprise they offer what we might consider paltry sums of money for our items. Ultimately they have to get a return and each 2nd hand item sold my mean a lost sale of a brand new item in stock.

 

If you have a good relationship with a local shop they may consider taking your collection on a sale/return basis, taking a cut of the sale price. This way you carry the risk of it being unsold. You would also have to determine a fair price for each item.

 

The other option is to try an auctioneer, the-saleroom.com often features collections of railway items from various auctions across the country. I am unsure of their terms and conditions but I assume the auction house takes a cut of the revenue, as well as charging the buyer a premium. Obviously no guarantees on the prices, unless you specify a reserve I assume? Everything I have bought there has been comparable to eBay pricing for a private sale and would be a lot less hassle?

 

Good luck

Steve

Edited December 26, 2018 by sjp23480

[Phil Parker]

"Insult" is unfair - they will have to put a lot of work in to realise a return on the models, money that comes out of the final price they sell for. If you want to keep all that final price, then you need to do all the work yourself.

 

Listing stuff on eBay costs money for fees but also you'll need to take good photos, write your own descriptions and then pack and post the stuff. Lots of hastle for a large collection - but you will get the best money for it. It all depends on whether your time has any value.

 

Sellers will also tend to over-estimate the value of their collection.

 

One option many people ignore is taking stuff to an auction house. There are several advertising in BRM who will do an excellent job. You'll get less than doing all the work yourself, but it's worth a shot.

[Widnes Model Centre]

 

Some good points raised. Selling on EBay will cost you 14-15% of the final sale price. This fee also I believe applies to postal charges. Then there is also the listing fee. Not cheap and a lot of hard work.

 

Auctions are great if you have a valuable AND desirable collection. There fees are around the 20% mark plus VAT.

 

We have found that for ease of sale and they arrange collection, Hattons offer a fair price. Don’t forget they will have to pay VAT on the sale price.

 

An example of this happened recently when a customer of ours valued his items with ‘Sold’ prices on EBay. After allowing for fees he got more selling to Hattons with very little effort.

[Robin Brasher]

Hattons bought some of my collection last year. They offer a good service supplying labels to send your boxed up items free of charge to Hattons. If you do a trade in they give a better price. I did quite well selling Kneller Hall to them for about £20 in exchange for Rood Ashton Hall at a discount. No-one was interested in my Kneller Hall at an exhibition and a toy fair. Hattons offered a better price than Rails.

 

You will not get the best price from a model shop but it will save you a lot of hassle.

 

My worst experience with a model shop was when I offered a Tri-ang Derwent electric model cruiser to a shop in West Sussex. The shop owner snapped the mast and the flagpole off and offered £5. He told me the damage was repairable. I did not show him any other items in case he wrecked those.

[woodenhead]

I sold a lot of OO stuff earlier this year after seeing disappointing quotes from Hattons and Rails, selling through Ebay after fees I got what I thought they were worth overall - some sold better and others less so but it balanced out.

 

However, when it came to the N gauge stuff I found it a lot harder to realise sales of stock via Ebay - the first item I put up was a complete Dapol HST  and it sold for what I wanted but it got harder from there and some stock I had clearly over valued in my mind and it remains with me.  I had 4 Dapol 26/27s up for sale, never got a sniff in Auction, lots of watchers but no-one bought apart from one or two cheeky offers that I wasn't going to accept.

 

So as others have said, if you have something that people want and you don't over estimate it's value then Ebay is better to sell - it is easier with locos, coaches are harder and wagon's hardest (especially in N).

 

You've also got to consider why you are selling and also the time and effort involved in listing, packing and posting the items which will most likely be individual items to individual sellers and it may take a few months especially with a big collection.

 

Selling to Rails or Hattons or another second hand dealer takes away all the effort, you get the cash straight away and it is they who then need to do all the work to sell them.

[pirouets]

I've used Ron Lines in Southampton a couple of times and in both cases he accepted my asking price. Once was a n gauge collection and the other was my dads old OO stock.

 

All depends on what you want to get, how much work you want to put in to get the most value or do you want convenience.

[hayfield]

"Insult" is unfair - they will have to put a lot of work in to realise a return on the models, money that comes out of the final price they sell for. If you want to keep all that final price, then you need to do all the work yourself.

 

Listing stuff on eBay costs money for fees but also you'll need to take good photos, write your own descriptions and then pack and post the stuff. Lots of hastle for a large collection - but you will get the best money for it. It all depends on whether your time has any value.

 

Sellers will also tend to over-estimate the value of their collection.

 

One option many people ignore is taking stuff to an auction house. There are several advertising in BRM who will do an excellent job. You'll get less than doing all the work yourself, but it's worth a shot.

 

 

You are right about owners over valuing their items, and there is work to be done if you are selling items yourself, but the rewards can be quite high.

 

I have found for popular items traders offer  approximately 1/3 of the new price to sell at 2/3rds, less popular items they offer much less. As for a lot of work to realise a profit, it's their job and like every job normally the more you put into it the more you get from it. I have found they soon find the real value of items and many times are able to sell desired items for a lot of money, lets face it  they do it for profit not love

[hayfield]

I sold a lot of OO stuff earlier this year after seeing disappointing quotes from Hattons and Rails, selling through Ebay after fees I got what I thought they were worth overall - some sold better and others less so but it balanced out.

 

However, when it came to the N gauge stuff I found it a lot harder to realise sales of stock via Ebay - the first item I put up was a complete Dapol HST  and it sold for what I wanted but it got harder from there and some stock I had clearly over valued in my mind and it remains with me.  I had 4 Dapol 26/27s up for sale, never got a sniff in Auction, lots of watchers but no-one bought apart from one or two cheeky offers that I wasn't going to accept.

 

So as others have said, if you have something that people want and you don't over estimate it's value then Ebay is better to sell - it is easier with locos, coaches are harder and wagon's hardest (especially in N).

 

You've also got to consider why you are selling and also the time and effort involved in listing, packing and posting the items which will most likely be individual items to individual sellers and it may take a few months especially with a big collection.

 

Selling to Rails or Hattons or another second hand dealer takes away all the effort, you get the cash straight away and it is they who then need to do all the work to sell them.

 

 

With things like run of the mill coaches and wagons, I have found its best to sell in lots. As the cost of postage limits its value. The best thing to do is watch what is actually being sold for decent prices and follow the format

[woodenhead]

Also don't forget Ebay offers free listings on first 100 items in a month and will also do max £1 fees - which i used heavily when selling.

[Mark Saunders]

A point that many forget that when dealers sell for every £1.20 you spend 20p goes to the exchequer so private sales will net more if sold for same price!

[Nearholmer]

If you are selling to a dealer, you can expect to get c50% of what they will actually sell it for, c60% if you are lucky.

 

They need to pay VAT on what they sell, pay P&P if that is how they work, fund a shop if they have one, and make a profit that makes it worth their while, so 50-60% isn't 'unfair'.

 

The 'trick' is to estimate coldly and clearly what it can really be sold for. Then you can secure c90% of that by putting the work in, or half of that by having somebody else do the work.

 

When I sold a few 00 and G things, I found that Hattons offered 50% and a dealer with no shop to fund 60%, and Hattons were very keen to find out why I’d declined their offer.

Edited December 26, 2018 by Nearholmer

[newbryford]

I sold a lot of OO stuff earlier this year after seeing disappointing quotes from Hattons and Rails, selling through Ebay after fees I got what I thought they were worth overall - some sold better and others less so but it balanced out.

 

However, when it came to the N gauge stuff I found it a lot harder to realise sales of stock via Ebay - the first item I put up was a complete Dapol HST  and it sold for what I wanted but it got harder from there and some stock I had clearly over valued in my mind and it remains with me.  I had 4 Dapol 26/27s up for sale, never got a sniff in Auction, lots of watchers but no-one bought apart from one or two cheeky offers that I wasn't going to accept.

 

 

 

 

Sometimes the "cheeky offer" is a way of finding out if the seller is willing to part with it for less than the start price if it is listed as auction/BIN/offers.

I had one earlier this year and refused the cheeky offer with a reposte of "Bid for it and you may get a bargain at that start price". 20 minutes later, the same person paid my BIN price.......

[woodenhead]

Sometimes the "cheeky offer" is a way of finding out if the seller is willing to part with it for less than the start price if it is listed as auction/BIN/offers.

I had one earlier this year and refused the cheeky offer with a reposte of "Bid for it and you may get a bargain at that start price". 20 minutes later, the same person paid my BIN price.......

I was approached after the auction had ended with a 'have you still got x, can i buy it for y'.

 

I took the lack of sales to be a sign, especially as I am now contemplating a new N gauge layout perhaps it was.

[Gilbert]

I've used Ron Lines in Southampton a couple of times and in both cases he accepted my asking price. Once was a n gauge collection and the other was my dads old OO stock.

 

All depends on what you want to get, how much work you want to put in to get the most value or do you want convenience.

This is spot on - it depends what trouble you are prepared to go to yourself... I have heard positive comments about several buyers including Hattons (especially for credit rather than cash) and Anoraks Anonymous..

Edited December 26, 2018 by Gilbert

[daftbovine]

There are a few buying and selling groups on Facebook, I bought a loco from a private seller without any problems. The price was too good to resist.

 

As a seller you will probably get better prices, the same applies to buyers but there are no guarantees and you do get the occasional dodgy person not playing by the rules. If you want to be completely safe eBay is probably a better bet.

[TomMcG]

Thank you erveryone for all your information.

 

I totally agreed with Alan, was quite shocked by the poor offers I got so far.

Even regarding the buyers' risks etc., less than 25% for as new items (of which some sound locos are not even run in) is a joke IMHO.

 

I'll probably try both; sell special items on that big auction site or similar, and the lot to one of the shops.

 

Cheers muchly.

 

[sjp23480]

Could it be time to bring back RMWeb Classifieds?

[johnb]

That's the way thing are at present, it's unfortunate but ......

 

I reckon that selling to the trade be it to a dealer, a model shop or wherever, the offer will usually be in the region of one third of what they expect to sell it for, that's been the case for quite a few years now.

 

I keep an eye on Ebay and many on there seem to over estimate what their items will fetch. It is easy to check on sold prices, on the left hand side of the ebay page is a list of options, scroll down and a selection for 'sold' can be seen, tick that box and it can be very illuminating. For example I have been looking at one model for which the asking BIN prices are in the region of £140 to £170. Completed auction results have yet to exceed £110!

 

At an exhibition on the clubs second hand stand prices in the region of 60%/70% of a dealer's likley sale price can sell quite well, for nearly new then perhaps 75% of the as new price may be achieved.

 

I am of course discussing the regular sort of stuff, NOT the 'rare and collectable'.

 

John

[Robin Brasher]

In the 1970s I used to sell advertise my models in the Railway Modeller and it is still as good a place to advertise them as anywhere else.

[Trains4U]

The points Phil make are all entirely valid

I have my formulas for the offers I make.

 

Some people are delighted, others offended, but the vast majority are realistic about their expectations. They just don’t want the aggro of eBay (and the returns)

 

The best thing (if you want to engage a dealer) is get a few estimates or quotes.

And not wishing to upset anyone, but experience tells me that a seller’s interpretation of “mint” may not necessarily match that of the retailer. Sometimes a collection can take considerable effort to make saleable.

[Trains4U]

Also, no retailer would ever pay more than it would cost to buy the same model new from the manufacturer...

 

Especially if still in stock and slow moving.

[DaveF]

Over the years I've sold items to traders and have also been on the other side of the counter as I have often worked for traders at exhibitions.

 

If selling for cash I would hope to get around 28 - 37% of what I paid for items, if they are in good condition.

 

If part exchanging items I would hope to get 33 - 40%.

 

Note - hope is not always achieved!  It can be as low as 25%.  Also it relates to the price you paid, not the current list price of newish items.

 

The figures may seem remarkably exact but over the years I have kept records of some things I have bought and sold.

 

Remember if the items you are selling are "well worn" they will be worth a lot less, similarly if you are trying to sell something for which there is a very limited market.

 

It can help if you have dealt reasonably regularly with the trader before so they know you and how you look after your models.

 

If you do not know the trader they will have to factor in a margin for the cost to them of making good any damage you have done to the things you sell to them before they can market them.

 

I always find it helps to bear in mind just how quickly cars depreciate!  After (say) 10 years what is a used car worth?

 

David

Edited to remove a sentence.

Edited December 26, 2018 by DaveF

[dogbox321]

Hi, I think one of the main issues now is, that model railways have become a bit like a car - as soon as you buy it , it depreciates in value. 

 

People have previously been able to buy models, with an expectation that over time, their models would increase in value, and indeed one companies slogan was "Tomorrows collectables, today!"  That were fine when a loco was c£50-£60.  At c£130 for a new loco, then many people are put off in any case, so actually a second hand model (unless its something mega-rare and desirable), is virtually always going to realise a lower value, and be sold at a price, that realises the true value of the model in the market.  I'd suggest that in reality nowadays, sensible second hand prices for good quality models, reflect better, what people are prepared to pay.  Just because a catalogue says a model is £159.95, does not necessarily mean potential purchasers consider this to be the case!  

 

That covers the sale price, likewise as others have said - most model shops also offer a warranty, have overheads etc., so they need a fair margin on top to cover these, before they make a profit.

 

Regards,

 

C.