They Offered HOW MUCH?! | 1980s Model Railway Valuation

A couple of weeks ago we unboxed my uncle's model railway collection that he's wanting to sell and tried to figure out how much it was worth. Thank you to everyone who left a comment, it's really appreciated and it's given me a few ideas.
I also contacted four model railway shops that buy second hand collections and in this video we see what their responses were.
Support the channel by becoming a member or Patron:
kzbin.info/door/jSL9gh-CP9cL2grTM4VRCQjoin
www.patreon.com/LittleWicketRailway
00:00 Introduction and Recap
01:35 Comments
03:16 Replies from the Shops
05:46 Ebay Trick

[@RobA500]

Good news for you, Ebay has now dropped all private seller charges so you will get the full selling price from now on.

[@LittleWicketRailway]

Fantastic timing! Couldn't believe it

[@shauntaylor9251]

Still have to pay 35p listing charge per item but that's a hell of a lot better than the 13% or so they used to charge

[@OOElectronics]

@@shauntaylor9251 Don't they allow 300 listings per month before the 35p charge?

[@HarryCrabb-j9q]

Don't I know it! I sold an amateur radio two weeks ago and paid £90 In fees! I only just got the money from them on the fifth, Talk about bad timing.

[@speleokeir]

Hi Rob. How much you'll get on Ebay depends on your sales strategy: - In my experience fixed price is usually better to get the best price. Auction for quick sales, damaged items or when you're not quite sure what something is worth. - Selling rolling stock as individual items or in rakes. You tend to get more doing the former as you have a bigger market (Not everyone needs a full rake), but selling rakes/job lots is less work and is useful when selling a lot of low value items e.g. old unboxed wagons, accessories, odds & sods, etc. - For auction items make sure your auction finishes at a time when most people are at home and not busy. e.g. Evenings and weekends. Sunday evening is best, Monday evening is good too. Like most things the more work you put into selling on Ebay the more you tend to make, but there's also a balance between how much time you have or wish to spend doing it which is different for everyone. Good luck. And I suspect letting your viewers know when you've put the items on sale will help drum up additional interest too!😀

[@Trainskitsetc]

Final ebay price, divide by half or more depending on how easy you think the thing will be to shift on, that's the basic way just about every second hand/pawn broker comes to a price on such things these days. Maybe they give you a fiver more if the sob story about why its being sold to them is good 😅

[@KellinoRail]

Thanks for the mention. Ebay have apparently now dropped all their seller fees, which is great news, because they used to take quite a hefty sum. Also thanks for telling me the easy way to look up sold items on ebay - I had been doing it the hard way by watching and buying if appropriate!! (lol)

[@LittleWicketRailway]

Yeah, eBay couldn't have timed that better!

[@speleokeir]

Beat me to it. I was just about to say Ebay have dropped their fees.

[@tomasrogers2176]

A buddy of mine inherited a collection a few years ago which had stock similar in age to your stock. He was offered 220 euro for the lot by a dealer. He was about to take them up on the offer but by chance he found out that I had models as well. We tidied them all up, serviced the locos and listed them on a facebook railway selling page. In the end he made well over a 1000 euro from the sales and he let me pick a few bits out for me too keep. With the steel track, give them a good rub down with a track rubber, replace any dodgy fishplates, sell the straights and curves in job lots and the points as single items. With the coaches and wagons offer deals for multiple purchases. With the locos, post videos of the locos working and a few decent photos, make sure to say they have been recently serviced.

[@kennethfrost7499]

That’s the best intro’ yet. Good luck selling your items.

[@cyberdonblue4413]

Appalling American sounding dross if you ask me. Should've just cut to the chase.

[@NTSCuser]

One man's trash is another man's treasure.

[@theelectricmonk3909]

Older (and comparatively lower value) stuff like this is absolutely ideal if you're making a railway set for you young child though... it's not only more robust than the new stuff, but when it does inevitably get abused to death, it's either easily repairable, or cheap enough to simply replace.

[@muir8009]

I like it how you're so reasonable and also actually try to view it from the point of the reseller. I figured it would be about a hundred pound offer. Apart from your understanding of what the reseller has to endeavour in order to move stock on, the actual age of the models isn't necessarily to do with desirability or comparison with the quality of more recent models. A coach 3 years old or 30 years old is the same. It takes the same amount of effort to ready for sale. The same effort for photography. The same size for storage. The same cost for cataloguing and advertising etc. But, of course, with a more modern coach they can get more money for it and recrue costs better. Hornby back in the thirties started up a buy-back programme for their old 0 stock, where they would provide a re-purchase price that would go towards an allowance on a new loco. This was quietly dropped later as it reduced the profit margin on a new locomotive, as mentioned previously it cost hornby a lot in cataloguing and reselling, and the re-purchase price didn't allow for any profit on the used loco. The hornby retailers were the ones that had to provide the buy-back service, allowances being made in the retailers trade purchases from hornby. Now, it was a popular scheme, but hornby also quickly realised that if they retailed these trade-ins in any great numbers, it would eat into sales of their own new locos, defeating the purpose of why the scheme was implemented in the first place. Apparently large stocks of the buy-backs were dumped in the Mersey: it was more cost effective to just remove them completely from the market than it was to resell them.

[@waynemeakin]

With Ebay realizing that their fees were putting sellers off, and dropping them, then it has become the place to sell again. Having to overprice your stuff to get the price you want was never a good way to do things.

[@ronjohnston8693]

a very interesting short video giving insight into the resale value of 2nd hand (older) model railways, you did get an offer from Rails but it was a joke in my opinion. I think you are doing the right thing making them look as good as possible and putting them on. eBay make sure you describe them properly and don''t be to ambitious with reserves and starting prices good luck with your quest regards Ron

[@RG-Models86]

I absolutely love the song at the beginning, Rob. 😆

[@LawrenceDaley-s2u]

I was surprised at the low offer, particularly when and if you attend second-hand model sales, the prices that some of the sellers are asking. Now I realise why they do, they mame more money! Also, I suppose that's the problem with getting older. When I look side by side at my old stuff compared to new, the difference between them is like chalk and cheese. I will, however, keep an eagle eye on the dreaded auction site.

[@richlawrence4160]

zero one stuff does sell. a bloke came to our exhibition this year wanting help setting it up. He had just bought a bulk lot and thought it was the latest tech.

[@9501599]

I have quite a bit of 80s stuff, especially i have 2 HSTs. I buy it and give it a lift, I feel prices of new stuff is a tad hig, its good stuff being manufactured today but wow$110 for a mk2b coach when Lima coachs are $20 pop in flush glazing $7 and a repaint then it takes on a new lease of life. A lighting suit isn't very expensive so for $35 i have a relatively nice looking coach. And watching a train go by whether expensive or 😊updated coaches they pretty much look the same.

[@dannyvanstraelen3273]

This was to be aspected, recently at a small collectors swap and sell fair organized by the local railway club their where models of the same age sold, and the guy selling them told me they where from a late member, the shops also offered his wife also such a small amount. So the club stepped in and started to sell them on their regular swap fairs, and they were now already over the £2000 mark. Problem with selling to shops, and the responses already confirmed this, is that they are offered so much stuff that there stock rooms just overflow. A problem that people who want to sell their collection will face more and more, because the main group of model train collectors is slowly coming to the point that they are to old or pas away unfortunately. And here the rule of demand and offer steps in, the more offer the lower the prices, and the old stuff like you have, will be victim first of this. Selling it individually and special around Christmas will bring you the highest value. Would be interesting to hear what it brings in the end…

[@survivingworldsteam]

Excactly. Our generation that was into model railroading during the golden years of 1950-1980 are dying out. There is such a huge amount of collections being put on the market at the same time that it is overwhelming the sales channels. We have been asked to stop taking in any more model railroading items at the Railroad Museum where I work because it is filling up our limited storage space. We also walked away from a layout being sold by a widow because we simply had no place to store or display it if we had cut it up and removed it.

[@jacrook125]

It is well worth cleaning and taking good photos.

[@goarmysleepinthemud.]

Wow. The responses from the model shops are certainly sobering. Indicates to me that my collection is not worth nearly as much as I like to imagine and will be worth even less in 20 years.

[@claptnei]

Zero seller fees now on eBay, about time.

[@christopherdavis5544]

Hi Rob. What a derisory offer from RAILS! eBay have now removed selling fees, so sell away at your convenience. I shall be watching for the auctions, as I am interested in some of the items. Thanks for your excellent videos - always professional and interesting. The song beats all of today's 'rap with a silent C' into a cocked hat! Excellent stuff.

[@peterhiggins3329]

Of course the difference between what viewers believe its worth and what a commercial entity will offer is the amount that the commercial entity would expect as a profit on reselling.

[@HenrikSweden1]

an interesting video. That is a rather common problem when you want to sell a big collection. But you also have to value the time you would use when you want to sell it all yourself. Time is money. I sold my marklincollection a year ago and didn't want to have the hassle with selling every engine and freightcar and then send it away and in worst case deal with complaints . My auction house made 14 lots and put down quite some time on taking photos and preparing the lots for their website. yes they charged me a bit, but as soon as i had left it all to them i could just wait and see. I did well, very much thanks to their knowledge. Try an auction house with a smaller lot and see how well they will do. If they succeed , let them sell the rest. Good luck !

[@digitalcareline]

If you have a physical shop in the UK you fall under Trading Standards and Distance selling rules - The reality of this is that expectations are higher for a shop than for an internet auction. Auction houses are a third level - all sales are final, sold as seen - this reflects in the price - the auction house is acting only as an intermediary and charges fees for this service. Already second-hand presents greater risk to a shop as most items are sold on the internet and not face to face with a customer. People rave about old models because they are affordable To be honest Prepping a collection for sale is massively labour intensive. 1. Identification - Presented with a list of items you have to research every one - basically wading through previous sales and internet sites to work out when the model was made, what quality to expect and what people are currently willing to pay for them (Disclaimer - Past performance is not indicator of future prices) There will be un-sellable items in a collection, you don't get a choice on these so your quote has to take these into account. At this initial point you've already invested hours into a collection as you search and generate records for future use. At this point you have to judge if you are potentially receiving stolen goods - This is not as easy as you'd think. I've heard some horror stories over the years. 2 Quoting - This will be based on how likely you feel the items in the collection are to sell. Remember once you give a figure, your reputation is on the line. News gets around that you have massively underquoted so even though you have already invested hours of time in identifying the list - now is the time to cut and run. (Shops are already under enough pressure) Quoting low because you don't really want it is dangerous. 3. Once you have the physical items - Do they match the list? - by this stage they may have been several changes of hands - is the box it arrives in the box it had at new -sometimes everything has be re-packed and not necessarily in the correct boxes. Is the condition acceptable? Unless the discrepancies are egregious, you cannot really re-negotiate at this point. 4. Inspection - Look for damage, clean dust and deposits. Service the locos. Separate out models that have obvious faults. As you progress you will find undisclosed issues - previous botched repairs and models that were just bad when new. Clean off old prices - It may have been £8 in 1977 but this is only going to cause a fight if you leave it on - you have to price for 2024. 5. Go through damaged items to salvage what you can - There are no spare parts and manufacturer support has long gone so a retailer lives by their wits here. Here's where any profits are destroyed. 6. Re-pricing - based on what you have found, you may have to adjust down many of your original prices - Sometimes they may go up but this is not the norm. 7. Accounting - Second-hand messes with your VAT - It is still a Value Added Tax so you pay 20% on your profits - at the start it is not clear cut what your profits will be as many re-negotiations will occur before the whole collection is disposed off - Accounting is expensive. Just ask an accountant. 8. Prepping the website - This is not a case of pressing the button and a listing appears. Go back to your initial research and cross-reference with other listings. Good clear photographs have to be taken then edited. More valuable items may even be filmed to show what to expect - This is all part of your advertising - how will anyone know that you have a new collection to sell. 9. Accurate description of condition - this will hurt. You want to sell the item and not have it returned because there was not full disclosure. Unfortunately condition is subjective - your "Not bad for 40 years old" is not the same as "I expect it to be as new" Remember there are banking and postal charges for sale and return journeys - you aim to have just the sale part happen. 10 Order administration -Taking payment means spending on payment gateways (The bank will always get paid, even on refunds) Make sure you have clear delivery instructions and understand every special requirement the customer has added to the order. Keep calm as aggressive negotiations will occur - remember you can say no, really you can. Try to block out all those bills on your desk. If they ask to convert a model to DCC, don't panic but do start praying that the 40 year old model will behave well on DCC as once you have converted it you are committed - sometime best to say no and lose the deal. 11. Post and packing - suddenly those 200 separate items are selling but each to an individual buyer so you have to find 200 suitable boxes (£1.40 each) and bubble wrap (£67 per roll) tape and time - Remember the shop is utterly responsible for getting each item to it's destination - The courier service is not responsible for anything (apparently) So now your done, you have successfully processed and dispatched a collection At this point you add up all your running costs and the time involved Congratulations you have worked for significantly less that the National Minimum wage! This is a difficult truth for a small independent retailer, but we carry on. We do it because we want the hobby to succeed. It's fun to see classic items again and to see a customer enjoying a great hobby. There is huge satisfaction from preventing an item going to landfill, as a observer of the gratuitous wastage of the online fashion and tech world. I wish you well with the collection - remember it is worth more that just cash - They have paid for themselves in entertainment over many years. Cheers Chris

[@JP_TaVeryMuch]

Great time and effort put into this comment, without doubt. There's more than a whiff of the cold light of day experience in the tone too. But a heartfelt and praiseworthy thought to end. Thank you and good luck in your endeavours.

[@digitalcareline]

@@JP_TaVeryMuch I have to admit that running a shop means being the bearer of bad news, more often than is healthy. The fact that only one shop made an offer tells me what I needed to know moving forward - I am not missing a trick by not buying everything that I am offered and other shops are saturated with un-sold items...

[@nigeldoran]

An excellent summary of what is involved. A friend once said to me he hoped that when he was gone that his wife would not sell his railway for what he told her he paid for it. My response was she would be lucky to get close to that amount. I put the effort into selling older items everyone has a budget and many of these old models will perform very well after some TLC. I expect to spend 30 minutes per loco on servicing to get it ready for resale plus any parts, plus photos plus putting into the correct box plus listing it on the website all told by a used loco appears on my website I have invested 1 hour to 1.5 hours of my time on it. I hate to see items capable of providing years of good service going to the landfill.

[@diedertspijkerboer]

I'm quite shocked by the low prices and non-offers. There's quite a lot there that would be valuable to the right persons. I've bought quite a bit of 80s Marklin myself,which is very reliable, but maybe the market for second hand Hornby is different and I only own newer Hornby trains myself.

[@stephendavies6949]

I wish you well, sir. I'm sure almost all the items will be of interest to somebody (including me!).

[@1701_FyldeFlyer]

As these are old items, you're looking at selling in a very limited market. That is collectors or someone who doesnt know how much model railway stock has improved over the last few years never mind 15 - 20 that most of this stuff appears to be. The best bet is EBay Im afraid. The good news is EBay have removed seller fees so you dont need to wait for 80% discount promos. There's also talk they will shift postage costs onto buyers although this may be sometime in the future. Good luck!

[@jdenm8]

Or someone who doesn't *care* that much about how it's improved. I don't want to pay 40 pounds per coach when trying to assemble a full HST. Some of those models are still sold today, eg the Lima PGAs are substantially identical to R60214, which is up for preorder over a year away!

[@petercole2092]

I think the retailers only really want the more update locos and rolling stock because they can get more for it. I did wonder if the value of the collection would be affected by the age of the items only the sold price will answer that. I would aim at selling the items at beginners as it ideal for them.

[@garysoap7925]

As long as you sell less than 300 items, eBay will not charge you

[@jchinuk]

First of all good luck with your disposal of these items. I have recently purchased a few items from auction houses, and got a few bargains, partly because some items are poorly described, for example three Fleischman N gauge locos, as new in boxes £60, yet the desciption failed to mention all three had factory fitted DCC decoders. Many of these auctions are live-streamed, Hornby & Bachmann seem to generally sell well, watching a auction might give you another view on prices. I feel I must mention Best Model Toys, who are specialist auctioneers for collectable models and toys. Almost alone, they test everything they sell and clearly state models are ruuners or non-runners.

[@andofthedrew5171]

Try monty's models in bridlington they sell second hand trains and they buy and sell too they are indepentent their not like rails of sheff or other shops just do there own thing

[@johnstephens649]

Quite scary how little used stuff is worth and that it is not just Model Railway stuff! Valued my collection recently for insurance purposes and shocked at the replacement value, but probably vastly more than what my collection would be worth if I tried to sell it…

[@terrynutlob4073]

Another interesting video. If you go the Ebay route be prepared for some returns. I used to sell on Ebay but over the last few years people buying on Ebay seem to think all sellers are retailers and I got quite a few returns as people decided they didn't want the items once they had received them. I listed everything exactly as was its condition with clear photos including condition of boxes etc, but these customers still decided they didn't like the items and want their money back. Once you've paid for postage and packaging it only takes one in five customers like this and you soon are hardly in profit. I have stopped selling on Ebay for the moment as this seems to be getting worse. Despite you saying no returns in the description unfortunately under Ebay terms and conditions every seller must accept returns up to 14 days and if you refuse Ebay simply takes the cash back out of your PayPal account to refund the customer and you are out of pocket with no models either. I have always had 100% positive feedback, so it is not the quality of the models that causes the issue.

[@theelectricmonk3909]

Don't throw those zero 1 decoders out though... remarkably, they still sell (albeit for not very much) on eBay... there must still be some Zero 1 diehards out there...

[@andrewrice6596]

I can't believe the negativity of the retailers. There is certainly a market for what you have. I for one prefer older 2nd hand models, not everyone wants, or can afford the latest offerings.

[@Manorm2003]

The retailers will also need to account for 20% VAT on any value they get when they sell them on and so a private sale is usually likely to get you a better overall price.

[@edwardkenworthy7013]

There's no VAT on secondhand goods (where VAT was paid when new).

[@Manorm2003]

@@edwardkenworthy7013 That's useful to know., although I note that most of the pre owned items advertised by the model shops show "inclusive of UK tax" which implies they have included VAT which they will have to pay to HMRC. If they have to add VAT to their selling prices then presumably they will factor this (deduct) in to any price they offer you for your items in order to still be able to complete with other 2nd hand markets that don't charge VAT. Thanks.

[@Manorm2003]

@@edwardkenworthy7013 Looks like most of the model shops offering pre owned items are showing inclusive of UK taxes, so I am presuming they are adding VAT and will thus deduct this amount from any offer they might make when buying them so that they can still compete with the other 2nd hand markets that don't include VAT

[@jedrick001]

EBay with no selling fees is ok I’ve recently started selling a few bit I have too many of or no need for including steel track. I wrap it and arrange post and collection from home via the post office app rather than eBay it’s been ok so far. Lucky I kept a load of bubble wrap and card from stuff I bought in the ultimate recycling bin. Good luck.

[@dilwich]

With model technology so advanced these days people don't seem interested in classic model railway items . . . shame.

[@michaelbondclanradar6868]

How about you give us an idea what you think you would be prepared to accept for the collection

[@kitchenhamfarm]

I think ebay is now free selling

[@tomwheeler8728]

One of those things is what I am after.

[@andrewstevenson5449]

I suspected most of your uncle's items fell in the gap between collectable and modern, and I think the retailers' responses reflected that Good idea to take out the Zero One decoders, but I'd have thought it would be worth putting them on ebay too, as there are bound to be people out there still running Zero One stuff. It's going to be a faff, though, packaging them all up to send to ebay buyers! Any odds and sods left, you'll at least have some sacrificial victims for testing your repainting and weathering skills.

[@stefanegger]

All items and especially collections are currently hard to sell and I see a mve towards new items as technology changes and people are maybe not comfortable working on older electronics themselves.

[@Jimyjames73]

W😮W - you do have a lot of Model Railways!!! 😉😮🚂🚂🚂

[@russellbenton2987]

Very interesting . So all these ads in the model railway press about taking your old trains are largely spurious . They basically want items post 2000 and probably only 5 years old ideally . Your collection is worth much more than £110 , but I suppose you just need to think about postage and packaging if using eBay . Good luck with it !

[@michaelnaisbitt7926]

There is no market for model railway stuff this old The whole model railway scene is decreasing the locos may find a homeif advertising in model railway magazines or weekend markets

[@Planestrains-d5e]

Ironic. I pretty much only want these older models. Oh well :shrug:. Do let us know - I’m very interested in a number of the lots you have there.

[@Phil-oj5nr]

I think your items as a job lot would be worth £200.00. If I were in the market for what you have, I would collect it myself, pay you cash, and you would have a nice clean sale. We have a car boot sale every Saturday and they charge £2.50. It would be worth my while to drive the 27km and back to do this, as I can advertise I will be there for free on a country-wide online site. If I sold, say one locomotive (in running order) for £10.00, and six coaches at £1.00, I could do it again the following Saturday, until all items sold. I would definitely be open to job lot offers as well. Spoiler! This is New Zealand, not UK. I have converted $NZ to £‘S to make it roughly equal. Also I have done car boot selling when we cleaned out a lot of small household items that were cluttering up the place several years ago in a town where money was tight, and we still more than covered our costs, and there was a cup of tea/ coffee and food available to stall holders!

[@JP_TaVeryMuch]

What does your uncle have to say about all this? From what you've said, it sounds as if few if any of them have been anywhere near a track, not even just for the hell of it. I wonder if it's not a little upsetting for him to see this apparent rush to market. I hope I'm wrong. Another point; I wonder if it's not worth keeping the Zero 1 fitted locos and controllers for some time. I remember that it was really quite expensive when it came out, direct from the future it seemed. therefore it will have been a relatively low volume seller. Therefore it will be a collectors' item in future and accordingly worth a fair bit. Since they've all come to you for free, you'd not be losing out if indeed you did choose to wait.

[@Mike__B]

Old trains are a hard lot to gauge, I personally don't have much desire in them since they typically are the more "large name brand" companies at the time, I'm in the US so that'll be brands like Tyco or Bachmann and quite honestly there was nothing special about it stuff of that era. It doesn't stop people from trying to upsell their stuff by referring to it as "vintage" though, with the impression that because it's old it has to be worth more, but that's a big fat skip for me unless I can get old cars for dirt cheap.

[@henrybest4057]

What do you want for the Lima 09 (as is)?

[@cliveballiston7471]

Have you tried Facebook selling page

[@LittleWicketRailway]

I'm a bit nervous about using FB marketplace. Have you used it successfully?

[@IainDavies-z2l]

Just set up your own car boot sale and you'll get a lot more for all that.

[@BrendanRaymondKoroKoro]

AI generated song was quite clever... terrifying