A Greenbergs price guide will give you an idea of the current market value of your items. Note that these guides are not the final word, but give you an idea of their value. The value of a sealed box item will be higher than a mint item in an opened box. The condition of boxes is taken into consideration also. Wallyworlds' suggestions are on the mark. You may also look in Classic Toy Trains classified section. There are a number of people interested in purchasing collections listed there. As you state, you are new to this hobby. Do your homework. Look up past auctions on e-bay and private auction houses. Read about the items you have, their history and variations, and what makes them collectible. You may not wish to sell the lot as a collection, but individual pieces. There are many places to list your trains for sale, such as the Train Collectors Association, the Lionel Operating Trains Society, the Lionel Collectors Club of America, and Classic Toy Trains to name a few.
After researching your collection you find you have gotten a good deal, you may be able to make some money reselling them. If not, the best you can hope for is to break even.
Larry
Modern trains typically don't appreciate in value but usually go south in value. One way to determine what your trains are selling for on todays market is to check e-bay for similar items and what the final selling price ended up at. This will give you a pretty good ballpark number of what to expect.
Bill T.
Many boxes with factory seals, beautiful trains that I have not even gotten to see, kills me not to look at them, now, this may sound cold of me, but, everything I do is for an investment, I dont collect to look or admire, I collect to sell, you guys helped me tons on my Marks 999, I am currently restoring it, it will sit on my shelf simply because of how I found it, but this new collection, I have no sentimental connection to this collection, if you all wish, I would like to send a few pictures of some or all of the sets here.
In my humble opinion, people who are buying trains as an investment should either do their own homework, or pay for advice.
Before I did anything one way or another, I would have the collection appraised as a arms length transaction to make an informed decision to cull or keep anything. I would do an inventory as well that is as accurate as possible. I have paid a local hobby shop in the past to appraise items, which led to an eventual offer to purchase them as a lot. Even then, I got a second opinion before turning them over by e-mailing the list for further appraisal. Make sure you use TCA grading standards available at their website.
There are auction houses that may be an alternative to Ebay, which shipping costs add cost to you and ( subtract) any profit.
Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.
I was worried about that, I got the collection for $3400, 22 engines in all, many Lionel, all O's. I have been looking on the internet for places to sell them but being new to hobby train I haven't a clue where to go, there is only ebay as far as I can see, I found a few sites that sell them but they dont seem to be interested in buying other collections. I plan to go to my local hobby shop, ask questions there. Do you all have any suggestions as to sites I can contact to sell them all in other then Ebay?
Electric trains now a days as an investment is pretty risky. If you were able to purchase at a low price there is a potential to make some money but it is a crap shoot.
If you bought just as an investment, do not open any sealed boxes. If you do, kiss your investment good-bye.
I went to the Christmas auction in Idaho, Joel Sanda's collection was there, starting my new interest in Hobby trains I purchased ¼ of his collection. 14 full sets, still in the boxes, untouched, along with 22 engines, opened boxes but still seem to have never been touched, still counting cars, many boxes unopened including a full set number 263e steam locomotive, 600 series 4 car passenger set. My question, do I open the boxes ? Many boxes with factory seals, beautiful trains that I have not even gotten to see, kills me not to look at them, now, this may sound cold of me, but, everything I do is for an investment, I dont collect to look or admire, I collect to sell, you guys helped me tons on my Marks 999, I am currently restoring it, it will sit on my shelf simply because of how I found it, but this new collection, I have no sentimental connection to this collection, if you all wish, I would like to send a few pictures of some or all of the sets here.
First off, did any of you know Joel Sanda, I could not find any info about him from the auction house and Google just list tons of other people with no relation.
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