Pricing of trains

[Anonymous]

I'm imterested in finding the value of some MTH trains. My uncle went crazy on Ebay about 3 years ago and bought a bunch of trains, mostly MTH Tinplate Traditions. I have been given the job of selling off the collection as I am the one with ebay and computer knowledge. Is there a book I can purchase that can tell me the value of the trains. I don't want to walk blindly into my local train dealer without knowing their true worth. We cannot just give them away as my uncle is very sick now and we need to help pay for his medical bills by selling his trains for him. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Anonymous]

There are printed price guides available thru bookstores or amazon/b&n. There are also some electronic lists:

http://www.traincity.com/price_guide/pmth.html

You can also check E-Bay itself for similar items to get an idea of the price ranges the items are seeling for.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure, from your post, if you plan to sell them to a train dealer, or on eBay. If eBay, check the "completed prices" and list low enough to get the bidding started. A dealer will usually not give you more than 50% of "book value", since he needs to make some profit. Joe

[jefelectric]

If you can, wait till fall to sell them. This is the worst time of the year to get good prices, as a lot of guys don't even look at the ebay listings in the Summer.

Not to discourage you but if these items are only a few years old, they have gone down, not up in value.

The suggestion to check the prices of similar or identical items on ebay is a good one. Many items will not bring the prices listed in the price guides.

The best of luck to you in taking on this project.

[csxt30]

Also, before or back years ago, the dealers & collectors would only give you 25 to 40% of their value. That may be why E-bay would be better, this fall as mentioned by Jefelectric !!

[Anonymous]

Yes, O gauge trains have, in general, taken a dive. But that's not necessarily true of Standard Gauge items (MTH Tinplate Traditions, Lionel Classics, etc.), which tend to hold their values pretty darn well. I don't think it's necessarily valid to compare the drop in value of most O gauge to the values that might be realized for some sought-after tinplate items--some of which are VERY hard to find.