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How to sell model railroad?
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<p>Start inventory the entire railroad.</p><p>Engines.</p><p>Structures.</p><p>Kits unopened.</p><p>Buildings BUILT.</p><p>Rolling stock subdivided by:</p><p>Boxcar, Hopper, Covered Hopper, Gondola, Caboose, MISC, Passenger cars, Flats etc etc etc.</p><p>Further inventoried by road name and number.</p><p>Take pictures of EVERY item.</p><p>Inventory the electronics. Any analog power packs? DCC systems? Signalling etc.</p><p>Inventory the track and swithes.</p><p>Inventory the bridges.</p><p>Inventory any signalling or stationary decoders.</p><p>Inventory misc scenery items.</p><p>Inventory model vehicles and people.</p><p>Inventory Towns and associated stuff.</p><p>Inventory brass engines and any other special items that obviously are not considered normal items.</p><p>Take pictures. Arent you glad you can take thousands of digital pics for free and drag them onto your computer?</p><p>Burn everything onto a DVD or CD ROM. When your computer fails you will be glad you did.</p><p>It aint going to be worth 35 thousand dollars. I say maybe ten.</p><p>For example. I have a Proto Heritage 2-10-2 with DCC and sound. I paid retail for it months ago at about 300 dollars or so. Today on ebay there is one availible for 195 buy it now and no one is buying it yet. If you dropped the price down to about 120 or so, someone will definately buy it.</p><p>But I bet the seller does not rely on Ebay for income and will leave that engine until someone comes along and buys the thing for 195 without researching other similar engines.</p><p>Wait long enough someone will buy it.</p><p>Dont try to sell a choo choo on ebay when there are 1000 other choo choos JUST LIKE YOURS. You wont even get a buyer for it sometimes lost in a sea of many identical choo choos.</p><p>Then there is the ebay fees. Paypal fees. tracking fees, shipping costs. You literally need a seperate bank account that does NOTHING but ebay. DO NOT connect this bank account at the same bank you use for your regular banking.</p><p>I have a industrial building on ebay right now for sale, that one is going to cost 7.00 for a box, 3.00 for a foam popcorn to pack it with, 12.00 for complete priority mail fees including delivery conf and insurance. Ebay fee of about 1.00 to start and I expect about 12 more dollars more in fees. Already Im past about 30 dollars in costs to get rid of this building to a buyer. How much did I pay for it retail from walthers? 40 dollars plus about 24 more in additional parts to finish it.</p><p>At the end of the day I might see 5 dollars profit but happy to see the item go to a new home and a new life.</p><p>Oh by the way, set your ebay account for USA buyers ONLY. Shipping overseas and enforcement/recovery of problem bidders, lost monies, scams, problems etc... is most difficult and EXPENSIVE.</p><p>Be very crystal clear about each item you sell. The buyer is likely to understand it far more than you do.</p><p>Keep your buyers corraled to US Post Office Money order due in 10 business days or paypal ONLY. dont get sucked into western union (VERY BAD...) or other easily cammed payments.</p><p>Therefore I say to you will need to remove the dancing elephants of your dreams and come down to the reality that you might see 10% of retail minus fees for each item on the railroad.</p><p>You are going to be doing this for a long time.</p><p>You will want to find any town dumpster or availible large waste volume remover because that wood work will need chainsawing when everything is sold and removed.</p><p>There have been many beautiful layouts for sale on ebay usually due to death of the builder etc. Rarely do these layouts sell as a complete unit from what I can see.</p><p>Now... if there are fine craftsman kits such as FSM or others... Be prepared to handle very large amounts of money as many of those are out of production for years and there are people who will fight each other to get hands on these items.</p><p> </p><p>DONT be surprised to find your sold items being resold on ebay or at local trainshows for prices more than what you recieved for them. You had your turn, someone else sees a profit oppertunity and will strike while the iron is hot.</p><p>If you do get into the selling, pace yourself. Do groups of items at a time dont start a new group until ALL of the ones you sold arrived at their customers, fees paid, monies recieved etc.</p><p> </p><p>Finally but not last. Should you bring in alot of money on ebay... check with your tax person, there might be a cut for dear old Uncle Sam due.</p><p> </p><p>Finally but not last, consider a local train club, museum or other organization that might be able to show up and remove that awful layout that you are not interested in.</p><p>Or just chainsaw the lot, toss it all into a ro ro dumpster and have the trucker haul it straight to the landfill for a few hundred in dump fees.</p><p>Disclaimer: Im not responisble for weak hearts that failed on those who read this last sentence lol.</p><p> </p><p>If the railroad occupied a basement or finished room, it is likely that it will contain special wiring. Have the electrician track this wiring and make it safe for anyone who might buy the home someday. Have the room refinished once the railroad is gone.</p><p>Dont forget to inventory the workbench, use caution when around paints, chemicals and solvents and also the work area. be very careful. YOU might not be interested in choo choos.. but there are dangerous things that can hurt you in those model workbench areas.</p><p>For example, drop a large metal object like a tool, watch it punch through a small half gallon tin of acetone on the floor and you have a genuine emergency on your hands.</p><p>Now that Ive scared you, go slow and pace yourself.</p><p>Good luck!</p>
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