General Discussion (Model Railroader)

I am not sure what to make of this, even now... I have had such a great run of luck as of late... All of us are healthy, our business is moving out of the garage and into an commercial office space so we can grow... More work than we can do... that is partially why I came to find this excellent stash of HO Scale trains. We hired a lady to clean house once weekly, and she was kind enough to mention (when she saw my train room) that her father had been a model railroader before he died... The conversation went on and she asked would I be interested in taking a look at the trains- her mom wanted them out of the house... I agreed. I was shocked when I saw all there was- Amtrack set... No the big one, Daylight in both steam and the F7 A&B consist, two E8 AB sets, over 100 assorted freight cars in some pretty rare road names, The Chrome Sante Fe passenger set, the one with 3 passenger cars, a standard sante fe passenger set (war bonnet)but it had 6 cars (heavyweights), a rather large UP passenger set 12 cars this one has an F7 ABB set as its motive power, two all brass steamers-a mike, and a consolidated, a pair of SD40s in SF, An Alco RS1 in SF, two sets of SD40-2 in BN, a gandy dancer, and a tyco trolley. Also a couple of dozen buildings, 3 dual cab power packs- One MRC the others TEch II, two other Tech II packs, some sort of remote control packs that were wired into the control panel, about 2 miles of wire, 12 switch contols, 3 selectors, a controller, and nearly 2 dozen lights, many wired into relays. I assume to control signals. this isn't everything, just what comes to mind right now.

I was interested, but I refused to set a value. I told them to call any of the three hobby shops in town, or one of the auctioneers to set a value. A week went past, we talked again and I have to say- I got it for a song, but it was a lot of work to box up,pack carefully, and hike up and out of a basement. It all ran, all appeared to be in good condition, and there were boxes and papers for most all of the locos and a ton for the rolling stock... Iwill have photos when I have time to get to it, but I am opening our office this week and I may not get to it for a while. 

Visions are dancing in my head, open a hobby shop, sell on Ebay, build a kickin' layout, fill display cases... Wife says I can't keep it all- We will see about that...

Well, Congratulations!

I would keep it all in the boxes for now and work on the Office. When things settle down, take out one box per week or month and carefully consider the contents. Keep what you really weawly want... and ebay the rest out of that box.

Pack the weawly keepers in a box and mark it with your name. Someday you will run those trains. Pack the Ebay items in it's own box and soon enough, your wife will see that you are serious about selling those items on ebay.

Eventually that large stash you hauled home will have two smaller piles. Your trains that you will keep and use for most certain and the rest to be sold. Then you and your spouse can discuss how best to use the revenue AFTER the selling is finished and the fees paid.

At the end of the day, you will have trains to be happy with and a wife who understood that you could keep some but not all the stuff you dragged out of that basement.

Take your time and slowly. You probably are under the influence right now from this amazing development of events and need to come back down to earth sooner or later. Dont do anything right now until that Office is up and running.

You got the lady a favor and had them removed and in your possesion. Good they didnt go to a dump...

Your in the same ordeal I have, a lot of stuff, and I have to decide what to keep or get rid of.

I have already sided out a lot of stuff to sell, which includes original Athearn RDC's, some good locos, and some redundent stuff or out of era stuff, or more toyish stuff. I had a Tenshodo 0-8-0 but I sold it off, the details were wrong for my prototype, now I am kicking my rear for doing so.

Absolutely hang onto it then as you go piece it out to see what fits or what has to go.

 

I love stories like that.  Tell us: was the end of a rainbow nearby?

Great deal!!! I never luck into stuff like that.
You mentioned paper work...If you have any diagrams of rare  or odd equipment, you may want to scan them and E-mail them to HO Seeker for their online library so all can benefit from your good fortune.

welcome to my world, i scrap trucks and other items under contract for the US Navy, i have our 5 acre dream property turned into a bone yard!! she just doesnt understand!!!  hey steels paying eight cents a pound here!! i just cant seem to get rid of alota stuff as i find it all intersting  Ryan

Thanks Guys. My wife and I have been discussing this, and she is a lot more supportive than I originally thought. We are going to do a complete, competent inventory and put it all in a spreadsheet with book and comp. retail values. this way I will not only know what's their, but its approximated value.

I have always wanted to open a hobby shop, and this could be the golden incentive- I could easily net the capital for initial orders from a couple of the big distributors...

Now is not the time, but a kiosk in the mall at Christmas could be- though I would rather die than spend a moment of my time in the mall. I know where there is a decent retail spot recently emptied... I fill notebooks with these gold nuggets and never act on them. But now, I have the opportunity and I need structure it right.

Sounds to me that you knowingly ripped off the old lady.  To be honest I really don't think thats right.  You buy the stuff and now you have plans to sell it and make a ton of money from it?  Did you think that maybe she sold it to you cheap because she wanted it to go to a good home?  Do you really think that she would have sold it to you cheap knowing that you were going to sell it on Ebay or wherever?  What comes around goes around, remember that!!!

I've seen a few model railroaders pass away over the last few years and the poor wives don't have a clue on what to do with their husbands trains.  I bet they turn over in their graves knowing that people rip off their wives just to make a quick buck.

I don't believe I ripped anyone off. I paid what was asked and didn't have anything to do with setting the price.

You admit you got it all for a song from a lady that wanted to get rid of her late husbands collection.  You admit you know its worth far more then what you bought it for and you admit you are going to sell it and make lots of money.  That in my book is taking advantage of someone that doesn't have the knowledge in knowing what the value of what they are selling is.  Be honest, would you have bought all that stuff if she wanted what it is worth?  You wouldn't would you?  Then to boast about how your going to sell it and make money from it?  Good for you, I hope your proud of yourself.  Like I said, you knowingly ripped her off.  If you do sell the stuff I hope you at least give her something, remember, what goes around comes around.

I believe this has nothing to do with anything posted here and that you are trying to bait me... I don't participate in that nonsense, there is more to my life than these forums. You have stated your opintion and you are entitled to it. I will make no further posts on this thread and will encourage other's not to do so. We have enough trouble with angry opinion her without baiting. Good day. 

wrconstruction wrote:

welcome to my world, i scrap trucks and other items under contract for the US Navy, i have our 5 acre dream property turned into a bone yard!! she just doesnt understand!!!  hey steels paying eight cents a pound here!! i just cant seem to get rid of alota stuff as i find it all intersting  Ryan

outdoor live steam

He was approached by someone who knew he was a model railroader of a widow wanting to sell the trains. He has not revealed any price or value of the collection. Whats valued is the collection is preserved than finding its way to a dump. He could ask to bonus any more money but the widow could refuse and say the deal is good. He went out of his way to reccomend the widow to appraise the value and she did and came down with a price. I think he was shocked with the price and maybe expected to pay more. He didnt have to, the deal is done.

 

The widow could have just donated the stuff to charity, but she wanted them to go the right way. She couldn't care or deal with the hobby apparently so it may have been better for her to give up the collection in the best way possible.

 

PB&J, check your PM. 

It is not the job of the buyer to make sure the seller knows the real value of what they are selling. 

George