General Discussion (Model Railroader)

No it isnt. If I stumbled across a ramshackle yard sale filled with toys and baby clothes for .25 cents each and discovered a mint Brass engine with a MSRP of 1300 dollars with a 10 dollar price sticker on it...

Im going to keep my big mouth shut, buy the engine and go home with it. As long as the price is on that item .01 or 1000 dollars.... and it's paid to the satisfaction of the seller the deed is done and I am the new owner.

That is how it is. It isnt about the value, pricing or any of that. Im totally focused on the completion of the transaction itself and if necessary transferring ownership, liens and taxes etc.

One of the saddest things I can tell you in the hobby is to see a dumpster truck haul away someone's life and 50+ years worth of modeling straight to the dump because it is of no use to the surviving family.

If this is enough to open a Store with sufficient inventory? Why! This is the American way. Commerce and oppertunity! Online or Brick and mortor.

Ever watch Antiques Roadshow?  How many people have found that their $10 or $15 yard sale/thrift shop/church sale item is worth $thousands!!  Whoever priced it charged whatever he or she thought it was worth - and I don't recall anyone saying they were going to return the item to the seller!

lvanhen wrote:

Ever watch Antiques Roadshow?  How many people have found that their $10 or $15 yard sale/thrift shop/church sale item is worth $thousands!!  Whoever priced it charged whatever he or she thought it was worth - and I don't recall anyone saying they were going to return the item to the seller!

Ya know...The more I watch that show, the more I think it's fake or rigged. They'll appraise some diamond encrusted, hand made solid gold trinket for $500 and then turn around call some old corn whiskey jug "folk art" and say it's worth $50,000!! I bet the appraisers get together after the show and have a good laugh.

I'd rather see the OP sell the stuff to someone that's going to use it then have it end up in a dumpster. I try and tell my family what my train stuffs worth in case anything happens to me, but I know they don't care and it would all end up in the dump.(my family sucks!)

This is a continuing story: Time after time we hear of the massive layout that ends up in the dump(more than you can imagine) This lot would be in the dump now, your smartest  move was to have an outside appraisal, would like to see it on a layout, but selling it is O.K.

loathar wrote:

lvanhen wrote: Ever watch Antiques Roadshow?  How many people have found that their $10 or $15 yard sale/thrift shop/church sale item is worth $thousands!!  Whoever priced it charged whatever he or she thought it was worth - and I don't recall anyone saying they were going to return the item to the seller! Ya know...The more I watch that show, the more I think it's fake or rigged. They'll appraise some diamond encrusted, hand made solid gold trinket for $500 and then turn around call some old corn whiskey jug "folk art" and say it's worth $50,000!! I bet the appraisers get together after the show and have a good laugh. I'd rather see the OP sell the stuff to someone that's going to use it then have it end up in a dumpster. I try and tell my family what my train stuffs worth in case anything happens to me, but I know they don't care and it would all end up in the dump.(my family sucks!)

I've seen that show and they basically they refer to auction block prices that someone paid for a similar item.  Rather relative but a lot of the items are rare and do bring in a certain money amount upon sale. If the owner and appraiser are familiar with the item, they then know the rarity of the item and find an apparent value.

 I know first hand what it means to tear up a huge club layout that you diligently worked hard on. Maybe you could put a money value on the layout, but thats for naught, the hobby enjoyment is the thing. The club now has a new place and a new layout, some old stuff used, but a lot not.

A couple of years ago a lady was at a train show and selling off her husbands stuff, a 4-12-2 for sale at 50 bucks. I almost bought it but it needed some side rod linkage work, hard to find parts for. I passed it up. I looked for it again and someone bought it.  heh.

The seller ladyhere should feel content that her husband's stuff was going the right direction, I would have done the same thing.

 

 

TA462

I saw this sign in a newspaper ad when I lived in Mobile, Al. 20 years ago.

For Sale

Various Model Railroad Equipment and Tools

ContactXXXXXXXX

I contacted the person who placed the ad and it was an older gentleman (65), who said he had bought this equipment several years before but never did anything with it. All of the kits were unbuilt. There were 8 Campbell structure kits, 10 Ambroid 1 of 5000 kits, 3 MDC engine kits, (0-6-0, 2-6-2, 4-4-2) plus 20 MDC cars, 30 Athearn BB kits, 200 pieces of Atlas flex, (Code 100), 20 Atlas #6 turnouts, 4 MRC power packs, and a ALCO Models brass RS-11, and several other kits, and several boxes of pieces/parts and odds & ends,(screws, detail parts, jewlers files, screwdrivers, pliers, pin vises, drills, etc).

Each box still had the original prices on them and he had an itemized list with what he paid for them. Their total value was well over $1500.00! And they were all new in the boxes and other than to look at them, stayed that way.

I asked what did he want for them. He asked me if I was a model railroader and could I prove it. I showed him my NMRA card. Now here's the shocker. For you, because you are a model railroader, $200.00! I had him come with me to the bank, where I withdrew $400 from my savings account and put the money in his hands. He gave me back the extra $200! He said no, $200 was what I asked for not more.

Now, he knew fully what he had paid for the items, he also knew he would never do anything with them for whatever reason. He said he was more concerned that they go to someone who could really use the items and they would not wind up damaged, forgotten, or worse, thrown into the local landfill. He said that with me being a model railroader, that I would use his trains as they were meant to be used, and not go to waste. That he said was going to be the greatest satisfaction he would get from the sale.

I tried hard to get him to keep the extra $200 that I took out of the bank. He refused it and said no that was his asking price and not a penny more. 

So, now the question is, did I "knowingly" rip him off or, like PB&J, stumble onto basically "a find of a lifetime"???

loathar wrote:

lvanhen wrote: Ever watch Antiques Roadshow?  How many people have found that their $10 or $15 yard sale/thrift shop/church sale item is worth $thousands!!  Whoever priced it charged whatever he or she thought it was worth - and I don't recall anyone saying they were going to return the item to the seller! Ya know...The more I watch that show, the more I think it's fake or rigged. They'll appraise some diamond encrusted, hand made solid gold trinket for $500 and then turn around call some old corn whiskey jug "folk art" and say it's worth $50,000!! I bet the appraisers get together after the show and have a good laugh.

Has the $5,100 Lionel box taught you nothing about the collectibles market? They don't have to rig ARS, because the truth is often stranger than any fiction. (I still have visions of the winning bidders' spouse cutting up that carton and putting it at the curb with the recycling. )

The super at my apartment complex recently told me that he had trunks of HO equipment that belonged to his late father, so I asked if I could have a look. It was all Tyco, AHM, and Bachmann locos, cars, and kits, Life Like trees, BRASS track (), most new in their boxes. Not even any Rivarossi. I gave him $10 for a pair of mint old-time coaches, and an old Varney all-metal piggyback. I told him he could probably make a decent amount eBaying it, but he doesn't want to bother. I recommended he take it to the LHS, because the owner sells collections on consignment. Apparently his dad bought all of that stuff and never ran it. Anybody looking for some mint AHM C-Liners, just PM me.

 

Carey, nope you did not rip anybody off, PB&J on the other hand did.  The lady's daughter approached PB&J knowing he was a model railroader.  She figured he could help out her mother.  Lets be honest here, if anybody here, god forbid passed away today and your wife somehow got suckered into selling your 20000 dollar train collection for 1000 bucks how would you feel?  PB&J took advantage of a old lady and her daughter who she trusted to do the right thing.  Then for PB&J to come on here and boast about selling all the stuff she basically gave him because she knew he was a model railroader and who she thought would put the stuff to good use.  That turns my stomach knowing there is people out there that would take advantage of someone because she thought she was doing something nice.  This happens more and more everyday and just goes to show what type of world we all live in.  Buying something cheap off Ebay or at an auction somewhere, even a yard sale is ok but to take advantage of someone that trusted you is wrong.  What goes around comes around and PB&J will have nobody to blame but himself.  If he was any type of decent person he would sell the stuff, like he said he was going to and give the lady the money she deserves. 

I have ran into this same situation.I am an HVAC contractor and a woman asked me to look at her husbands collection.It was old Tyco and Bachmann junk,N scale and HO scale.There was one Atlas N scale engine and a few Minitrix items.Basically old 1970s stuff with no value.There was some old Lionel template that I told her to keep and sell.I would not take the valuable items at the price she wanted for the stuff.It basically took me more time to haul the junk out of there than any money I made on any of it.I kept some of the buildings and a few odds and ends.The rest was junk track.Did I cheat her?No.I told her to keep anything that would be any value,I was totally honest with her.Would I have done what PBJ did?,NO.Brass locos are valuable.I will no longer take any old Tyco/Bachmann 1970s stuff home because it is more BS to deal with than it is worth.Dan

TA462, you've got a real "bee in your bonnet" about this, and I'm buggered if I can see why. If the OP had deliberately lied to the woman, telling her the collection was worth little when he knew otherwise, then yes, that would be ripping her off.

But that's not what happened, is it? The woman set the price she wanted, without reference to the OP. He paid the price she was asking. Where's the rip-off?

And as for what happens once he's bought the models - they're his to do with whatever he chooses. He owns them now, not the woman. When you sell models to another person, you surrender control over them. If he chooses to sell them on eBore and make a motza on them, then he's legally and ethically free to do so.

(If this is really the way you think, I'd love to see how you behave at a auction or at a clearance sale...)

Mark.

Well...Hopefully SOMEBODY will put them to good use instead ending up in a landfill.

We are probably going to run into more and more of these problems as train owners pass on in the years to come. What happens when I pass on leaving behind all the wonderful DCC and sound stuff along with lots of other items? My spouse or estate executor already has a envelope at the funeral home containing my instructions. Certain family members will recieve these items without consideration to thier value.

That way I know that if I drop dead right now, the awful train stuff that my spouse sees as taking up space will be taken care of directly without issue.

That Friends, is the best you can do for your family, especially those who dont care about your train stuff.

By the way I know that the future owners of this stuff will use them the way they are intended to for a few years at least or make transfer to someone else who will. Trains are to be played with and enjoyed. Not shipped to the dump or stacked in sad boxes up the in the damp attic or stacked behind glass to be enjoyed by only one or two people over a decade.

TA462 wrote:

Carey, nope you did not rip anybody off, PB&J on the other hand did.  The lady's daughter approached PB&J knowing he was a model railroader.  She figured he could help out her mother.  Lets be honest here, if anybody here, god forbid passed away today and your wife somehow got suckered into selling your 20000 dollar train collection for 1000 bucks how would you feel?  PB&J took advantage of a old lady and her daughter who she trusted to do the right thing.  Then for PB&J to come on here and boast about selling all the stuff she basically gave him because she knew he was a model railroader and who she thought would put the stuff to good use.  That turns my stomach knowing there is people out there that would take advantage of someone because she thought she was doing something nice.  This happens more and more everyday and just goes to show what type of world we all live in.  Buying something cheap off Ebay or at an auction somewhere, even a yard sale is ok but to take advantage of someone that trusted you is wrong.  What goes around comes around and PB&J will have nobody to blame but himself.  If he was any type of decent person he would sell the stuff, like he said he was going to and give the lady the money she deserves.

 

You've said your peace, agree to disagree and move on.

I recently bought an Akane DM&IR 2-8-8-4 off ebay, the model when new may have sold for maybe 80 bucks, thats 1960's prices. A brand new model recently released goes over $1000.

On ebay the buyers drive the price up and the seller may have started the price at 99 cents. I bought it at almost 500 bucks. The seller should be a happy camper, and I am, as it was a buy of the lifetime for me.

Are the parties happy or satisfied now, prolly yes. But we do have one unhappy camper here not involves with the sale. Thats the way it ends.

Cheers

 

(or uncheer...8-P  ) 

 

loathar wrote:

Well...Hopefully SOMEBODY will put them to good use instead ending up in a landfill.

I shudder to think sometimes at all the amazing stuff that's sitting in the bottom of our landfills.

 

Regarding PB&J, he did mention that he advised the seller to consult local hobby shops and auction houses for advice on pricing.

As well, speaking from experience, when having to get rid of the posessions of a loved one that has passed, sometimes it is worth letting things go for a deep discount, just to get rid of some their stuff. 

I'm on PB&J side on this in doing nothing wrong. He advised them to get guess-staments, and then they bartered a deal. Both got what they believe a good deal.

Even if he sales part of it. It will still go to some one who's into trains.

I've bought trains at estate auctions for 5 cent or less, on the dollar of swap meet value and I'm sure the sellers got a better deal than that. I see very little, if any difference here.