Things to Consider When Selling Your Trains
A Guide To Selling Your Trains, From The Largest Buyer Of Collectible Model Trains In The US.
Our Guide to Selling Your Trains.
There are more ways to sell your train collection than you would probably believe. Educating yourself is the first step to making sure you find the option that works best for your specific situation.
We’ve broken the decision down into the three factors we most often discuss with our sellers and then rated the different options on each of those factors.
The process can be complex and confusing, we hope this guide makes it all a little easier to understand. We can't promise we can answer every question, but if you still have some, let us know!
Deciding What's Important To You
1. Highest Price
Obtaining the best price for your collection can mean more work and slower returns.
If you’re willing to spend the time and effort, it can absolutely be worth the investment.
The impact of price on the amount of work and the time it takes to get money in hand can be quite significant
2. Amount Of Work!
How much time and effort you’re willing to invest can be a huge deciding factor in selling your collection
High effort options usually deliver the highest price, while compromising on price could leave you with nothing to do but collect a check.
Every option takes some effort, and you're taking the first steps now in researching your options.
3. Fast Money
You can have money in hand right now, a little later, or a lot later.
How fast you want the money will impact the price you'll realize for your collection. The good news is that there are fair options for almost every scenario.
If you're looking for a fast return someone else will probably be taking the risk on your collection... they'll be considering price and the amount of work involved.
Sell Your Trains Using An Auction House
Mixed Price Results...
Getting the best price results from an auction house depends upon your collection and the auction house itself. Auctions do best if you have high-end items like Mint or Like-New Postwar and Prewar trains. You will also get more if you enlist an auction house that specializes in toy trains.
Auction houses generally keep 30% to 40% of the sales price, 15% to 20% from the seller (you), and another 15% to 20% as a buyer's premium. You're very much at the mercy of the crowd the auction house can gather, though some auction houses also have internet bidding which will increase the crowd size.
If you have a lot of "inexpensive" items like freight cars, expect them to be sold in lots of 10 to 20 cars with a total lot value of $200. Those lots are very attractive to dealers who are looking for items to resell. Unfortunately they often reduce the value of the individual items contained in the lots. Some auction houses aren’t even interested in Modern era Lionel and other manufacturer’s items for their auctions.
Usually Low Effort...
If your collection has a high enough value an auction house will usually come pick it up for you. If not you may be left figuring out how to get the items to the auction house on your own.
Slow Payments...
Auction houses depend on planned events to draw larger crowds. Depending on how busy the auction house is you can find yourself waiting 4 to 12 months for your collection to go to auction. After the auction the accounting process usually adds at least another month before you’ll receive a check.
Sell Your Trains Through TrainzAuctions
Good Price Results...
Trainz sells thousands of items every week through TrainzAuctions.com. Auctions close nightly by gauge and era. With their enhanced auction service most of your items will be sold one at a time. Years of sales data allows Trainz to calculate a starting price for your items to maximize your return.
Trainz sends auction notifications to over 60,000 potential bidders every week, and advertises on Trainz.com, Collector-ModelTrains.com, the Google Ad Network, Classic Toy Trains, OGR, Garden Railways, Yahoo, Bing, and through affiliate partners on hundreds of other websites. Every item includes complete functional descriptions, grading, and photographs. The combined shipping rates encourage bidders to buy more in each auction.
Low Effort...
Your collection will be picked up, or you will be provided with pre-paid FedEx shipping labels. Trainz will handle photographing, grading, and describing your items. They’ll also manage sellers’ questions, shipping, and returns. With most of the hard work out of the way, the amount of effort you invest will be very minimal.
Slow Payments...
TrainzAuctions will typically list your first items for sale within a few business days of receiving them. You’re paid 30 days after each auction closes, so your first payment will come rather quickly.
Sell Your Trains On eBay
Usually Good Price Results...
Your price results will vary based upon the bidders on-line that week. eBay and PayPal fees will cost around 13% to 15% of the final sell price if you sell with no reserve. If you set reserves or high starting prices, your fees will be even more. Reserve prices will also alienate some buyers and you may have items that never meet the reserve, leaving you to decide if you should relist them lower, or with a reserve at all. Price guides aren’t realistic for most items, so expect to spend a good amount of time researching the value of your items online if your goal is to maximize your prices.
Overall eBay gets good price results. The amount your items bring will be directly proportionate to the amount of time you spend listing them. The items that consistently sell for the most are the items with the best photographs and descriptions. You may take a short term price hit if you’re new to eBay and don’t have a strong feedback history.
Very High Effort...
Before the sale you’ll need to take pictures, write descriptions, research prices, fill out auction forms, pick categories, manage correspondence with bidders, get boxes and packing material, pack items, fill out labels, and drop your items off to be shipped. After the sale you’ll need to handle complaints, tracking requests, damage claims, and returns.
The eBay route can work, and does work for lots of sellers, but you absolutely have to make a reasonable effort if you expect reasonable results.
Mixed Payment Speed...
How quickly you get paid will depend on how fast you can get your items started. If you work at it full time, you can expect to get around 20 items listed per day in conjunction with managing your other open and sold items.
Spend some time researching how eBay payment terms work, and how to manage disputes, these will both be critical to receiving timely payments from buyers.
Sell Your Trains At Collector-ModelTrains.com
Usually Good Price Results...
Your price results will vary based upon the bidders on-line that week. You can start your items at a minimum opening bid for no additional charge, providing some level of price protection. Premium members receive pricing guidance based upon actual sales, reducing the amount of price research you’ll have to do.
You can sell in auction or fixed price formats and should expect to pay 10% to 11% between the Collector-ModelTrains fees and PayPal. Collector-ModelTrains also collects a 15% buyer’s premium from the buyer which is yours to keep.
The price your items bring will be directly proportionate to the amount of time you spend listing them. The items that consistently sell for the most are the items with the best photographs and descriptions.
Collector-ModelTrains and Trainz spend a lot of time marketing to potential buyers, which brings attention to your items as well.
High Effort...
Collector-ModelTrains provides generic descriptions and photos through their catalog of items, reducing the amount of time you’ll spend researching. You’ll always do best with photos of your actual items, so while catalog photos are provided, it may not be the best idea to use them.
You’ll need to manage correspondence with bidders, get boxes and packing material, pack items, fill out labels, and drop your items off to be shipped. After the sale you’ll need to handle complaints, tracking requests, damage claims, and returns.
Reasonable Payments...
How quickly you get paid will depend on how fast you can get your items started. If you work at it full time, you can expect to get around 20 items listed per day in conjunction with managing your other open and sold items.
If you list your items at a fixed price they will take much longer to sell.
Sell Your Trains At Train Shows
Good Prices, But...
The great thing about Train shows is that you get to set your own prices. The bad thing about Train shows is you have to wait for someone willing to pay your price. Waiting can be very expensive. If you're traveling to shows your expenses will add up quickly... Fuel, mileage, hotel rooms, table fees, food... It's all coming out of your sales at the end of the day..
When there's no show, you'll have no sales at all. Your sales will depend on your competition from show to show. What competitors have and the prices they offer will force you to be more competitive if you want to make the sale.
Shows tend to provide a good number of buyers, but it's impossible to predict what it is they'll want to buy. Even the weather can take a bite out of your sales on any given day.
Insanely High Effort...
You'll spend the entire weekend packing up your collection, traveling, setting up tables and displays, standing for hours on end, and then repeating the process when the show closes. Large collections can take an extremely long time to sell through, and you'll need to be prepared to lower your prices to keep things moving.
You'll also need to spend some time educating yourself on what you have if you don't already know. The guys at Train shows know exactly what you have, and they won't tell you if it's underpriced.
Slow Returns...
Every day you work 10 hours or more will be a pay-day. Some will be good, some will be bad. Many people will give up on the shows after their first low sales day where expenses are higher than what they earned.
On the flip side, if you're looking for a way to supplement some cross country travels, this could be just the ticket.
Sell Your Trains To A Single Buyer
Middle Of The Road Prices...
When you sell your entire collection to a reseller you’re paid wholesale rates. While it can be a bit of a sting you have to consider the amount of work the buyer now has to do to sell your collection. Most buyers are going to sell through one (or many) of the options outlined in this guide, so they still have to do all the work that you’re bypassing.
Overall you’ll usually receive a price close to or greater than what you would get with an auction, but you’ll get it much quicker.
Usually Low Effort...
If your collection has a high enough value a buyer will usually come pick it up for you. If not you may be left figuring out how to get the items to the buyer on your own.
Fast Money...
Absolutely the fastest way to get paid, most buyers will typically pay you when your trains are picked up.