I have two Bachmann spectrum 44 Tonner locomotives. These are the ones with the two motors. I found the difficulty of putting a decoder in will be quite difficult so I am replacing them with NW2’s. Now I am thinking of selling these and not sure what a good value would be on them. I have someone trying to lowball me at $20 for both. What would be a good market value to place on these since they are no longer available by Bachmann? I want to be fair but I don’t want to be ripped off either. I have a hard time placing value on such items. Thanks!
As a general rule of thumb, and a grain of salt needs to accompany this rule, you'd want approximately half the original price for toys that are used....if....IF...they are mint and hardly used. If you had added a decoder, especially sound, you might also get about half the price of your purchase of the decoder, but not if you also paid for installation. But unfortunately, the person setting the eventual sales parameters is going to be the prospective seller. If you ask full price, don't expect any/many interested parties. If you offer them for $10 each, most would assume they're not worth the look. So, you should work hard to convince a buyer that what you're asking is reasonable....half of what you paid for them, plus half of any upgrades/improvements. What you settle on would be something less in all probability, but it wouldn't be as low as $10 per item I would think. Bottom line, if the market is flooded with used Bachmann items, expect to take a bath. If you have good runners, not too many hours, only you know what they're worth to you, but you'll have to convince at least one buyer. Good luck.
Is this the version which was released about twenty years ago? Do you have a catalog number for them?
If something recent, I would probably pay about half of what I see for prices on mail-order. Maybe more if the item is hard to find. If it is advertised as new I would pay going if the seller has a more permanent sales outlet.
I have bought and sold a lot of trains on ebay . if you sell as a auction( not buy it now) the price you get will depend on 2 people wanting what you are selling. If at the moment there is only one person than no bid ups. Numerus photos help, Hard to bid on something used if there is only a photo of the box. I have tried to sell some train items and no bids, then waited a week to relist and sold for 30% - 40% above the starting price. Of course this is only my opinion , and I may be wrong