I get emails from time to time as President of my club about collections. I just received, this evening, and email from a man who is trying to find a new home for his son's collections: I wrote him back to him, expressing my condolences, and gave him a couple ideas and suggested he contact a couple local train stores (Seattle area) and also gave him the name of my favorite LHS in Portland, which buys collections. I also gave him the contact page for Mt. Rainier N Scalers. Do any of you have any ideas or suggestions of good Seattle area folks who could help him assess what he has and maybe even buy it? Adam
Good point. Do you think I could contact him via NSR? I think I will go ahead and forward the original email to him and see what he thinks.
My condolences to the man's family on his passing. As for his collection, perhaps they could (with the proper help) also use the NScale Yard Sale group on Yahoo. Not a plug, since I've never used it, just a suggestion. Should be less of a hassle than eBay, anyway.
Marketing collections these days is often synonymous with getting rid of a collection. There's no real national market, and even the estate buyers are offering less than 10% of used value, if they make an offer at all. I think the reputable dealers are simply saturated with product--I know only two, and they were saturated 2.5 years ago. The best thing? Get someone local interested in it. And network, network, network.
That's basically what I told him. If he weren't located three hours away I'd go take a look at it for him and see if I could figure out a couple of good strategies. I gave him the Mt Rainier N Scalers contact information (the website link page) so hopefully they can help sort him out.
Adam, How old is Jim Robison? I hate to ask it that bluntly, but usually age is a huge factor in how someone wants to deal with this problem. Younger parents are willing to take some time and effort; older ones much less so. He seems knowledgeable about model railroading, so that would be an advantage. Was he a member of the club or his son? I've counseled people on this a number of times going back 25 years. I just don't have time this weekend to call him, and I'm gone at 4 AM (again) on Monday for the whole week (I got back early this week! 2 PM! Flights on-time, for once.) Can you call him and find out more about his time frame? I'll be in Portland, OR next week, and can probably talk to him some evening.
Pete, He never got back in touch with me so I am guessing his problems have been sorted out. I know a Jim Robison, but he lives in Portland and has no kids. This is some other guy, and he's in Washington. I am guessing he contacted me and several other clubs in the Pacific NW and someone else probably got back to him more quickly. I think he ran a Google search on N-Trak clubs or something, found our club, and emailed the President, so it came to me. This happens about two or three times per year. Usually, they're closer to Portland and I can help them out more directly. Adam
