Selling Train Stuff - Advice

A big reason for this is may be that most retailers (e- and brick and mortar) have their own credit card processing.

I would accept a check, say, from you, Ken, but I wouldn't necessarily want to mess with a check from someone whom I almost never see around here who just joined the forum this month and only has 2 or 3 posts so far. I would hold the item until the payment cleared in most every case.

I make part of my buying decisions on what kinds of payment someone will accept. I will send a money order or a check or use PayPal but if someone wants to be paid in yellow-cake uranium or courier-delivered rolls of pennies I look elsewhere.

 

One thing that amazed me most about selling my train stuff was the old locos. I had an old atlas 0-8-0 and a trix 0-6-0. Neither was running. In fact the 0-8-0 was in pieces and the 0-6-0 was missing the tender.

The bidding wars that erupted over those items were very hotly contested and the prices rose much higher than I would have expected.

Honestly the most surprising thing about selling my collection was how much time it took to package everything to send off.

I hear all of you about paypal, but as a buyer I have had paypal save my butt when a seller never sent the item. As a seller I prefer paypal because I can rely on completing my transactions quickly. Yeah it costs extra, but it provides a level of safety to both parties.

Everyone has their comfort level with what to sell and how. No one will make you use paypal or sell your most precious items. Yet if you need cash and you are two house payments behind, the trains do offer some relief. As Barstow said, you won't get as much return on what you invested; and that is a fact.

I would encourage anyone hitting hard times to examine the collection and keep the stuff that matters. Most train stuff can be replaced with better stuff somewhere down the road. I got rid of a bunch of stuff I didn't really want, but the buyers did want it.

 

It may never have been used, but it is used. The person buying it from you is not the original owner, and has no rights whatsoever to any warranty on the item. That may not be important for a freight car, but could be very important for a $250+ locomotive. I say this because I currently have a brand new in the box HO Atlas Trainmaster with a defective sound decoder that Atlas will not stand behind because I did not buy it new. The first thing Atlas asked for was a dated receipt from the hobby shop I bought it from.
So, I have a brand new engine that is used. Pre-owned is used, as in not new. No warranty, no recourse.
And if anybody has a QSI sound decoder for an Atlas HO diesel locomotive they want to get rid of, cheap, shoot me a PM, I'd like to get that unit in service.

 

That is EXACTLY the stuff I have been selling. I have WAY too many GP 7/9's in GN so I sold a couple. I model the mid 70's. Well I sold 5 WSDOT grain cars. Yes they are all nice cars and they were ones that I liked in my collection, they just didn't fit my era. So off to the sale barn they went.

My prize possesions and things that I have custom painted to remind me of my childhood, would take an act of congress to get me to sell those. There are some things you just can't put a $$$$ tag on.

Ryan

 

I totally agree with Ken on this one. I have some freight cars and engines that have NEVER been out of the box. I have some listed right now in the temporary train store and in the listing I have it noted that they are NEW. Now if someone wants a new car GREAT! If someone feels they are used, so be it. But I am NOT about to have someone swindle me down 50% just because they feel the car is used. Take a NSC convention auction for instance. When a car is on the block and advertised as NIB that is what it is. It is NIB. It has never been on the rail or out of the box. Those are the cars that bring the big $$$$ to a collector.

Ryan

 

That may be where our difference of opinion lies. I buy the stuff to take out of a box and run. It doesn't matter to a collector if it won't even roll, a long as it's untouched. I buy it to run, and it better run. If I am not the one that bought the train brand new, it's completely as-is, where-is, as far as getting any warranty work is concerned. Again, if you don't believe me, I can forward the emails between me and Atlas about this NIB loco. My email title was even changed from "NEW" to "USED" in their response, because I didn't buy from a hobby shop. Therefore, too bad, so sad, you should have bought a new one from a hobby shop, instead of a collector. So, please explain to me why I should pay $279.99 for a locomotive you have sitting on your shelf, when I may have to, for example, pay another $120 in repairs for it because it is considered used by the manufacturer, and I can still get the same thing, or comparable, at my hobby shop for the same $279.99... Also, nothing was mentioned about collectability in my original post, I think I said something about buying something from you (meaning somebody that's not a hobby shop), rather than paying the same price for a currently available item from a hobby shop.
So, if I can walk into a hobby shop and buy what you're selling for the same price, I'll buy the "new" item, rather than the "used" item.
Bottom line, I have a new locomotive sitting in a box that the manufacturer won't stand behind because I didn't buy from a brick and mortar store. Therefore, I won't buy something a manufacturer will consider used (whether you do or not), unless I can get it cheap enough to cover the cost of reasonable repairs, if needed.
Of course, then that opens up the question of how much less something should be, and what "reasonable" should be, but that probably should be another subject for another thread at another time.

 

I think this is the big trick right here. If the item is listed as new but arrived needing repairs you should have immediately returned it to the seller.
It sounds to me that your experience with this Atlas locomotive is a result of a falsely advertised item. And why should Atlas be responsible for a dishonest seller?

If an item is truly new and unused, regardless of whether its at a hobby shop or has been brought home by someone who never got around to opening the box, then the item is new and there's no reason the seller should take a loss and list it otherwise.

Imagine you buy a $100 dollar loco from the LHS, come home and end up never using it. 30 days go by and you never got around to exchanging it or returning it at the LHS. According to your opinion, you'd then sell that loco to me for $50 bucks, right?
Of course not! Your item is truly new and unused and as such you're entitled to selling it at the new and unused price.

 

Agree or not...It's not new out of the LHS.

Terry's, logic makes perfect sense. Here is another way of putting the same argument.

Just like driving a car off the lot, it's no longer new, looses value and it's considered used...even if driven straight to Jay Leno's garage and stored. Even if the car has under 100 miles on the speedometer. It isn't until years later the value of said car may swing upward.

Sorry guys, I can't agree. To the buyer it's not new, as he or she isn't buying it straight out of the LHS. He or she has no way of knowing the history of desired item and can only look at the condition of the object to be purchased. When and if you are purchasing from another hobbyist...it's "Used".

What I'm going to trust what the buyer has to say. No way in #ell will I trust what some seller has to say. I will trust my own senses. On the flip side if I have purchased from you in the past and found what you said to be truthful and we have an established relationship aka friendship. I will trust on my experience with you. Screw me once....I think you know the rest.

You won't much like this twist...either. Incidentally, that doesn't mean you are buying brand new equipment from a LHS. Many a LHS takes used equipment that has been returned, they in turn re-package it and sell it as new. So, you have to be cautious on both sides of the tracks.

A "Collectable" or "Collectors Item"?. Give it time ladies and gents. We aren't there yet. Way to much of the older stuff out there to be caught up in paying collectors prices for it. You can still find most of it at yard sales and swap meets.

Isn't this fun?

 

Ken is right. If a new car looses half its value by simply exiting the dealership, does that also mean the same for a diamond ring once you exit the store? No, because they're completely different items.

I certainly wont complain if you guys want to sell me your UNused items at half price.
But I'm certainly not going to give up my UNused items for any lower than what the market will pay. And a quick trip to eBay shows that the market is willing to pay very close to original MSRP.