Considering tearing out my old HO layout.


Ash Pit

Well-Known Member
I am considering tearing out my 1953 era HO Layout and changing scales. I have around 20 HO locomotives all but three have been converted to DCC and some with sound. I also have around 170 Freight cars and 10; or, so passenger cars. I also have some buildings I want to sell off. I've been "Around the BLOCK" and currently sell stuff on Ebay and will use Ebay to sell off some of this stuff. Like all businesses, I expect any business being in the wholesale end of this type of business to expect to make money and am a big boy so I expect that what I paid for my stuff and what I would be paid by a wholesaler to be significantly less.

I have been in discussion with TRAINZ and found them to be difficult to deal with and not forthcoming with their expectations. Have you done business with any such businesses that you felt easy to deal with?
 
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The best thing you can do is offer them for sale on sites like this first. Ensure you provide photos and info regarding running condition, DCC, etc. That way, there's no commission.

I quit selling on Ebay about a year ago because all I got were fees. They weren't much, because nothing was selling. But there were a lot of them. Total crap. So, any excess inventory is now on my website with my regular products. It's not the same foot traffic, but things do sell occasionally.
 
Ash Pit where are you located? Perhaps a forum member close to you might be interested in your items.
While I hate to see a layout dismantled I understand about changing scales.
There is a super thread on this forum where a guy rebuilds his old layout -


Maybe reading this thread you might decide to utilize what you have or modify for a larger scale.
 
I've been buying for over a year now. I can tell you what I've been paying, Atlas code 100 flex $2 , Turnouts Atlas Mk1's #8sand #6 $2-$5 , Shinohara 4 +6s $5

All prices are retail and included the shipping

Brass locomotives $80 - $199 , from ebay , Brasstrains.com Trainz ( ebay) and Allegheny . The most I paid was $199 for a never run Sunset J1 Factory paint. The locos are all GEM Olympia, PFM United , and Sunset in good shape ,un-repowered. I haven't purchased any Keys or Challenger and no Crowns or Rubys. Total of about 6 or 7 over about 6 month period .

All prices are retail and did not include the shipping ,

Any money and labor that you put into the scenery and benchwork is for the most part irrecoverable.

Most of those prices were either auction or Best offer.


If you paid full retail , I wouldn't expect to get more than 25% , they have to sell at substantial discount to new to get it to move. They don't want to tie their money up more than 90 days.

By the time they show up at your house and cart it off ,prepare it for sale ,They'll have 25% tied up in it. So I doubt most wholesalers would agree do much more than show up with pickup , chainsaw and broom . They've got plenty of widows , who just want the dead mans stuff out of the house and the railroad is just a painful reminder(unfortunately that's just the cold hard facts).

If you want to get anything for it , you'll have to retail it yourself and that will take some time. To get the most you'll have to sell one piece at a time(but then a lot of us don't buy onesy twosys ) . I would figure at least 1 - 2 years to liquidate unless your will to go to auction (ebay) .

The market was not that strong to begin with, prior to the virus, and with the current unemployment, it hasn't improved.
 
Sorry to read that you are considering a tear-down. But it is a decision that we all may need to make at some time. I hope that if the time will come, that you get a fair value for what you are offering. Your equipment is out of my locale and era, so I cannot be of help there.
 
TBH, if there's a trainshow or swap meet near you, that's likely going to be the best way. I don't like selling things like this on ebay just because it can be a hassle to get the right packing materials to actually send safely through the mail.

If any of it is at all collectable, you can also try going through a shop that deals with models and the like as there may be people out there looking for these sorts of things just as decorations for their rumpus rooms. Kind of makes me lol as I think I've only known one person with a rumpus room and I don't recall ever having been allowed to actually rumpus in it.
 



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