Liquidating a large G scale layout.


Larry

Larry

Long Winded Old Fart
A good friend of mine has a large indoor G scale layout w/tons of scratchbuilt structures & tons of mechanized accessories. Lots of trains-Some battery operated & some DCC. He's going thru a nasty divorce & needs to sell everything to pay his lawyers.
Do you think he would be better to sell it thru a liquidator or find someone to sell it for him on EBay?:(
 
It really depends on how fast he needs the money. Personally, I would go the ebay route, but that could take a while to sell all of the items, so if he is hard pressed for time liquidation might be the better option. If he goes ebay, have him start the bidding of the items at the lowest he would sell them for, and then let people bid up from there. I have seen many people start bids at 99 cents, hoping for lots of bidders, but the item going for reeaallyyy cheap because nobody bids (although, I have benefited from this many a times :D ). Something that might be an issue with ebay is the size of the items and shipping cost, with it being G scale and all. If shipping might be to much of a hastle, or the items arent selling, another option is to run an add in the local newspaper or local magazine, or even craigslist, and have the individuals pick up the items themselves. Best of luck to him. Its sad to see someone get rid of their items just to pay for a divorce :(
 
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be warned of ebay fees my friends!! but yea I agree with above post too...liquidation may be best route...or have your friend sell on here, im sure he would find more then a few interested people here...i mean were all model railroad people here...
 
Midnught Special said:
be warned of ebay fees my friends!! but yea I agree with above post too...liquidation may be best route...or have your friend sell on here, im sure he would find more then a few interested people here...i mean were all model railroad people here...
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ooooh yes! completely forgot about that thank you. I got slammed with those once. Sold a few hundred dollars worth of stuff and got a bill for about 50 bucks! And yes another good idea, sell on here. Just ask bigB how much stuff he helped another person sell, I started to feel bad for him after a while lol
 
I mentioned to him already about selling everything here on the Forum. He said he would think about it & let me know. The only problem w/that is, I would be responsible for everything he wants to sell & I don't know if I want that responsibility. That's very time consuming & he only ships stuff by UPS or FED-X. He doesn't believe in the PO.
I'm supposed to have a meeting w/him this friday about his trains & i'll let you know what he has decided.

I'll take some photo's of his layout if he will allow that & post them here.
 
I just talked to the owner about 5 mins. ago & I'm supposed to go over to his house next week to take a bunch of pictures of everything. he wants me to try to sell it all in one sale & I told him that might not work. He needs the money real bad to pay the Bills & to keep his Garage open & his parts house for Saturn Parts. I told him to get a PayPal acct. & he already has one.
Almost every structure on his layout is Scratchbuilt & he does beautiful work.
He also has tons of animated models, lots of lights, neon signs, a drive-in theatre, huge cranes, a ski lift & a bunch of trains. Lots of track, scenery stuff, etc.
You'll see what he has when I post the photo's. He's been in the local newspapers many times incl. the Tampa Tribune. This layout is about 10 yrs. old.:D
 
Sorry to hear he has to sell, sounds like it would make quite the layout!
If he does sell seperately I might be interested in some track.
 
Rico said:
Sorry to hear he has to sell, sounds like it would make quite the layout!
If he does sell seperately I might be interested in some track.
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I figure he must have about 30 or 40 grand in his layout. But, he'll not get anything close to that. If he decides to sell seperately the shipping is going to be huge, plus the time to box it up for shipment, something I want to stay away from if I can. If he sells it all in 1 pc. I figured it would be cheaper to rent a truck & come & get it. It's going to take a cpl. weeks to dismantle it unless you bring a lot of help.:D
 
I went over & took about 50 pictures this morning & I'll post about 8. The rest of the Pictures are on my Photobucket Acct. under "Joey's G Scale FS 2012".
He will "NOT" sell seperate pieces at this time. Only all or nothing. He has xtra track stored under the train tables. The building is about 25 by 30ft. There's trains on the floor that are to long to run on his layout. No sound on board & the whole layout runs on track power. I haven't heard any sound systems when I was there before. Like I said before there's lots & lots of Scratchbuilt items. Structures have a lot of interior details, etc.
The asking Price is $20,000.00 plus shipping. You really need to come & get it if you buy. We both(mostly me) will take it apart before you come to pick it up or you can come & do it yourself.
 
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I think I'll load about 12 total & then you can look at the rest on PB.
 
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4 more random shots. I need to download the aerial pictures on PB too.
 
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Got 4 bids on his whole layout today & none of them were over $1500.00.
I kind of figured he was asking way to much for everything. There's a lot of drawbacks to this layout. No DCC, No Sounds, No structures that can be outdoors, not enough track, no bridges & all of the accessories are for indoors. I emailed him the bad news.:eek:
 
Hey Larry, :)

You did the best you could. All I know about G is that track can go for about $5 per used foot and about $35 per used switch.

Greg
 
Have you tried Craigslist? It's free to advertise and you never know you might find a local buyer.
I have had sucess in the past.
Bob
 
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