posted on July 20, 2001 09:45:10 AM
Well, while scouting the garage sale ads I found one that says:
10 yr collection of HO Train items, 40 engines, atlas, prot 2000, Athern, roundhouse, 100s of freight and passenger cars. Many painted SP& S GN, NP items, scenery, track, HO autos, everything is unused, train books, videos and other neat "toys".
Well, the sale starts tomorrow, and I have no idea what to buy, if anything, who knows what the prices will be like, but on the off chance that they are unloading this stuff for cheap, what are some key things I should be on the lookout for?
posted on July 20, 2001 10:06:50 AM
The engines will be the most valuable pieces out of the batch, most likely. Try to get at least some of those. If they are unused they will sell well on ebay. Look up "HO engine". Some of the accessories might be OK. The freight cars will not bring very much unless they are hard to find models (defunct railroads or plain just hard to find railroads). Burlington Northern and Santa Fe are quite common for instance.
Athern is a pretty good brand. Tyco is also good, but will likely sell for a little less than Athearn.
A few months ago I sold a batch of 6 very nice but used Tyco freight cars and they only brought 16.00.
I should have sold them by the piece, not by the batch. I might have made double the money if I had.
posted on July 20, 2001 10:15:55 AM
Try to get a hold of a Walthers HO Catalog, many hobbyshops have these, you can check E-bays huge HO Model Train listings for reference also.
All the brands you mentioned are good quality. The Atlas Loco's will probably be the most expensive item these retail new from between 70-120+.
The Athearn products are very popular with Ho modelers. I have had a lot of luck selling Athearn products on e-bay. You can check their website for current prices on Athearn products. If you can some how test run the locomotives I recommend it. Ho trains are the most popular size of model trains and one of the largest catagories on E-bay.
posted on July 20, 2001 10:23:00 AM
Thank you everyone for the good tips, I did look at completed auctions, but the range is so wide, hundreds of dollars to next to nothing. I will be on the lookout for Athern engines.
