[Bryan Moran]

I have some items on ebay. I have 100% decided to focus on Rock Island, U.P., Burlington Route (CB & Q) and Milwaukee Road. Therefore, I placed my brand new Lionel Legacy Great Northern Hustle Muscle SD45 on ebay, I placed a BNSF GP38 as well that came from a RTR set, and a Katy (MKT) SD90 U.P. Heritage (Williams) locomotive on ebay.

The BNSF GP38 sold for $112.50, OK, not bad. The beautiful Katy Heritage train is languishing at $135 no interest, and the Hustle Muscle I have at $599 (I paid $649).

But what caught my eye was general browsing of other locomotives for sale and what appears to be very good prices for MTH P2's and Lionels, and some good Atlas and Williams.

I bought a very nice Atlas E2 Burlington Route Phase 3 locomotive for a surprising $202.50! So even I got a bargain.

What is going on? I was surprised to see many locomotives in my favored road names in the $100 range, granted older, and the new stuff not selling at the higher prices - but most of the offerings in the $100 to $200 range were perfectly fine diesels.

Anybody else notice this? Do more folks come out of the woodwork to sell locomotives at Christmas and just dump them?

I have $250 ish in my Katy Heritage locomotive. It is NOT your typical Williams. It has great detail, colors and runs like a champ. I have it on for $135 and just watchers.

I wish I had about a $1000 right now. I could go in and clean up based on what I am seeing.

 

[Severn]

There's just a ton of used out there.

 

[gunrunnerjohn]

They're just not worth what they used to be worth.

 

[ERIE610]

I COLLECT WHAT I LIKE BUT NOT FOR PROFIT

Model Railroading just like any other hobby out there. If one's motive to be in a certain hobby is to Speculate and make a buck or two then you will probably lose $$ in the end. By the time one adds up their time & effort $$$ plus shipping costs $$$ & various fees one would be lucky to break even. Of course if you have a rare piece of rolling stock or accessory to sell that may be a game changer. The title of this thread says it all. "Supply and Demand in the Marketplace". Good advice here buyer & seller beware always the case.

MY $0.02 WORTH

 

[seayakbill]

The secondary market is saturated with product and Lionel & MTH continue to bring huge amounts to the market place every 6 months. It certainly is a buyers market right now.

Bill

 

[Spence]

Your never going to get rich selling on Ebay.

 

[Severn]

It's either the time of year, or my imagination but I feel as I've been pummeled in the last few weeks with more aggressive than usual sales offers by some of the online model train retailers I've used in the past ... (trainworld, model train stuff ... )

 

[Norton]

I think those who have been in the hobby for a while are getting saturated, in my case way over saturated. Those few just getting started are probably reluctant to buy older used items they are not familiar with.

Pete

 

[B&O Forever]

The Boomers are getting old and passing. They leave a void and a lot of inventory.

I thing the next generation is lacking in railfans.

 

[Tom_C]

Do a search on ebay and choose to show ended/sold auctions. That will show you what stuff has sold for in the past (assuming there are same or similar models).

 

[MichaelE]

The Boomers are getting old and passing. They leave a void and a lot of inventory.

I thing the next generation is lacking in railfans.

Too busy with a mobile phone stuck in their faces to pay attention to anything else besides social media and what someone had for breakfast or who broke up with whom.

 

[lou1985]

Too busy with a mobile phone stuck in their faces to pay attention to anything else besides social media and what someone had for breakfast or who broke up with whom.

Well it's also kinda hard to model in O scale if you don't have the room. Younger people don't tend to have houses with basements necessary for a model train layout. I'm in my mid 30's and consider myself lucky to have a house and space for a layout. My friends and I all have advanced degrees and decent incomes but only myself and one other friend have houses with basements/extra space. Everyone else rents or has a condo. Not much space in those situations for a layout.

Let's not forget with newer stuff coming out with cooler features the price of older stuff that has been used drops significantly. I end up buying older stuff that is replaced by fancier stuff (sometimes MIB) for half the cost of new and then upgrading. Used market has a bunch of deals because there is a bunch of stuff to buy and fewer buyers. Simple supply and demand.

 

[MichaelE]

For a decent size layout that is not a toy train layout going around in an oval I would agree. Time for HO or N.

 

[Maxum]

Used items ( no matter what they are) usually sell for a fraction of their new cost. I laugh when I see people trying to sell used items for almost the cost of the same item new in the stores. My other favorite one is when someone claims because the MSRP on something 10 years ago was X amount of dollars, it's worth close to the same today. Unless you have some ultra rare highly desirable item, it's not going to keep it's value.

A month ago I went to a train show. A seller had an MTH UP 9000 4-12-2 steam locomotive. The MSRP in 2007 when it was released was $1195. When I asked the seller what he was asking, his reponse was "I paid $1000 new for it and never ran it so I figure it's worth $900". I didn't even waste my time making an offer. I knew they'd been selling NIB on eBay (completed auctions) in the low $600 range. After the train show I put a bid in on a NIB 9000 on eBay. I won it for less than $550.

So the only time I pay anywhere close to new price on anything is when I buy it new from a retailer.

 

[Maxum]

Too busy with a mobile phone stuck in their faces to pay attention to anything else besides social media and what someone had for breakfast or who broke up with whom.

I think there is some validity in your point. But I am surprised at the large number of kids at the train shows these days. As much as I hate Thomas the Tank Engine, I feel it draws a large number of young kids into our hobby.

 

[Chugman]

This is an interesting and frequently talked about topic.

I have been relatively lucky so far. I have tried to be disciplined about my purchases. By that I mean, I have mostly bought items that fit into my plan of only certain road names and only certain age ranges. The point is that I don't want to sell these items. The only exceptions has been the rare times when something was so ridiculously low in price that I couldn't pass it up. I can hear the snickering about that statement, but I am serious.

A couple examples of too good to pass up prices:

• Atlas 40" track $1.25 each
  Atlas Articulated auto carriers $40 each
  
  I have since sold what I didn't want at a profit. But these are rare exceptions and not everything is that way.
  
  I agree that resale prices on our trains are depressing if you are a seller. The days of high prices on old collectible Lionel trains is probably gone forever on most of them.
  
  Art

 

[Riggzie]

I sold a ton of stuff on ebay and barely got by. I was just trying to get back money as I bought a ton of stuff from craigslist in a gigantic lot... I then just wanted to recoop cost and only keep a few pieces to which I did.

I also was told around Xmas is the time of year to sell.. not sure as it is that time now and need to look.
all I know is I sold an H/O Amtrack train with 5 cars and got like $20 for it. It cost me $40 in shipping/ebay and paypal fees.. so it cost me $20 to sell it!!!!!!!

 

[Goose]

I will be shopping for my new railroad early next year. I grew up in Jacksonville FL and went to the Moncrief yards often on my bicycle. I'll probably model the 60-70 Seaboard Airline, Atlantic Coast Line and SCL. Hoping to find some good deals to restart.

 

[seayakbill]

I sold a ton of stuff on ebay and barely got by. I was just trying to get back money as I bought a ton of stuff from craigslist in a gigantic lot... I then just wanted to recoop cost and only keep a few pieces to which I did.

I also was told around Xmas is the time of year to sell.. not sure as it is that time now and need to look.
all I know is I sold an H/O Amtrack train with 5 cars and got like $20 for it. It cost me $40 in shipping/ebay and paypal fees.. so it cost me $20 to sell it!!!!!!!

Should have just dropped it off at the Goodwill, you would have been $20 ahead of the game.

Bill

 

[Bryan Moran]

Thanks for all the input. Interesting perspectives. I am selling but my point was a bit of surprise in seeing some not all items at fair prices. A person can get a few locomotives for reasonable costs