En Masse

I recently got to look over a layout who's owner had passed away. Multi-block DC, pretty much a roundy-round with a lot of switching potential. Myself a friend and his son went over to evaluate it.We powered it up and the friend pretty much figured out how all the blocks were arranged so we ran some trains.

He'd specified to his kids that they were to sell it as a unit - whoever bought it had to take everything. He also apparently left them with an estimated value, that, like most things of that nature, I suspect was somewhat high.

I could see his reasoning for insisting it be sold as a unit - otherwise people would come in and cherry pick the good stuff and leave the kids with the... less desirable items. Of which there were some. And the benchwork.

There were a couple people interested, I suspect the type of dealers you see at swap meets with the boxes full of Tyco & AHM and milk crates full of blue box kits or assembled cars. From which many people have fun creating or detailing projects without blowing out the budget.

But if they cleared $1k on the whole thing I'd be surprised.

It’s an investment...but not

It’s an investment...

but not a financial investment 

correction its a major financial investment with a non financial return 

jeff

Our local group that I am a

Our local group that I am a member of have a tradition that if we lose a member we will go in and take down the layout and sell off the items for the family.  The family has to get the debris out of the basement as we are just not able to handle that part.  But otherwise we do everything.  And on reasonablely large layouts thier can be a pretty good amount of money to be had.  But that is highly variable depending on what the owner tended to buy.  We are talking nice layouts and good equipment not tyco.

We don’t charge for this, but we DO have a tradition that each member is allowed to take one building or car or similar item to remember our friend by.  And some things that we have learnt don’t sell are free to anyone that wants to salvage them.  All ballasted trackwork.  Most track in general (more effort to pull up then it is work even if it is “good track”. Wiring and toggles and terminal strips and such.  But we have found that if you are reasonable on the actual value you will get the most money you can.  And usually a lot more then you get for a lump sum sale.  Of course that often means some cars go for a few bucks and the same with many buildings.  But you get good value for DCC control systems and engines and more expensive cars and such.  And obviously brass engines tend to get the most.

But you will never get your money back unless you have a layout that has a lot of 1960 and 1980 brass bought cheep back in the day.  But even that stuff is a bad investment as if you put that money in the stock market you would have done much better,  But if your realistic about prices you can do reasonablely well.  

But thier is little sadder things in life then helping to tear apart a friends layout that you have spent many a fun hour working on running on or just visiting.  In some ways it is like losing your friend again,  And it is usually done close enough together that you still have not came to terms with the loss.  

Doug M

My group has done that for

My group has done that for several of the guys that have passed on over the years. It is always sad. One thing that strikes me when dealing with things, is the process of building them. I have built lots of things over the years and it turns out many modelers have built the same things. When I look at something coming off a layout under those circumstances I find I am able to visualize the building of the models I am removing. Each of those items has a bit of the original owner in them.

The big thing to remember when doing one of these things is that you are doing it to help the owners family. They already have lots to deal with.

A further thought...

has been brewing for a while.  Jeff Shultz’s thought about cherry picking when selling a model railroad is a good one for the people who have to sell/buy the residual.  It should be a lot easier for the seller to do it in a single sale.

Two things I didn’t think to mention that are important parts are the buildings or structures, cars and trucks, people,  and removable scenery.  The second major thing is all the tools!  I’m sure there’s more parts that I didn’t think of too!

It is very good and handy to have a person, club or organization that can benefit and is interested in dismantling and dispersing a layout.

Nick

Estate Sale

This Saturday I am helping with an estate sale that is being sold off to local modelers, then will go to a show.  There is very little layout, mostly equipment.  The estates I've helped with in the past were always liquidated on a steep discount.