Hi, I am in the middle of sorting out my Dad's collection of model railway stuff... he sadly passed away last October and now has come the time to start thinking what to do. I inherited a bit of a railway interest from him (PC nerd and train spotter, god help me) so some of mine and his shared favorites I will want to keep but the vast majority I feel is wasted just sitting around in boxes. I don't have the same passion for modelling as he did. The thing is, he bought most of the models individually on ebay, we are talking 200 - 300+ engines, coaches and freight cars. I don't have the knowledge to know what each item is worth and I assume selling as job lots will do the family a dis service (I have a brother and sister who are entitled to a third of anything sold) Has anyone reading this had a similar situation with a relatives valuables? Thanks, dizzi
Talk about it with your bro and sis and see what they want to do. If you all put the time in together you'd probably get it all listed properly without it being too much of a headache. Then again they might not be bothered, in which case you can come to an easy agreement on what to do with it. Maybe keep a few select items for posterity or something. Either way, communication is key. Many a family have fallen out over this sort of thing.
Easier said than done, there has already been a massive fall out on all fronts due to unrelated issues. My brother and sister have washed their hands of it tho they will be wanting their share. It has been left to me to sort all the boxes out and come up with the best strategy of selling. Neither me or my siblings can anticipate what each model is worth so we cant divide them up into equal portions and none of us want to go the legal route.
Find thee a model train forum & start poking around looking for pointers ( may find potential buyers too who will be happy to take several items off you at once ), and regards ebay, it's always worth searching model numbers & descriptions within the completed listings section to get an idea of value too. Cataloguing everything into a list on your PC which you can then copy & paste will make life easier, when it comes to discussing the items on any forums or specialist websites etc.
When I had to get rid of my model train collection I went to a well known model shop here in Copenhagen and asked them to put a value on the entire collection. I might have gotten more if I had sold all of the parts individually, but it was much easier just offloading a couple of crates and let them sort it out.
there's a local store near me that specializes in model railways, Southern's Railways 227 Station Road Stechford, Birmingham, Birmingham, West Midlands B33 8BB 0121 783 5335 they might be of help.
If they were brought on ebay could you not just look at the purchase history and see what they were actually brought for cash wise and go from there?
Thanks for all the replies and suggestions, I will try finding a forum, luckily Dad had all models in a excel list, tho no clue which box each one is in! Picarro, that might be a good idea thanks. Cheers gunsmith, Birmingham is a bit far but they might have some ideas. +rep
I am familiar enough with ebay that I could list them on there no problem, it is the amount of models and time/effort posting that is daunting.
Are there any grand-kids that may appreciate (read: Play to the death) this stuff now or later in life? May be worth hanging on to a bunch, if not all, for them too. Regardless, I would get out the camera and photograph everything properly, boxes and all. One day nostalgia may come knocking and the sense of flicking through the pics will satiate the need to see the collection again.
No grand kids to speak of at the moment. Even if one of us had a child arrive tomorrow it would be perhaps 8 - 10 years before you would want them playing with a lot of this stuff, very delicate and intricate models. Some of them date back to the 60s and are worth a small fortune. We have plenty of photos and videos of them in action, my dad was very proud. I am torn hence the dilemma, part of me wants to keep them in his memory the other (and more sensible part) wants to see or hear of them being used as my Dad intended.
Yes. I hope ya can resolve all this. And I'm sorry for your loss. FWIW, I'm with the "used properly" camp. Good luck
I've got quite a bit of Fleischmann stuff they really are getting valuable. Definitely worth keeping for now.
My recommendation, as we did with our moms stuff. I let every family member who had a personal connection with her to take what they wanted, as long as the promise of "they would cherish it, not sell it, not lose it, only give it to decedents, etc." Everything else, sell to people who would use and enjoy them, split the monies... Good luck, sorry for your loss, We all feel it one day.
Why not make the best of the situation? Spend some time, find out what is most interesting and what meant the most to your father. If that is quantitively less than a third of the sheer numbers of items, then sell the rest as a bulk lot to a dealer and give the monies to your brother and sister. You then have a third of what was there, that is the best stuff that hopefully your father cherished most, that you can either pass to your children as a hobby or indeed an investment. Either way, it'll do right by your children, and your father would almost certainly be happy that some good has come out of the best of his collection. One would hope that if your brother and sister have genuinely washed their hands of this, then the outcome of it would be somewhat irrelevant, so there is nothing stopping you making the most of the situation in both satiating the financial aspect owed to them legally, and satiating the desire to honour your father's passionate hobby.
Thank you for your input. In fairness to my siblings, they have never had much or any interest in models or railways even when we were children so I can understand why they have no inclination to get involved with this. I wouldn't want to take up a new hobby that doesn't appeal to me either. As for the collection, reflecting on what has been said here and my own thoughts, I am considering taking every model in groups to his model club once a week so I can not only test each one but also see the fruits of my dads collection and as you say, keep the best reserved for me and the family.
What brand is this stuff? My Fleischmann engines, which are in a display cabinet at the moment; well the best ones are approaching £200 per engine. I'm keeping them for a while now, then selling them. Discuss it with your siblings and see what value there is to any particular ones.
He has several different brands. The 2 most valuable are the collection of Wrenn and a set of privately made kits from a place that closed in the 80s. He also has Bachmann which I prefer, they are so detailed and smooth, lovely LEDs. Some Hornby, Lima and Heljan. His most valuable is the Wrenn Brighton Belle which I have seen sell for £500
www.rmweb.co.uk is the model rail forum i frequent, it may well be worth joining the forum and asking for their advice regarding selling the trains on, The forum also has it's own Market Place so you can sell the items on there too. PS, If you find a SWT Class 159, let me know, been after one for a while:wink: Sam
^^^ This. Find a model train club/forum, talk to the members, see what the rough value of these models is. If you sell them to these people, regardless of the price, each model will go to a home where it will be valued and cherished.
