# How to value a set?



## offroadfun (Mar 14, 2010)

Hi, all, I'm hoping you can help. A friends brother recently passed away and left behind a train set-up. I am helping her with his estate and was wondering how to value the train set and landscapes and where the best place would be to sell it. Somewhere local? Craigslist? Online? 
Thanks so much.


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## shaygetz (Sep 23, 2007)

I'm sorry for your loss. Sadly, the best way to sell a layout is piece by piece, minimizing the financial loss. Sell locos singly _(if possible, test them, more money to be gotten, we can walk you through that here)_, cars in small lots of 3-5. Track, if easily removed, can be sold in lots as well, other than that, sell the layout as a unit w/o the rolling stock. The same goes for buildings, just sell it with the layout if it can't easily be pulled up. Layouts do not normally do well---no one wants to buy another one's wiring and track laying headaches---the best bang is to donate it to a local charity and get the write off.

As an experienced Ebayer, I can tell you that the market there is your best forum for getting the most money for what your friend had. If you're not familiar with it, find someone you know who is or, better yet, learn it for yourself, it simply isn't that hard to learn, doesn't cost nearly as much as a consignment store or auction house and, with a $20 PO box and Pay-Pal, you can easily keep the creepy crawlies out there away from your house.


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Offroadfun ... condolences ... sorry for your friend.

Shaygetz ... good advice above ... well said. My only question/comment is re: "sell locos singly". I might suggest "sell locos with tender (as a matched pair) singly". I've seen too many people selling steam locos SOLO on ebay, without their matched tender. Gives me the woolies! Now in some cases, they're old locos, and people simply don't have the tenders. But in many cases, I see a loco (solo) for sale, and (obviously) the mating tender separately for sale by the same seller. Boooo.

Anyway, sorry for the sidetrack/rant ... again, good advice above!

TJ


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## Boston&Maine (Dec 19, 2007)

tjcruiser said:


> I might suggest "sell locos with tender (as a matched pair) singly". I've seen too many people selling steam locos SOLO on ebay, without their matched tender. Gives me the woolies!


This really depends... With some older Lionel's you can actually get more by selling the locomotive and tender separately, especially if the tender is rare...

EDIT: Ignore my ramblings about Lionel's, I did not realize I was in the N scale thread


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Ohh ... I don't disagree with the thought that one might get more money by selling loco and tender individually. I'm sure that's possible, in many cases. I just think that it's one of those "shouldn't be done" taboos ... kinda like splitting up orphaned siblings to different families.

I'll probably "commit the crime" myself at some point (on the seller or buyer end), but I hate the thought that there's any little loco out there somewhere all loney 'cause it's lost its mate.

Maybe I'm being to "mushy" here ???

TJ


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## tworail (Apr 13, 2006)

If you can post some pics so we know exactly what trains we are dealing with here...


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