# Hi, new here, I have an old Lionel Train Set



## dianecaudle (Jan 5, 2011)

My husband who was 67 years old died earlier this year and we've been selling off a lot of things that he collected and had gotten from his parents as a child...many things we're saving but I need to downsize and things like this Lionel Train set have been sitting around unused for far too long.

I had seen the train set up in his old home in the seventies...and it has worked. I believe that it is a set from the 1950's and is O scale. There is a large amount of track and cars w/engine, a long bridge plus I have a right-handed switch still complete with bulb that I've taken a pic of. There are more cars and items I just haven't had a chance to go through it all yet. Oh and it does have the transformer with it, I believe the whole set is in this container. There is a little bit of rust on the items but u'd be rusty too if you sat around for over 50 years.

I know nothing about train sets and I'm trying to decide if I should attempt to try to sell it as is on Ebay (as a set) or sell it piece by piece which would take a long time and, we all know, Ebay isn't the best place to sell hobby items these days.

Thank you for any help or suggestions,

Diane


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Well, if you have pictures of all the cars and engine, you could list them here, I'm sure folks here would be interested.

Check the *For Sale, Trade or Auction* forum.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

Sorry for your loss.



But make sure you put plenty of pictures of them.
Top, sides, bottom.
Might take you longer, but should bring you more money if you piece them out.

Are you set up for PayPal?

Don't forget...pictures.

Or you will get one of these.
:ttiwwop:


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## dianecaudle (Jan 5, 2011)

Thanks, I'll check it out 




gunrunnerjohn said:


> Well, if you have pictures of all the cars and engine, you could list them here, I'm sure folks here would be interested.
> 
> Check the *For Sale, Trade or Auction* forum.


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## dianecaudle (Jan 5, 2011)

*Lionel Train pics*

thanks, I appreciate that,

I am used to taking pics of things I sell on Ebay so that won't be a problem. I am set up for Paypal so that will work out too. I did take a couple of pics, hope they're visible on my first message here. Different forums use different techniques, etc for posting pics.

Lol, like the graphic for never enough pics, I'll put in whatever it takes to get a good price and get the trains a good home, thanks

Diane










big ed said:


> Sorry for your loss.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Hi Diane,

My sympathies on your family's loss.

We can certainly coach you here a bit as to the caliber and demand for items in the collection. Photos would help considerably, as stated above.

One suggestion ... if you're looking for advice on what you have, stick with the thread here in the Beginner section. If you reach a point where you're looking to sell (here), switch over to a thread in the For Sale section.

Regards

TJ


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## T-Man (May 16, 2008)

Thanks for thinking of us here.
The engine and transformer would be of interest . We have established collections, we also have varied interests. so It all depends what you have. I look for the rust and broken.


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## dianecaudle (Jan 5, 2011)

Hi everyone;

First of all I want to thank those of you who offered condolences, they're very much appreciated.

Your forum here seems very friendly and outgoing and you seem like a nice group of people. 

Ok, I took pics of everything that was Lionel and then found a second train set that we had forgotten about. It is the Redwood Valley Express. I think we bought it for our kids and had it set to go around the tree when the kids woke up on Xmas morning. Problem was, it quit working and i don't think we ever got it fixed. The complete set seems to be there, though. It's amazing how the quality was not nearly as good as the quality of the earlier train sets.

I have no idea how many pictures I've taken but i do know one thing. We have a massive amount of train track. There was a box almost full, and the box was big and then had to stand the longer tracks against something else just to get a picture made. I think all of the tracks have some rust, don't know if that's going to be an issue though.

I believe I counted four engines, four right turn switches, lots of cars, I did a search on the #316 Trestle Bridge and since the name was stamped on the bottom it is probably a 1949 postwar bridge so maybe that is the year the whole Lionel train set was produced.
I will see about getting the pics put on the website's For Sale, Trade or Auction forum.


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## x_doug_x (Jun 21, 2010)

sounds like a nice collection

i would be interested in the redwood valley set in as is condition.


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## Reckers (Oct 11, 2009)

Diane, please accept my condolences for your loss, as well, and welcome to the forum.

I've been on this site for a long time; I have a great deal of trust in the people, here. One of the problems they have, at this point, is stumbling all over themselves to avoid the appearance of taking advantage of your situation. Since I don't use any Lionel, let me offer a few thoughts about selling here.

First, the folks here will want to treat you fairly. They'll give you lots of advice as to how to effectively Ebay your husband's trains if that is what you choose to do. My personal suggestion is to offer your stuff here, first: even if you don't find a buyer, the folks here will coach you on how to best present your offerings. Be attentive to the questions/suggestions you receive, because that will fine-tune your next set of offerings, be it on this site or on Ebay.

Second, track does not have much value: I'd set that aside for last.

Third, take your time and see if you can assemble the trains into sets. For collectors, sets are potentially more valuable than their components add up to, and the boxes, packaging, etc. enhance the value if you still have it.

Last, when you sell individual pieces, feed them into the market slowly. If I ran Lionel, I might wish I had the money to bid on every piece you have. If I bid on one item per paycheck, I can try to buy it all and my bids can go higher. On the other hand, if you offer 5 items at once, I can probably bid on two of them: when you lose bidders, the price drops.

Again, please accept our condolences for your loss and our offer to help you as much as we can.

Sincerely,


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## dianecaudle (Jan 5, 2011)

Hi, it's me again. I got side tracked for a while. I'm also selling various items from our house on Ebay, and Craigslist. I have to get our house ready to sell within the next month or two, I'm trying to finish a painting for an art show, I'm also writing a book that is over half done and meanwhile I have a father who has Alzheimer's who drives me crazy, but I still like to spend time with my grandkids.

So, as you can tell I'm sort of going all different ways at once. I think i might be ready to make an attempt to sell some of the Lionel train items. I just wanted to let y'all (i'm a transplanted NW'er to the south) know that i hadn't forgotten how nice y'all were here and I really am serious about selling. I've got lots of pics and lots of track.

Diane


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

First step would be to post the descriptions, pictures and asking prices in the *For Sale, Trade or Auction* forum here, that will get them out in the open.


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Bingo ... exactly what John said. Spot on.

TJ


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## dianecaudle (Jan 5, 2011)

Yeah, I plan to, just thought i'd post here first since it was the first place I'd posted when I joined, sorry,

Diane


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

No need to be sorry, we're not chasing you.  Just pointing you to the best place to post the details.


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## dianecaudle (Jan 5, 2011)

*thanks for your help, trains are going onto Ebay*

Reckers; I'm getting ready to start posting the trains on Ebay today (i have no idea of the value so I thought it'd be smarter to post it there then on the Sale site here). I have about four or five different types of engines so I'll sell two or three of those individually. I'll look into selling a set and see how that goes. If it looks like bidding is too low I can always cancel it but I know that some people wait till the last minute to bid so I have to be careful.

Thanks for your help and suggestions,

Diane







Reckers said:


> Diane, please accept my condolences for your loss, as well, and welcome to the forum.
> 
> I've been on this site for a long time; I have a great deal of trust in the people, here. One of the problems they have, at this point, is stumbling all over themselves to avoid the appearance of taking advantage of your situation. Since I don't use any Lionel, let me offer a few thoughts about selling here.
> 
> ...


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## dianecaudle (Jan 5, 2011)

*Redwood Valley Express for sale*

Doug;

I have pics of the Redwood Valley trainset, the first one isn't quite in focus but it give you an idea of what I have...What would you offer for the set? Do I take this into the Sale forum? Otherwise I'll just put it on Ebay like everything else,

The train set was used once on an Xmas morning and then put up because it quit working that once and we never got around to trying to figure out what the problem was. It has 18 pieces of track with it and is the entire set as far as I know,

Thanks, Diane

PS i posted it into this part of the forum because Doug had mentioned it here






x_doug_x said:


> sounds like a nice collection
> 
> i would be interested in the redwood valley set in as is condition.


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## tjcruiser (Jan 10, 2010)

Hi Diane,

If you want to give a shot to selling the Redwood set here on our forum, then go ahead and start a new thread with info (pics, price, description) in the For Sale section ... you'll have more visitors there. You can include a link here to this thread, if you like, for background info.

Good luck with your ebay offerings.

TJ


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