Time to shrink my collection

[ohlavache]

As daffy, but for different reasons, I have to substantially shrink my collection of rolling stock.
My layout has been located in my mother's secondary house that I have now to sell. For a temporary but long period, the layout and the rolling stock will be moved to a smaller place. This triggered the sorting of my collection with many items for sale (see http://www.herbavache.free.fr), many others that will remain inaccessible in moving boxes and the last part staying with me. I am even considering selling a part of what is about to be stored in the moving boxes; this may be due to my current mood. I am still young but I worry about the burden for my children when they will have to sell most (not to say all) of my collection. Any ideas to prepare that fateful day would be welcome.

Anyway, if any of you are interested in some of the items for sale, please send me a PM, even to propose me a lower price. For those in the UK, I know that shipping from France is expansive and I will take it into account when agreeing on the final price.
Thanks by advance for helping me in shrinking my collection.

[njee20]

Best of luck with the sale - your prices are likely a way off for UK buyers I'm afraid. Your Dapol 56 at €175 posted is available brand new from Rails for £125.

[Newportnobby]

I am still young but I worry about the burden for my children when they will have to sell most (not to say all) of my collection. Any ideas to prepare that fateful day would be welcome.

Unless someone has a log of who pays what for 2nd hand model railways then no one can really help you with that. You're doing the right thing in disposing of some of it while you're still around to control what you get for it. I have no children, and have resigned my self to the fact I will get a pittance for mine when I shuffle off this mortal coil. All I can do is specify a charity close to my heart in my Last Will & Testament to benefit from whatever my executors can get, and the executors will take the easy way out and won't be bothered if it's £1000 or £10,000

[Jeebee]

Having cleared out my father's lifetime collection of O gauge last year I've learned a few bits that would make life easier for those sorting it after we have gone - although morbidly, it's not our problem any more!

- think about who will be doing the sorting. Do they know what they are looking at. Can they tell a brake coach from a first? This was a big one for us because a Lima O gauge mk1 and a Heljan Mk1 are very different in price! I had to spend a lot of time re-sorting a lot of what my brother had boxed away as best he could. The less knowledgable your heirs, the more you might want to prepare things for them.

-Ebaying is hard work - boxing, photographing, testing, communicating. You have to work for the extra money. And on top of all the other grief and admin, we just didn't have time to do it. The dealers will offer less money of course, but they do provide a service, and it keeps the money moving in the hobby. Happily recommend Footplates of Kidderminster who were very helpful, respectful, travel nationally and are fairly priced. But plenty others out there. You could consider approaching a dealer yourself to get an estimate ahead of Your Time, and using it to inform your successors. They might charge for this valuation service which is fair enough. But be realistic, a lot of models that were once state of the art are now very dated and hard to sell.

- Identify any things that have particular sentimental value for you or your successors. Projects you're proud of. Stock they remember running with you. My Dad was a prolific kit and scratch builder so glad to keep some locos he's made himself. Far less bothered about RTR items.

-Similarly, any unique or high value items you should identify them (in writing or stickers) or sell them yourself ahead.

-keep things organised. Any projects keep all the bits together in one project box. I spent hours trying to match chassis to bodies and tenders. I knew what i was looking for but my siblings would have had no chance. A box of "incomplete Brittania Project" is a much more attractive sell than "box of unknown brass bits and wheels". things that run together should be boxed together.

-getting organised will also help you enjoy your hobby time you have left, and safer too. The mess in my dad's garage made it unusable and so he didn't get to play trains much in his final years sadly.

-But enjoy what you have while you are here to enjoy it. There will inevitably be some work to be done by your successors, no avoiding that. There's a balance to be made.

[ohlavache]

Best of luck with the sale - your prices are likely a way off for UK buyers I'm afraid. Your Dapol 56 at €175 posted is available brand new from Rails for £125.

Many thanks for this remark. I will amend the price.
If you see other irrelevant prices, please tell me so that I can make the appropriate modifications.

[Steven B]

Inspired by the recent posts on down-sizing, I've taken a look at my own non-collection of locos. I decided that I should keep nothing that didn't run in the late 80s/early 90s within around 50 miles of Manchester. Very focused? Lots to get rid of?

I've ended up with 2 that will be sold on, another five needing renumbering and a further 3 added to my shopping list to make the fleet more prototypical. Not sure it's been a successful endeavour. 

[ohlavache]

Having cleared out my father's lifetime collection of O gauge last year I've learned a few bits that would make life easier for those sorting it after we have gone - although morbidly, it's not our problem any more!

- think about who will be doing the sorting. Do they know what they are looking at. Can they tell a brake coach from a first? This was a big one for us because a Lima O gauge mk1 and a Heljan Mk1 are very different in price! I had to spend a lot of time re-sorting a lot of what my brother had boxed away as best he could. The less knowledgable your heirs, the more you might want to prepare things for them.

-Ebaying is hard work - boxing, photographing, testing, communicating. You have to work for the extra money. And on top of all the other grief and admin, we just didn't have time to do it. The dealers will offer less money of course, but they do provide a service, and it keeps the money moving in the hobby. Happily recommend Footplates of Kidderminster who were very helpful, respectful, travel nationally and are fairly priced. But plenty others out there. You could consider approaching a dealer yourself to get an estimate ahead of Your Time, and using it to inform your successors. They might charge for this valuation service which is fair enough. But be realistic, a lot of models that were once state of the art are now very dated and hard to sell.

- Identify any things that have particular sentimental value for you or your successors. Projects you're proud of. Stock they remember running with you. My Dad was a prolific kit and scratch builder so glad to keep some locos he's made himself. Far less bothered about RTR items.

-Similarly, any unique or high value items you should identify them (in writing or stickers) or sell them yourself ahead.

-keep things organised. Any projects keep all the bits together in one project box. I spent hours trying to match chassis to bodies and tenders. I knew what i was looking for but my siblings would have had no chance. A box of "incomplete Brittania Project" is a much more attractive sell than "box of unknown brass bits and wheels". things that run together should be boxed together.

-getting organised will also help you enjoy your hobby time you have left, and safer too. The mess in my dad's garage made it unusable and so he didn't get to play trains much in his final years sadly.

-But enjoy what you have while you are here to enjoy it. There will inevitably be some work to be done by your successors, no avoiding that. There's a balance to be made.

Many thanks for your advice. This is much appreciated.
Actually I have started to do something similar with an xls file.