All model railroaders buy trains. Sometimes they decide that a train doesn't fit with their layout plans anymore and want to sell it. Sometimes railroaders move into a smaller living-space and have to trim their collections. Sometimes people want to sell trains they found in the attic or that they inherited. Whether you're buying or selling, the magic word in the used model train trade today is "eBay".
Everyone eBays
Even if you're not eBay savvy and don't want to open an eBay account, eBay is the model railroad trader's best friend. But is a tool that will be much more useful to you if you do open an account. It doesn't cost anything and only takes a few minutes to do. If you found this page you're already a citizen of the internet; don't be afraid to visit the internet mall. Window shopping is always free.Buying
Collectors, modelers, and operators buy new trains from their LHS or online shops. But for used trains nearly everyone uses eBay. On any given day eBay will have thousands of model railroad train listings. If you're looking for something specific, if its not there already sooner or later it will turn up on eBay.Before you buy used trains anywhere, look for what you want on eBay; don't bid on the ones you want, just watch them. Add them to your watch list if you opened an account. Do this for several days. When you are confident that the item you want is common, you can let a few of them sell to get a feel for the going price. If only one appears in a period of a week or two, bid what its worth to you.
Selling
A good strategy for selling model trains is much like buying them used; look on eBay for listings of what you want to sell. By making "completed" sales part of your search criteria you can any that have sold in the last two weeks, and what they went for. When you've seen several comparable items sell, you have a good idea of what your trains are worth.If you never see anything that looks at all like what you have to sell, then you may indeed have a collector's item; put it out for sale with a low starting bid and see if anyone bids. You can withdraw the item if you decide the bids don't look good, but remember that real collector's items usually see most of their bidding in the final hour of their sale.
Things to Remember
- If you're buying, don't bid if you're not going to pay!
- If you're selling, ship promptly when you receive payment.
- Whether buying or selling, don't forget shipping charges.
- If you're selling, open a free eBay PayPal account.